Mornings In: France

We’re all a little obsessed with French style aren’t we? I mean, there entire books devoted to dressing, eating, and flirting like a French woman! Today I’m very pleased to bring you an interview with food blogger and Parisienne Clotilde Dusoulier. I loooooved her breakdown of the beauty products she uses and her breakfast recipes!

Name: Clotilde Dusoulier
Hometown: Paris, France — more specifically, the Montmartre neighborhood.
Age: I just turned 37!
Occupation: Food writer and author of The French Market cookbook

My alarm is set for: I don’t need one!

Alas, no need to set an alarm as I have two young sons who do the job quite well! Mika is 1 1/2 years old, Milan is 4, and one or the other typically wakes (us) up between 6am and 7:30am.

Even though I am a morning person this is earlier than I’d like, but it means more time together before we all head off to work/school/daycare (which is probably the very reason why they don’t sleep in more).

My French breakfast

On weekends, I like to be very French and head out to the bakery with one kid or the other. I am fortunate enough to live in Montmartre, where there is an award-winning bakery on every corner, so we are spoiled for choice. We’ll bring home a fresh loaf of crusty bread so we can make tartines — sliced bread spread with salted butter, jam, or honey — or treat ourselves to croissants.

I am so passionate about them that I keep a list of favorite croissants in Paris! One of my top choices is Gontran Cherrier’s, just a few blocks from me. I also love his rye and red miso bread.

I cleanse my skin religiously every night, and have done so without fail since I was about ten! And I moisturize moisturize moisturize as my skin is quite sensitive. I also stay away from the sun as I am fair and I burn easily.

I am very choosy about the cosmetics I use and the ingredients in them, so I buy everything from a French store called Mademoiselle Bio that specializes in natural beauty products. I especially like the French brand Melvita and at night I use their great makeup removing oil, plus their aloe vera moisturizer.

In the morning, I just splash some water on my face, and moisturize with Dr. Haushka’s rose day cream that I mix together in the palm of my hand with a tinted face cream by Une.

For makeup, I buy products from Une and from Lavera, another line of natural cosmetics. I apply some face powder and a bit of blush on my cheeks. If I feel like putting makeup on my eyes, it will be a thin line of black pencil along my top lashes, some light green eye shadow to bring out the green in my eyes, and some mascara.

And lipstick, always! There’s a small designer shop in my neighborhood that sells sweaters with the message “Never without lipstick” and I kind of want to get one for myself. 🙂

The water in Paris is fairly hard and the skin on my body gets dry and itchy even in summer, so I apply organic shea butter every couple of days. Oh, and I make my own natural deodorant too!

I mostly work from home so my commute is very short! But when I have meetings to attend, restaurants to try out, or food shops to explore, I hop onto my bicycle to get there.

Paris has a bike-sharing system that works fairly well, and this is what got me hooked to city cycling nine years ago, but I live up on a hill and people never rode their bikes back up to the stations around me, so I ended up buying my own.

It’s a triple benefit for me: it’s a fast and flexible way to get around, it’s exercise that’s built into my day, and I get to admire the beautiful city I live in. My breath always catches in my throat when I ride my bike across the river, or through the Cour Carrée du Louvre. Such gorgeous perspectives — they inspire me daily.

Thanks so much for sharing, Clotilde! Any other French readers care to share?

P.S. Morning routines from Estonia, Costa Rica, and Pakistan.