Mornings In: France

Want some French style tips? Parisienne beauty tips? Lifelong Parieienne and food blogger Clotilde is sharing her favorite French beauty products and yummy breakfast recipes! >> yesandyes.org

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).

french breakfast

My French breakfast

Breakfast is a meal typically taken at home in France. On weekday mornings, I make myself a bowl of seasonal fruit (these days it’s apricots, raspberries, peaches, red currants…) with homemade granola.
Here is my formula for classic granola and for paleo granola and homemade coconut yogurt. Cold cereal is a common weekday breakfast for French people (muesli/granola probably being the most popular kind).

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.
Want some French style tips? Parisienne beauty tips? Lifelong Parieienne and food blogger Clotilde is sharing her favorite French beauty products and yummy breakfast recipes! >> yesandyes.org
french style beauty products

My French Beauty Routine

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!
French style commute

My French commute

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.

photo credits: jacob peters-lehm // chris barbalis // wikipedia // cc

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