The Monthly Joie Review: January 2024 Recap
Discoveries during a very long and cold month.
I’ve always had mixed feelings about January. The month that people can’t wait to end the very day it begins. I’ve heard it referred to as Januweary. There are countless articles online devoted to throwing shade at January and my social media feed is full of folks complaining about SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and hopeless resolutions.
My birthday comes on January 7th, in the first week of the bleakness. I love celebrating that feeling of turning the page onto a new year. But I too get sick of the cold, endlessly gray days. Inevitably, the blues creep in which can stretch well into February. (Is there a crummy name for that month too?)
When I was born, my mother was going through what was likely the hardest time in her life. She also didn’t love January, even though she was in Nigeria and I doubt they have many cold gray days. But this one was particularly dark. She had recently lost her 2 year old daughter in a bus accident. In the midst of this pain, she gave birth to another little girl. She named me Ajiroghene, which means praise the Lord, in my father’s tribal language.
I suppose, for my mother at least, my birth is proof that joy can be found in dark times and dark months. Looking for glimmers of joy in the midst of Januweary has been my focus this month. However hard, I am also learning that maybe I don’t have to constantly fight the grumpy, sluggishness that often consumes me. Maybe I need to readjust my attitude and expectations for the winter months.
I recently started reading
Wintering. The author believes that we should embrace these months for what they are: a season for Wintering. I understand it as an acceptance of the natural flow of the seasons. As she points out, “Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximising scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.”Maybe I can learn to embrace the cold and darkness of January. It can be my time to sleep a little longer, stay in more, and steep in the melancholy. And yet I can still find glimmers of joy in its midst. I am still learning, but grateful for the idea of January as a month of hibernating and healing.
Ok let’s get into my recap in hopes you find some ideas to try, note, check out, etc.. As always I don’t hyper link so you can focus but as always you can skip to the end for the notebook with links and addresses.
Bisous xx,
Ajiri
My January started in Switzerland, which always does a number on my emotions, so I wrote a Joie list, which I highly recommend trying. (Link below if you didn’t get to read it.)
For my birthday, I planned a last minute gathering at Abricot cocktail bar. Then as it was an exceptionally cold day, people started canceling left and right. This happens a lot for a Jan 7th birthday because people don’t want to spend money after the holidays or are doing dry January and can’t deal with the temptation. I stayed in my pyjamas, scrapped the cocktail plan and the few friends that were fully committed to celebrate, came over to share a magnum of Ruinart, caviar and nibbles. Admittedly I was a bit annoyed but it turned out to be perfect and I felt so much love hugging just a few friends in my PJs. I might fully embrace this next year and just throw an adult jammie jam party.
A few days later I packed my bags and was off to a speaking engagement at the Nashville Antiques & Garden show. For all you design junkies, it’s a great place for inspiration, shopping and socializing. I was a bit (read: veryyyyyyy) nervous before my talk because it was the largest group that I have spoken to. I think there were over 1000 people in that room and then they lined up for over two hours to chat with me and get their books signed. The entire weekend strangers stopped me at the event, on the streets and even in Target to share kind words about how they felt encouraged and inspired by the message in my talk and my book. It was a special moment that I will never forget.
Immediately when I returned to Paris there wasn’t a lot of time for jet lag because it was Paris Design Week, men’s fashion and fashion market week. I am not really involved in the fashion industry anymore but I have a lot of close friends who come into Paris and we get to spend time together.
I started Design Week at the launch of the fabric and wallpaper collaboration between Antoinette Poisson and my friend Ruth Ribeaucourt. I have always loved the brand even though I don’t know much about the owners but the aesthetic and the patterns really speak to me. When they did a Monoprix collab, I ran to snap up a robe and a dress that I wear very often. Their collaboration with Ruth makes so much sense since she is an Irish multi-hypen creative (photographer-creative director-writer) that has a very impressive textile and passimenterie archive in the South of France. Their collaboration consists of 8 different 18th century designs for wallpaper, fabric, cushions and stationary that will be available early March and like the Monop collab, I will be running to the shop to snap a few things up.
I hopped around to a few parties but most interesting was the fête hosted by Schumacher called A Night of Mystery with tarot card readers, mentalists, and quirky fun surrealist oddities like arms extending from holes offering champagne. But the mystery for me was the location of the party, which as the Hôtel de Bourrienne in the 10th. I have never heard of this place and did a deep dive then landed in an internet black hole.
Madame Fortunée Hamelin was the most famous and first inhabitant of the Hôtel de Bourrienne. It was built in 1787 and purchased by her father shortly after. She lived there with her husband who died two years after they moved in and she quickly leaned into this freedom as a member of Les Merveilleuses. Although most paintings depict her as a white woman, descriptions and rumors at the time note that she was possibly a Creole love child between her father and his lover in Saint Dominique where she was born and raised. She scandalized Paris with her see through fashions and her numerous lovers. A free thinker and lover of art and written word, she hosted many salons in the Hôtel Bourrienne that were visited by her close friends Madame Récamier and Joséphine de Beauhoarnais, who would become the Empress Josephine to Napoleon Bonaparte. She later was known to spend a lot of time with Balzac and Victor Hugo before she was banished from Paris for being a Napoloeniste and was only allowed when she agreed to
The Hôtel Bourrienne which is named is now owned by an entrepreunuer and home to the Bourrienne Paris X shirt company and the office of Olivier Theyskens. I won’t rest till I get in there for a private tour and more information so stay tuned.
