Proust made this questionnaire fashionable, the French Bernard Pivot submitted all his literary guests to it and Vanity Fair made it the first page I read when I get my hands on the magazine!
Here it is answered by She is French:
Your favorite virtue / Le principal trait de mon caractère:
Optimistic Seduction (soon to be explained in another post!)
Your favorite qualities in a man / La qualité que je préfère chez un homme:
Non negotiable skills: must be able to give a good massage…
Your favorite qualities in a woman / La qualité que je préfère chez une femme:
Humor above all!
What you appreciate the most in your friends /Ce que j’apprécie le plus chez mes amis:
Their appetite for life.
Your main fault / Mon principal défaut:
Still in denial…
Your favorite occupation / Mon occupation préférée:
Etre aimee (en francais dans le texte!)
Your idea of happiness / Mon rêve de bonheur:
Room Service for breakfast, lunch & diner!
Your idea of misery / Quel serait mon plus grand malheur:
Not being able to travel to the Taj Mahal & Angkor Vat
If not yourself, who would you be / Ce que je voudrais être
Me + able to cook, speak 7 languages and with a lover in each port…
Where would you like to live / Le pays où je désirerais vivre:
Paris in the morning, New York during the day and Rome at night…
Favorite flower / La fleur que j’aime:
Peonies because of their generous fullness and their hard to get nature, blooming only once a year.
Your favorite prose authors / Mes auteurs favoris en prose:
Marguerite Yourcenar for writing Memories of Hadrian & all of Milena Angus’ books.
Your favorite poets / Mes poètes préférés:
Luxe, Calme & Volupte recommended by Charles Baudelaire in Les Fleurs du Mal
Your favorite heroines in fiction / Mes héroines dans la fiction:
James Bond Girls, the good ones AND the evil ones too
Your favorite heroines in real life / Mes héroines dans la vie réelle:
The Rebels & Les Grandes Amoureuses
Your favorite food
Anything I can eat with my fingers.
The natural talent I’d like to be gifted with / Le don de la nature que je voudrais avoir:
Unconditional Love
What is your present state of mind / État présent de mon esprit.
Craving
For what fault have you most toleration / Fautes qui m’inspirent le plus d’indulgence.
Lust, bien sur!
Your favourite motto/ Ma devise:
I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.
I suppose my motto – borrowed to Mae West- is where She Is French was born. I have always been TEMPTED, you might say, to create a space dedicated to pure seduction, inspiration, and romance. With the skills of the Renaissance courtesans in mind, a well-educated and independent woman of free morals, eventually a trained artisan of dance and singing.Veronica Franco was perhaps the most celebrated member of the former category, although Franco was hardly the only cortigiana onesta, the intellectual courtesan in 16th-century Venice who could boast of a fine education and considerable literary and artistic accomplishments.
Et vous Messieurs? A male figure comparable to the courtesan was the Italian cicisbeo, the French chevalier servant, the Spanish cortejo or estrecho. It actually seems that the figure of the chevalier servant (French, lit. serving cavalier, lady’s escort) of a married lady was quite common in Europe up to the 18th century.
Please answer your favorite (or more) question for me !
Veronica Franco