1. 3 things that you love to do with your children
I love taking the time to play music when I’m with my son. When he was little, he was fascinated watching me play the ukulele from his baby bouncer.
From time to time at the end of the week, we’ll have a drink on a terrace next to a fountain. It’s a great place to go, to get out of the routine and relax as a family on a Friday evening.
And then I like going to the Bazacle dam in Toulouse. A long footbridge strung 10m above the Garonne, one of the most beautiful places in town, to gaze at to your heart’s content.
2. One thing that you don’t like doing with your children
I hate taking him to the doctor. It’s either because he’s ill and I hate seeing him suffer and feeling powerless to help him, or because it’s to give him vaccinations and I hate needles. Even worse when I know that they’re going to end up piercing my son’s skin.
3. Your favourite item of children’s clothing
The super comfy all-in-one playsuits with really rock ‘n’ roll patterns. My favourite has a picture of an orange and black harlequin with a hood, straight out of a Tim Burton movie.
4. And your least favourite item of children’s clothing
Knitted crossed cardigans (grey, blue-grey, pale grey, graphite grey, mouse-grey etc.), very good-boy-leaving-confession. It’s so not him, it’s not in his character and it’s not in the image that suits him so well. Yuk!
5. Who decides on the look of the day?
Whoever dresses him generally. For his mum, fashion is her job so she can spend hours choosing and takes it all very seriously. For me it’s a lot more simple. Let’s say that the wardrobe is already very select, so it’s difficult to get it wrong. I would have to be pretty much still asleep for that to happen. And at the worst, if his socks don’t match, it gives him an anarchic Hundertwasser type look, which I like a lot.
6. In your family, does everyone have his or her own style, or are you all similar?
We are all very colourful in general, from head to feet. We’re always on the lookout for beautiful vintage pieces but our real weakness is shoes. I think that Marlo must have over twenty pairs of shoes, the excuse being that he grows too quickly. Anyway, before he was born, he was already sorted for the first six years of his life in terms of clothes and shoes. I’m exaggerating, but only just.
7. What was your most recent purchase at DPam?
Plain T-shirts and basic trousers, to be customised with an apple stamp made by mummy.
8. What words or expressions has your little one borrowed from you?
“Uh-oh, silly!” is his latest thing, when he breaks something and wants to make up for it.
“Don’t agree at all”, clearly imitating his mother.
“Régine, run!” (Régine is our cat) chasing her with a watering can in his hand.
9. What is your favourite dessert?
When my wife was pregnant, we tested all the banoffee pies in town, we could even write a guide on the best in Toulouse. Since then, it has stayed with us, like Proust and his madeleines.
10. What are family holidays like for you?
We go camping on a riverbank under an oak tree with gypsy-vintage decor and furniture. Yes, yes, my wife decorates our pitch…
11. What is your family’s favourite pastime?
Bargain hunting, car boot sales, there’s nothing like it.
12. Your daily tips and tricks
Certainly don’t banish the pleasures from before you had kids, for fear that they don’t get on with it very well. He loves going to parties at our friends’ houses and having fun just as much as we do. He likes travelling, going for walks, having people round, discovering new places. Don’t shut yourself away in a monastic parenthood, and don’t imprison kids in received ideas while listening to them. We adapt to him and he adapts to us. If you don’t try new experiences, then you don’t know what you’re missing.
