A conversation with Edith I. Kunz

by Terrance Gelenter

A one-time fashion executive at Goldwater’s Department Store in Phoenix and regular visitor and part time resident of Paris Edith has a lifetime of watching men and women prepare themselves for the battlefields of love. As in Fatale: How French Women Do It she applies her droll wit to a subject that is play and second nature to the French and a serious business in America-both in practice and the billion dollar mating game service industry. Over a glass of wine at her favorite café, La Tartine we talked while I flirted with the women at adjacent tables-when in France!

TG: When did you first come to Paris?

EK: During a summer study program in my junior year in college

TG: When and why did you come back (or stay for extended periods of time)

EK: As soon as I touched ground here as a teen-ager it felt like ‘home’ and the feeling has endured….and at that time in the 1960’s when I visited the Place des Vosges, I decided ‘this will be where I’ll buy a Paris apartment!’…….and voila! that sudden thought became a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ 20 years later……

TG: Where do you live (arrondissement?)

EK: In the Marais…. after twenty years I sold my apartment on Place des Vosges, due to an interesting opportunity and now I live a few blocks from there on the ancient rue des Tournelles, 3rd arrondissement

TG: Why?

EK: Well first, because I became enamored with Place des Vosges and my first home was on that square for 20 years…. and second because when I first arrived looking for an apartment to buy, the site for the ‘new’ Paris opera house was being built on the Place de la Bastille which was going to be only a seven minute walk to opera nights….and ALSO, because ghosts of my ‘old friends’ like Madame de Sevigne, Victor Hugo, Pere Bousset, Duke de Richelieu, Ninon de Lanclos, Duke de Sully and the 19th century actress, Rachel, etc. all hover around the area and everyday I felt as if I were in ‘my own movie’….

TG: What’s your favorite café?

EK: La Tartine, where Trotsky used to hang out…and the atmosphere has stayed almost the same….the carved oak bar, the red leather banquettes, the blackboard wine list…and the ‘Gauloise ochre-yellow’ ceiling, the veined-streaked mirrors and the pression (draft beer)……it’s a place to sit and think alone…..

TG: What’s your favorite starred restaurant?

EK: Le Grand Vefour, where Jean Cocteau and Colette used to hang out together and although I do not frequent three-star restaurants, on special occasions I choose one of the older establishments where history abounds…..

TG: What’s your favorite bistro du coin?

EK: Ma Bourgogne on Place des Vosges, where Georges Simenon began many of his mystery novels….also it is my ‘cantina’ and I can catch up on the local news with Therese, the proprietor, over morning coffee au lait….

TG: What’s your favorite market?

EK: The farmer’s market on blvd. Richard Lenoir on Thursday and Sunday mornings….. after several years of going there, I know the route of my favorite banana vendor, apple stand, cheese master and chicken farmer…..

TG: What’s your favorite time of the year?

EK: The beginning of each new year in January….when new hopes and plans take shape….I am usually at my home in Scottsdale, Arizona, in the marvelous desert sunshine at that time….and the ‘snowbird’ season is just beginning which attracts all types of interesting people and performers to the Valley of the Sun…..

TG: In your first book Fatale: How French Women Do It you explored the mystique of the French woman. And now in the Merits of Middle-Aged Men you tackle, in your droll fashion, baby boomers who are pursuing and experiencing love and sex at ages when our parents had long since run out of juice. First of all, what are the major differences between French and American women of une certain age?

EK: The enduring confidence of French women no matter what age, and their uncomplicated and honest interest in the male species….I find that the subject of ‘age’ is not overworked in France and also that women in Paris do not discuss all the boring topics about plastic surgery, botox, breast implants, and I have NEVER heard the phrase ‘bad hair-day’ in Paris….who cares?, besides the ‘just rolled out of bed’ hairdo is a provocative look in this city…..

TG: What do American women of that certain age want and what is their biggest complaint about American men of their age

EK: American men often seem to appear ‘worn out’ by the stress of a fast-paced career…women of any age want a man with energy, joie de vivre and a dose of remaining testosterone…..after that, the qualifications get down to individual preferences, of which, I personally have several…..

TG: Do your suggested techniques work in France or are French men that much different and have American men in France become more French and resistant to your ploys?

EK: men of all ages and nationalities are relatively basic in their areas of desire: power, sex, and food (see p. 59 in MERITS OF MIDDLE-AGED MEN: AND WHERE TO FIND THEM)…and if those three fundamental longings are addressed with charm, wit and simpatico a woman can be supplied with a steady list of devoted escorts…..as for calling the a woman’s ‘charms’ PLOYS, i consider that to be a misnomer….in my book, FATALE: HOW FRENCH WOMEN DO IT, I observe how naturally French women enjoy enticing men in a sincere and enjoyable manner….French men AND women appear to be pleased with the male-female ‘VIVE LA DIFFERENCE’….and there seems to be less agony between the sexes in France…more humor prevails instead!…….if American men are exposed to the atmosphere in France over a long period of time i think the American male eventually relaxes with the less strident female population which prevails in this nation of the ironic smile………………call it what you will, charm, appreciation, humor, confidence, genetic history….I like the healthy banter, etc. that exists in this country between men and women…….

TG: How has Paris affected your work?

EK: My work goes more slowly in Paris due to the many distractions and temptations along the avenues…I must begin writing early in the morning before the street scene outside my window begins to bustle with enticing activity and before I venture out for a baguette and am confronted with too many posters touting tempting exhibits, lectures and concerts!

TG: How has Paris affected your life?

EK: Life in Paris offers me fulfillment of my intellectual pursuits, as well as satisfaction in the spiritual and carnal categories……having an apartment in the center of Paris has answered my greatest wish in life, the only drawback is that accomplishing this aspiration has taken the ‘edge’ off of the drive of ambition to pursue bigger and better things ….I must be careful not to become too Hedonistic in my pleasurable status beside the Seine…

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Terrance GELENTER, Your American Friend In Paris, is the founder/director of Paris Through Expatriate Eyes, an English-language website dedicated to delivering cultural content about Paris, highlighted by books, films, gastronomy, and interviews with authors and filmmakers to Anglophonic Francophiles.