La Vie Creative

Who is Doni Belau? Who is Doni Belau? An inveterate traveler, I’ve been to nearly 70 countries (and counting). I come alive when I travel, when I’m exploring, and when I’m seeing, tasting, and feeling something new. I love to help other women experience this sensation as I truly feel it helps us see a larger world of possibilities within ourselves. Girls’ Guide to Paris & Beyond is an invitation to travel with me to explore another part of the world while we explore another part of...

Artist Eva Gonzalez may not be as well known as her fellow female impressionist artists but she should be. Born on April 19, 1849, in Paris, her father Emmanuell Gonzalez was a Spanish novelist and playwright and her mother was a trained musician. With their creativity handed down to her at a very early age, she was drawn to painting and sketching. A chance meeting through artists Alfred Stevens in February 1869 would put her on the path to being a known artist. Stevens took Eva to the...

Marina Khorosh is a writer and copywriter living in New York City. Originally from Russia, she spent her twenties living in New York, after which she moved to Paris to study at Institut Français de la Mode. While in Paris, she launched a blog called Dbag Dating to share her Parisian dating exploits, which soon earned her a role as a writer of a French girl style column for Vogue.com. She was then approached by French publisher J'ai Lu to write a book based on her Parisian dating experiences....

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson was destined to be the mistress of the king. As a child, her mother took her to a fortune-teller who told the young girl that she would one day hold the heart of the king. From then on she was called Reinette, little queen. Her mother set out from that moment to raise her to be a mistress and hired the best teachers to educate her in art, dancing, and the theater. In 1740 at the age of 19, she was married to Charles Guillaume, nephew of her guardian Tourneheim with...

As a fifth-generation Texan, Sumner Hargrove began riding horses bareback at her family’s ranch at the age of three! She went on to do her undergraduate degree magna cum laude at Mary Baldwin College in Virginia in English Literature and Philosophy, followed by a master’s in Public Policy and Public Finance from New York University. She then worked on Wall Street as a municipal bond analyst and public finance officer for a Japanese bank. At the age of 30, she decided to follow her dream...

Martha Gelhorn, born in St Louis in 1908 to two parents that wanted much more for their daughter than the role women were to play at the time. Her father George was a doctor and her mother Edna was politically active in the suffrage movement and also served as a president of Bryn Mawr. Her father pulled her out of school as soon as he learned the nuns had covered the pictures of the female anatomy and took her to the Mary Institute where her mother was the president. It was also the school...

Janet Skeslien Charles grew up on the plains of Montana. She spent two years in Odessa, Ukraine, as a Soros Teaching Fellow. She has taught English, French, and Creative writing in Ukraine, Montana, and France. She enjoys reading, spending time with family, and researching her new novel. The backdrop of her debut novel MOONLIGHT IN ODESSA is the booming business of email-order brides, an industry where love and marriage meet sex and commerce. It was chosen as a Publishers Weekly Top Ten...

Anne de Rochechouart de Montemart may not jump to your mind but her great grandmother does. While you would think the great-granddaughter of Veuve Clicquot would sit back sipping her family champagne and counting all her money, that wasn’t the life that Anne wanted. The apple of her great grandmother's eye, they would remain close her entire life and would also inherit the bulk of her estate. Anne used her money and her prestige to engage in politics and charities bringing to light causes...

At Adrienne’s 10th birthday, every guest went home with a ruby ball cactus as their party favor. Although Adrienne preferred otherwise, it was inevitable. Every year party guests left her birthday with plants in their arms. It was because both of her parents worked in the horticulture industry in San Diego, California. Born on Valentine’s Day, Adrienne literally grew up in the flowers. Her days were spent as a young girl visiting her dad at work in the greenhouses and exploring botanical...

George Sand, the woman that marched to her own beat, broke with tradition, and carved out her own life is this week's featured lady on La Vie Creative - Paris History Avec a Hemingway. Born in Paris on July 1, 1804, Amantine Lucille Aurore Dupin as she was known long before she went by George. As many of these stories go, her mother was a prostitute and her father only married her in the final weeks of her pregnancy. Luckily her grandmother Marie-Aurore de Saxe took her in. At 16 she was...

