Just in case you don’t follow anyone in England on Instagram, they received a beautiful snowfall on Sunday and more on Monday. Some said it hasn’t snowed in their area in over two years. It looked very idyllic and I couldn’t resist posting some of my favorite images. We’re supposed to receive snow in New York on Tuesday but it never stays looking this white for long in the city so I will live vicariously through those across the pond.
Top image: @justinvanbreda
It feels like there have been so many auctions of exquisite collections in the last few years. It makes me feel sad to see them be broken up but hopefully the furniture and objects end up going to good homes. Susan Gutfreund sold her Henri Samuel decorated duplex apartment at 843 Fifth Avenue last year and now some of the best pieces from it are for sale at Christie’s. I toured the preview today and it was interesting to see everything out in the open. You can see my photos from Christie’s in my Instagram Stories. Some of the items will be in the live auction and others already have bid in the online auction. I especially loved the green Winter Garden room when I visited the apartment for a party in 2018. I don’t think I’ll be able to afford anything but it’s fun to dream.
Photos by Heather Clawson for Habitually Chic
While many of you are losing your minds on trashy Bridgerton, I’ve moved on to Lupin on Netflix. Lupin is a very original take on the famous French literary character Arsène Lupin starring Omar Sy as the charming Assane Diop who sets out to avenge his father for an injustice that happened 25 years earlier while using the Lupin book as his inspiration.
“Created by the French writer Maurice Leblanc in 1905, Arsène Lupin is an elite member of the gang of delightful rogues known as gentleman thieves. Like Thomas Crown, Danny Ocean, Simon Templar and (to include a gentlewoman) Selina Kyle, Lupin is elegant and efficient. He prefers disguise and persuasion to violence and is so dashing that his victims almost thank him for the honor of being robbed.”
Lupin is one of the most intelligent, exciting, and intriguing shows on television right now. I especially love how it seamlessly switches between the present day and flashbacks. There are five episodes available to binge now with five more in post-production that should air in three to six months. Since we can’t travel now, I love seeing Paris as another main character of Lupin which starts with the Louvre and winds its way through the City of Light.
I was most excited to see my favorite house museum used as the home of the character Hubert Pellegrini. I immediately recognized the cour d’honneur of the Musée de Nissim de Camondo as soon as it appeared on screen. I’ve written about it before and these photos are from my 2013 trip.
The Musée de Nissim de Camondo is located on rue Monceau in front of the Parc Monceau in the 8th arrondissement. It was the location of the Camondo family home but when Moïse de Camondo started collecting 18th-century furniture and objects, he commissioned architect Rene Sergent in 1911 to create a place to house his collection which was inspired by the Petit Trianon at Versailles.
It was completed in 1914 but sadly his son Nissim de Camondo was killed in action in World War I in 1917. Moïse de Camondo was devastated which later prompted him in 1924 to bequeath the mansion and its contents to the French state with the stipulation that it must shown to the public and forbid the lending of works or moving them anywhere other than the room where they reside as a memorial to his son.
The preservation of the home makes it a bit of a time capsule and while the public areas are devoted to the late 18th-century, the kitchens and bathrooms were incredibly modern for when the home was completed and they are some of the most popular rooms on the tour. The Musée de Nissim de Camondo was opened to the public in 1936 and is run by Les Arts Decoratifs. It is also available to visit on Sundays which is a rarity in Paris although it’s currently closed due to Covid.
This is the scene in Lupin when the Musée de Nissim de Camondo appears on screen in a rainy flashback scene at the home of character Hubert Pellegrini with Assane Diop’s father as chauffeur of the Bentley.
This old floorplan shows how the back of the house was designed to take advantage of the view of the Parc Monceau.
The saddest part of the story is that Moïse’s daughter Beatrice de Camondo, her ex-husband Léon Reinach, and their two children were forcibly removed from Paris in 1943 and taken to the Drancy deportation camp north of the city. They were subsequently deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, where they all died.
The areas behind left side of the courtyard would have housed stable and grooming room.
Another photo from Lupin.
The trelliswork above the horse grooming room was designed by landscape designer Archille Duchêne and installed in 1919. It was raised in height in 1929.
The area to the right of the courtyard would have housed the tack room and garage which has been renovated and turned into Le Camondo restaurant.
This is the view from the house to the entrance from the street.
When we see the Bentley driving into the courtyard in Lupin.
