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French Chic & Slim
Nouvelles
News and Opinion from Anne Barone to Keep You Chic & Slim — INDEX to Previous Nouvelles
image: Loaves of Poilâne bread in bakery window. Photo by Gilbert Bochenek via Wikimedia
|| 19 February 2026
French Bakery Poilâne In Difficulties
Just hours after I posted the Nouvelles on bread knives, I read the that the renown French bakery Poilâne was in financial difficulties. These, the article stated, largely brought on by competition from bakeries more popular with Gen Z tourists who prefer new bakeries that have gone viral on social media because of their “food porn.” Food porn defined as “the highly stylized, glamorous, and often indulgent visual presentation of food.” Despite its tradition and high nutrition few would say the big, round brown loaves with hand-scored letter P were“visually indulgent.” And then there was that little problem with rats that got into one of Poilâne’s production sites. Quel dommage!
In the original Chic & Slim: How Those Chic French Women Eat All That Rich Food And Still Stay Slim I wrote about Poilâne. In the book I explain that while the long, thin crusty baguette is as much a symbol of France as the Eiffel Tower, the baguette is not traditional French bread. Rather it was brought to France in the mid-19th century by an Austrian diplomat.
Traditional French bread is the round whole wheat sourdough loaf that had fed the French for centuries. I wrote:
As for revolution, the French underwent another 200 years after the original. This time the revolution was in bread. Parisian baker Lionel Poilâne waged an energetic campaign to bring the French back to the more nutritious traditional round whole wheat sourdough loaf.
Poilâne’s efforts rated him attention by the international media, including a cover story in Smithsonian magazine. His method makes country bread by an ingenious marriage of traditional techniques and modern technology in which quality has not been sacrificed. Poilâne bread became immensely popular.
Poilâne has bakeries not only in France, but also one in London. Our Chic & Slim Special Correspondent Kat who lives in London has, in the past, emailed about having Poilâne bread with her breakfast cup of tea.
I read about Poilâne’s recent financial problems in The Times UK. When I looked around for an article on the situation on a non-subscription website, I found one in The Daily Mail where one, unfortunately, often has difficulty finding the article in the barrage of advertisements popping up around the webpage.
The Mail's “on the brink of closure” stated in the article title seems an exaggeration. In The Times UK article Apollonia Poilâne, who took over the directorship of Poilâne when her parents were killed in a plane crash when she was 18, is quoted saying: “We're reworking all the basics to enable Poilâne to bounce back… There are very few bakeries like us, known throughout the world.”
Poilâne’s principal competition The French Bastards may offer Tik-Tok’s preferred “food porn.” But no one has called it “Louis Vuitton of boulangeries.”
Daily Mail article on Poilâne’s financial difficulties
There are also a couple of comments in a Guardian article about the relation of social media to Poilâne’s financial problems. titled Food porn’: Are sexy meal pics ruining the restaurant industry? Swanky eateries are attracting an influx of influencers — whereas those that produce less varied and photogenic fare are struggling
One piece of advice I would offer to Apollonia Poilâne: If she wants Poiâne to compete with The French Bastards and other “food porn” competition, in her recipe section on the Poilâne website, either delete that recipe for quiche made with vegetable peelings (the part usually throw away). Or else use some more colorful peelings than what the photo shows. The French have traditionally tried to discard nothing in their cooking. But that vegetable peeling quiche photo is really so depressing.
be chic, stay slim, live well — Anne Barone
|| 16 February 2026
Bread Knives
Recently The Times UK published a bread article in Q&A format. The writer asked Richard Bertinet, a French baker who teaches a bread baking school in London, what bread knife he recommends. His preference is the Opinel No. 116 Parallèle because it has a “curved, serrated blade to help cut through the crust evenly.”
When I read his recommendation, I thought of my Opinel No.12 knife my son had given me after the Texas Freeze to cut the dead branches out of my privet. (Though it would have taken me years to trim the damage the cold had done to my privet bushes with that little knife — even though at that time Opinel was labeling it as a small saw.)
