Entre Nous : A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl (Paperback)

From Publishers Weekly
Most American women would agree that those Frenchies have something going on. La Femme Nikita, Catherine Deneuve, even Audrey Tatou of Amélie fame-they all possess a certain je ne sais quoi. In this cutesy pick-me-up of a book, Ollivier-an American married to a Frenchman-insists that you, too, can be glamorous, mythic and mysterious; "a star in the pantheon of feminine beauty and strength." How can American gals tap into their inner Frenchness? Ollivier lays down the law, interspersing her must-dos with sidebars detailing, for example, legendary French ladies from Josephine Bonaparte to Coco Chanel. Among Ollivier's tips: for loungewear, think silk mou-mous or padded zebra-skin mules, not baggy sweat pants; toss the Equal and use regular sugar in your coffee; and go ahead and gossip, but be discreet. Stereotypical? Peut-être. But Ollivier's overall advice-seek beauty everywhere; accept character flaws; don't rush to define a romantic relationship-goes far beyond the realm of France and its women, and is evident in smart women the world over.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Palm Beach Post
"A fun, interesting read with more to offer than fashion tips.(Ollivier) cracks the French style code."

Review

"A fun, interesting read with more to offer than fashion tips...(Ollivier) cracks the French style code."
- Palm Beach Post

"Ollivier dishes on that je ne sais quois that French women seem to have, and how American women can attain it."
- Dallas Morning News

Book Description

French women's secrets to being self-possessed, self-satisfied and fully self-expressed.

From the Inside Flap

What makes French girls as serenely self-satisfied as purring cats...and catnip to the men who admire them?

We'd all be as free as the French girl if we looked like her, right? The stereotypical French girl is often insolently thin, casually chic, and fashionable despite a simple wardrobe. With or without makeup she is always put together and utterly self-confident, imbued with natural elegance and an elusive distance that is particularly, maddeningly French.

But this stereotype obscures delicious pardoxes about the French girl and her body. Yes, she does have an exasperating tendency to be thin. Reams have been written trying to decode the mystery of a people who smoke, drink, eat goose fat, and still look fabulous. But in reality, the French girl comes in a multitude of styles and body shapes, and whatever her figure, she looks remarkable and just plain sexy.

The French girl understands that sexy is a state of mind. Her relationship to food and her body is sensual, not tyrannical, and she takes pleasure in both.

Entre Nous copyright 2004 Debra Ollivier

About the Author

Debra Ollivier has written for Salon, Harpers, Playboy, Le Monde, and a variety of other publications. She's a California girl who married a Frenchman and lived in France, where her children were born, for a decade. She now lives in Los Angeles.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

One

La Tete

As it happened, the first true French girl I ever met was Natalie. She was living in an old renovated farmhouse at the time, just south of Paris, where her husband and a group of aspiring Truffauts were shooting a film on unrequited love and existentialism. (Only in France, no?) Natalie was wearing a close-fitting black skirt over a voluptuously pregnant belly, a camisole under a sheer blouse, and suede ankle boots. Her long hair was pulled back with a tortoiseshell barrette, though several fugitive strands tumbled onto her shoulders in unruly wisps, and she wore not one bit of makeup.

She was perfectly content and undeniably sensual, and when she spoke, which she did sparingly, you could tell she had a superbly intelligent mind. It was just all there, that incredible mix of beauty and brains that seems to imbue French girls with such interesting faces, such refined strength. It would have been easy to suggest that Natalie's allure was a function of something physical (her hair, her clothes, her overall look). Too easy. Like so many French girls Natalie's je ne sais quoi was less about her look and much more about her history: She had been shaped by generations of independent feminine spirits (countless queens, courtesans, and traditional French mothers); by unspoken codes of social grace and courtly love; by a legacy of feminine guile and intellectual brawn--and at that moment, walking down a country lane in a land where the layers of civilization were so thick you could almost cut them with a knife, all I wanted to do was leave the planet and be reborn French.

That, alas, was not to be.

I did, however, have the opportunity to live long enough in France to ponder, with a certain privileged proximity, those essential qualities that make the French girl so French. And in coming to understand the core principles that shape her perception of the world, I began to wonder how we, with our own cultural baggage and American juju, could integrate some of these qualities into our own lives and get in touch with our own inner French girls. Clearly we had to look past the fabled French style--"the look," if you will, that it is so easy to mistake for the defining feature of the French girl--and consider the expression of something much deeper, some basic truths about how she sees herself and carries herself in the world.

If you peel back the surface details, these essential qualities emanate like spokes into every aspect of the French girl's life: They influence how she carries herself, the clothes she wears, the men she brings into her life (or doesn't). They shape her self-image, what she reads, how and what she eats. They temper her experience of sensuality, her notion of time, and the tenor of her family life.

Like the smooth surface of a river stone, many of these qualities have been honed by centuries of culture and civilization. Still, many of them can be cultivated (to each woman, her own private garden), and in the following chapters we'll explore how. For now, just what exactly are these essential qualities, and how do they shape the French girl's perception of herself and the world at large?

She Is Self-Possessed

If you strip away the stereotypes and contradictions about her, one of the fundamental qualities associated with the French girl is her sense of self-possession. She is entirely, unequivocally self-contained. She is focused on living her own full life, following her own agenda and cultivating her actual self, rather than reinventing herself or pining away to be someone she's not. Throughout her life, she invests herself in learning and experiencing, not to change who she is, but to become more fundamentally and more fully who she truly is. Taking her cues predominantly from within--from the life of her mind and the exercise of her critical intelligence--she is imbued with a strength of character and a certain sensitivity. Because she is sure of who she is on the inside, she naturally, inevitably, appears sure of herself on the outside.

There is also a lovely, dreamy paradox about the French girl, and it's this: in having a strong sense of self, she's able to let go of herself; that in being self-contained, she's able to be vulnerable--all without unraveling at the seams. It's that melange of sensitivity and sang froid that so delicately lingers around her, like a subtle aura.

Every choice she makes underscores this basic relationship to herself: The French girl tends to her personal, private garden with dedication. By taking care of herself in ways both large and small, she is free to take care of others, free to focus on real living rather than rushing through the essentials. She understands that being of service to others is contingent on being of service to oneself. There is nothing accidental here, nothing random in her composure: It is the result of an awareness of--and commitment to--herself.

She Seeks Sensuality

There is also something more corporeal at play here--an inspired sensuality, an exalted simplicity that intoxicates us Anglo-Saxons when we visit France--and that is the premium the French girl puts on experiencing pleasure: Pleasure in ordinary moments. Pleasure in extraordinary moments. She does not confuse commerce with culture and the narrative in her life does not come from what she buys or sees on TV; rather, it comes from getting sensual satisfaction in the moment, from feeling an almost tactile pleasure and evocative power in the seemingly mundane. Remember Audrey Tautou in Amelie? She dips her hands into sacks of grain just for the pleasure of how it feels. She relishes the crackle of a teaspoon breaking the crust of a creme brulee. And she soothes herself skipping stones at Canal St. Martin.

