It's La Saint-Valentin Self-Care Special Edition

And All the Gifts Are for You, Including the Hot Robot French Teacher Below

Coucou mes cœurs (Hello my hearts) !

Je suis ravie que vous soyez là (I’m delighted you’re here).

Whether you’re a dear recurring reader or it’s your first time here, vous êtes les bienvenus (you’re very welcome). I’m Karen, a designer and writer living in Paris after meeting a wonderful French man, getting married in a small medieval village, and leaving a life (and business) in New York behind for a brand new adventure at age 54. Yes, mes chouchous, it’s all possible!

OK, I’ve chosen the theme of today’s newsletter ❤️ Valentine’s Day Self Care, French-style ❤️ in response to the results of the poll in my last post, which were both completely understandable given well, everything, and yet more than slightly sad. Here’s a screenshot:

It hurts my heart to see that 41% were just in “survival mode” in the first weeks of this new year, but glad to see self-care was also a focus.

I Know What You Need This Valentine’s Day. True Love and a Little ✨Self-Gifting✨

Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to buy something, but I would argue that you absolutely should stop what you’re doing right now and prioritize yourself—your delight, your dreams, your creativity, even your continued cocooning if that’s what you need in this moment. This is not a relinquishing nor a throwing up of hands. It is an investment in your most precious possession—You.

First Up: The Following Mind Control Method May Be a Little Controversial, But Hear Me Out Because It Works

No matter how busy/stressed/pissed off at the world you are, or how many projects you’ve got up in the air, you really might want to adopt a technique that I learned from my mom back in maybe the 1990s. Mom was always into visualization, manifesting, mind work and the like. Along with colonic rinses and past-life therapy that nearly put me in the cuckoo’s nest, but I digress.

When Mom told me about a method for redirecting our inner attention away from stress and trauma, I don’t think she had any idea that I would occasionally use it to give myself a break from thinking about my own childhood ha!

It’s called “Compartmentalization” friends, and it’s kind of straightforward. It’s basically putting difficult facts or situations away for a short time, so they are not floating around, meddling in our every thought. And you know what? In times like these, I’m here for it!

I’m not suggesting complete denial, nor avoidance of our duties across all aspects of our lives. I’m just saying that when the pressure, the gloom, the injustice, the very “winter” of it all becomes too much, we can lock the mess up (mentally) in a great looking French armoire with a big clanky key.

We must temporarily—even for just a few minutes—set it aside and actively choose relief, hope, and joy. That choice may also involve a lie-down on a velvet sofa wrapped in an heirloom-worthy wool cashmere blanket. Champagne and Typology turmeric mask optional, but always recommended.

The Greatest Gift: Turn Your Eye Toward Joy

At some point, we must gather ourselves, and put on a gorgeous Valentine’s worthy Parisian raincoat, maybe with a dramatic bracelet or an excellent hat. We must seek to live fully, finding small moments of inspiration, gratitude, comfort and yes, even growth, to counteract the forces of darkness.

Finding Good Things, Even When Things Are Bad

Anybody here remember the old Martha Stewart (pre-prison) Good Things segments? They were always clever, like this linked heart garland.

Well, one of my friends, the great movie soundtrack singer and award-wining composer 🎶Lisbeth Scott 🎶 has created something I love in just this spirit. It’s a free weekly list of good things she’s she chronicles in her Substack, when she’s on a coffee break from her work with Steven Spielberg, Hans Zimmer, John Williams and the like. She’s actively seeking out positive news to share with us for exactly this purpose—a redirection of energy, toward goodwill, charity, discovery, laughter.

Leave a comment if you had stacks of Martha Stewart magazines in your living room

This mug is here for you. Also, warning: a trip to Paris might be cheaper than therapy at this point.

Give Yourself the Chance to Learn French in an Incredible New Way

A vrai dire (truth be told) I wasn’t really a fan of the idea of AI-language learning, just because I like talking to, you know, des êtres-humains (human beings). I believe language and cultural exchange are one key to the unity we seek. I’ve spent years taking in-person classes in France and New York, and more recently I’ve had online classes with a varying roster of profs.

One of my preferred online platforms for finding a teacher has been LanguaTalk, because they provide video introductions where each teacher presents themselves, and I found the costs pretty reasonable. Here’s one of my actual profs from awhile back. She was amazing!