The main entrance would have been in the center of the facade but to enter the Musée de Nissim de Camondo, you enter in a door on the left which leads into the guest cloakroom which is where you buy your ticket.
If you look closely, you can see a display stand inside the Musée de Nissim de Camondo in this scene in Lupin. The interior scenes were filmed either at another mansion or on a sound stage. The interiors of the museum are too full of valuable and fragile itmes to allow any movie or television show to film inside.
A view of the entrance hall and main staircase.
In this scene in Lupin, you can see that the a display stand and a rope from the Musée de Nissim de Camondo as the character Hubert Pellegrini leaves the house for a news conference.
Normally, a guard sits in front of what was the main entrance of the house.
I love the color and patina on the doors in the guest cloakroom which is now where you buy your entrance ticket.
The elevator.
This hallway leads to the kitchen, servant’s dining room, pantry, cold room, scullery, butler’s office, and chef’s office which were renovated in 2003 and are all open to the public. The family entertaining rooms are upstairs.
I didn’t post pictures from the 18th-century rooms so I’ll have to see if I can find them in my old external hard drives.
The best part of the museum is that you can look out the windows upstairs to see the garden designed French landscape designer by Archille Duchêne. He was very in demand among high French society at the turn of the twentieth century.
In a flashback scene in Lupin, Detective Dumont visits Hubert Pellegrini and again, you can see a security rope in the Musée de Nissim de Camondo. The museum usually allows events in the garden but it’s amazing that they let the actors walk out from inside the house.
The back garden view of the house.
Another scene from Lupin.
I’ve visited the Musée de Nissim de Camondo in all weather but it’s especially beautiful in the sunshine. I suspect there was an entrance to the Parc Monceau from the garden but I can’t find any reference of one. If not, you would have had to walk around the block to enter the park.
Another view from Lupin.
Sculptures in the original landscape design plan were never installed in the garden.
In this scene from Lupin, you can see posters from the adjacent Musée Cernuschi on the back wall.
The history of the Camondo family is very sad especially considering that no members survived the wars but their legacy lives on in the beautiful museum and now on screen in Lupin. Definitely watch it tonight and I promise you won’t be disappointed and visit the Musée de Nissim de Camondo when it reopens. I know it will at the top of my list when I’m allowed to travel to Paris again.
Photos by Heather Clawson in 2013 for Habitually Chic.
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” —Hans Hofmann
Simplifying.
Far different from minimizing, simplifying requires that we consciously explore what is of value in our lives and then thoughtfully edit in order for what we deem most important to shine as fully as possible.
Take for example sight. Eyesight that is. As someone who wears contacts in order to see clearly objects in far distances, when I put on a dirty lens or my lens happens to have an eyelash or spot of makeup on it, not only does it hurt, but frustratingly my eyesight is impaired. My #1 priority is to clean the lens properly in order to see. Why? Understandably, so that I can clearly, safely, peacefully, go about my day without having to actually think about the gift that is 20/20 eyesight.
Such a truth comes into play with our everyday routines, homes, and overall lifestyles. If we don’t clear the clutter – literal and figurative – the quality of our lives decreases. What we love, what we value cannot grow, shine, fully blossom. Whatever the analogy is, the full growth, the full maturation, can’t possibly be experienced.
Multitasking our lives not only when it comes to the tasks we do each day, has become an approach to living in the 21st century (and was as well in the late 20th century) which was applauded. In many ways 2020 has forced us to recognize how much we missed in doing so – we missed our relationships, we missed simple pleasures, we missed the gift of appreciating well-made, seasonal food, we missed the gift of truly connecting. Now that so much of what we thought we valued but did not prioritized has been forcibly taken out of our lives, are we questioning whether we lived in accordance to what we swore was true to living well.
Let’s talk about clutter. What is defined as clutter for you may be different from what someone else may define or label as clutter. My kitchen for example has many tools handy, surrounding my stovetop – canisters, pots hanging, salt and spices within arms-length. For someone else, such a sight may be exhausting to the eye and look terribly cluttered when viewing my kitchen. Organizing my kitchen in such a way makes my cooking fluid, more enjoyable and simple, but that may not be the case for someone else.
More figuratively speaking, how much time with our own and only company we need will depend upon not only our temperaments but as well where we are along our life’s journey. There are times in my life where I have needed far more time alone than others, and I am thankful I finally was able to find it as I needed to figure certain things out, things that I didn’t even know I needed to sort through. However, once we learn the direction we want to travel, the skills we want to improve or learn, we may reduce the time alone, but I would argue, as you will see in the list today, we will always need regular alone time or as it is often described – solitude.