Sensuality is so pervasive in her life that it is almost transparent. It is in the general texture of life, the patina of age that comes with time. It is in the baking of bread by hand, the aging of wine. It is in the color of inkwells or damask drapes, in the uproarious flamboyance of architecture. And it is fundamentally in the perfection of imperfections--the complexity and realness that create character, depth, and charm.

Being anchored in these priorities gives the French girl the sophisticated and sexy self-confidence that has put her in the Feminine Hall of Fame and made her an icon worldwide. She so fully and unequivocally inhabits her own space, and with such individualistic flair, that it seems as if even from the earliest age she has always been sure of who she is and where she's going. And perhaps she has. As Edith Wharton saw her, "...she is, in nearly all respects, as different as possible from the average American woman. The French woman is grown-up."

She Practices Discretion

From her sense of self-possession flows another essential quality that shapes her world definitively: discretion. The French girl wears her discretion like a filter or a screen, and every decision in her life passes through it: what she wears, how she spends her time, who she lets into her life, what she says (and does not say). Discretion is an ongoing act of self-editing.

The French girl understands that even the smallest gesture is a choice, a purposeful selection of one path over another, one outcome over another, one impression over another. There is nothing random or haphazard about her. Everything is about personal choice and behind every decision is a deliberate, thoughtful reflex: Is this really me? Should I speak my mind or hold back? How should I approach this particular person? How much of myself do I reveal? What is the true value of this friendship, this experience, this thing? Does this make me feel good, sexy, alive?

The French girl's discretion is often most apparent in what she chooses not to say. Like her culture she's private and nonconfessional. (We, on the other hand, are public and confessional. Sit two Americans on a park bench and you'll get at least one life story in five minutes flat.) By not revealing herself easily--her secrets, her inclinations, her inner life--she can sometimes appear self-centered. But in fact, what is often perceived as self-centered chez la femme francaise is actually the state of being centered on herself. And her distant allure is frequently the subtle glimmer of the exclusive world she keeps to herself.

History, with all its twisted tales, has taught the French girl that the intimate details in her world are a form of currency that she shouldn't just throw around. Being nonconfessional by nature, the French girl largely avoids the full wrath of the gossip trap: The chitting. The chatting. The feasting on morsels of other people's pathos. She also understands that when you give away pieces of your own life, they go back into the oven half-baked, only to get re-
consumed by other thrill-seekers of gab in an all-you-can-eat buffet. On a small scale it wreaks havoc in lives. On a big scale, it turns personal tragedy into tabloid entertainment and trivializes powerful moments.

The French girl does gossip (she's human, after all) but her culture respects privacy in ways that stupefy Americans and she, too, takes on this guard. Her tendency is to mind her own business. To be discreet. To think before she speaks. And because she doesn't need vicarious pleasures or the approval of others to exist, she often appears as if she could not care less what you think of her. And in fact, she doesn't.

The French girl is brought up to be polite, but she is not necessarily brought up to be a good girl. Lucky her--that Anglo-Saxon imperative to be liked (and be like everyone else) is not high on her list. Her culture exalts the iconoclast, the nonconformist, the artist and original thinker--all of which makes it more natural for her to say No to prevailing pressures. She is able to draw the line between who she is and who she is not on every level, so she is able to refuse without ambivalence--whether it's a skirt or a man that simply isn't right for her life. It also makes it easy for her to ignore the pressure to be all things to all people, and to appreciate the company of herself--with a book, a glass of wine--over the filler noise of other people who don't really rock her world.

This ability to say No--graciously, thoughtfully--reinforces her natural discretion: What she eventually does let into her life is more a reflection of herself--and by default more authentic. Even in her impulses there's a certain intention, but she's not quick to jump on any bandwagons. Like the painter who knows the rules well enough to break them (and create an oeuvre d'art), the French girl knows conventions well enough to move beyond them. Which means that when all's said and done, her life ends up custom-made, not made by custom.

She Takes Time

"I abhor the digital watch!" Chantale once exclaimed while glancing at a display case. "The analog watch is so much more human, with its hands going around the dial like the earth going around the sun. Did you know that digital time is measured by the 9,192,631,770 oscillations per second of a cesium atom?" (Frankly, I did not.) She sighed and rewound the tiny stem on her analog watch. "Who needs that kind of pressure?"

The French girl's notion of time is that of a flaneur--a stroller, one who does not go places with a particular objective or precise schedule but allows the ambling course of general intentions to guide her into unplanned encounters and special unexpected pleasures. In her world, time is not money. Time is life. As Wharton once described it, real life is deep and complex and slowly developed, and has its roots in fundamental things. And you cannot experience those fundamental things, or true pleasure in life, without taking your time.

These fundamental things to which Wharton refers are the backbone of ritual, and by their very nature rituals are about time: They honor time. They take time. And they've existed over time (lifetimes, that is). We're not talking about grandiose or ceremonial rituals (though they can be either) but rather the countless small rituals that imbue ordinary life with pleasure and meaning: The family meal. An hour of uninterrupted solitude. The pilgrimage back home. The monthly evening out with an inner circle of friends.

Each small ritual involves an investment of time, and there is no greater return than the investment one makes in oneself. The French girl understands that time is immutable and that she, on the other hand, is not. By taking quality time for herself she's free to give it back to others. And because she puts her time into high-yield meaningful things, the return on her investment is not measured in monetary value or social gain but rather in the deeply satisfying pleasures of the moment.

This is not to say that the French girl has the patience of a monk. She does not. She sometimes drives like a bat out of hell, would park in your kitchen if she could find a space, and cuts in line (a French speciality), but when it comes to the essential things in life--the personally relevant, the intimately clear--she does not rush. She does not force today what can get done tomorrow. Time is relative: life is short, memories are long. To all things a season, quite literally.

She Values Quality and Authenticity

Frederique embodies that very French principle of quality over quantity. She has an almost singular precision in the way she dresses (a closet full of just the right clothes), in what she owns (things with meaning, things that evoke memories), in all the things that inhabit her world. Even objects that are propped up against a corner or thrown onto the floor of her country home (a battered hoe, a pair of muddied, well-worn boots) have a certain particularity about them, as if they were each imbued with a soul. Less is truly more, as long as it's an expression of quality and authenticity. She resists the expendable, the disposable, the trendy, the faux. She knows that having too much choice does not necessarily give her more ways to define herself. She prefers the singular wild flower to the pre-made bouquet. The small car to the big machine. She invariably buys one perfect high-quality dress and not several less satisfying, on-sale ones. And she instinctively knows how to mix and match with natural creativity.

The French girl's preference for quality over quantity ties directly into her ability to say No: No to excess in people, things or ideas; No to what doesn't grace her world. Quality over quantity is not just about material things. Who inhabits her world, who feeds her mind, who's allowed into her private garden? The French girl would rather spend time alone than with people who simply fill a void. As Frederique puts it, "Give me Proust or a good short story over idle chatter any time."

