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The Green Front in France

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Hotel DeVille Paris

Two weeks ago I returned from a lovely holiday in France. The SoCal Contractor and I were invited to a lady friend’s 80th birthday celebration in Lyon, and there was no way we were going to miss that! We began in Paris- where else?- and were wowed by the beauty that surprises me every time I step foot in the city. What also surprised me and made me a bit sick were the hundreds of piles of empty, plastic, water bottles in trash heaps all over the city. It was hot and there were TONS of tourists. In California and many places I’ve visited there is a 5 or 10 cent value placed on these plastic bottles, so even when lazy people use them and chuck em, you have an army of people who collect them right out of the trash to redeem for cash. It’s a system that has always left me wondering how the beaches of Indonesia (have you seen those photos???) can be filled with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of empty, plastic, water bottles. My thinking: they’re worth money, if for no other reason, how can they be discarded on the beaches that way? Well, there they were, all over Paris, on their way to land fills, streams and oceans. Not so green. What was green and one of the best ways to see the city was the 10Pm-12AM bike ridethrough every arrondisement in the city, protesting Saudi oil. There we were minding our business, eating chocolate and drinking wine in front of Notre Dame when we saw about 200 bicycles cruise by us. We weren’t sure what was going on and thought possibly France had just won the World Cup. I had seen a similar scene when France won in 1998. (Funny thing, is that France had been long gone from the games at that point.) We grabbed our city bikes and caught up with the parade. A few blocks later we learned we were part of an oil protest, holding up traffic, waving banners and honking our horns at every cafe in the city. I saw parts of Paris, I never knew existed during that two hours, cheered and exchanged greetings with every type of Parisian. Very Green.

Pantheon

Notre Dame

Luxemborg Gardens

We stayed in a great hotel a few steps from Musee D’Orsay and right across from the Louvre called Hotel Bellechasse. Christian LaCroix just renovated it–super funky and right next to a public, bike station. Not too expensive, it’s a great place to stay on a couple’s trip.

Hotel Bellechasse

Lori Dennis Biking around Paris on an Anti Saudi Oil Protest

Musee D’Orsay

Loved Paris, but it was hot, dirty, crowded and we were ready to head to the culinary capital of the country- Lyon. We weren’t sure what to expect and after seeing the hotels on line, didn’t expect much. There were only three nice ones. We booked one of them and hoped it would be ok. After recovering from the shock of a $100 cab ride into the city from the airport, we fell in love with the place. Our hotel, La Tour Rose, was in the Vieux Lyon-the old city, every room in the hotel decorated in a different fabric of the prominent 18th century silk houses of Lyon. I can not describe how luxurious and simply beautiful our room was with red velvet, silk covered walls, matching bedspread and floor to ceiling curtains. It was a room befitting writer Alexandre Dumas and he actually stayed there when he wrote the Three Musketeers. The town lived up to its reputation for cuisine (much more fairly priced than Paris food of lesser quality) and had two sparkling green rivers running through it: the Rhone and the Soane. People were actually swimming in these rivers and the entire experience was all too civilized. What was unexpected was that the majority of chefs, like Alain Aleaxnian, were green food advocates, dedicated to promoting and supporting local producers and organic food and wine. (Read the next three words in a French accent) But of course… it makes total sense in a clean environment, surrounded by pristine waters and forests. For a day, we ventured deeper into the countryside and visited Chamber, witnessing the fields of pure, white cows famous for so much of the region’s delicious cheese. I am so happy to have been exposed to the fantastic wines of the Rhone, earthy and full bodied- yum!

La Tour Rose Hotel

So Cal Contractor Roi Yerushalmi and Lori Dennis Rhone River, Lyon France

Cooling our feet at the Soane

Beautiful Lyon

Lyon City Square

Chambery France

We wrapped up the trip with a two day layover in London- unfortunately most of it was in the airport due to faulty British Airways planes. In Heathrow airport, terminal 5, green is alive and well. On one of our last eating and drinking extravaganzas, we were served a bottle of Belu Water. This company donates ALL of their profits to clean water in places where people don’t have any. Belu has successfully created the world’s first carbon neutral bottled water, launched the UK’s first plastic bottle made from corn not oil, promotes PVC-free bottle caps and provides over 40,000 people overseas with access to clean water.

So we wrapped up the trip with a nice green, ribbon and came home to see our sweet little Elle Bell.

Tags: Belu Water, Chambery, Christian LaCroix, France, Hotel Bellechase, Hotel DeVille Paris, La Tour Rose Hotel, Luxemburg Gardens, Lyon, Musee D' Orsay, Notre Dame, Pantheon, Paris, Rhone River, Saudi Oil Bike Protest, Soane River, SoCal Contractor, Viex Lyon
Posted in Architecture and Design, Green Living, Interior Designers | 1 Comment »

Springtime at Our New House

Monday, April 12th, 2010

“I love living in our new house!” That’s what my husband said when I handed him freshly squeezed orange juice this morning. We’ve been here for 10 days and now that everything is pretty much where we want it (NO MORE BOXES !) we have had the opportunity to start enjoying what this place has to offer. And boy oh boy does it has a lot of citrus!

