Coco Chanel's Paris/Colette's Paris

Professor Andrew Lear is a world-renowned expert on sexuality in art and the author of the best-known book on sexuality in Greek vase-painting.  He is the founder of Oscar Wilde Tours, the gay history tour company, and Shady Ladies Tours, the woman's history tour company.

Andrew Lear

Learn the stories of these two amazing, creative women as we explore the Paris places where they lived, loved, and created.

Coco Chanel and Colette are two of the cultural icons of 20th century Paris—and they were also two of the first modern, liberated women. They knew each other—Colette even wrote about Chanel. And they had a lot in common: both had outsized talents, as well as the toughness needed to develop their talents despite obstacles placed in their way on account of their sex (and in Chanel&#x27;s case, by childhood poverty as well). Both of course were astonishingly successful: Colette remains one of France&#x27;s most famous modern writers, and Chanel may have been the most influential fashion designer of history. And both had scandalous sex lives that were part of their legends.And of course both lived in Paris. On this tour, we will show you the place where Chanel first sold her hats, the spot (in Deauville) where she first had her own boutique, the elegant hotel where sh lived (during the Nazi years as well, sadly), and her famous compound in Paris, with her stores and famous apartment. For Colette, we will start with an exursion outside Paris to her childhood home, now preserved as a museum, and then follow her life through the city, starting at the house where her husband, the editor and literary huckster &quot;Willy,&quot; shut her in her room and forced her to write her first books!On the way, we will show you some key Chanel designs, tell you about Colette&#x27;s great (and racy) stories, introduce you to some of their fascinating friends....in short we will tell you about their lives and their city.This tour will be a collaboration between Professor Lear and the wonderful guide, Edith de Belleville, with whom he collaborates on his real-life Shady Ladies of Paris tours. For those who don&#x27;t know Edith (the author of a great book about historical women in Paris, Belles et Rebelles (Beautiful Rebels), sadly not yet translated into English), <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CDdxo1VogFC/?igshid=dh2v9xyms6g4" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">here is a short video outside Colette and Willy&#x27;s house</a>.

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Coco Chanel's Paris/Colette's Paris

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Coco Chanel's Paris/Colette's Paris

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