How to Shop Like a French Girl

It is impossible to shop American-style with Frederique because instant gratification is not part of her gestalt. Neither are credit cards. If she can't afford it, she won't buy it. If it doesn't fit (or make her feel good, or flaunt what she's got), she won't wear it. If she can't find it, she won't compromise. If she loves it, she won't toss it. She reuses it, rethinks it, lets it age.

Like Frederique, Anne is also influenced by the natural constraints of geography. "I shop mainly in the center of Paris," she says, "next door to my office or flat. I hate big stores and I
cf0have no car: I shop as I walk, which limits the quantity of my shopping as far as holding bags is concerned! If I'm on my way to a business meeting I might stumble upon a new pair of shoes, or a beautiful silver ring, or an old crystal bowl. Paris is full of unique opportunities, and to see them you really have to live in the city, not just speed through it on your way to somewhere else."

When the French girl shops, it isn't a solitary act of buying something new. It's part of a lifelong process of editing her environment, making small but meaningful additions or adjustments to her home, her closet, her life.

When you shop like a French girl, you buy only one of anything--and make sure it's the best quality you can afford. You know what you want and where to find it (and if you don't, you learn: You have your carnet d'adresse filled with details on special shops--where to buy those velveteen pants, that whimsical frock coat, those fetish shoes or the lofty Viennese hats. Where to find those private twice-a-year sales and exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime deals in unmarked loft warehouses, where the French girl's passion borders on frenzy). You update with accents that are both unique and timeless. Crimson linen napkins or vintage porcelain to use with your grandmother's old ivory tablecloth. A distinctive antique watch or flamboyant scarf to nuance your specific look. An Italian leather portfolio or South American satchel to carry to meetings. You invest in authentic things of quality that will endure and you focus on what's essential. And when you do find those essential things that work for you, you jump. "There is an antique shop I love on the rue Oberkamp," says Anne. "I look at the window every day, just a glance, and if something attracts me I buy it right then, otherwise I will miss it and regret it all my life!"

While you're sensitive to the winds of change, you're not prey to the whims and persuasions of every fad and ad. What's in or out is less important than what's you: your passions, your personal style.

She Cultivates Her Own History

One afternoon I stumbled into my friend Helene, who was off in her high heels to march the streets in protest over threats to socialized medicine. "Inconvenient but imperative!" she shouted as she waved me off on her way to the metro, brandishing a handmade banner.

The French girl's inner strength and her sense of self-possession is honed by a relationship to history: not just her own personal history, with its peaks and valleys, its particular geography; but also to her culture's collective history. She has two thousand years of history at her doorstep, for starters, and reminders on almost every street that heads literally rolled down the cobblestones in bloody revolution against the hubris of royalty. The value of memory and political engagement is passed down at a young age, and she carries it into her adult life.

And so the French girl is a political animal in the best sense. She has a long memory and an unwavering appreciation for hard-won privileges and a drive to maintain them: Her rights, her children's rights, human rights...The French girl has conviction and opinions and she expresses them wholeheartedly in the streets, high heels and all. Says Helene, "There is nothing more unfashionable than political apathy."

Fin

Ironically, over the years Natalie, this complex and intelligent woman, would teach me the enduring truths behind certain cliches. Like beauty is more than skin deep. Think before you speak. Or don't wear your heart on your shirtsleeve. Be true to yourself.

On many occasions I'd watch Natalie dismiss the images in fashion magazines ("Fairy tales!" she'd laugh, though looking a little bit like a lustrous Snow White herself), read voraciously, excuse herself in the middle of an event to take a little nap "because I feel I must," and wear the same three things in hip and varying combinations over the course of several days. I watched her eat with a certain lustful, guilt-free pleasure, refuse to wear a watch, and get passionate about politics or about simply being alone. I admired the fact that she could hold her alcohol (lots of it), make a great quiche with half a cup of flour and one egg, and speak Latin because "it's beautiful, and why not?" To say that Natalie was self-possessed is an understatement: She lived her life willfully but mindfully and one day, without realizing it, she summed up her French girlishness in one single line: "If you stay true to yourself, you will always remain on track, even if that track takes you off the beaten path, to places you could not possibly imagine."

Copyright © 2003 by Debra Ollivier and Lark Productions

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French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure (Hardcover)


Amazon.com
The message of this book could be a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective. There is no hard science, no clearly-defined plan, and no lists of food to have or have not; instead, you'll find simple tricks that boil down to eating carefully prepared seasonal food, exercising more and refusing to think of food as something that inspires guilt. It's both a practical message and far easier said than done in today's "no pain, no gain" culture.
Author Mireille Guiliano is CEO of Veuve Clicquot, and French Women Don't Get Fat offers a concept of sensible pleasures: If you have a chocolate croissant for breakfast, have a vegetable-based lunch -- or take an extra walk and pass on the bread basket at dinner. Guiliano's insistence on simple measures slowly creating substantial improvements are reassuring, and her suggestion to ignore the scale and learn to live by the "zipper test" could work wonders for those who get wrapped up in tiny details of diet. She sympathizes that deprivation can lead straight to overindulgence when it comes to favorite foods, but then, in a most French manner, treats them as a pleasure that needs to be sated, rather than a battle to be fought.

A number of recipes are included, from a weight-loss enhancing leek soup to a lush chocolate mousse; they read more like what you'd find in a French cookbook rather than an American diet book. Most appealingly, these are guidelines and tricks that could be easily sustainable over a lifetime. If you agree that food is meant to be appreciated--but no more so than having a trim waist--these charmingly French recommendations could set you on the path to a future filled with both croissants and high fashion. --Jill Lightner

