The Author
Danielle Postel-Vinay is an American writer who has lived extensively in France. She currently lives in the Hudson Valley of New York with her Parisian husband and children.
The French Way of Life
Danielle made her first trip to France at the age of sixteen. She fell head over heels in love with France, but noticed that the French had very different ideas about everything from diet to manners to love. She met her first mentor in the art of French living soon after, Jacqueline Manon, an expatriate woman who had brought her French sensibility to her Midwestern home. They became close friends, and for the next decades Danielle became a passionate student of all things French. She became intimately connected to the inner workings of French life when she met her husband, Hadrien, a filmmaker who grew up in Paris and Brittany. It was through the Postel-Vinay family that she was introduced to the private culture of French life, with all its beautiful rituals and unspoken expectations.
The Book
Home Sweet Maison is the result of many years of living in France, observing the rituals of her French in-laws, and distilling the essence of what makes French daily life so alluring. It is not simply a guide to home decor and etiquette, but an exploration of the deep cultural assumptions that inform everything that happens in a French home. Like Jacqueline Manon, who recreated her French sanctuary in a small Midwestern town, you too can experience the warmth, beauty, and elegance of the French in your own home.