La Vie Creative

Long before she was a Hemingway, Hadley Richardson was a smart, quiet and talented young lady. The youngest of five children, her mother had been a singer and musician and would pass the gift onto Hadley as a pianist. Due to financial difficulties her father killed himself when she was just twelve years old leaving her with her very overprotective mother.   Hadley enrolled in Bryn Mawr where she w...

Janice MacLeod is best known as a Paris artist and writer. She is the artist behind the Paris Letters subscription service and author of a memoir, also called Paris Letters. Before her life in Paris, she was a copywriter and creative director for top advertising agencies in Toronto and Los Angeles. When she saw burn out on the horizon, she devised an escape plan from corporate life. She saved up,...

If there is one woman that deserves a monument, parade and her face on a euro it is Rose Valland. She isn’t a name that is widely known and if I can do just one little thing in this life it is for others to know her story.  Rose Valland was born in 1898 in the Auvergne region, an only child that showed promise from a very early age. Her mother would apply for special grants that allowed her daught...

Audrey Chapuis is a Harvard graduate and has worked in libraries for close to twenty years. As a Texas native she had an obsession with books and all things French from a very early age. She is now the Director of the American Library in Paris and also enjoys many creative passions including painting. We chat about how creativity changed her life and some of her favorite creative authors. Support...

Her love life after Boy was one horrible decision after another. In 1922 she met the Duke of Westminster Hugh Richard Grosenor or Bender. He was a huge anti-semite that gave her jewels and even a home in London. Their relationship lasted ten years. Then there was Paul Irbe, another anti-semite who started an ultra right wing newsletter against Jews and foreigners in France. Coco paid for the publi...

Sculptor and painter Véronique Anne Chabrolle, a.k.a VeroDalla, was born in Burgundy, France. Her life centered around success in the world of gastronomy until an encounter with a poppy flower changed her existence forever. The poppy called VeroDalla to pursue art. Her experience returning from the brink of death, during childhood, heavily influenced her artistic practice and mission. Her unique w...

Out today, another story of one of the amazing women in French history. Victorine Meurent was born in Paris on February 18. 1844 and from an early age she was drawn to art. In 1862 Edouard Manet walked into Thomas Couture’s studio and met a young girl. On this one day, Victorine-Louis Meurent was in Couture’s studio when Manet arrived. She was just 16, with red hair and nicknamed La Crevette and w...

Formally living in London, Janine Marsh decided to take a weekend trip to France to buy some wine, which turned into her buying a farm instead. She started a website to share her adventures called, The Good Life France which has now grown to be one of the biggest travel websites in the world. She has also written several books about her French journey! Listen to her crazy story here. And checkout...

Welcome back to this week's episode of Paris History Avec a Hemingway. I chat once more with Claudine Hemingway about a Female French Creative from history. Today we learn all about Dalida. I like to compare Dalida to Cher in America. Lolanda “Dalida”  Gigliotti was born in Egypt to Italian parents in 1933.  The young beauty would be named Miss Egypt in 1954 and a few months after she headed...

Today I spoke with famed professional cook and author David Lebovitz on how he uses creativity in his cooking and writing. He has written 9 books to date and most recently he has been going LIVE on social media to connect with others and share his passion for creating including his French cocktails in his latest book. Listen how he describes what he does to deal with online trolls and his take on...

In episode four in our series of Marie Antoinette we are in the final moments of her life. Convicted and sentenced to death they didn’t give her much time. In the early hours of the morning she wrote a long letter to her sister in law Madame Elisabeth asking her to look after her children. The letter would never be delivered. At 8am on October 16, 1793 a priest arrived at her cell followed by the...

Born in Nigeria and raised in Texas, Ajiri, spent 10 years working in New York City in the fashion industry for companies including W Magazine.  In 2015 she became a New York Times Bestselling author with a book revolving around the fashion world and Karl Lagerfeld titled “Where’s Karl?: A fashion forward parody”.  She now runs a Paris based company called Madame de la Maison which specializes in...

On June 4th upon the death of their son, they were not able to be with him when he died or attend his funeral at the Basilique Saint Denis due to the optics of spending more of the state's money.  On October 1 and 3, two large parties were held for the king's guards and the Flanders Regiments. While the people of Paris were starving and unable to get bread, a lavish dinner at Versailles...

In 2012 Laura Bradbury was diagnosed with a rare disease that almost took her life. Feeling that she had little time left on the planet to get her words out she sprung into action and finished her first book “My Grape Escape” which would become the first of a 5 part best selling series all based on her life in France. ⁠ Today she is a best selling author and has taken the self publishing world by...

The marriage bed to a necklace that brought down a queen  When we left off in last week's podcast episode, part une of Marie Antoinette she had just married Louis XVI and became the Dauphine of France. Just 14 years old, embarking on a life and the future queen of France with a tragic end we know so well. On the night of May 16, following a long day of ceremony and parties the young couple to...

Joleen Emory is a Franco-American make-up artist who splits her time between Paris and LA. Certified through L’Institut Technique du Maquillage (or ITM) in Paris and having worked in television, theatre, and fashion for over 10 years, she is passionate about what she does. Her fashion and bridal editorials have been published in various magazines and blogs internationally. Support the show This is...

New Podcast Episode Out Today! It’s hard to put Marie Antoinette into just one episode, for the 1st episode of @Laviecreative Paris History Avec A Hemingway, we focus on her life from Archiduchesse to Dauphine.  Born in Vienna in 1755, she was the 15th of 16 children to Empress Marie-Theresa and Francis I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.  Spending her days at Schönbrunn Palace running and playin...

American Expat in Paris, Emily Jackson, has found success as a writer and Instagram influencer by picking up a camera on her arrival to the city of light. Discover how Instagram can influence your life in positive ways. Support the show This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit laviecreativepodcast.substack.com

Suzanne Valadon at a very young age would work as a model for some of the biggest French painters of the 19th C. Meeting them on the streets of Montmartre she would sit for Henner, Steinlen and Toulouse-Lautrec. Although her most famous collaboration may have been with Renoir. In Danse a la Ville and Danse a Bougival both painted in 1883 Renoir used her as his model depicting very different scenes...

From an early age, Mary Joska started using art as a form of therapy and soon found painting to be her true medium. Go inside her world as she takes us inside her creative journey including her time spent married to Johnny Cash and June Carter's son. Support the show This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lavie...

Swiss-born Nicolas Vaucher, moved to Paris at the age of 19 where his dancing career soon took off, even making it all the way to the famed stage of the Paris Opera. Go inside the life of a Parisian dancer, composer, and actor. Support the show This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit laviecreativepodcast.substack.com

Voted one of America’s top wedding planners by Martha Stewart weddings, her client list includes Oprah, Bentley, and Cartier! Debi Lilly chats with me about how France inspires her famous designs. Support the show This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit laviecreativepodcast.substack.com

Travel photographer and Instagram star, Mary Quincy, chats with me about what it's like to be paid to travel the world and take photos for big corporations like Conde Nast Traveling, Marriott, and Viking Cruises. Born in Normandy, she now calls Paris home and is my neighbor! Support the show This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bo...

From costume designer in Dublin to jazz singer in Paris - meet singer-songwriter Liv Monaghan on my podcast. She speaks to me about her journey as a jazz singer in Paris and how she comes up with material for her beautiful music Support the show This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit laviecreativepodcast.substack.co...

Hemingway descendent, writer, tour guide, Francophile, and self-proclaimed bleu blonde and rouge. Claudine takes us inside her writing process which is greatly inspired by her family history. Support the show This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit laviecreativepodcast.substack.com