Monday, March 24, 2008

Attitude

The New York Times had an interesting article yesterday: “A Guide to the French. Handle With Care.” It doesn’t look like a lot has changed since the last time I was in La Belle France. But here’s the bit that caught my fancy, Gentle Reader:
7: Feeling Sexy Is a State of Mind, or: Buy Good Lingerie
In her close-fitting sweaters and pants and tailored leather jackets, Eliane Victor is both stylish and alluring. The retired author and journalist is in her late 80s.
For French women, being sexy has nothing to do with age and everything to do with attitude. Arielle Dombasle, the actress and cabaret singer married to the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, dared to expose her breasts on the cover of Paris Match and took off her clothes in a song-and-dance revue at Crazy Horse in Paris. Some people feel she tries too hard. But give the lady some credit. She’s turning 50 and has a Barbie-doll body.
A 600-page sociological study of sexuality in France released this month concluded that 9 out of 10 women over 50 are sexually active. The sexiest French women seem naturally skilled in the art of moving, smiling and flirting.
Chic French women prefer to peel and polish rather than paint their faces. Too much makeup, they say, makes a woman seem older, or worse, “vulgaire.” “The most beautiful makeup for a woman is passion,” Yves Saint Laurent once said. “But cosmetics are easier to buy.”
French women spend close to 20 percent of their clothing budgets on lingerie. But you also have to know how to wear it. When the Galeries Lafayette department store inaugurated its 28,000-square-foot lingerie shop in 2003, it offered free half-hour lessons by professional striptease artists.
The illustration above is the Paris Match cover of Ms. Arielle Dombasle that's referenced in the excerpt. Ms. Dombasle might be trying too hard… or not. Still and even: “Good on Her,” sez I. At least she’s out there (pun intended), flaunting those perky, silicone-free mammary glands. It’s hard, if not impossible, for me to imagine any 50-year old American woman posing topless on the cover of a mass-circulation American weekly… even the National Enquirer. At any rate, there’s not one single thing in the excerpt above I disagree with, and a lot I admire…especially Monsieur Saint Laurent’s take on cosmetics.
French women have always been admired and, yes… lusted after… throughout my lifetime. You may count me among their admirers, but more for attitude and style than anything else. C'est si bon!
As for the rest of the article? Interesting… on the whole… but not as much as the bits I quoted. YMMV, Gentle Reader.
―:☺:―
In The Guardian (UK): “Europe’s Top Ten Motorbiking Roads:” The lede:
What makes a good biking road? Well, there's a saying among motorcyclists that driving a car is like watching a movie, whereas riding a motorbike is like being in one. And I guess it can all distil down to that: open to the elements and without a metal box around you, the feeling of vulnerability and danger merely serving to heighten the senses, you really do feel part of the world around you. A great biking road should have twists and turns so you can get your knee down and your heart rate up, certainly. If it's got a smooth surface and has good visibility, all the better. Add in an epic landscape and a real sense of adventure and you've got biking nirvana.
I’ve not ridden any of the ten roads listed, but Dayum! … I sure want to. Actually, I’m only writing about this article because of the eerie similarity of the above paragraph to something I wrote nearly eight years ago. Great minds, and all that…
―:☺:―
Today’s Pics: My... how quickly our moods change, no? Was it something I said? I have no idea what the lady was pissed about, but one can plainly see she most certainly was upset with me. The two pics were taken no more than five minutes apart, IIRC. As ever, click for larger.
The Second Mrs. Pennington and I at a squadron picnic sometime during the 1980 – 1983 timeframe, 2119th Communications Squadron, RAF Uxbridge, UK.

16 comments:

  1. I was reminded to read this article by a friend who agrees, pretty much, is French and a native of Paris. How interesting life has become.

    I hope you have a nice week.

    Abraham Lincoln in Brookville, Ohio.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That group shot looks like something right out of Grease! Sure you weren't auditioning? Great moments...always punctuated by a gal gettin' pissed. They just can't take a freakin' joke! She should never have pulled your finger in the first place!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looking at the state of France, the might as well be running their lives with their sexual drive, because you know they don't use their brains.

