As we are launching “Belle Vie”, I would like to tell you a bit more about how this all started.
My very first inspiration has been my two daughters, Liv and Blanche.
When they were born, I found a new energy and a desire to create. I also stepped into the beautiful world of childhood, the one of fairy tales, innocence and unconditional love. A world which brought me back to my own first years.
I started to be inspired by some brands and designers who were creating beautiful timeless items, to dress the girls and decorate their bedrooms and to blend those brands’ creations with more traditional things. I defined my own style, which soon spread into the house: inspired by nature, mix of tradition and modernity, with a strong vintage “retro” flavor. A style which highlights beauty, quality, poesy and craftsmanship as I believe that when you are surrounded by beauty in your everyday life, it makes you happy.
At that time, we were living in Amsterdam and soon the whole family moved to the US on the West Coast, at the heart of the Pacific Northwest in Portland, Oregon.
Living abroad for more than ten years has been so inspiring for me and is, with no doubt, another big component of the “Belle Vie” project.
When you live miles away from your country, adjusting to a new life and culture, you experience new ways of thinking and approaching life, discover new values, make new friends. You also realize where you come from, your roots and what matters to you the most, maybe more than if you would have stayed in your home town.
You fine tune what you would like to protect, cherish forever and pass down to your children.
Rich of those experiences, I realized that being French has become a big part of my identity.
At home, cooking, dressing ourselves and the girls, talking to each others, we do it the French way. This French “Art de Vivre” is our link with our home country and our families and is naturally part of our life.
Our home is reflecting this way of life, who we are, what we love, where we lived and traveled.
In Amsterdam, we learnt to love and take care of it. This is a little cocoon, an oasis in the sometimes crazy everyday routine, where we can reenergize when it is raining too much inside us and outside as well -it does a lot here and also in Amsterdam! :)-
At home, there are furniture, objects and books from France, the Netherlands, Himalaya –a place close to my heart-, Turkey, Morocco and the US, to name a few.
While mixing those personal stories with our everyday American life, soon the idea and wish to bring to others inspiration and the best of that French design we love came to our minds. A seed was planted and it grew until today, where we are happy and proud to present to you special brands we discovered over the years in our parenting and traveling journeys. Brands we love because they embody what we like, from beauty to quality. Brands with rich stories and led by talented and generous designers. Brands which are very confidential and that you will be the first to discover.
The last critical part of this project genesis has been living in the US and particularly in Portland.
We immediately loved the city, its creative vibes, generosity, its diverse food scene –so critical for the French we are-, its incredible summers, its iconic mountain -Mount Hood- which reminds us our native Alps, its flea markets, its people…
I have worked with the local community and have been encouraged by friends, mums and women to believe in this project, carried by an amazing entrepreneurial spirit I haven’t experienced ever before in my life.
And here it is, “Belle Vie”, an online concept store to bring to you the best of French design to dress your kids and your homes, for beauty, every day, around you. What we select is created exclusively by French designers and produced in small series. Our hand-picked selection reflects what we love, how we live, who we are.
And “Belle Vie” is more than that – it’s your inspiration for a new lifestyle and your resource for iconic French touch and elegance.
I hope you will enjoy it!