We spent the past weekend planting our succulents, the beginnings of an herb garden and painting the patio fence. The SoCal Contractor even made three huge planters for the patio.

We found the perfect spot with the right combination of shade and sun for the orchids and figs will be ready in a few weeks. Can you say edible garden?

It feels like the garden of Eden and I can promise you I won’t screw it up by planting any apple trees!

Tags: Citrus, Edible Gardens, SoCal Contractor, Spring
Posted in Green Living | No Comments »

The SoCal Contractor on Design*Sponge

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Big thanks to Grace at Design*Sponge for blowin’ up our favorite green builder Mr. SoCalContractor on one of our befores and afters.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Fresh, green goodness! Enjoy.

Tags: bath remodel, Before and After, Design*Sponge, kitchen remodel, SoCal Contractor
Posted in Baths, Before and After, Blogs, Green Living, Kitchens | No Comments »

Cherokee Studios Rock N Platinum Showcase

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Alcie Cooper Lyrics

: Platinum records for the Platinum loft

Thursday night, across the street from Genghis Cohen and behind a secretive, black curtain Rethink Development unveiled the rock n’ roll lofts at the Cherokee Recording Studios LEED Platinum Lofts Showcase benefitting Habitat for Humanity. We (Lori Dennis and Brook Casey of the Dennis Design Group) were in charge of the Alice Cooper pad and took our assignment very seriously, literally dressing the part.

Dennis Design Group gettin' down in bed?

Our shock rock loft never could have been possible without the generous donations of our many vendors and time from our interns, Sara, Rob and Natasha. Plus it’s not really a party if Tony of Francois and Roy from the SoCal Contractor aren’t in tow. In the bedroom Heritage Draperies fabricated and installed our padded, chained window treatment and Mike Ragan of Rags put together this amazing patchwork, padded wall with fabric from Jason Asch of Diamond Foam. The stars were out in LA on Thursday night and two showed up at our event: Jodie Sweetin , who we all know and love as the old Stephanie Tanner from Full House and Calico Cooper, Alice’s daughter and former co-star of his stage show.

Calico Cooper representin' for Papa

Looking at these pictures you would never know that a mere 24 hours before the event we had no stairs and were finishing up our super style in a deadly, construction zone! Sparks from the welding were hitting us, the wall, the furniture and Sara even got smacked on the noggin’ pretty good by a wayward steel beam. It’s a good thing she has a better work ethic than that witch who hit her head on the Apprentice and wasted the team’s time going to a hospital. No, not Sara… she just kept on hot glueing those recycled, reclaimed water bottles that we used as wall art in the guest bath. Through it all Brook and I just kept hammering the boxes and boxes of nails into our wall eating snake. Jason Asch over at Diamond also donated this massive amount of rocker, (faux) snake skin fabric.

Lori and Brook Nailing

Still nailing...

and finally it was done.

I was afraid Brook was going to hang himself. But he stuck it out and we even finished the lyrics on the bathroom wall so Tony from Francois could learn them and sing along.

Don't do it Brook!!

When the doors opened at 7PM we all took a shot of Skull Vodka and welcomed our guests to Alice’s Lair. Francois provided the Gothic mantel in the living room, serving as the perfect backdrop to the snake skin bench from Bausman and Co. and upholstered chairs from Cisco Brothers. All the kitchy 60s, 70s and 80s accessories from Retropia and the original props from Alice Cooper’s show gave our loft an authenticity rarely seen in staged showcase homes. Big Red Sun even landscaped our balcony in a true, desert decor representative of the golf courses in Phoenix that Alice so dearly loves.

Alice's Lair

You'll never guess what these balls are for!

Cooper Gang in the Loft

The most shocking thing about our shock rock loft was the dirty, little secret in our turquoise blue, laundry room. Really, how could you not go there in this loft?! Pleasure Chest hooked us up for the event and I’m not going to reveal we did or didn’t use before hanging it on the walls.

Green bondage-stay in and save gas!

All in all the showcase was an event to help the developers sell property in a really tough market. Habitat got more than a few bucks, we had a blast and I heard someone is making an offer on our loft today!

Tags: Alice Cooper, Bausman and Co., Big Red Sun, Calico Cooper, Cherokee Recording Studios LEED Platinum Lofts, Cisco Brothers, Dennis Design Group, Diamond Fabric, eco-friendly, energy saving, Francois and Co., Green Events, green materials, Green Retailers, green roofs, Habitat For Humanity, interior design, Jason Asch, Jodie Sweetin, LEED, LEED Platinum, Lori Dennis, Mike Ragan Rags, Pleasure Chest, Retropia, SoCal Contractor
Posted in Charities, Events, Furniture, Green Building, Green Living, Materials, Parties, Press, Retailers | No Comments »

[LORI DENNIS INTERIOR DESIGN]

Lori Dennis formed Lori Dennis Interior Design, specializing in green interior design, in 1998. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Coastal Living, Southern Accents, Woman's Day, Los Angeles Times, Apartment Therapy and countless other magazines, books and websites throughout the world. [more..]

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