Guiliano's approach to healthy living is hardly revolutionary: just last month, the New York Times Magazine ran a story on the well-known "French paradox," which finds French people, those wine- guzzling, Brie-noshing, carb-loving folk, to be much thinner and healthier than diet-obsessed Americans. Guiliano, however, isn't so interested in the sociocultural aspects of this oddity. Rather, befitting her status as CEO of Clicquot (as in Veuve Clicquot, the French Champagne house), she cares more about showing how judicious consumption of good food (and good Champagne) can result in a trim figure and a happy life. It's a welcome reprieve from the scores of diet books out there; there's nary a mention of calories, anaerobic energy, glycemic index or any of the other hallmarks of the genre. Instead, Guiliano shares anecdotes about how, as a teen, she returned to her native France from a year studying in Massachusetts looking "like a sack of potatoes," and slimmed down. She did this, of course, by adapting the tenets of French eating: eating three substantial meals a day, consuming smaller portions and lots of fruits and vegetables, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, drinking plenty of water and not depriving herself of treats every once in a while. In other words, Guiliano listened to common sense. Her book, with its amusing asides about her life and work, occasional lapses into French and inspiring recipes (Zucchini Flower Omelet; Salad of Duck à l'Orange) is a stirring reminder of the importance of joie de vivre.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Oo la la! What a delectable feast. As its subtitle promises, Guiliano's book offers to teach you how to eat anything you like, drink wine, do a very simple exercise, and still achieve the body beautiful. The big secret to French women's svelte figures lies in portions: small, small, small. This is not just a diet book, but also a sensible lifestyle pattern. And Mireille Guiliano's down-to-earth, sexy French-accented voice is an inspiration to all listeners. Includes recipes (best: miracle leek soup) and a candid author interview. M.T.B. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Booklist
To the apparent great envy of all other women on the planet, French women seem eternally better dressed, more stylish, and better looking. Guiliano believes that the secret to slimness for French women springs from fundamentally two sources: the French attitude toward eating, which focuses on only the best and freshest foods consumed in careful moderation, and frequent, purposeful walking. Thus, daily trips to local markets for fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs, and cheeses work to keep these women slimmer than their supermarket-shopping American sisters. Throughout the text, she records recipes for French cookery varying in complexity from two-ingredient leek broth to croissants. Guiliano, U.S. head of a major French Champagne house, doesn't neglect to recommend a glass of wine as part of smart dining. A commonsense diet based on both restraint and simple exercise, Guiliano's diet stresses that food consumption ought to be deliberate and pleasurable and done always sitting at table with appropriate napery. This diet may not transform every American woman into Stephane Audran, but it's an approach. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
“It’s hard not to be enlivened by a [weight-control] book that celebrates both chocolate and bread, and espouses such wisdom as ‘Life without pasta? Perish the thought.’”
–Lily Burana, Washington Post Book World
“The perfect book for the more literate dieter . . . A blueprint for building a healthy attitude toward food and exercise . . . Full of down-to earth advice . . . We’d all be thinner (and happier) if we followed it.”
–Miriam Wolf, San Francisco Chronicle
“You’ve heard it before . . . But somehow, when the advice comes from Mireille Guiliano, you actually listen. A perfect, slim (and slimming) read for dieters and bon vivants alike.”
–Marie Claire
“Ah, Paris, the ideal destination for museum-hopping, couture shopping–and quick weight loss? Mais oui, insists Mireille Guiliano . . . For those who can’t hop a plane whenever their zippers won’t close . . . her new memoir-cum-‘nondiet’ book [is] filled with slimming secrets.”
–Kim Hubbard, People
“She spurs readers to give up the guilt and dieting extremes, to eat smarter and more joyfully . . . Readers can practically hear the rustling of fallen leaves beneath the narrator’s feet as she forages for mushrooms . . . Her writing, like her three-meals-a-day diet, is all part of her joie de vivre.”
–Rosemary Feitelberg, Women’s Wear Daily
“Delightful . . . Hands down, this is the best of the newest crop of weight-control books.”
–Nanci Hellmich, USA Today

“The past few years have been dominated by ‘scientific’ diets . . . I welcome this break from the usual kind of quick-fix diet book . . . Will this book transform one’s eating habits? Its good sense is unanswerable–and, personally, I love the bit about not going to the gym.”
–Lynne Truss, bestselling author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves, The Times (London)

“Part Proustian memoir, part guide to living well, part recipe for Miracle Leek Soup, this book announces its distance from the Zone, the Atkins and all the rest on the very first page . . . Even the most skeptical and envious woman will find it hard to hold out against the charms of a beautifully written book that features both chocolate and love as key ingredients in a balanced diet.”–Allison Pearson, The Daily Telegraph (London)

“Mireille Guiliano's book is slender, elegant, well-spoken, sensible, and unembarrassed by the frank embrace of stratagems–just like the French women whom she holds up to the reader to admire and, if we can, to emulate.” –Adam Gopnik, author of Paris to the Moon

“I recognized things from my own French background and discovered quite a bit more. An important and fascinating book for all those people out there who’ve ridden the vicious diet roller coaster to failure.” —Nicole Miller

“Not only delicious, but a true story from one of the greatest ladies in the world.” —Chef Emeril Lagasse

“French Women Don’t Get Fat is not only charming and witty, but useful. It made me want to run out and buy a pound of leeks and a bottle of Champagne!” —Sharon Boorstin, author of Cooking for Love and Let Us Eat Cake

Book Description
Stylish, convincing, wise, funny–and just in time: the ultimate non-diet book, which could radically change the way you think and live.

French women don’t get fat, but they do eat bread and pastry, drink wine, and regularly enjoy three-course meals. In her delightful tale, Mireille Guiliano unlocks the simple secrets of this “French paradox”–how to enjoy food and stay slim and healthy. Hers is a charming, sensible, and powerfully life-affirming view of health and eating for our times.

As a typically slender French girl, Mireille (Meer-ray) went to America as an exchange student and came back fat. That shock sent her into an adolescent tailspin, until her kindly family physician, “Dr. Miracle,” came to the rescue. Reintroducing her to classic principles of French gastronomy plus time-honored secrets of the local women, he helped her restore her shape and gave her a whole new understanding of food, drink, and life. The key? Not guilt or deprivation but learning to get the most from the things you most enjoy. Following her own version of this traditional wisdom, she has ever since relished a life of indulgence without bulge, satisfying yen without yo-yo on three meals a day.

Now in simple but potent strategies and dozens of recipes you’d swear were fattening, Mireille reveals the ingredients for a lifetime of weight control–from the emergency weekend remedy of Magical Leek Soup to everyday tricks like fooling yourself into contentment and painless new physical exertions to save you from the StairMaster. Emphasizing the virtues of freshness, variety, balance, and always pleasure, Mireille shows how virtually anyone can learn to eat, drink, and move like a French woman.

A natural raconteur, Mireille illustrates her philosophy through the experiences that have shaped her life–a six-year-old’s first taste of Champagne, treks in search of tiny blueberries (called myrtilles) in the woods near her grandmother’s house, a near-spiritual rendezvous with oysters at a seaside restaurant in Brittany, to name but a few. She also shows us other women discovering the wonders of “French in action,” drawing examples from dozens of friends and associates she has advised over the years to eat and drink smarter and more joyfully.

Here are a culture’s most cherished and time-honored secrets recast for the twenty-first century. For anyone who has slipped out of her zone, missed the flight to South Beach, or accidentally let a carb pass her lips, here is a buoyant, positive way to stay trim. A life of wine, bread–even chocolate–without girth or guilt? Pourquoi pas?

Download Description
“Part Proustian memoir, part guide to living well, part recipe for Miracle Leek Soup, this book announces its distance from the Zone, the Atkins and all the rest on the very first page . . . Even the most skeptical and envious woman will find it hard to hold out against the charms of a beautifully written book that features both chocolate and love as key ingredients in a balanced diet.”–Allison Pearson, The Daily Telegraph (London)
“Mireille Guiliano's book is slender, elegant, well-spoken, sensible, and unembarrassed by the frank embrace of stratagems–just like the French women whom she holds up to the reader to admire and, if we can, to emulate.” –Adam Gopnik, author of Paris to the Moon
“I recognized things from my own French background and discovered quite a bit more. An important and fascinating book for all those people out there who’ve ridden the vicious diet roller coaster to failure.” —Nicole Miller

“Not only delicious, but a true story from one of the greatest ladies in the world.” —Chef Emeril Lagasse

“French Women Don’t Get Fat is not only charming and witty, but useful. It made me want to run out and buy a pound of leeks and a bottle of Champagne!” —Sharon Boorstin, author of Cooking for Love and Let Us Eat Cake

From the Hardcover edition.--This text refers to the Digital edition.