Since the inception of TSLL blog, simplicity has been a fundamental component of living simply luxuriously. In order to choose well, in order to invest wisely, we first need to know what is of value to each of us, and the only way to do that is to simplify our lives. (View a list of posts focused on simplifying here and here and be sure to check out TSLL’s 1st and 2nd book which have specific sections focused on simplifying in a variety of areas of your life.)
Upon recently rereading Carl Phillips’ book 22 Ways to Simpler Living and a couple of other books which help me to assess how simplified I have kept my life or where I need to check-in and adjust or make improvements, I was inspired to make a list to serve as a refresher. I have a feeling each reader/listener stopping by today’s post has simplified their lives in some way at some point if not multiple times throughout their lives, so today’s post is a check-in so to speak. An opportunity to ensure we are each truly living a simple life for ourselves so we can then live truly simply luxuriously and find true contentment in our everydays. Let’s take a look at the list.
~Tune in to the audio version for more conversation about each of the following points shared below.
1.Leave space in your day
Less work time, yet more efficient and productive work time leads to more fulfillment in your lifetime.
2. Absorb the truth that less is often more
3. Limit the time you spend in or with your inbox
4. Have a courageous conversation about the truth behind the statement “I don’t have time.” aka “I’m too busy.”
Instead of leading others to believe you want to say ‘yes’ when it is clear another priority supersedes the opportunity presented, let them get to know you and if you don’t like this prioritizing of your life, have an honest conversation with yourself and make the necessary changes.
5. Understand what ‘self-full’ is and refrain from seeing honoring your journey as ‘selfish’ because it is not.
6. Stop trying to keep up with life and start living your one and only life
7. Be honest about what you allow into your life as a distraction from living fully
(which includes being vulnerable, be truly loving toward yourself and others, being truly content in your everydays, feeling an undercurrent of calm in your life which keeps you grounded and at peace with life’s unknowns which reduces the worry)
8. Live a life that doesn’t exhaust you, rather a life that energizes you
9. Give permission to yourself for your hobbies and passions to be priorities
It is within your hobbies and passions that we are honoring our gifts and fueling our spirit so that we might share our unique gifts with the world – either directly as we emanate joy affecting those we love or the larger world.
10. Keep good health of body and mind
11. Stop the hurry
If you find yourself hurrying, access and edit. Carl Phillips suggests asking yourself these two questions: (1) Is what I am ‘hurrying about for’ important to me (or the approval of someone/something else)? (2) Is the hurrying getting me closer to my goals?
12. Check your email less frequently, but more regularly
Set boundaries on your attention and time. You will reduce worry, you will communicate clearly and set expectations which do not overwhelm your life and increase your stress. In many ways you will reduce not only the stress in your life, but the stress of those trying to communicate with you as there will be clear expectations of when they will hear from you.
13. Book-end your days with walks
Long or short, go outside, take in the fresh air as it will clear your mind, help in ways you may not expect, even if you think it cannot as it brings you to the present. One foot in front of the other, just walk. Walk to work it out and calm your mind.
14. Find time to meditate daily
Sometimes meditation and praying are mentioned as alternatives to each other; however, I would argue they do separate things as they are two separate actions. Meditation is an observance of our thoughts, a stepping away from our thoughts (not stopping thinking) and letting them be without our engagement with them. Praying, based on the religious practice (should you practice one religious ideology and it is absolutely okay not to), will be unique to what you believe and is often a conversation with the higher entity. Meditation is not a conversation, but an observation. A practice of exercising the mind so that we are the master of it, not the other way around. A way to calm down, a way to let go, a way to find peace and get out of our own way.
15. Play regularly
For me, gardening has become my favorite act of play during nine months of the year (and in the winter months when I am sowing seeds in my potting area indoors). Diving into a creative project or playing with my dogs – fetch or chase or anything that brings a bounce to their steps.
16. Rest and be still
Active rest or deliberate rest as shared in detail in episode #139 is similar to #15 – playing, thus letting the mind go and not constricting or limiting where it want to go. Literal rest – a nap, not having plans and just being, taking a getaway where you aren’t a tourist, but rather a traveler or lounger is a must.
17. Teach others how to treat you by modeling
When you respect your time by protecting your time without apology regarding when you are available and don’t bend like Gumby to work with their schedule, you are modeling. It is when you do say yes that those who observe your practice will understand you value them, and they are more likely to respect showing up as planned.