Daughter of renowned Swiss abstract painter Gérard Schneider, she has continued the family tradition of painting. She paints from a country setting near Fontainebleau. She has become highly acclaimed for her acrylic floral work. Her work portrays the soft illusion of forms blowing in a gentle breeze. http://laurence-amelie.com/WP/ Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/join/Laviecreative)

If there was one story I was excited to share when we began this podcast it was the life of Valtesse de La Bigne. Born in 1848 she learned from a very early age she had to take care of herself. Her father was an alcoholic who wouldn’t have a role in her life and her mother was a laundress and prostitute. At ten years old she worked in a candy store and within a few years, she was working twelve-hour days as a seamstress. Many of the young girls working near the Rue Notre Dame de Lorette...

Edith de Belleville is a licensed tour guide in Paris and an attorney at law. She wrote a book about inspirational Parisian women from the past "Belles et Rebelles".She also teaches the Jewish heritage in Paris at university Gustave Eiffel for the future licensed tour guides. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/694562301015164/?ref=share Website: www.edithdebelleville.com Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/join/Laviecreative)

When the Impressionist artists ruled Paris, there were a few women that made their way into the exclusive club. Known as Les Trois Grandes Dames, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, and Marie Bracquemond mixed and mingled with the likes of Manet, Degas, and Renoir. Marie Bracquemond however had a very different life than Morisot or Cassatt. Raised in a family that had very little money but with a love of painting early on, she created her own paint colors using flower petals. Without money or...

Véronique Bawol, the company founder of Cuisine Elégante, was introduced to classic French cooking at an early age in her family’s kitchen. She was especially inspired by her grandmother who worked as the personal cook for Jacques Tréfouël, head of the Pasteur Institute. She started taking classes at Le Cordon Bleu in London, where she lived for four years. Given her background, she is well versed in classic French dishes and loves creating modern variations. Véronique is married to an...

Diane de Poitiers, the true love of Henri II and the number one enemy of Catherine de Medicis was born on January 9, 1500. Educated by Anne, Duchess of Bourbon, daughter of Louis XI she was close to court life from a very early age. Married at fifteen to Louis de Bréze Seigneur d’Anet, he was almost forty years older than her. They had two children and would have a happy marriage until he was sentenced to death for a plot against King Francois I. On the scaffolding about to die, he was...

Having studied and worked in the UK, USA, Malta, Italy, Greece, and Japan; Anna gained extensive exposure to international markets and trends across a variety of multi-media fields before settling in Paris in 2010 where she consults in fashion trend forecasting and is also an Editor at menswear magazine Fucking Young along with finding her 35mm book-zine Pairs Project. When she isn't busy traveling (65 countries and counting), she’s running around with her toddler Dali and always has a shoot...

Jane Avril, the bell of the Moulin Rouge is mainly known for the many images that Toulouse-Lautrec painted of her. However, there is always more than that to her story. Her mother Leotine Beaudon was a prostitute and her father an Italian nobleman that would never recognise her as his own. She was raised by her grandparents in Etamps until they passed away, sending the young Jeanne Beaudon as she was known to a convent. Jeanne’s childhood was in constant upheaval, just when she was in a...

An American in Paris, my guest today arrived in Paris as a 29-year-old student who had dreamed of moving abroad since childhood. She is the quintessential creative who dabbles in 1000 forms of art from writing on her blog Presque Perfection, to painting, to language, to cooking. I admire her motivation to try many forms of creation. My guest today is Amanda VanOsdol of Presque Perfection Blog http://presqueperfection.com/ Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/join/Laviecreative)

Madame de Maintenon, the woman that would start as a secret babysitter and become the unofficial queen of France. Born in 1635, her father was in prison for gambling and counterfeiting and her mother was the daughter of the prison director, straight out of a Lifetime movie. Later she was looked after by her godmother that showed her the fancier side of Paris, taking her to Salons and meeting the intellectuals of the day. At a Salon, she met poet and writer Paul Scarron and began to share...