The only time I ever tried surfing was in California.  I had enough balls at the time to let my neophytism roar, and got right up in front of the hoard of surfers sporting tattoos to the teeth, thirsty for waves and ready to scarf down raw whatever got in their way.

Yeah.  Sizzlin’.

I got tossed off the beach by the top of my swimsuit, and had to put to rest, right then and there, all my dreams of waves, of salty romances with Keanu Reeves (Pointbreak, you remember?), of dream bodies and intensive waxing to the sunset.

And ever since, with surfers, I just like to look.  Ehem.

I had a little child-like fun at Bondi Beach.  Didn’t stick a cheek in the water, let’s not get carried away now.  I only go swimming between the 13th and the 17th of August, and only in the Mediterranean, and only during summers of scorching heat.  But the atmosphere on this beach was really cool, bright, living colors and a cosmic energy (Oh c’mon now, you’ve never felt a place had really good vibrations to it?) that was so palpable it had me running everywhere.  And seeing as I had my camera with me, it gave me a good excuse to talk with anyone and everyone, even a green bag.

You gotta understand me though.  Here I was, exploding with happiness, and this bag, he was all alone watching from afar if his master mastered well the swell. (Yeah, with that, I don’t even get what I’m talking about.)

I thought it was so cool to see a whole bunch of the surfer girls, and then, just before leaving, getting to eat a grilled John Dory looking out over the ocean.  [So yeah, here’s a thing I just don’t get.  YOU CAN’T GO GIVING PEOPLE NAMES TO EDIBLE ANIMALS (and medium rare, please).  Every bite I swallowed of my (delicious) grilled fish, I had to think of excuses to give each member of his imaginary family.  An excuse for, I don’t know, Walter Dory, another for Donald Dory for… uhhh… Garance Dory?  And then right then, a dolphin does a back flip far off and the guilt is forced back upon my entire family, minimum back upon four generations.  

SO QUICK.  Even so, it was delicious, and even if rereading my text I have to wonder what they put in their fish.

AND SO… At the end of my story of my grilled John Dory, I met Margot.

Margot is French and not only did she crack me up, “yeah, okay, you can take my picture, it’s cool, everyone is going to think i’m some international surf star and then they’ll die laughing when they see me busting my face on the first wave, but it’s all good, it’s all good!”, but on top of that, she right away gave me an invitation to a dream party where, she told me, “There will be plenty of surfers if you want to take a few photos.”

Damned!!!  I couldn’t go.  Bah, gotta believe that the waxing to the sunset just isn’t for me, back upon four generations.

Even so, in truth, surfing… I definitely have the urge to give it another go.  Who’s coming with me?

Big hugs, bonne journée!  And just one more time, sorry, John Dory.  Really though, my apologies.

Translation : Tim Sullivan

A bun done quickly on the go, a pair of bejeweled glasses, an allure sexy and relaxed: voilà exactly what I would want for my birthday!

Off we go, big hugs to you all, I’m off to go check out the surfers on Bondi Beach.

Bonne journée!

Translation : Tim Sullivan

Yesterday, it rained in Sydney, a lively and heavy rain.  It made for grandiose cloudbursts and dazzling sunny spells.

So now you know why I had the sudden urge to take a walk.  I was a little fed up with fashion, so I thought I’d give Paddington a walk around.  I sat down on the banks of a microscopic café and I did some people watching.  And then a heart transplant surgeon came and sat down next to me.  We talked.

He told me he spent a month in Paris a while back, at the Necker Hospital, and he didn’t want to stay any longer.  He found Parisians too arrogant.  That gave me a good laugh.

I finished my coffee and left.  I went to Sass&Bide, I had to break in to Ksubi, and I ran into Emily (first photo) over at Scanlan & Theodore.  I really loved her way of wearing jeans/white t-shirt.  Very simple jeans and the detail of the t-shirt with the asymmetrical sleeves.  And the shoes, of course, from the wonderful Surface to Air.

As I was leaving I realized that I needed to start a blog devoted solely to jeans and white t-shirts.  It’s the ideal outfit idea and there are so many ways to wear it, I said to myself, my eyes lifting toward the sky.

