Date Tone Create

If you were going to choose three active words to live by in the next six months (à la Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love) what would they be?

I feel like I was so lucky in Paris: I did all the eating and traveling a girl could dream of. And while I sort of pine for those days, I’m also happy to be in a new place, focused on new adventures. For now, my three-step mantra is: Date Tone Create.

Date That’s right. Dating is at the top of my list. The Great Parisian Drought was brutal. Not dating for the better part of two years?? I don’t remember what butterflies and heart palpitations feel like. I miss feeling like I’m about to throw up because I’m so excited to see someone. It’s time to hop to it.

Tone Since I wasn’t dating, I gave into my love affair with Parisian pastries. It was fun while it lasted, but now it’s like having a sucky hangover. I am just getting back to the gym to work my body after not exercising for six months. It’s not pretty. (Consequently, I am eating a milk chocolate almond bar as I type this. Genius.)

Create Beyond the book (which is due June 1—gulp), I want to create and cultivate new projects. I’m working on a couple fun articles about Paris right now, but beyond that I’m not exactly sure what I want to do except feel productive and proud.

So… what is your three-verb mantra?

This past year, I fell in love with…

• Café Constant and Chez l’Ami Jean
• Joel Robuchon
• Art by Joanna Concejo
• Brooklyn Heights
• The Drums, Wild Nothing, Neko Case
• Blogging
• Speculoos. To go with my already raging affair with Nutella.
• Dried apple. To go with my already lifelong affair with dried pineapple.
• Arles and Positano, just a little more than Capri
• Bill Cunningham and Steve Martin (no wonder I’m still single)
• My niece and nephew, just a little bit more
• My godson, Max
• Debailleul
• Daunt Bookstore
• I Am Love
• The Cornet Vegetarien
• A gazillion little moments

Whatever and whoever you have fallen for, I hope your heart is full of love today.

American Speak: Sex Friends

Oh, you haven’t heard of that movie? The cute rom-com with America’s new sweetheart, Natalie Portman, and Ashton Kutcher? Then you must be reading from the states and not France.

Apparently the French couldn’t quite translate the idiom “No Strings Attached” and opted for the very classy “Sex Friends” instead.

The best movie of 1985

I admit it. I’m a total sap. There are some movies, some people, some songs that get me every time. Like, say, anything by John Hughes.

I must say my all-time favorite John Hughes movie is Sixteen Candles. But when I came across the trailer for The Breakfast Club recently, my heart skipped a beat.

How did he do it? The humor, the timing, the actors… the music. Everything John Hughes created was a magical balance of sweet, raw, smart, cheeky, fun, tender and hopeful. It makes me feel like I’m 38 going on 13 again.

My last choco blitz in Paris

Reading this piece on The Moment, which I filed just before leaving Paris, gave me all kinds of bittersweet pangs and chocolate cravings.

Get on your Velibs, mes amis, and start making the rounds... if only for me!

My Vegan Mondays

Livestock production is responsible for a huge chunk of global green house gas emissions. The more meat we eat, the more we produce, and the carbon footprint gets bigger. As Meat Free Monday reports, a sustainable future demands that we cut this consumption and yet between 1961 and 2007, while the world population increased by a factor of 2.2, meat consumption quadrupled and poultry consumption increased 10-fold.

"To build a better world in the future we all need to make changes in our lifestyles now."

Morning
Coffee & soy milk
A supergreen smoothie: kale, celery, banana, apple and lemon juice and ice. Sound gnarly? En fet, c'est super!
Oatmeal

Afternoon
A mélange from Whole Foods' salad bar: quinoa with beets; spinach, fennel and orange; wild rice with cranberries and pecans; grilled eggplant, roasted sweet potatoes... oh, how I love Whole Foods

Evening
Whole wheat pasta with kale and pesto
Tea and honey (actually, can honey be considered vegan?!)

My favorite Paris restaurants

Now that I’m back in New York, hitting up local restaurants again (The Lion: kickass interior, incredible menu, wildly expensive wine list but just-okay food; The Smile: a fun cool kids’ hangout with just-okay food; Toloache: delicious Mexican… though isn’t Mexican supposed to be cheap?; Scarpetta: rich and delicious), I’m sentimentally looking back on some of my favorite spots in Paris.

Little Gems
Guilo Guilo
Nomiya

Classic & Refined
La Régelade Saint-Honoré

Classic & Boisterous
Chez l’Ami Jean
Au Vieux Comptoir
Café Constant

For something (or someone) really special
Le Grand Vefour
L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon

Quietly Fabulous
Itinéraires
Café Panique

Trendy, trendy
Derriere
Mama Shelter
Hotel du Nord

I Love Lunch
Cojean
Merci Cantine
My sandwich guy

The view from the 11th floor

While it's no Champs-Elysées and there are no Eiffel Towers or Arcs of Triomphe, the view at my new Ogilvy office isn't too shabby.

Looking west into Times Square:

Looking north at sunset:

And, more often than not this past month, the view of snow, snow, snow falling from the sky:

It should be interesting to see what this new home has in store for the year ahead.