About the Author
Born and raised in France, Mireille Guiliano first lived in America as an exchange student and came back for good early in her professional career. She is president and CEO of Clicquot, Inc., whose headquarters are in New York, and a director of Champagne Veuve Clicquot in Reims. Married to an American, Mireille lives most of the year in New York and makes frequent trips to Paris as well as across America.
www.mireilleguiliano.com.

Review:
Lose Weight the Luxurious French Way!, December 28, 2004
Reviewer: Lee Mellott (Frederick, Maryland) - See all my reviews

Mireille Guliano President and CEO of the champagne company Cliquot Inc. is the author of "French Women Don't Get Fat". Guliano travels 180 days of the year, eating out frequently and indulging in rich dishes and other goodies including bread, champagne and chocolate. Yet she manages to stay very slim and trim the French way.

"French Women Don't Get Fat" is a wonderful opportunity to look inside this chic French woman's mind and understand how she eats such delicious food, rarely visit the gym yet wears a small size.

The 263pg book speaks volumes. It clearly describes how to "think" so you will make the food choices that even if indulgent support a healthy weight. And it describes how to "move" to stay slim and you don't have to go to a gym.

You do not have to be in the Zone or give up carbs or fat in order to lose weight. There is no need to micromanage your nutrients. Instead you must temper your indulgences with restraint. It seems so simple - yet millions of overweight Americans don't know how to accomplish this. And with her commonsense explanation M. Guliano explains exactly how to do this.

Madame Guiliano is not a doctor or nutritionist. And she has not done scientific studies to test her methods. BUT all she has to do is point to France and the millions of slim Frenchwomen who use her "methode".

Madame Guiliano states she learned the process of weight loss when she gained weight after a visit to the States from her Doctor - Dr. Miracle. The good doctor taught her simple steps to achieve a healthy weight. Guiliano took his lessons to heart slimmed down and is now frequently asked how she stays so slim!

One of the first steps in the program is recasting. Here you look over the food you eat and you decide what you have to have and what you are willing to eat less of or give up entirely. You also work to get the blatant sugars that create havoc with your chemistry out of your system. There is also a simple recipe for leek soup for a weekend of cleansing for those who wish to jumpstart a weight loss program. You will journal and see what areas cause trouble in your life.

Other steps include eating regular meals, increasing fruits and vegetables, drinking water, not stocking offenders at home and enjoying yogurt on a daily basis.

The book is really designed for those who understand the calorie concept and have a basic understanding of healthy and non-healthy foods. Though Guiliano does not get into calorie counting since she asks that you track what is causing your weight problems, it's assumed that you know that "faux" foods like twinkies are an offender whereas an apple is not.

Her book includes numerous recipes including Asparagus Flan, Grilled Spring Lamb Chops, Yogurt, Baguette, Salad of Duck A L'orange and more. The book is,however, light on sample daily menus. More of what to eat on a daily basis would have been good.

The book is a superb read on how the Frenchwoman stays so slim and trim! Freshness, variety, balance, luxury and a trim waistline can be yours if you follow the principles!

Bonne Chance!
Lee Mellott

When in France, Do as the French Do (Paperback)

Book Description

Never feel like a stranger in France again!

When should you mention a person's family name in a greeting? Should you pay immediately when you are served in a café? Wearing what item of clothing will instantly reveal you as a tourist? All these answers and more can be found in When in France, Do As the French Do, a fun and intriguing book that teaches you about France's culture, language, and people.

It features 120 intriguing multiple-choice questions that are cross-referenced to fascinating articles on pop culture, customs, behavior, history, consumer trends, literature, tourist sights, business, language, and more. Also included are key terms and useful expressions, informative charts, and websites for further reference.

Book Info
A fun and intriguing book that teaches you about France's culture, language, and people. Includes key terms and useful expressions, informative charts, and websites for further reference. Softcover.



French Toast : An American in Paris Celebrates the Maddening Mysteries of the French (Hardcover)

From Publishers Weekly
During the 1970s, Rochefort moved from Shenandoah, Iowa, to Paris, where she met and married her husband, Philippe. Here, she offers her reflections on what it's like to be the wife of a Frenchman and the mother of two French-American children. Although presented with a confidence that comes with long experience, the observations shared (Rochefort's but also those of French and fellow expatriate friends) are hardly illuminating. Rochefort relies on her experiences with French in-laws and friends to conclude that the French, unlike their American counterparts, would rather talk about sex than money, are quarrelsome and require their children to work hard in school. She finds that French wives are wonderful cooks who allow their husbands to dominate the conversation at parties and are always responsible for packing their husbands' suitcases. French husbands, according to Rochefort, really do shower less than American men but are infinitely more relaxed and adept at flirtation and seduction. (She comments that a single woman can live safely in France because French men aren't as oppressively aggressive as American men). In sum, her memoir, though competently written, trades in what appear to be old stereotypes?which, even if true, bring nothing new to our understanding of the French. Agent, Regula Noetzli.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Did you know that in Paris it is quite normal to bang the cars in front and back of you as you maneuver in and out of a parking place? Or that you should fold and not cut the lettuce in your salad and that even fruit is eaten with a knife and fork? Fortunately, for those unacquainted with the finer points of French etiquette, Rochefort's book bridges the culture gap admirably. The Iowa-born author is a freelance journalist married to a Frenchman and has lived in France for over 20 years. Drawing on personal experience, she records her observations about Frenchwomen; French attitudes to food, sex, love, marriage, and money; the French educational system; and the dynamics of living in Paris. Some stereotypes are reinforced, but this chatty, informative book is great fun to read and over too soon. Recommended for public libraries.?Ravi Shenoy, Hinsdale P.L., IL
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
" Wise and devastatingly funny." --The Los Angles Times

"French Toast includes the most delightful barbs at France's subtle but deep-rooted codes of behavior...I read the book on the EuroStar between Paris and London and wished the train had not reached its tip speed of 300 kph!" --Leslie Caron, star of An American in Paris, Gigi, and Lili

"When someone calls you mon cher ami, does in literally mean 'dear friend', or, as is often the case, 'drop dead'?...Do you eat a round Camembert cheese the same way as a rectangular slab of Gruyere?...Should you shower before making love?...Rochefort offers answers by the score. Even longtime foreign residents of France have become grateful readers." --The Los Angeles Times

"[Rochefort] has been able to zero in on the joys, annoyances, frustrations, and the wonderful things about living in France and the French mentality that I've never been able to verbalize or put into perspective." --Marilyn August, Associated Press correspondent, Paris Bureau