Opinel is the French knife company that is renown throughout the world for the quality of its knives. My son believes that if Anne Barone writes about the French, she should use French knives. I have an all-purpose small folding knife as well as a four-piece kitchen essentials set and the No. 12.
My Opinel No. 12 has a curved, serrated blade the French baker prizes in the Opinel No. 116 Parallèle. I thought it should cut through the crust nicely on my yet-uncut loaf of bread sitting on my kitchen counter. I tried it and it worked very well. (But my American bread knife with the straight blade and serration that is only about one-fifth of the Opinel No. 12 is still my preference for slicing the bread that my current bread machine produces.)
Yet I wasn’t really surprised when I went to the Opinel USA website to look up the No. 12 and found that since my son gave me the knife seven years ago, Opinel has repurposed that No. 12 as a Bread Knife.
The Opinel website description:
The No.12 Serrated Folding Knife is unique in its design, and makes the perfect folding bread knife. Ideal for slicing firm loaves and tough rinds of large fruits and vegetables, the serrated stainless steel blade folds into the beech wood handle, making the knife easy and safe to store and transport for outdoor use. A serrated knife does not slice through paper or nylon like a straight edge would. It's best to use a serrated blade to cut through tough exteriors like bread crust or a ripe tomato that would be crushed otherwise!
As I wrote in a Nouvelles a few weeks ago about my struggles with my new bread machine, I am still unhappy that the Bake program does not allow choice of crust color [crispness]. But I think my Opinel No. 12 knife will be just the thing for slicing the baguettes and round rye loaves that are my next bread projects. Dough kneaded in the bread machine and then baked in my Breville toaster oven whose reviews praise its utility for baking bread.
Today we are celebrating Presidents’ Day / Washington’s Birthday. A memory that has remained for decades from my visit to Washington’s home at Mount Vernon is that of the bread ovens where 50 loafs of bread were baked daily in Washington’s time there. They were in operation when I visited, as I understand they are today. Is there anything that smells quite like baking bread?
be chic, stay slim, live well — Anne Barone
|| 10 February 2026
Saunas and Ice Baths
Lately an increasing number of people have been advocating saunas and ice baths as a way to heart health, lower risk of dementia, and clearer and sharper thinking. Each time I see a media article on saunas and ice baths, I recall my father-in-law’s story about his experience with them.
As a young man, he was once in Finland on holiday and one evening a Finnish acquaintance suggested a sauna. Since it was winter, my father-in-law found the sauna a pleasant experience.
The sauna was seaside, and when they came out of the sauna, the Finn plunged into the water in which chunks of ice floated. My father-in-law however declined the ice bath.
For a couple of weeks he did not see his Finnish acquaintance. When he did run into him, my father-in-law asked if he had been away on trip. No, the man said, he had been in the hospital with pneumonia.
be chic, stay slim, live well — Anne Barone
|| 3 February 2026
The Connection: Bread Machines and Chic, Slim and Living Well
What is the connection with bread machines and being chic, staying slim and living well?
The answer is obvious. In the USA today — and in the UK I am assured — bread is one of the primary ways people consume ultra-processed foods. Those foods with their high sugar content, chemicals, emulsifiers, and other really-not-good-for-us ingredients.
To avoid the negatives of supermarket breads, baking our own bread at home is one of the ways we can enjoy good bread without the added sugars, high levels of sodium, emulsifiers, and preservatives in industrial breads. Additionally using a home bread machine can save us the labor of the old time-consuming hand mixing and kneading that I remember too well.
With not much time for thorough research, when recently my long-used Regal bread machine stopped working properly, I bought a Hamilton Beach artisan bread maker as a replacement. The new machine and I got off to a bad start when the user manual insisted that you cannot make bread in a bread machine without sugar in the dough.
That is simply wrong.
