Three Famous Women: Child, Chanel, and Baker

This is a recap of my first two weeks in Paris. I was determined to do some of the walks in my "Forever Paris, 25 walks in the footsteps of Chanel, Hemingway, Picasso, and more", so during my first two weeks I did Julia Child, Coco Chanel, and Josephine Baker's walks.


Julia Child

She lived in Paris in the 1950s, where she discovered her passion for cooking. Author of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", she basically taught Americans how to do French cuisine. The picture below is one of the restaurants he used to frequent. It's close to the metro station Chatelet, and it's only about 15 minutes walking from where I live in Paris (Beaubourg). I also met  somebody from the prayer group that works there, kind of a fun fact for me.

Coco Chanel

A fashion revolutionary, Coco Chanel had a pretty tough life from the beginning. At twelve, she lived in a convent and learned how to sew. One of my favorite feats of Chanel was her simplifying fashion. She managed to turn a trend of wearing elaborate hats that limited movement and required hours, numerous pins, and assistance to put on, into wearing simple and elegant straw hats.
The picture below is where her personal apartment was, on the third floor of 31 rue Cambon. It's still there, but it's not open to the public. Some of her first hat shops are all along that street, covering several buildings on that block.

Josephine Baker

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1906, Baker arrived in Paris in 1925. A performer, Baker was a dancer, a singer, and even a comic star. As black performers were popular in Paris during the 1920s, Baker went from being in a "comedic side act in a country ruled by segregation" to being "the highest-paid entertainer in Europe". She loved Paris and she loved France, and even helped in the French Resistance during World War II.

The picture below is where she used to live in her early career, an apartment on av. des Champs-Elysees #77. The second picture is the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, where Baker performed her "Dance Sauvage" when she first arrived to Paris.

I hope you enjoyed these little summaries, although probably not as much as I enjoyed these wonderful walks. It was fun to walk in the footsteps of Child, Chanel, and Baker, three remarkable women.

*All the pictures above are pictures I took during my walks.

Tiger Woods Apologizes

I remember when Tiger Woods started getting famous when I was a kid, because my sisters would always buy magazines with the famous golfer on the cover.


I don’t know if you are all aware of the rumors that have infested the media these last months, about his infidelity and personal problems. The rumors are that he cheated on his wife, and that there had been an incident between the two in November. Woods crashed his SUV into a tree outside of this house and there were rumors that he had been in fight with his wife and she ran after him or something crazy like that. The truth is, we don’t really know what actually happened. A lot of people are disappointed of him; even brands like AT&T ended their contracts with him.

It happens all the time with famous people:  when they make a mistake, everyone shouts the news. Then it becomes worse, because it isn’t enough to divulge their wrong doing, so the media starts adding crap that isn’t true to make it more interesting.

 It must feel awful for the stars, to hear and read all the things people are saying about them. Is it just because they’re famous that they’re not allowed to make mistakes? How would we feel if everyone talked about our bad decisions? I don’t agree with that. It’s true, unlike other people, they have more responsibility to be role models, because they have so many followers. But let us not fool ourselves, they’re not God and they’re not perfect. So let’s just give them a break, they’re human like each one of us. It isn’t fair to criticize them as if we were perfect or something.

When I first read about the rumors, I didn’t know if to believe them or not, but I felt kind of sad about him, because I thought he was a really good guy. How would I know, right? I’ve never met him. Today I was surfing through the net, and I found an article about him apologizing. Something about Tiger Woods really impressed me. Unlike other stars, he acknowledged what he had done wrong. Imagine that: confessing for thousands, or even millions, of people, admitting he was wrong, promising to be better. I don’t think I ever remember Michael Jackson admitting he molested children and was sorry for it (I know it’s a different case, you don’t go to jail for cheating, but still). It amazes me too, that he admits he had fallen away from this faith, he recognizes that it was a mistake to forget about his faith and his family. So, hurray for Tiger Woods who was brave enough to defy millions of people with his confession; to fight to keep his family together, even as hard and painful as it would be; to swallow the pride and be willing to start over. For the people who love him. For the people who admire him.

Here is the article and the video where he confesses. The video is amazing, it must have been really hard for him to do this. Imagine yourself doing that.


http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/Tiger-Woods-apology-021910?GT1=39002