May Favorites | “Start The Month With” Series

Hello and Welcome to JGC blog!

To those who are not familiar with this series, the theme is to share the very best of all the things I find amusing, weird, helpful and beautiful in life.

Full disclaimer:  I may not do this every month, the number of my favorites may vary each month and it won’t always be the same items. For example instead of featuring a book, I might feature a podcast I gleefully enjoyed or instead of featuring a movie, I might feature a TV show. I can talk about cosmetic products as well as traveling places. It’s a melting pot of varieties but it’s always going to be honest.

Oh, I love May! This is my favorite month! The sun is starting to shine brighter and the air is becoming warm… The world is becoming rose and green tinted and it’s time to see if that cute little dress still fit.

In the midst of those delightful feelings, here are the few items I want to share:

• Movie of the Month

Call Me by Your Name is the movie I would like to recommend for May.

This movie is a rare bred of striking quality picture motion, a mix of fragility, authenticity and boldness. It is definitely not an Hollywood movie: you can practically smell the European touch behind it, thanks to the director of the movie Luca Guadagnino.

As an Italian director, writer and producer, Guadagnino did a fantastic job in adapting the book “Call me by your name” by André Aciman and as you can guess by the poster, this movie retraced the love story between two men: Elio who is 17, overly curious as well as musically gifted and Oliver, a 24 years old scholar american.

If you have an issue with that, this wonderful movie won’t miss your rating.

I love Italy. I think this is one of the most stunning country in the world and Call Me by Your Name literally reminded me of that, of the time I spent there. Many scenes displayed the sights of the raw rural beauty of a small village in Northern Italy in 1983.

The story takes places during summer and quite frankly I gushed over the panorama shots as much as I did over the actors and the story-line.

I won’t spoil the movie for you, I want you to see it. Just know that Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet did such a astonishing job bringing their characters into life and breathing magic into their love that at the end of it, the movie will not leave you indifferent. It’s not possible.

• Shoes of the Month

Finally, with April gone, rainy days and briskly cold winds are starting to fade and while it is definitely not Summer yet, I know that in Paris, despite the sun and dry weather, we can still endure an abrupt shower of rain at any time during the day.

So can you do when you wish for your shoes to match your spring outfit? What if you are like me and cannot stand to get your feet wet (so flimsy sneakers and strappy sandals are out of question) but also don’t want to wear heavy, covering boots when it’s hot out there?

I’ll tell you what you do: you wear bottines!

The awesome thing with bottines (French word for little boots) is that they are super convenient for the weather and for your wardrobe: You can pair them with a dress, shorts, a pair of jean or a more formal pantsuit and you can definitely wear them comfortably in May, especially during those horrible moments where the weather is oscillating between rain and sunshine.

For my male readers: There are bottines for dudes too! Go to Pinterest! 

You can check out my Pinterest “Style & Clothes Board” and get inspired to make some cute fashion choices! 😄

 

• Song of the Month

I’ve been a fan of Daniel Balavoine since I knew what music was. I loved every single song he created and every rendition he did. SOS d’un terrien en detresse is a famous french song composed by Michel Berger and written by Luc Plamondon in 1973 for the incredibly popular Rock Opera musical Starmania, a musical that had shaped the youth in the eighty and greatly influenced the ninety generation in France.

In 1992, Tim Rice adapted this song in English language under the title Only the Very Best.

While the story line of the song changed in English, the meaning stays the same: a love for life somewhat broken and a melancholic wish to attain an happiness that is known to be forever out of reach.

In 2015, Marina Kaye, a remarkable young French singer shared an acoustic version of Only the Very Best in a powerful, beautiful and outstanding tribute to Daniel Balavoine.

Marina’s rendition of Only the very best is exactly what I love about French music: There is a melancholy to it, a darkness, a languor and a sensuality that few singers managed to create.

Here is her live acoustic session, enjoy!

• Country of the month

If you don’t know where to go for your summer vacation or if you are looking to escape reality and lose yourself in nature, attractions and grandiose historical monuments, my advise is to go to Italy.

I fell in love with the country in 2017 during my vacation in Naples. I know: how can I fall in love with an entire country when I only visited only one city located in the south of Italy which is really different from the north more modern part of the country.

I wasn’t interested in the modernism. I wanted to get lost in a world of endless summer and be blind by the sun shining on the Mediterranean sea.

I wanted to feel like I was traveling into another reality, where some places would be untouched by mankind and others would be overwhelmed with historical monuments telling the same glorious story… a story conquest, a story of power.

I’m happy to say that I’ve succeeded in my quest to quench that little fantasy but I have to say, my wanderlust for Italy grew ten times worst, which is why I’m returning there very soon. Not in May though. I have a surprise trip for May. You can follow me on Instagram to stay tune! 

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There! This is my “Starting the Month With” May favorites! I hope you enjoyed this article and I hope to see y’all for the next post on this series! Stay safe and stay golden.

🙂

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• Featured Image Header:  Credits and Source: Porapak Apichodilok – Please support the wonderful artist on their page.