Speaking of well known salons, I finally had lunch at Lafayette, the new restaurant from Mory Sacko in the Faubourg St. Honoré neighborhood housed in the former home of the Marquis de Lafayette, who moved in after his victorious return from America. He was known to hold famous salons with up to 400 guests in the spaces that now serve as the dinning rooms of the restaurant. I’m a big fan ok Sacko and enjoyed the corn soup soufflé and the chicken with mafe sauce but truth be told, I was there for the interiors. Boiseries, parquet, and pictorial upholstery oh my! And that entry door with curved wood was just magnifique! Can you imagine the skill it took to make that?!
Back to design week, I was invited to have dinner with Jim Druckman, the head of the New York Design Center, and his wife Nancy with a few other design people at Josephine Chez Dumonet. I usually never find myself in this part of Paris and don’t know a single restaurant in Montparnasse.
wrote a nice review recently on her substack so will let you check that out (link below), but I have to say that I might cross the river for that cassoulet again, which was a bit too gigantic but absolutely divine. I highly recommend sharing all the main dishes because the portions are way too big and I felt about the waste. Oh and don’t leave without ordering the mille feuille for the table.
My friend Maria recently started working at Furia, a new Mexican restaurant in the 11th. I get really happy about trying new restaurants but mostly when they are in my neighborhood and I don’t have to go far. Ha! They don’t take reservations, which is kind of annoying, so we arrived the moment it opened and the place quickly filled up. We ordered some chickpeas with feta and an herb dip with pickled vegetables to start and then tried every tostada and taco on the menu. Paris has always had a problem with good Mexican restaurants and Furia won’t be on that list because the food was simple and delicious. The concept doesn’t try too hard to be Mexican, which is what many restaurants maybe get wrong? I am not sure, but I like that there is a changing menu and a natural wine list that oddly only has wines from German.
In the middle of these overlapping weeks of visitors, I decided to host my first Paris pop-up. It was a 2 day affair and the plan was to add on a QVC-style live sale for people who couldn’t make it or lived far, but we didn’t sit down for a minute. The traffic in the sale was non-stop and we sold every last thing. At one point my husband drove by with more items from my storage from past shoots and a little fight broke out for a rug I was selling for 20 euros. I am dedicating a link on my site for a few other items that I need to sell so that I can make room for Spring purchases. As soon as that is live, I will share via Insta.
I often brag about how I rarely get sick and my arrogance got me in January when I fell completely ill with a fever, body aches, chills, and endless headaches. I had a breakfast with my friend Lindsey at La Datcha, which I need to properly revisit for lunch or dinner, and I knew something was off. I told her my head hurt but after our teas and croissants, I went directly home to bed and stayed there for the following four days. When I could actually move, I made tea with some honey from the Champs de Mars, which I like to call honey from the Eiffel Tower bees. You can buy it online and I believe drinking tea with that honey, lemons and some freshly grated garlic helped bring me back to life.
Luckily I was back to good health for the coolest co-birthday present from a dear friend, which was a night at Hôtel du Nord’s Grand Cabaret, which is only held four times a year. You immediately feel like you have been transported to the 1930s with jazz music and dancers. After snooping around on their site, I see they regularly have performers but their Grand Cabaret is a special event for them and a hard table to snag. Some guests were fully dressed in their best flapper looks and I truly felt like I was having a Midnight in Paris moment. It was pure magic and pure joy on a cold night with fragile health.
I never believe that darn ground hog, so until the sun comes out, let’s all keep making sure we find little glimmers of joy on these cold days.
the notes
In case you missed my Joie list you can find it here.
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May
Antoinette Poisson x Ruth Ribeaucourt collaboration. More info here.
Hôtel Bourienne is a private property in the 10th but home to a rather chic shirt brand that takes its inspiration from the space’s 18th and 19th century inhabitants. You can check the brand out here.
Lafayette Restaurant
8 rue d’Anjou
75008 Paris
Check out their website here
Joséphine Chez Dumonet
117 rue du Cherche-Midi
75006 Paris
Check out their website here
Furia
2 rue Lacharrière
75011 Paris
Follow them on Instagram here
Hôtel du Nord
102 Quai de Jemmapes
75010 Paris
Follow the restaurant online here to stay up to day on their music nights, but you can also book a lunch or dinner any time.
Up next… 2024 retreat dates and chic Paris hotel bars and restaurants.
I used to dread winter and spent most of it cold and annoyed. (I lived in Zimbabwe for years and could never adjust that July and August were freezing. Then I moved to Rome. It took a few years, but I eventually just leaned into the seasons and learned to love the quiet and shorter days. Of course Rome makes it easy. The sky is usually ridiculously blue and it is never really all that cold. This is my first winter in Venice and its colder and darker and foggier than Rome, but I still like it.
Happy belated birthday! My birthday is in late August. I live in Rome NO ONE is in town as it's boiling hot. I grew up in NYC/NJ and went to school in upstate NY but living in Los Angeles for ten years ruined me. I have no tolerance for winter/cold weather anymore. I'm going to read that article about wintering and try to embrace all the seasons.