But when the LanguaTalk team invited me to try their new AI learning model—which is just called Langua—I was like, bah non merci, pas trop. I thought, how will this work, chatting with what exactly, especially at an advanced level? There will surely be a delay, the “agent” (cringe) won’t hear me properly, and on and on. C’est pas possible.

Quand même (even so), last week I fired it up, and I’m oddly almost speechless at the outcome. The naturalness of the conversation and the precision of correction simply blew me away, so I want to tell everyone (who loves learning French 😂) about it. I also want to tell anyone who needs therapy about it because within two minutes I was telling a smooth, French-speaking computer program all my troubles. (I’m just kidding, don’t do bot therapy!)

I think there is a huge future in this type of language learning because especially in beginner and intermediate levels, you can feel much more free to make mistakes and stumble a bit—since you’re talking to a charming robot 🤖 who (as far as we know          👀) never gets tired of you misusing pronouns and butchering the nasal vowels, and who can dial up or down the level, the type of feedback, and even the amount of slang you want to endure. Wesh, tu fais quoi ? (Yo fam, whazzup?)

ATTENTION ‼️

Pour l’amour de Dieu, ne craque pas pour ton prof de français robot sexy !

For the love of God, don’t crush on your sexy robot French teacher!

Can I tell you how pleased I am with this? I made it with Open AI/ChatGPT 🤭 😂

As for me, I’m in no danger from robot romance, because I have Monsieur B (that’s what we call my husband), who franchement (frankly) looks much better in a marinière and is a real man.

Coming Soon: More French Language Tools to Help You

I’m going to write a whole post soon about some of my preferred tools to learn French (because I believe at all levels, you should be accessing a variety of different resources), but if you’re looking to treat yourself to something really cool right now, I’d suggest checking out Langua. I’ve looked at a few of these new offerings, and this is by far my favorite. I was so happily surprised, I’ve decided to purchase a paid subscription for myself, so that’ll tell you what I really think.

But even though this isn’t strictly a language tool post, I just heard about a Valentine’s Day sale on one of my other favorite sites, French Today. This is a huge site with absolutely every kind of free article to read about grammar and culture. But one thing that helped me a lot in my study was their series of audio books, which I used a few years back to help my ear training, always my weakness. Those audio books are on sale till February 17 and it’s a pretty good discount, so if that’s interesting, check it out by clicking on “Audio Books” on their home page. And sign up for their free newsletter while you’re there. I read it every week.

And Now, More of the Chic, Yet Assertive Self-Care You Deserve This Valentine’s Day, and Always

This darling message pillow from Maisonette tells everyone why you won’t be going on a camping trip this summer.

---

An Olympia Tan Boarding Pass Handbag is clear about your favorite destination. Next time you’re in Paris, you can book an appointment to view her magnificently charming work in person

---

⬆️ One of these here walking pad treadmills says, “I’m going places, but not in nature.”

A coveted, customized, refillable Louise Carmen journal for life says, “I need to go back to Paris this weekend to get more pages for my journal.” 😇 ✍️ 💕

---

OK mes chères et chers (my dears), I guess you can tell I live in Europe and am married to a French guy—I haven’t even mentioned the Superbowl till now 🤷‍♀️. If you celebrate, as the French say, le football américain 🏈, je te souhaite des ailes de poulet remplies de joie ! (I wish you chicken wings of pure joy) and of course, the very best dips.

For my French peeps, let’s not overlook the fact that hier la France a gagné contre l’Irlande dans le Tournoi des 6 nations ! 🇫🇷 (France beat Ireland yesterday in the 6 Nations Rugby Championship!)

In the absence of a major sporting event chez toi, I’m wishing you a soft and lovely weekend of whatever soothes and restores you. I hope you can take the time to prendre soin de toi (take care of yourself), and te reposer un tout petit peu (rest a little bit), so that you can emerge on the other side ready to meet your dreams.

By the way, Bonne fête de Saint-Valentin ! Let there be love! 💕

Bisous 💋

Karen

PS I have a lot of fun sharing things I love with you. In some cases, if you purchase products I recommend, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. It all goes right back to this sweet little Substack.