Nadine Williams

Absolutely French

There’s something delightfully je ne sais quoi, about being French.   It’s their musical language and wonderful accent and the French people’s hedonistic pursuit of life’s pleasures. Their love of fine food, wine and fashion defines them.  They are a stylish people devoted to the cult of appearance, who relish in that sense of joie de vivre and a culture of romance, seduction and sex.   Chic French style is stamped on everything from fashion to the luxury goods industry, and Provincial interior design to l’art de la table.

In many ways the very Catholic French society is the antithesis of Australia’s own practical Protestant work ethic, the yoke under which most war babies and boomers were raised.  So, we can learn much from the French code of romantic behaviour, about sophisticated fine living, about appreciation of art, literature and cuisine, not forgetting seductive French music and the oldest film industry.  And while we adore the glamorous lives of the Parisian bourgeoisie which lures us to visit, the fabric of French society is still an intricate patchwork of small villages in glorious rural France. We Francophiles simply want to tap into this refined, romantic way of life.  I have travelled that road before you and have much to impart in my blog Absolutely  French. It will offer a pot pourri of all things French and I welcome your comments and input.

Women still on a see-saw of inequality

Love her or hate her, 40 years ago, Germaine Greer unleashed a brash new tome, the Female Eunuch, which was to upturn the prescribed world of women and write a new feminist creed. Some writers, such as Louis Nowra in The Monthly, have used the anniversary to vilify Greer about her age, appearance and eccentricity. It is far more constructive to examine what has happened to women’s lives because of her dynamism in a previous chapter of women’s history.  The word “Feminism’’ has faded, but its principals have taken root in society as firmly as the backyard lemon tree and is bearing just as much fruit.
Women’s lives and opportunity have metamorphosed and there has been a profound social revolution in our lifetime. We are now a two-income society which sees 4,900,000 women in paid work compared with 5,800,000 men. Gender is no longer a barrier to success. And Germaine’s generation of feminists  removed centuries of barriers to politics, power and privilege.  A new breed of powerful women are now entrenched in the political landscape with Julia Gillard, as deputy leader of the Labour Party and deputy prime minister,  two female state premiers and in SA, Isobel Redman is Liberal Opposition Leader. Last week was another historic step when the SA Parliament installed its first female Speaker, Whyalla MP Lyn Breuer and the nation’s youngest female parliamentarian, Kelly Vincent, aged 21, took her place as a voice for disabled people.

Nor is it tokenism anymore to have a female governor, because our No. 1 citizen is our impeccably groomed Governor General of Australia, Quentin Bryce, the first woman in the post, who served previously as governor of Queensland.
Women now are leaders in almost all spheres of industry, unions, the arts, the retail sector and defence. Women CEOs are a reality, but they are still absent in Australia’s top 500 companies and the number of women on boards is slipping and has never hit double figure percentages anyway.

Read more »

Law of the Jungle

She is a thoroughly new breed of single, older woman – confident, sophisticated, desirable and sexy – and the cougar woman is absolutely on the prowl according to Valerie Gibson, author of Cougar: A Guide for Older Women Dating Younger Men.
In what is shaping up as a relationships phenomenon of our times, many 40-something women have taken heed to Hollywood star Demi Moore’s successful conquest of her now much younger husband, Ashton Kutcher – and followed suit.
They are removing the age barrier for dating and stalking much younger prey – men who are 10, 15, even 20 years younger!
It could be simply driven by supply and demand – the pickings of  men their own age are as bare as Mother Hubbard’s cupboard.
Whereas, if they remove the societal age barrier and look backwards, there is a welter of testosterone-charged young bucks, seeking sexual experience.
Or it could be a status thing – women wanting to boost their image with a youthful male as an attractive “handbag’’. It sure beats the lonesome look.
But these predators post a real threat to social sexual balance when it comes to breeding.
Already, there is a shortage of available tertiary-educated males for educated single women in their 30s and this can only be exacerbated when the men who are available are poached by women who are past their prime child-bearing years.
In an article in National Seniors’ 50 Something magazine in February/March, psychologist Amanda Gordon raises many pluses, claiming the Cougar women are not looking to have children with younger men. She surmises they can actually “care for the young men for a few years, until they are ready to make a commitment to a more permanent lasting relationship, with the woman who will mother their children and care for them as they get older’’.

