FRENCH LESSONS

Shortly after Christmas, I boarded the Eurostar to spend ten days in Paris with my boy. The food in first class was incredibly tasteless and strange but the promise of my mum's inspired cooking later that evening made me smile silently.
A few days into my holiday and I found myself cursing the cruel economic downturn and exchange rate fluctuations. The sometimes nonsensical insular mentality of the Brits is behind the UK's decision not to join the euro and today my pounds are worth nothing here! Less of my money will be spent in France because of market factors. It will be difficult to resist the lure of Balenciaga, Lanvin and Isabel Marant but I will have to pursue my fashion interests in a different way: by essentially looking and making a record of visual influences in my head... so while my sister is happily cruising the London sales I'm going to focus on exhibitions (Jeff Koons at Versailles tomorrow) and become a slave to art and architecture: the two things I can afford in Paris!