Simone de Beauvoir.. An Enigma

I will always be seduced by Paris and its most famous French writer, intellectual, existentialist “philosophe”, feminist icon, Simone de Beauvoir.

It would have been thrilling to have existed in the dazzling decade of the 1940’s, when Paris reclaimed its status as the capital of philosophy, art and joie de vivre, after enduring a debilitating humiliating Second World War.

Having lived and loved in Paris for many years, particularly in its most artistic, literary “quartier” of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, I’ve been delighted to have become an habitué of the legendary Parisian café frequented and made famous by de Beauvoir and her lover, the writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre”…

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Simone Duckstein: Hôtel de La Ponche.. Un autre regard… | Saint-Tropez Travel Series

“Hôtel de La Ponche…

Un autre regard sur Saint-Tropez”…

A book published by…

The owner… proprietor…

Simone Duckstein…

Of the legendary… La Ponche hotel…

Made famous by the iconic actress Brigitte Bardot… who played in the unforgettable “And God Created Woman”… the widely recognised French drama film directed by Roger Vadim…

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André Malraux.. My Inspiration…

André Malraux…

French… author…

Social… critic…

Flamboyant… statesman…

Captivates… me…

My total admiration for everything French in general.. Paris.. in particular.. and mostly for the enigmatic and powerful intellect of…

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Twelve Shades.. of Shame…

“Twelve… Years…

A… Slave”…

Rather…

Twelve…. shades…

Of… shame…

How…

Did human psyche… dip into the depths of its…. pathological disintegration…

Why…

Was such demeanment… humiliation… and chilling cruelty… inflicted upon fellow humans…

The much praised 2013 period drama… an adaptation of the 1853 memoir by Soloman Northup… “Twelve Years a Slave”… was imposed upon us on the small screen… “la télé”…

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The Yearnings… of a Woman…

When… young…

Rummaging through much loved books… in an old musty library… I touched on a novel which fascinated me…

It was… “The Sheik”…

Not only did I read the book voraciously… I also watched the film starring… the incomparable “Rudolph Valentino” and Agnes Ayres…

Both left an indelible impression on me…

The novel is about a young British aristocrat… a Lady Diana Mayo… who is kidnapped by a dashing Sheik…

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