And it’s right then that the rain decided it was time to start falling.  I ran under a porch and right there, I heard someone speaking French.

Linlee is a ray of sunshine and is wearing kangaroo skin jewelry (Yep!)

It was Laura.  I couldn’t get a photo of her but with the downpour, she told me everything.  In the end, it comes down to this: One day, she came to Sydney for a short vacation.  And then she decided to stay.

What’s beautiful about Australia is that it feels like home, and at the same time, the edge of the world.  The distance is like an imperceptible misty veil.  You get this impression of being so far from the piercing sounds of the world but at the same time, so inside it, connected.  That part is particularly intoxicating.

I finished by making my way back to Circular Quay.  After the rain, the clouds attached themselves to the tops of palm trees.  It was grey and blue.  And then suddenly, I lift my face and right in front of me, the most beautiful rainbow I’d ever seen.  It was whole, start to finish, and so big and defined that my lens could not contain it.

Sydney is a city with a heart of gold.  Like its people, it gets embarrassed when the weather gets a little moody, so much so that it feels obliged to give you a rainbow.

Translation : Tim Sullivan

-The Sydneysiders (Yeah!  That’s what you call people from Sydney), bon, the girl Sydneysiders are crazy about heels.  No, but seriously, crazy about ‘em.  Oh, yeah, the Parisians?  Mere mortals in this game!  It almost makes me want to go back to flats.  Seriously, I’m irked.

-Okay, enough, I switched to the soy latte.  That sounds healthy, no?  Pfff, I don’t believe it for a second.  It’s entirely too good!  I get the impression that I am going to gain another 200 pounds.  Do something, I beg you.

-Take a good look at these photos.  Are you like me?  Do you feel the ambiant warmth, the light, the desire for a grain of passion, all that?  Bon.  And so okay, Australians, here, as you can see in the photos, (Max, he’s got a pink sweater and he is Australian.  Mais… Est-il libre, Max?  Roooooh, that joke is so inappropriate, Tim, please, don’t even try to translate that.  There are some things that only the little Frenchies will understand.) but they’re not happy at all, no contentment here, nope.  They’re constantly apologizing, all day long they’re like this, “We’re so sorry, it’s freeeeeeeeeeezing.”  No but seriously c’mon.  Children.  A little bit of modesty please.

-Seeing as, well here, brace yourself, it’s the fourth dimension, seeing as this fashion week is presenting the spring/summer collection 2010, so it’s as if we’re battling off the cold January winds.

- So the question becomes : in 2010, are we going to bring out our bathing suits at the beach to do a little tanning?  Alors?  Alors?  

-Cafés here are a little like cafés in New York.  Beautiful places, well-lighted with a lot of warmth, a place where you can lose a few hours reading a paperback.  If I had time, I can’t even tell you how good that would be.

-Life goal of the week?  Go back to Bondi Beach and see some surfers.  Ouais, and see some kangaroos, that’s settled.  I’m going to listen to you all and go take a trip to the zoo.

-At Tusk, in Melbourne, I ate the greatest coconut calamari of my life.  And they had the most sublime wall hanging of a sunset.  I forgot to take a picture of it.  Merde.  Gotta go back, no choice.  

- Don’t you go thinking that Australians wear tons of color.  Not at all!  I’m giving you a completely distorted image of reality (But I like it!) : they love black, and the stores are full of it.  But from time to time, you find some beautiful exceptions…  Like Linlee here above who loves a little chaos : the vintage Alaïa, the double expressos, and then putting a whole bunch of colors in her hair.  

Allez off we go, I’m heading out.  It’s time for my soy latte.  (NoooOOOoon Garance!!! Don’t do it!  Please noooOOOoon don’t fall into the trap of the evil soy latteEEEeeeee!!!) Big hugs to you all!

Translation : Tim Sullivan

Sydney is a radiant city and I think I’m falling head-over-heels in love.  I’ll have to send myself into the streets, attach myself for a second to their rhythm, so light and supple, and get lost in the contemplation of a sunset + beach + surf + palm trees, just to give you a little taste of what I’m seeing.