"French Toast is not only extremely perceptive but also a delightful read and great fun." --Karl Horwitz, International President, The New York Times Syndicate

"Rochefort has clearly drawn from her Midwestern roots to come up with the consummate tall tale, which through color, imagination, and humor...paints a wacky and accurate picture of her life in Paris." --Sarah Colton, American Wives of Europeans Newsletter

Review
"Wise and devastatingly funny." --The Los Angles Times

"French Toast includes the most delightful barbs at France's subtle but deep-rooted codes of behavior...I read the book on the EuroStar between Paris and London and wished the train had not reached its tip speed of 300 kph!" --Leslie Caron, star of An American in Paris, Gigi, and Lili

"When someone calls you mon cher ami, does in literally mean 'dear friend', or, as is often the case, 'drop dead'?...Do you eat a round Camembert cheese the same way as a rectangular slab of Gruyere?...Should you shower before making love?...Rochefort offers answers by the score. Even longtime foreign residents of France have become grateful readers." --The Los Angeles Times

"[Rochefort] has been able to zero in on the joys, annoyances, frustrations, and the wonderful things about living in France and the French mentality that I've never been able to verbalize or put into perspective." --Marilyn August, Associated Press correspondent, Paris Bureau

"French Toast is not only extremely perceptive but also a delightful read and great fun." --Karl Horwitz, International President, The New York Times Syndicate

"Rochefort has clearly drawn from her Midwestern roots to come up with the consummate tall tale, which through color, imagination, and humor...paints a wacky and accurate picture of her life in Paris." --Sarah Colton, American Wives of Europeans Newsletter

Book Description

Peter Mayle may have spent a year in Provence, but Harriet Welty Rochefort writes from the wise perspective of one who has spent more than twenty years living among the French. From a small town in Iowa to the City of Light, Harriet has done what so many of dream of one day doing-she picked up and moved to France. But it has not been twenty years of fun and games; Harriet has endured her share of cultural bumps, bruises, and psychic adjustments along the way.

In French Toast, she shares her hard-earned wisdom and does as much as one woman can to demystify the French. She makes sense of their ever-so-French thoughts on food, money, sex, love, marriage, manners, schools, style, and much more. She investigates such delicate matters as how to eat asparagus, how to approach Parisian women, how to speak to merchants, how to drive, and, most important, how to make a seven-course meal in a silk blouse without an apron! Harriet's first-person account offers both a helpful reality check and a lot of very funny moments.

From the Publisher
Praise for French Toast:
"French Toast includes the most delightful barbs at France's subtle but deep-rooted codes of behavior....I read the book on the EuroStar between Paris and London and wished the train had not reached its top speed of 300kph!" --Leslie Caron, star of An American in Paris, Gigi, and Lili.

"When someone calls you cher ami, does it literally mean 'dear friend,' or, as is often the case, 'drop dead'?...Do you eat a round Camembert cheese the same way as a rectangular slab of Gruyere?...Should you shower before making love?...Rochefort offers answers by the score. Even longtime foreign residents of France have become grateful readers." --The Los Angeles Times

"[Rochefort] has been able to zero in on the joys, annoyances, frustrations, and the wonderful things about living in France on the French mentality that I've never been able to verbalize or put into perspective." --Marilyn August, Associated Press correspondent, Paris Bureau

"French Toast is not only extremely perceptive but also a delightful read and great fun." --Karl Horwitz, International President, New York Times Syndicate

"Rochefort has clearly drawn from her Midwestern roots to come up with the consummate tall tale, which through color, imagination, and humor...paints a wacky and accurate picture of her life in Paris." --Sarah Colton, American Wives of Europeans Newsletter

About the Author
Harriet Welty Rochefort was born in Shenandoah, Iowa. She moved permanently to France in 1971. She is a freelance journalist who has contributed articles to major newspapers and magazine, including Time and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her column, "A Letter from Paris," can be found on-line in the Paris Pages. She has also taught journalism in the English Department of the prestigious Institut d'Etudes Politiques. She, her husband, Phillipe, and their sons live in Paris.

All about Halloween:

Halloween
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31, usually by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting candy. It is celebrated in much of the Western world, though most commonly in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Canada and sometimes in Australia and New Zealand. Irish, Scots and other immigrants brought older versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century.

The form "Halloween" derives from Hallowe'en, an old contraction, still retained in Scotland, of "All Hallow's Eve," so called as it is the day before the Catholic All Saints holy day, which used to be called "All Hallows," derived from All Hallowed Souls. In Ireland, the name was Hallow Eve and this name is still used by some older people. Halloween was formerly also sometimes called All Saints' Eve. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European pagan traditions, until it was appropriated by Christian missionaries (along with Christmas and Easter, two other traditional northern European pagan holidays) and given a Christian reinterpretation. Halloween is also known as the Day of the Dead, and it is a day of celebration for Wiccans and other modern pagan traditions, though the holiday has lost its religious connotations among the populace at large.

Halloween is also called Pooky Night in some parts of Ireland, presumably named after the pookah, a mischievous spirit.

In the United Kingdom in particular, the pagan Celts celebrated the Day of the Dead on Halloween. The spirits supposedly rose from the dead and, in order to attract them, food was left on the doors. To scare off the evil spirits, the Celts wore masks. When the Romans invaded Britain, they embellished the tradition with their own, which is the celebration of the harvest and honoring the dead. These traditions were then passed on to the United States.

Halloween is sometimes associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the "liminal" times of the year when the spirit world can make contact with the natural world and when magic is most potent (see, for example, Catalan mythology about witches).

Anoka, Minnesota, USA, the self-proclaimed "Halloween Capital of the World," celebrates with a large civic parade.

Contents [hide]
1 Symbols
2 Trick-or-treating
3 Games
4 Foods
5 Cultural history
5.1 Celtic observation of Samhain
5.2 Norse Elven Blót
5.3 Halloween customs
5.4 "Punkie Night"
5.5 "Mischief Night"
6 Religious viewpoints
7 See also
8 External links
9 Further reading

Symbols

Jack-o'-lanterns may be carved with a funny face.Halloween's theme is spooky or scary things particularly involving death, black magic, or mythical monsters. Commonly-associated Halloween characters include ghosts, witches, bats, black cats, owls, goblins, zombies and demons, as well as certain fictional figures like Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. Homes are often decorated with these symbols around Halloween.

Black and orange are the traditional colors of Halloween. There are also elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins and scarecrows, reflected in symbols of Halloween.

The jack-o'-lantern, a carved vegetable lit by a candle inside, is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols. In Britain and Ireland, a turnip was and sometimes still is used, but immigrants to America quickly adopted the pumpkin because it is much larger and easier to carve. Many families that celebrate Halloween will carve a pumpkin into a scary or comical face and place it on the home's doorstep on Halloween night for fun. Traditionally, something like this was done in order to scare evil spirits away.

