Catherine DeneuveI've seen this sort of thing with my own eyes:
If there is a secret to aging well, Frenchwomen must know it. At least that’s what Americans think. We look at actresses like Juliette Binoche, 46, or politicians like Ségolène Royal, 56, or superstars like Catherine Deneuve, 66, and figure that they must have special insights into the “maturation” process.
And even the average Frenchwoman — say, shopping along the Rue du Faubourg St.-Honoré or enjoying a leisurely lunch on the Left Bank, or strolling through the Luxembourg Gardens — seems to defy the notion that, as one grows older, you either have to disguise that process with Botox, eye-lifts, lip plumpers and all sorts of procedures that convey a desperate “youthful” look, or else just give up altogether and let the ravages of time take their toll.
But do these women really have the answers when it comes to the aging process?
Women on both sides of the Atlantic realize that the keys to aging well are obvious, but challenging if you have bad genes, spend too much time in the sun or smoke a lot. But while American women, like me at least, approach personal care with practical efficiency, the Frenchwomen I know regard the pampering of the skin, hair and body as an enjoyable, gratifying ritual.
Looking attractive, at any age, is just what Frenchwomen do, especially the urban ones. For Parisiennes, maintaining their image is as natural as tying a perfect scarf or wearing stilettos on cobblestone streets. Beauty is a tradition handed down from generation to generation. “My grandmother always told me, ‘Never neglect yourself, not even in the tiniest details,’ ” my friend Françoise Augier said, with a sweeping head-to-toe gesture. The French actress Leslie Caron, still Gigi-like at 79, told me her mother’s favorite saying: “Women’s skin is too fair to go bare.”
Now, the last time I was in the United States, the women seemed hell-bent on presenting what we call the "hoochie mama" look, and a few months in Europe have left me wondering what all the fuss is about. Walking about town, I can see women aging with a great deal of style and grace. There are no hoochie mamas here, and for that I am grateful.
The article cited above seems a little similar to this one, but that's just me being difficult.
It always amazes me to find people who can live their lives with a relative degree of normalcy. Here's a slice of my life--Miranda calls me into the other room and says that she has a problem. She has, apparently, lost the screw out of the hinge of her sunglasses. All of it is a ruse, however. I'm rolling around on the floor trying to help Miranda find an imaginary screw that fell out of a pair of sunglasses just because she likes to see me struggling on my hands and knees--meanwhile, Peej is filming me as I'm looking for the screw that doesn't exist and everyone is laughing at me because I'm convinced that the best way to accomplish this task is to get a damp paper towel and a Maglite. Then, everyone sits down and comments about how I failed to pick up on the fact that Miranda didn't even have a pair of sunglasses in her hand.
How do others live like normal people? How do these stylish women look at the trends and the popular notions of beauty and surpass what is normal? If ever there was a case to be made for rising above, it can be found on the streets of any town here in Europe. My God, the styles and the women and the culture are intoxicating. It's a riot of beauty.
Anyway, as to the style and gracefully aging, thing, well, I can't pull it off. I'm still dressing like I did in college. People are aghast at the fact that I don't wear socks. Well, in the winter, they are. In the summer, it does seem more sensible.
Seed Newsvine
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 
Cable ReelI don't know how many times this has happened in the past, but I'm getting frantic updates from CBS News via E-mail (which is why there is no link) about what two cosmonauts are up to overhead:
Norman Rogers