Read more »

Mourning Glory

That last taboo – Death – has become a springboard for Leonor Scherrer, daughter of French couturier Jean-Louis to launch her own “funeral couture’’.

In France one can no longer consider turning up to a funeral draped in drab black… one must be chic, especially if one is the daughter of one of France’s elite fashion designers.

Leonor Scherrer was so stressed at not finding anything appropriate enough for Yves Saint Laurent’s funeral, she decided not to go.

However, in the hunting process, she realised that there was a niche market for stylish funeral fashion – a line of “funeral couture’’ mourning clothes designed in collaboration with one of the greatest of France’s creators, Ricardo Tisci.

And what better medium to display her black fashion thoughts than Vogue Paris magazine. Ricardo Tisci, of whom she is muse, has designed the first line, lavish garments with sensual overtones – backless, strapless, short leather skirts, cropped matching jackets and power-padded shoulder lines.

Nothing is sacred in their death fashion tool kit. Leonor believes death is not an end, but a passage and that one should accept this concept and honor the deceased’s parting with elegant and stylish dressing.  Touches of sensual finery, such as feathers, black French lace, and zips give scope for fashion statements in the midst of sadness.

Her total concept will extend to the whole organisation of a burial – the coffin, the tomb,  flowers, music, ceremony and wake.

“Every burial must be unique, not as it is at present – industrial and dehumanised,’’ she says. “What interests me is not the darkness (of the occasion), but light.’’

The new age

By JOAN LADY HARDY

I  vividly recall when I was eighteen and in a grumpy mood my mother saying to me ”take a look at yourself in the mirror, and remember we all get the face we deserve by the time we turn fifty”.

Growing older is a mandatory process, but as someone wisely once remarked “there’s always something to be thankful for if you take the time to look for it…for example I’m sitting here thinking how nice it is that wrinkles don’t hurt”.

I consider myself lucky to be here, to have travelled the journey this far, in fact a friend said recently she wished she was 30 years younger to which I replied “but then you would have missed the 1960’s and 1970’s”!

Honestly,  there are things I don’t like about getting older – gravity for example, and there’s not a lot to like about menopause (my husband can’t understand why, in these enlightened times, it isn’t called person-o-pause).

Some days I spend 10 minutes looking for my glasses but did I do that when I was 40? I have already forgotten. Read more »

Humble Roots to Haute Cuisine

A few years ago, I lost my mother’s recipe book  when I moved house and I still sorely miss it.  Her handwriting, the food spattered on the favourite pages and all those much loved recipes that evoked so many memories of family feasts.   My daughter promptly sent me a big blank book beseeching me to write down  my own recipes.

“Write it all down, mum, because we don’t want to lose your food wisdom,’’ she said.

“Samuel (grandson No. 1) wants you to put in the recipe for the fairy cakes you made for his birthday party.  And Angus (grandson No. 2) wants the recipe for chocolate meringues that you made for his party after Josephine was born in London.’’

My mother was always cooking something in the kitchen, whether soup simmering on the stove, making pasties for a picnic, or stuffing a chicken she had plucked, but it never occurred to me that my daughter had memories of me and my cooking life that she wanted to keep.

I have certainly grown and changed in my cooking style over my life from a distinctly Germanic flavour to a new journey into French cuisine.  Thankfully this has proved to be far more successful than learning the French language.  One of the joys of moving into my husband’s home is that he had a ready supply of French cook books – none of which I could read. However, imagine my delight when I discovered “2000 Favourite French Recipes’’ by Auguste Escoffier, hailed by all the best chefs as “The Master’’,  the finest  French chef of the past 100 years.  Escoffier ruled the kitchens of the Paris Ritz in the early 20th century standardising cooking practices to create today’s haute cuisine. Don’t expect any  “high’’ French cuisine in my blog, but do watch for selected recipes from this amazing cookbook, translated by Marion Howells – and wise words from Escoffier himself, which will give you a very special entrée into French cuisine.    I will share  my own journey into French cooking competence with a variety of recipes from the regions we visited in France – and I will also invite other French chefs who live here or in France, to share their recipes with us.

Bon Appetit!