Trick-or-treating
The main event of Halloween is trick-or-treating, also known as guising in Scotland, in which children dress up in costume disguises and go door-to-door in their neighborhood, ringing the bell and yelling "trick or treat!" The occupants of the house (who might themselves dress in a scary costume) will then hand out small candies, miniature chocolate bars or other treats. Homes sometimes use sound effects and fog machines to help set a spooky mood. Other house decoration themes (that are less scary) are used to entertain younger visitors. Children can often accumulate many treats on Halloween night, filling up entire pillow cases or shopping bags.

In Scotland, children or guisers are likely to recite "The sky is blue, the grass is green, may we have our Halloween" instead of "trick or treat!", they will then have to impress the members of the houses they visit with a song, trick, joke or dance in order to earn their treats.

Tricks play less of a role in modern Halloween, though the night before Halloween is often marked by pranks such as soaping windows, egging houses or stringing toilet paper through trees. Before indoor plumbing was so widespread, tipping over or displacing outhouses was a popular form of trick.

Typical Halloween costumes have traditionally been monsters such as vampires, ghosts, witches, and devils. The stereotypical Halloween costume is a sheet with eyeholes cut in it as a ghost costume. In 19th-century Scotland and Ireland the reason for wearing such fearsome (and non-fearsome) costumes was the belief that since the spirits that were abroad that night were essentially intent on doing harm, the best way to avoid this was to fool the spirits into believing that you were one of them. In recent years, it has become common for costumes to be based on themes other than traditional horror, such as dressing up as a character from a TV show or movie. In 2001, after the September 11 attacks, for example, costumes of firefighters, police officers, and United States military personnel became popular among children. In 2004, an estimated 2.15 million children in the United States were expected to dress up as Spider Man, the year's most popular costume. [1]

A program started by UNICEF involves the distribution of small boxes by schools to trick-or-treaters, in which they can collect small change from the houses they visit for donation to the charity.

A child usually "grows out of" trick-or-treating by his or her teenage years. Teenagers and adults instead often celebrate Halloween with costume parties or other social get-togethers.

Games
There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween parties. The most common is bobbing for apples, in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water; the participants must use their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity which inevitably leads to a very sticky face.

Some games traditionally played at Halloween are forms of divination. In Púicíní (pronounced "pook-eeny"), a game played in Ireland, a blindfolded person is seated in front of a table on which are placed several saucers. The saucers are shuffled and the seated person then chooses one by touch. The contents of the saucer determine the person's life for the following year. A saucer containing earth means someone known to the player will die during the next year, a saucer containing water foretells travel, a coin means new wealth, a bean means poverty, etc. In 19th-century Ireland, young women placed slugs in saucers sprinkled with flour. The wriggling of the slugs and the patterns subsequently left behind on the saucers were believed to portray the faces of the women's future spouses.

In North America, unmarried women were frequently told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror. However, if they were destined to die before they married, a skull would appear. The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards from the late nineteenth century.

Foods

Because the holiday comes in the wake of the annual apple harvest, candy apples (also known as toffee apples) are a common treat at Halloween. They are made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, and sometimes then rolling them in nuts. At one time candy apples were a common treat given to children, but this practice rapidly waned after widespread rumors that some individuals were embedding items like pins and razor blades in the apples that they would pass out to children. The vast majority of the reported cases turned out to be hoaxes, and the few that were real caused only minor injuries, but many parents were under the assumption that the practice was common. At the peak of this hysteria, some hospitals were offering to x-ray children's Halloween haul at no cost in order to look for such items.

A Halloween custom which has survived unchanged to this day in Ireland is the baking (or more often nowadays the purchase) of a barmbrack (Irish "báirín breac"). This is a light fruit cake into which a plain ring is placed before baking. It is said that whoever finds this ring will find his or her true love during the following year.

Other foods associated with the holiday:

candy corn
hot apple cider
roasted pumpkin seeds


Cultural history

Celtic observation of Samhain
In the Druidic religion of the ancient Celts, the new year began with the winter season of Samhain on November 1. Just as shorter days signified the start of the new year, sundown also meant the start of a new day; therefore the harvest festival began every year on the night of October 31. Druids in the British Isles would light fires and offer sacrifices of crops, animals and sometimes humans, and as they danced around the fires, the season of the sun would pass and the season of darkness would begin.

When the morning of November 1 arrived, the Druids would give an ember from their fires to each family who would then take it home to start a new cooking fire. These fires were intended to keep the homes warm and free from evil spirits such as "Sidhe" (pronounced "shee," most notable of which are the beán sidhe or banshees), because at this time of year it was believed that the invisible "gates" between this world and the spirit world were opened and free movement between both worlds was possible.

Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. Villagers cast the bones of the slaughtered cattle upon the flames; the word "bonfire" is thought to derive from these "bone fires." With the bonfire ablaze, the villagers extinguished all other fires. Each family then solemnly lit their hearth from the common flame, thus bonding the families of the village together. Hundreds of fires are still lit each year in Ireland on Halloween night.

Neopagans still celebrate the sabbat of Samhain on Halloween, as well as also taking part in secular Halloween activities.

Norse Elven Blót
In the old Norse religion and its modern revival, Ásatrú, the day now known as Halloween was a blót which involved sacrifices to the elves and the blessing of food.

A poem from around 1020, the Austrfaravísur ('Eastern-journey verses') of Sigvatr Þorðarson, mentions that, as a Christian, he was refused board in a heathen household, in Sweden, because an álfablót ("elves' sacrifice") being conducted there. However, we have no further reliable information as to what an álfablót involved, but like other blóts it probably included the offering of foods, and later Scandinavian folklore retained a tradition of sacrificing treats to the elves. From the time of year (close to the autumnal equinox) and the elves' association with fertility and the ancestors, we might assume that it had to do with the ancestor cult and the life force of the family.

Halloween customs
Observance of Halloween faded in the South of England from the 17th century onwards, being replaced by the commemoration of the Gunpowder Plot on November 5. However it remained popular in Scotland, Ireland and the North of England. It is only in the last decade that it has become popular in the South of England again, although in an entirely Americanized version.

The custom survives most accurately in Ireland, where the last Monday of October is a public holiday. All schools close for the following week for mid-term, commonly called the Halloween Break. As a result Ireland is the only country where children never have school on Halloween and are therefore free to celebrate it in the ancient and time-honored fashion.

The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have evolved from the European custom called souling, similar to the wassailing customs associated with Yule. On November 2, All Souls' Day, beggars would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes" - square pieces of bread with currants. Christians would promise to say prayers on behalf of dead relatives helping the soul's passage to heaven. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits at the Samhain. See Puck (mythology).

In Celtic parts of western Brittany. Samhain is still heralded by the baking of kornigou. Kornigou are cakes baked in the shape of antlers to commemorate the god of winter shedding his "cuckold" horns as he returns to his kingdom in the Otherworld.

