Well that’s Mireille Guiliano and me last night !

And you can see right there that I fell in love with her. Trust me, I had no intention. Why would I ? I am French and do not need a self help book on being more French whether in my kitchen or at the office. As for other areas, we will leave at that for now.

I actually arrived late at the FIAF conference but the little I heard was fascinating, inspiring and well her frankness is just (if you excuse my French) kick ass. She is happy, she proclaims it and it shows. BTW, the proceeds of her book – which she said she does not need- go to scholarships! Mireille Guiliano is truly genuine and has a down to earth quality of those who continue to search and learn even when it seems they have arrived.

Everyone following her speech was feeling her mojo and left a little tipsy-happy (she must have learned that skill from her Veuve Cliquot years).

So buy the book, peruse her website (especially her video of the French miracle vegetable: Leeks!) and keep drinking Champagne! Cheers!

This is what’s fantastic -AND so damn frustrating at the same time- about New York: there are too many great events, shows and interesting people to meet and learn from. And this one, organized by Times Talks (by the NYT) is one of the events I wish I had been more organized and had booked a ticket in advance. Oh well, maybe I will try to get at the door early and catch a ticket unless you are all reading this today and trying to get there even earlier ; ))

And not to repeat this mistake, I just signed-up to the Times Talks Newsletter to get the info and post it on time for you all!

Tuesday | October 13, 2009
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Changes in Women’s Lives!
Women, girls and those who love them: Get an eye-opening, inspiration-boosting, life-enriching look at the revolution in women‘s lives over the past 50 years, with Gail Collins, Times Op-Ed columnist and author of “When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present,” Gloria Steinem, preeminent women’s rights leader, and Wilma Mankiller, the first woman Chief of the Cherokee Nation and Farai Chideya, award-winning author and journalist.

SOLD OUT.

Tickets may be available at the door the night of the event.

Address: TheTimesCenter, 242 West 41st Street, New York City

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Romanian-born German Writer Herta Mueller won the Nobel Literature Prize and was honored for work that “with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed,” the Swedish Academy said.

Reading about her in the NYT this morning, I was moved by her quote : “I’ve had to learn to live by writing, not the other way around. I wanted to live by the standards I dreamt of, it’s as simple as that. And writing was a way for me to voice what I could not actually live.”

And I am happy for these women who received such a recognition who a life of dedication to their “art”.

Earlier this week, U.S.-based researchers Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider were among the medicine winners and the chemistry prize included Israel’s Ada Yonath.

Dr. Yonath won the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry Tuesday morning for mapping ribosomes, the protein-producing factories within cells, at the atomic level. “These models are now used by scientists in order to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity’s suffering,” the academy said in its announcement. Dr. Yonath shared the prize with American colleagues Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz.