|| 12 July 2020

Chic French Vacation Style

Thursday I gave you the notable points of a Wall Street Journal article about how the French, under Covid-19 restrictions, were vacationing in France instead of going abroad. (see article below this update)

The article featured photos of some of those French vacationing at home. Including a mid-30s couple Sabrina and Romain Guerrand whose honeymoon plans for French Polynesia had to be relocated to France.

image: Sabrina and Romain Guerrand on honeymoon in Paris summer 2020, photo courtesy M. & Mme Guerrand

Fortunately the photo was sufficiently high resolution that I was able to take a close look at what M. and Mme Guerrand were wearing. As I commented in Thursday’s Nouvelles, the couple was noticeably neat — as is often the case with the French.

Romain Guerrand has combined black and navy. Navy shirt, black shorts, black socks and navy sneakers. The lens of his sunglasses are the same shade blue as the laces and accents on his sneakers.

I was struck by the fact that the cool, cap-sleeved cotton print dress worn by Sabrina Guerrand was not that different from what young chic French women wore fifty years ago for vacationing in warm weather.

Then there are more current accessories: her hoop earrings, a small charm on a thin chain around the neck and leather sandals with metal accents. Her dark brown toenail polish mirrors the dark leather of the sandals. The over-the shoulder handbag, however, is white. (French women avoid being too coordinated.) The bag’s strap is adjusted to place the bag at precisely the right spot on her body for utility and appearance.

Sabrina Guerrand appears not to be wearing foundation makeup, but her eye makeup is carefully done. Her shoulder-length hairstyle is straight and simple.

One item of apparel necessitated by the current virus crisis is the masks. Both have obviously removed their masks for the photo. Romain Guerrand holds his in his right hand while his wife (I am guessing) holds hers behind her back.

In the photo you can see Paris spread out behind the couple. When asked for her impression of Paris, Sabrina Guerrand said: “Well, it’s not Tahiti.”

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|| 9 July 2020

France Sans American Tourists

This summer is different. For the first summer in the memory of most living French, the country is not overrun by American tourists.

With Americans barred from France because of the high levels of coronavirus currently in the USA, the French have decided to visit the tourists spots that so entice foreign visitors. (These the French have largely avoided because of the crowds of tourists.)

In the Wall Street Journal Benoît Morenne writes:

Stuck at Home Because of Covid, the French Discover France. Coronavirus border closures mean the French have the Eiffel Tower and the Chateau de Versailles to themselves. They’ve decided to see what all the fuss is about.

About a third of French tourists go abroad every year, this year, Guide du Routard, France’s de rigueur travel guide, has scrambled to expand its collection promoting France’s hinterlands.

But there is a definite downside. The unusually large number of French vacationing in their own country does not make up for the absence of big-spending Chinese, American and Russian visitors. Faced with a shrinking pool of visitors, some of France’s most illustrious destinations are in competition.

If you have access to the Wall Street Journal you can read Stuck at Home Because of Covid, the French Discover France. Photos show how neatly the French dress as tourists in their own country. Casual. But definitely neat.

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|| 5 July 2020

How To Retire In France

Yes, yes, I know that last week the EU, of which France is a prominent member, banned travel into the country by Americans because of the enormous number of Covid-19 cases in the USA. But I feel confident that sometime next year we will have a vaccine, or an effective treatment, or a preventative medication — something like the malaria suppressant drug I took in West Africa that prevented me catching malaria. And then we will again be traveling — and relocating abroad.

If you look at the date on the How To Retire In France article to which I am giving you the link, it was posted on 26 June 2020. Last week. The author Kathleen Peddicord has written extensively on retiring abroad.

Here is her how-to on retiring in France in the Money section of US News. com