"Punkie Night"
"Punkie Night" is observed on the last Thursday in October in the village of Hinton St. George in the county of Somerset in England. On this night, children carry lanterns made from hollowed-out mangel-wurzels (a kind of beet; in modern days, pumpkins are used) with faces carved into them. They bring these around the village, collecting money and singing the punkie song. Punkie is derived from pumpkin or punk, meaning tinder.

Though the custom is only attested over the last century, and the mangel-wurzel itself was introduced into English agriculture in the late 18th century, "Punkie Night" appears to be much older even than the fable that now accounts for it. The story goes that the wives of Hinton St. George went looking for their wayward husbands at the fair held nearby at Chiselborough, the last Thursday in October, but first hollowed out mangel wurzels in order to make lanterns to light their way. The drunken husbands saw the eerie lights, thought they were "goolies" (the restless spirits of children who had died before they were baptized), and fled in terror. Children carry the punkies now. The event has spread since about 1960 to the neighboring village of Chiselborough.

Sources: on-line report from the Western Gazette and a National Geographic radio segment. Chiselborough Fair is memorialized by Fair Place in the village. The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) reported that there was "a fair for horses and cattle on the last Thursday in October."

"Mischief Night"
The night before Halloween, known in some areas as "Mischief Night" or "Devil's Night," is often associated with destructive activities performed by adolescents. Some of the acts range from minor vandalism to theft, or even violence. Many youths involved in mischief night would be considered too old for traditional trick-or-treating. The most common wrong-doing is trashing people's houses, lawns, and trees within property with tons of toilet paper.

A dialect survey begun in 1999 by Harvard University indicates that there are a number of terms for this particular day of the year, but that the vast majority (70.38%) have no special word for it.

Religious viewpoints
The majority of Christians ascribe no doctrinal significance to Halloween, treating it as a purely secular entity devoted to celebrating imaginary spooks and handing out candy. The secular celebration of Halloween may loom larger in contemporary imagination than does All Saints' Day.

The mingling of Christian and pagan traditions in the early centuries following the founding of the Christian Church have left many modern Christians uncertain of how they should react towards this holiday. Some fundamentalist Christian groups consider Halloween a Pagan holiday and may refer to it as "the most evil day of the year," refusing to allow their children to participate. Among these groups it is believed to have developed Satanic influences. In some areas, complaints from these fundamentalist Christians that the schools were endorsing a Pagan religion have led the schools to stop distributing UNICEF boxes.

Other Christians, however, continue to connect this holiday with All Saints Day. Some modern Christian churches commonly offer a "fall festival" or harvest-themed alternative to Halloween celebrations. Still other Christians hold the view that the holiday is not Satanic in origin or practice and that it holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children - being taught about death and mortality actually being a valuable life lesson.

Costume
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The term costume can refer to wardrobe and dress in general, or to the distinctive style of dress of a particular people, class, or period. It can also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories in a picture, statue, poem, or play, appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances represented or described, or to a particular style of clothing worn to portray the wearer as a character or type of character other than their regular persona at a social event such as a fancy dress party or in an artistic theatrical performance.

Theatrical costumes, in combination with other aspects, serve to portray performers' age, gender role, profession, social class, personality, and suchlike. Sometimes theatrical costumes literally mimic what the costume designer thinks the character would wear if the character actually existed. On the other hand, often stylized theatrical costumes can exaggerate some aspect of a character.

National costume or regional costume can express local (or exiled) identity and emphasise uniqueness.

The wearing of costumes has become an important part of Mardi Gras and Halloween celebrations, and (to a lesser extent) people may also wear costumes in conjunction with other holiday celebrations, such as Christmas and Easter. Mardi Gras costumes are usually jesters and other fantasy characters, while Halloween costumes traditionally take the form of supernatural creatures such as ghosts, vampires, and angels. Christmas and Easter costumes typically portray mythical holiday characters, such as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, and costumes may serve to portray various other character themes during secular holidays, such as an Uncle Sam costume worn on the 4th of July for example.

Some people wear costumes for erotic purposes. Most people consider this harmless fun, but some regard this behavior as a form of fetishism. Some say it is both.

Get Your Halloween Party Started!

To plan your Halloween celebration you’ll want the very best selection to choose from! LTM Party is your ultimate Halloween super store! We have over 8,000 professional Halloween costumes, Halloween decorations, accessories, special effects and Halloween props specially selected for the ultimate in Halloween parties.

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Want a funny look for Halloween? We have super hilarious costumes for men, women, and children and couples. Whether you want to be a dim witted "Got Deer Hunter" or try a little cross dressing just for laughs, you'll find it here. We carry tons of wigs, funny props, accessories, jokes and gags. We have all the right Halloween stuff to keep your friends laughing.

Sexy Adult Costumes
If you’ve been wanting to explore your more naughty side we have plenty of super sexy costumes for women from naughty nurses to sassy cheerleaders. We are sure you’ll agree that our sexy adult costumes are quite a treat! You'll definitely win the prize for best costume this year with our huge arrange of adult costumes that are ready for delivery. We have adult fairy costumes, adult renaissance costumes, naughty nurse costumes, and sexy witch costumes. Looking for a great adult costume? LTM has them.

Political Masks and Costumes
Why not have a little fun with politics? We have all of your favorite politician masks like: George Bush, John Kerry, Bill Clinton or even Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Halloween Accessories & Props
We have accessories galore to complete your perfect Halloween look We have anything from funky teeth that would scare the heck out of your dentist, ultraviolet makeup, special facial scar and prosthetics, stage blood, go-go boots, wigs, angel wings, sickles, swords, pitch forks, moustaches, wigs... you name it and we have it!

Halloween Traditions - Where did it all start?
Why do we dress up in Halloween costumes, bob for apples, carve pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns, and tell ghost stories on this night?

Our traditions of Halloween can generally be traced to the time of the Celtic civilization and their annual celebration following harvest time. The Celts were a group of people that lived in the area near the British Isles around 400 B.C.

Each year the Celts would hold a celebration at the end of harvest. The festival was held near the end of October which they called “Samhain” which literally means “summer’s end”. Samhain marks one of the two major “doorways” of the Celtic year. October 31, lies exactly between the Autumn equinox and the winter solstice. It is theorized that these ancient people with their reliance on astrology thought this was a very potent time for magic and communion with spirits. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living. In later years it is thought that the tradition of wearing costumes, evolved as people would disguise themselves from the spirits in order to keep from being possessed.

Why do we trick-or-treat?
Trick or treating actually is an American tradition, but it may have had it's origins also with the ancient Irish. During their annual harvest festival they would leave food at altars and doorsteps as a way of saying thank you to the Gods and to appease spirits. Candles were lit and left in windows to help guide ancestors and loved ones home. Apples were buried along roadsides for spirits who had no descendants to provide for them. There are other theories as well, but nevertheless this does provide some insight as to why we trick-or-treat today.

So there you go, that's how the Halloween tradition began! Keep the Halloween tradition going with LTM Party Halloween costumes, for adults, children, teens, and Halloween decorations for the perfect Halloween party.