Christian and Chic: The Art of Living with Flair from the Christian Perspective

By Julie Marcotte

What does Coco Chanel have in common with the wife of a noble character found in Proverbs 31? How does the lifestyle of the average French citizen line up with the guidelines for dress, manners, and dining found in Scripture? As Christians, should we eschew the pleasures of life, maintain a dour expression, and stamp out all color and fun? In Julie Marcotte’s all-new book, Christian and Chic: The Art of Living with Flair from the Christian Perspective, a close examination compares the mysterious and well-put-together modern French woman with several women from the Bible as well as a few men, including Christ and his disciples. As a mother of three grown daughters, the author describes her search for a way to exemplify and raise her daughters with biblical principles while developing a sense of style and panache that is sometimes lacking inside the Christian community. Full of honest, firsthand, and often hilarious experiences in the country of her husband’s French ancestry, the author illustrates how and why a follower of Christ can and should be both Christian and chic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798890431011

Book preview

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Christian and Chic: The Art of Living with Flair from the Christian Perspective

Julie Marcotte

ISBN 979-8-89043-100-4 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89043-101-1 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Julie Marcotte

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

To my three daughters, each of whom are trés chic!

Introduction

Chapter 1

Christian and Chic—Defining Your Look

Chapter 2

Christian and Chic in the Home

Chapter 3

The Chic Mouth—Fermer la Bouche!

Chapter 4

The French Paradox Revisited

Recipe for Hanukkah: Challah Bread

Recipe for Ancient Ezekiel Bread

Chapter 5

Now the Modern Paradox: The Skinny Food Connoisseur

Classic French Baguettes

Chapter 6

Chic in the Kitchen—Classic French Recipes for Each Season

Spring

Sauté of Turkey with Spring Vegetables (for Four)

Peaches in Sauternes (French Sweet Wine from Bordeaux for Four to Six)

Summer

Roast Provençal Chicken (for Four to Six)

Raspberry-Blackberry Rice Pudding Verrines (for Six to Eight)

Autumn

Boeuf Bourguignon (for Six)

Crème Brûlée (for Four to Six)

Winter

Duck Breasts à la Gasconne with Wild Rice (for Two)

Spiced Chocolate Mousse (Serves Four)

Chapter 7

Trés Chic—Develop Your Gifts

Chapter 8

The Chic Lifestyle: Prioritize and Simplify

Afterword

The Proverbs 31 Woman

Acknowledgments

References

About the Author

To my three daughters, each of whom are trés chic!

Elizabeth, Katherine, and Rebecca floating down the Seine.

Introduction

I am a self-proclaimed Francophile. I have always adored the idea of chic—the combination of looking great and carrying it off with an air of nonchalance. So confident, so sophisticated, and so seemingly without effort, French women are world-famous for that je ne sais quoi look and accompanying attitude. I have also always adored the idea of graceful living.

During our several visits to France, we drank in the culture, savored the food, and admired the way the French people carry themselves. We came away determined to try to be more French (after all, my husband has French heritage on both sides), but we came home to find the American way of life so harried and complicated. It was going to take some effort. Determined, I read books and watched YouTube videos on how to be more like the French in our dress, manner, and homes. The more I read about and imitated the things I love about the French style, the more I realized that it is about being organized and keeping things simple. Simplicity is the key to the effortless elegance that comprises the French way of life—the total lack of frazzled exasperation that comes from trying too hard.

Even more importantly, as a Christian woman, I am learning to see everything through the filter of the Bible, which is the Christian's operating manual. It's God that we will give an accounting to, not Coco Chanel or the editor of Architectural Digest. In our church's study of 1 Timothy, we are learning about modesty as well as God's design for the genders and how they fit so elegantly together. We learn about the Proverbs 31 woman who can laugh at the days to come. Why? Because she plans ahead, stays calm, dresses herself and her family beautifully and appropriately, and because she has an organized approach to each day as she cares for the needs of her household. Although she lived thousands of years ago, the woman described in Proverbs 31 epitomizes the je ne sais quoi that is so famously attributed to the French woman.

Unfortunately, the stereotypical Christian woman of recent history is too-often drab. She often believes that she shouldn't focus on her looks beyond cleanliness (thank goodness) and covering up head to toe. In fact, the Holiness movement of the nineteenth century took the English translation of 1 Timothy, which warns of not putting too much emphasis on braided hair and jewelry but on good deeds instead, to mean that those adornments are to be avoided altogether.

In college, I worked in the school library under the direction of a lovely woman who took her Bible and her beliefs very seriously. Since I was between the ages of eighteen to twenty-one during the time that I worked for her and she was in her fifties, I treated her with great respect and never questioned her well-intentioned advice. She was fair and kind, probably the most pleasant boss I've ever worked for. I couldn't help admiring the way she carried herself, the way she wore attractive, while extremely modest, skirts and dresses, keeping herself impeccably clean and well-groomed. Her shoulder-length, salt-and-pepper hair was always in place. She was never rushed. She walked to work and home again for natural exercise, and we sometimes walked to the ice cream shop over our lunch break for a little treat, and then walked some more to burn it off. In many ways, she was, well, very French.

However, I often wondered what she would look like if she applied just a little carefully placed color on her face, wore a face-framing set of earrings, or maybe a little shine on her well-groomed, short manicure. Nevertheless, these things were verboten in her mind, as a God-fearing woman who never heard a more historical and exegetical interpretation of this portion of the Bible. Eh bien. I admired her anyway.

Now as I study the Bible under the careful instruction of a pastor and think about the French style of living, there are so many ways to connect and apply an elegant and, yes, Christ-centered life. We can simplify, live with grace and ease, develop poise, and enjoy the little things in life in a way that reflects Christian principles. In short, God's women can, and should, be chic!

Chapter 1

Christian and Chic—Defining Your Look

When my husband and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary many years ago, my parents treated us to twenty-four hours of freedom. My older two girls were ages one and three, and while my husband traveled and worked long days away from home, I hadn't had a night away since they were born—and we certainly hadn't had much time together.

We booked a night in the nearby city of Chicago and celebrated with two wonderfully cultural activities: a several-course dinner and a luxurious meandering trip through the Art Institute of Chicago. Lingering a bit longer in our favorite room, the Impressionists, we stopped altogether to take in Gustave Caillebotte's 1877 masterpiece, Paris Street; Rainy Day.

Look at the way the people are dressed in the painting, and now look around this room, my husband said in a low voice.

We admired the view of Paris in the painting, the men in top hats gallantly holding umbrellas over the heads of women in long, bustled dresses with matching gloves. Looking around the museum, most visitors were in shorts—not even nice shorts—with sleeveless tops and sandals.

Up to that moment, I was feeling pretty cute in my long white walking shorts and feminine summer top; but looking at the artist's depiction of the epitome of western culture in the late nineteenth century, I wondered about our ultra-relaxed modern society. On a hot summer day, it is certainly a blessing to be free of corsets and gloves. It's great to have a choice in attire without causing a scandal. But I wondered, how relaxed is too relaxed, and where do we draw the line? We need some guidelines!

Maybe we should revisit the world's capital of fashion through the eyes of that same city's queen of fashion: Coco Chanel. Then we can check with our ultimate source of guidelines, the Bible.

At first glance, and a little knowledge of each topic, what does Coco Chanel have in common with the author of Proverbs 31 or the apostle Paul? Or Peter? Very little. Coco Chanel had difficulty maintaining any real relationship or ever deciding on a true and honest account of her life.