I look at a lot of blogs dedicated to the Francophile, for interior decor, fashion, paper art, jewelry and dolls. I see most of them love the pastels of Marie Antoinette or that Parisian "shabby romantique" look. All very lovely, but not always what I crave in terms of color, colors that evoke the warm fuzzies of Paris' eccentricity like the apartment and restaurant in the film Amelie. I want the colors that are like the sound of an accordion, the cool crisp breeze through a dank Parisian alley, the crisp wafts of silk taffeta curtains, the crumbling stone masonry, the wine stain on the white table cloth....
As a francophile myself, I feel like this feeling is left out, missing in the design world as of late. I get tired of pale pink and sky blue. I want cafe au lait and patisserie green, rain soaked pavement grey, bistro wood. I want colors that go with my deep wine red lipstick and black velvet jacket. Not the colors of Marie, the colors of Josephine and jazz. Not the colors of Louis, the colors of art nouveau and 1920's Coco Chanel.
A cafe at Place des Vosges in Paris
Parisian Café by Gaetano de Las Heras, 1903