18. Understand what tension is and when it is helpful and when it is hurtful
19. Turn away from the outside regularly to gain grounding
20. Savor regular small pleasures, aka Petit Plaisirs
Explore a four-part series full of more than 100 Petit Plaisir – begin with part one here.
21. Donate all the extra and unnecessary tools – exercise, cooking, technology
If you know the true mechanisms of good cooking, effective and life-long lasting fitness and how a tech device works best, fewer, not more tools and devices are necessary. Learn and eliminate.
22. Reduce your overhead
What does it cost to run your life? Whether in business or in your personal life, what is needed for a life of contentment? Most likely, to return us to #1, less is needed for a more fulfilling life. The few things you need simply need to be quality – both in make and design as well as thoughtful selection to fit well with what you know about yourself.
Go through your bills, subscriptions, regular payments. Exam how you actually use (or if you use) what you pay for. When you reduce the overhead, you clear space which gives you more choice and therefore more freedom and peace. You don’t have to make more, you need to live below your means. We know this truth unconsciously, but we also need to live it.
23. Keep what works well and eliminate the mediocre
When it comes to skincare, clothing, tools and other items, be honest, invest in the best you can afford and let go of the rest. Quality over quantity – put it into daily practice.
24. Regular solitude
In episode #91 – The Power of Solitude
25. Streamline incoming information sources
Edit the podcasts you have subscribed to so you can find the ones you want to listen to each time a new one is published, be honest about the news that is informative and helpful and inspiring, similarly the blogs and online sources if you have signed up for their newsletters, do you read it when it arrives or does it immediately get deleted or passed over?. What television programs and streaming services do you actually watch?
26. Identify false needs
The Simplicable blog aptly defines a false need as “a theory that societies create to keep a population in a state of toil, distraction and complacency. [False needs] are typically abstractions that are built on top of real human needs and sold with media and groupthink.” Examples of false needs – attaining a certain social status, acquiring certain material items – as small as a certain pair of glasses, to something as large as a house; competition and the need to ‘beat’ someone in order to feel what you have gained is of value; recognition and rewards.
Understanding to the core what false needs are is not easy, and requires each of us to be excruciatingly honest about what we actually need. I have been thinking about this idea quite a bit lately, and come to discovering some liberating ahas. I have a feeling you will as well.
27. Celebrate rather than compete with others regarding life’s journey
A secure individual — secure in their life journey, comfortable with the uncertainties of life, confident they will be able to handle what comes their way as they trust themselves — instinctively celebrates rather than competes. Sometimes they may even be inspired by those they meet, but never jealous.
28. Figure out what causes you stress, thereby grabs your focus, time and energy
Be honest and then get serious about making permanent changes.
As the new year rolls around, sometimes money and weight can creep to the top of resolution lists we wish to change or improve. However, looking more closely, what are we doing in our lives that cause these two areas to be filled with stress? Sometimes it is what we are not doing – we’re not removing self-deflating influences, we are not diving into what brings us joy and buoys our love of life, we are buying our way to a happy life when the contentment we seek is within. So much can be avoided by going deeper, being honest with ourselves and making simple, small changes – additions or subtractions – to eliminate such stresses on either these two areas or others that may be causing you pain.
Simplifying, as shown in today’s list, is not as simple as rearranging our furniture, or editing our closets. If we choose to truly simplify, we need to be fully present and absolutely honest with ourselves and how and why we live as we do. Sometimes we may want to seek out the guidance of a counselor to answer help us answer truthfully these questions for ourselves, but largely we can do the work ourselves. We just need to remember to do the work because it does pay off wonderful dividends that will remain in our lives for lifetime.
Clearing the clutter, brightening our view, freshening the air to welcome the beauty that our lives have the potential to reveal to us. Yep, simplifying our lives is most definitely worth it. 🙂
Similar posts/episodes from the Archives you might enjoy:
10 Life Choices to Simplify & Welcome a Calm & Contented Everyday Life, episode #290
Why Not . . . Simplify? 4 Reasons It’s Not As Easy As It Sounds, But Absolutely Worth It
Why Not . . . Simplify Your Choices? episode #62
How to Welcome Simplicity into your Life: Live Differently for One Month, episode #224
Petit Plaisir
—Blood On The Vine, French mystery series on MHz
https://youtu.be/GRrqrT44psg
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