Well, it finally happened. I reached my 45th
birthday a couple of weeks ago and I finally met my doppelgänger today. Not so
much (well, kind of, actually) in the traditional doppelgänger definition of
looks but more of a doppelgänger sense of joie de vivre.
So, truth be told, I haven’t left my apartment in quite a
while. Paris has been cold, rainy, windy and I think that is the definition, as
my friend Chloé described it, of a monsoon. So, I have preferred to stay inside
in the safety of my warm apartment… Until today. It’s not easy to get me
outside… My body is like a ragdoll so my caregivers have to get me up, slop
some clothes on me, do my makeup, my hair, make me a hot water bottle, squeeze
me into a peanut sized Parisian elevator, swap wheelchairs, get my breathing
machine shoved up my nose and most importantly my sunglasses covering my eyes…
Incognito. So, needless to say, I don’t go out much.
But today, I just felt like it was imperative to go
outside… Not far, just next-door to the Palais Royal...One of the greatest
places on earth. I am very very lucky that it is one building in front of my
apartment and I feel like it is my own private garden. The funny thing is that
so many people have told me that they have never been to the Palais Royal even
though they’ve been to Paris plenty of times. It’s a little bit of a secret,
but it’s really not. Weird.
Today was a beautiful, cloud free, sunny, semi-warm spring
day in Paris so off to the Palais Royal we went. My, oh my, what a glorious
day in the garden. The pink magnolia trees were popping, daffodils and hyacinth
in full bloom and in full scent. Elderly women walking their petite pooches. Sportif
Parisians jogging around the garden like morons. Cute Chinese playing
badminton. Discreet French gentleman playing pétanque and some creepy yet
harmless guy doing tai chi.… You know, the usual.
This was the perfect day for my rare outing and I knew this
would be the perfect day to go out. And boy am I glad I did because I met a
woman after my own heart… Gabrielle Geppert.
I see Gabrielle Geppert every single time I go to the
Palais Royal because she is always, always in her shops. She has four shops
side-by-side along the south side of the Palais Royal (the good side) with her
own collection, her vintage collection, and always something truly unique in
the third shop. Sometimes the third shop is floor to ceiling vintage shoes,
floor to ceiling vintage bags or some other clever installment. Today it was,
Café Gabrielle, in homage to her friend Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel fashion show
from a few weeks ago, Brasserie Gabrielle. If you missed that blog, click HERE.
When my friend, Debbie, was visiting me in February, she
happened to have met Gabrielle Geppert at our favorite little hideaway café on
rue Valois. This is definitely a “locals only” café. It’s not fancy, it’s not
on a main street, hell, it’s barely on a side street. It is so tucked away that
you would really only know about it if you live next to it… Which we do, and so
does Gabrielle. My friend Debbie unfortunately has MS and has extreme
difficulty walking so this little café was really the furthest she went from my
apartment. It is just a stone’s throw away, literally. Sometimes I think I can
hear her while she is at the café from inside my apartment. :-) Well, after one
of Debbie’s evening outings to the café, she came back to my apartment and told
me she had met a wonderful woman… Gabrielle Geppert. And because Debbie is one is
the most outgoing, loving friends I’ve ever had… She told Gabrielle Geppert all
about me and even showed her pictures of me. Good God.
So, today on my glorious walk through the Palais Royal, as
usual, I saw Gabrielle Geppert in front of her shops. I knew this was the time
for me to introduce myself. After about 45 seconds of talking to Gabrielle
Geppert, I knew this was a woman after my own heart. Gabrielle Geppert doesn’t
really walk… She bounces. She is so full of life and her spirit is so bright
that I knew it was kismet, we were intended to be friends. Gabrielle Geppert
loves beauty, appreciates beauty and has a passion for beauty… Just like Moi!
And she’s not ashamed to admit it… Just like Moi! She gets as excited over a vintage
handbag as she does as a deep purple hyacinth budding in the gardens of the
Palais Royal.
On her website, I read
the “about” section about Gabrielle Geppert and this is when I knew she was my
doppelgänger. It read, “She walks around with a big smile, always in a good mood,
a bit tomboyish in her looks, her hands in her pockets, her long fairytale blond
hair, walking through the garden in the January sun or under the lime trees in
summer heat.
When life brought Gabrielle to the Palais Royal little did she know she had found her place. This was 10 years ago. She is also a bit out of this world, likes to talk about exoteric with humour and irony, she believes in all that is magic… she is always ready to play and have a good laugh, just give some input and its Show Time! It’s easy to imagine her, when night falls and the shutters are closed on her boutiques, going home twirling around, like an elf with her hair in the wind, laughing out loud or, more calmly striding along the empty allies humming. If you feel like strolling around the Palais Royal arcades and meeting one of the craziest, one of the funniest, one of the most fascinating but also one of the most passionate experts in vintage, now you know where to go.”
When life brought Gabrielle to the Palais Royal little did she know she had found her place. This was 10 years ago. She is also a bit out of this world, likes to talk about exoteric with humour and irony, she believes in all that is magic… she is always ready to play and have a good laugh, just give some input and its Show Time! It’s easy to imagine her, when night falls and the shutters are closed on her boutiques, going home twirling around, like an elf with her hair in the wind, laughing out loud or, more calmly striding along the empty allies humming. If you feel like strolling around the Palais Royal arcades and meeting one of the craziest, one of the funniest, one of the most fascinating but also one of the most passionate experts in vintage, now you know where to go.”
Not to toot my own horn, but that description is pretty
much me except I’m not quite as nice as she is considering eight seconds before
I met her I had just finished a colossal argument with a dick of a waiter at
the café next door. Nonetheless, my mood improved after I met Gabrielle.
So, on your next jaunt to Paris, I urge all of you to take a
detour and make your way to the Palais Royal and to the shop of GabrielleGeppert. You won’t want to miss this. She is an expert in all things vintage luxe.
Vintage YSL, Hermès, Chanel… All that is good and wonderful in this
materialistic world. And if you don’t believe me, look who was caught peeking
into Gabrielle Geppert’s windows… My favorite fashionista Kim Kardashian…(Yes,
I love Kim Kardashian, et alors.)
Even though the formidable vintage expert, Didier Ludot, is
only two shops to the left, Gabrielle’s shop seems more modern vintage, more
wearable, and not as if it needs to be under lock and key, stuffed with tissue
in a Hamish Bowles wardrobe warehouse/storage. When Gracie was a little girl, I
bought a vintage Hermès belt from Gabrielle Geppert that I knew I could pass
down to Gracie one day… And I was right because now my little fashionista wears
it with gusto. It is so easy yet expected to march into the Hermès shop in
Paris on rue Faubourg Saint-Honorè and purchase a shiny new belt but isn’t it
more interesting, more unique, more chic to find that same belt with a bit of
history and “patina?” That’s what you will find at Gabrielle Geppert… The
unusual, the aged, the much loved vintage piece. Trust me on this one. Not only
will you get to own a piece of “histoire” but you will also have a chance to
chat with a truly unique Parisian… A friendly one. :-)
www.gabriellegeppert.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gabrielle-Geppert/201658006544985