In the meantime, and just because that indeed wasn’t enough, here’s me being blown away by the quality of their fashion week.

Okay, so we’re on Circular Quay, with the Opera House right in front of us, and we could definitely spend a whole day here guzzling down a bottle of white wine, hanging out on the giant couches.  But yeah, who cares about any of that?  (Hmmm… that’s just like me, eh?)  What’s most important is that we make our way into a show and that we get to see some true clothes, worn well with some good ideas, and a general impression of true quality.  I really am so impressed!

And for me, who had quite the broken heart at not being able to go to the Festival de la mode in Hyères (Okay now, how was it?), I am delighted to find again an atmosphere that I’ve always loved over there : you take your time, you meet with others, you converse, you share…

Non.

No seriously like what?  I’m so boring when I talk about stuff I love!  Help!

Okay, here but wait, I have one complaint.  Australia is wonderful, all that.  But s’il vous plaît, would someone please like to tell me where I could find a kangaroo?

Translation : Tim Sullivan

Australia, such an amazing trip!  I really get the impression I’m walking upside down.  It’s autumn here, you know?  Like starting a cycle again that has already finished.  And then there’s this incredible jet-lag, and the trip itself, so far, so long, and as much as we try to always stay connected, we have to leave a little of ourselves in the air.  In the end, really, it does us some good.

I left on Tuesday, landed on Thursday, and then gave myself a couple more days to find my bearings, eyes wide open to everything going on around me.  The streets of Melbourne, straight out of a film, the old cars that make you forget what time period you’re in.  The sleepless nights, touching base and reconnecting with everyone listening to the wind in the trees.  And the outfits…  A city center with no Zara, no H&M.  And tons of designers I’ve never heard of.

Like Willow, for example (above photo) or like Jade (first photo), the designer for  Arnsdorf, whom I met this weekend.

Jade struck with me with her totally relaxed way she talked to me about her work.  Merde, so young, with her own brand, soon to be sold all the way in Europe and her own shows… How do you do it?  With all this going on, you can still stay so chill?”

…Yes.  Why?

I have a weakness for this smiling simplicity.  I think I have a weakness for Australia in general.

Yesterday, we got into Sydney.  Endless sunshine, the precious beauty of the city, of the vegetation.  The majestic opera on the waterfront, just in front of me now as I write to you, (but seriously, it’s beautiful!), the blond surfers, and the incredible warmth in the faces of everyone you meet.  The exotic birds.  The boats.  It was so beautiful we were forced to down a bottle of white just to celebrate.  What?  I haven’t talked to you about Australian wine yet?

Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and for all of your great ideas.  I have so many things to show you and so many stories to tell you that today, I really just didn’t know where to start, so I started simple.

Or how do they say it here?  Easy?  Hmmm…..

All right!  I’ll see you tomorrow!

Translation : Tim Sullivan

I am so madly overwhelmed with joy to announce this that I just don’t know where to start.

My bags are not at all packed as I partied a little too hard last night and I’m totally falling apart but at the same time, furiously overexcited because in a few hours I take off for… Okay, so you got it before, ahhhh!!!

Australia!

Yaahaaaa!  It’s like a dream come true.  I’ve never set foot on the island and I don’t even think I’ve gone on a trip this long.  I’ll be down under with Scott.  We’re doing Melbourne, Sydney, meeting lots of people but most of all, attending the fashion week… So I hope to take a whole bunch of pictures and tell you all lots of stories.

Voilà, nothing more.  I’m all joyed up to the brim.  I’m not sure when I am going to post again, tomorrow, after tomorrow, maybe in Singapore where I have my layover, who knows?

Yep!  Oh oh and if you know of any places, stuff to do, people or incredible things I can’t miss over there, tell me, I am oh-so-curious.  In any case, big hugs to all and and I can’t wait to see you all back here as quick as possible I hope!

Bonne journée!  And long live exclamation points!!!

Translation : Tim Sullivan

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