    ReplyDelete
  4. what an interesting dichotomy of pictures from yesterday to today...

    ReplyDelete
  5. on further reflection...hey MamaLou...you are the right age, are you French?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mushy: LOL! The Grease bit is so funny!
    Great moments...always punctuated by a gal gettin' pissed. They just can't take a freakin' joke! She should never have pulled your finger in the first place!
    Maybe it is because men no matter what age they are still find 6th grade boy bathroom humor funny. (It is not to most women. And that is not because we lack a sense of humor. Just sayin' ;)

    The happy picture and the mad picture are so funny.
    TSMP "death glare" is quite good.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It is always the pits to be the only sober person at a drunken party - she should have had a Miller.

    Hmm, Piper, I'm not sure what your question is? Maybe you should ask Toby.

    ReplyDelete
  8. That's one deep scowl there...

    ReplyDelete
  9. TSMP looks like princess Di, don't you think?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Junk Diva, I had the same thought.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Abe sez: I was reminded to read this article by a friend who agrees...

    As always, there was more I could have said about this piece. Like about my father, who wasn't friends with our local butcher... he was friends with the proprietor of the local wine shop. Or thought he was, anyway. The wine-seller took my Ol' Man for a ride, selling him some crappy "young" Algerian wine in bulk, which my Dad bottled and let age in our cellar for a year (per the wine seller's direction), only to find out it was STILL undrinkable.

    Me? I was friends with the two ladies who ran our neighborhood bakery. THAT was a productive and rewarding relationship! :-)

    Mushy sez: That group shot looks like something right out of Grease!

    About 25 years too late, though.

    Jay sez: what an interesting dichotomy of pictures from yesterday to today...

    and

    hey MamaLou...you are the right age, are you French?

    re: dichotomies... there would have been no resurrection, only certain and lasting death, had TSMP delivered on what she was thinking.

    Ashley sez: TSMP "death glare" is quite good.

    Thank GOD I wasn't on the receiving end of that glare very often. Often enough, though.

    Lou sez: It is always the pits to be the only sober person at a drunken party - she should have had a Miller.

    Hmm, Piper, I'm not sure what your question is? Maybe you should ask Toby.


    Now that you mention it, Lou, I think that might have been the subject being discussed. We traded off on being the designated driver, but the drinker/driver ratio was decidedly lopsided in my favor. The other fly in that ointment was if she was the designated driver, she got to decide when to go...and I was NEVER ready to leave when she was.

    re: "Ask Toby." Zing!! LOL!

    JD sez, and Lou agreed: TSMP looks like princess Di, don't you think?

    I don't see it, Ladies. But, then again, I see a lot more in my mind's eye than all y'all do when you see these pics.

    Kris sez: That's one deep scowl there...

    She was a very dissatisfied woman at that point in time... but she got over it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yeah, I saw a flash of a teed off Di in that last shot, too.
    I loved that shot, imagining Buck saying "Whuh?! Really ... whud I do now?"

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lin sez: I loved that shot, imagining Buck saying "Whuh?! Really ... whud I do now?"

    Ummm... I believe those may have been my very words. How perceptive of ya, Girl! Been there, have we? ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  14. "Been there, have we? ;-)"

    Well, shucks, yeah, maybe a time or two or twenty ... on both sides of the moment. I figure it gave me the right perspective to be empathetic to both sides of such joyous conversations. g-r-i-n

    ReplyDelete
  15. Junk Diva and Lou beat me to it, first thing I thought was Princess Di. It is the hair style for sure because this is the first pic I've seen of her that made me think that.

    On older women posing, I was hearing that Jamie Lee Curtis posed (or will pose) in some state of no clothing for AARP.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I knew if I read long enough my dedication would be rewarded. Thanks Buck. Catching up after two weeks of jumping, eating, sleeping and little else. Blue skies!

    ReplyDelete

Just be polite... that's all I ask.