I have been making bread in a variety of brands and models of bread machines for over 30 years and I have NEVER put a grain of sugar in the dough of any loaf I have ever made. I, not surprisingly, want my bread to taste like that French bread that became my standard for the taste and texture of good bread. And, in France, putting sugar in the dough of those baguettes and bâtards and such are against the law. The only ingredients they may legally contain are flour, water, salt, and yeast.
But keep in mind if you make bread without sugar,, as I always do, the dough will likely require a longer rising time than if sugar were added.
Like many home bread bakers, through the years, I have modified the use of my bread machine to only do the mixing/kneading and baking functions. Rising time will always vary due to a number of factors like the flour, the temperature of my kitchen, the type of bread I am making.
Most frequently these days I make my bread from organic sprouted spelt flour (outside of sourdough, this is one of the healthiest) or from organic rye flour. Both spelt and rye, and especially rye, do not like much kneading. (And my spelt recipe requires only one rising.) In fact, many recipes for both spelt and rye breads call for only mixing and very minimal, if any, kneading.
With the old Regal, I had worked out that for my breads, I would place the ingredients in the bread pan, choose Basic Bread. The mix and knead was 10 minutes and then the machine would shut itself down for first rising. At that point I cancelled Basic Bread and allowed the dough in the bread pan to rise, checking it from time to time for when it would have risen to the proper height. (Usually 45 minutes to an hour.) Then I would choose Bake from the menu and the crust color I wanted. Almost always dark. The baking time was 1 hour.
The mix/knead time on the new machine is 18 minutes. Good grief! That, in my experience, is over-kneading for any type of bread — certainly for spelt and rye. An even greater disappointment in this new machine is that on the Bake program it is light crust only.
For three days I have been searching for a bread machine currently available that has kneading and baking functions that can be customized. But so far the only ones with these options I have found are 3 and 4 times the price of the one I bought. As for the most recommended, the Zojirushi, its two paddles might be more than I want for the mix/knead.
One piece of advice from the user manual (you can download them for almost every brand and model bread machine) for one Cuisinart model which also does not offer Bake crust color choice: When the beep sounds for the end of the Bake cycle, restart Bake and then stand by the machine and watch until the crust becomes as dark as you want. Oh dear, I had hoped for a solution a bit more high tech.
But I must say this for the new Hamilton Beach bread maker, the trial loaf I made on Saturday was delicious.
When I saw that the Dough cycle was not going to stop after 10 minutes, I cancelled the program at 12 minutes. The outdoor temperature was 17 that morning and the kitchen in the high 60s. I had chosen the recipe for a 1-pound loaf of Italian bread as made in the Tuscany region from my favorite bread machine cookbook because (a) I did not want to waste any of my pricey organic whole grain flours in case of failure (b) I had just made a big pot of Tuscan broccoli, barley and cannellini bean soup and I wanted a traditional bread to go with the soup.
Because of the chilly kitchen temperature and no sugar in the dough, the loaf took almost 3 hours to rise. Despite the crust lighter than I like, it was lovely crisp. The bread’s interior did not have holes as large as is typical of Ciabatta, French baguettes Italian cousin. But I had used Wheat Montana’s All-Purpose Unbleached Flour and the bread’s taste was excellent.
Like other sciences affecting our health and food enjoyment, bread making is evolving. It is adapting to new flours available and the design of new machines to take some of the drudgery from our home baking. Though I am disappointed in my choice of this new bread maker (and will likely replace it with something I like better), I am having fun learning new techniques for the craft of bread making.
be chic, stay slim, live well — Anne Barone
|| 27 January 2026
Texas Freeze 2
Here we are in (I hope) the waning days of Texas Freeze 2. This has been nothing like that awful time in 2021 when the electrical grid went down and we were without power and power-dependent utilities. In some parts of Texas these outages lasted for days and even weeks. Though I think the grid’s governing board feared they would come to physical harm from the populace if problems on the order of 2021 occur this year. They made efforts at prevention.
So far I have not experienced electrical or gas outages. The water pipes and faucets have not frozen. I have been careful about allowing the faucets to drip at night. The line between to drip or not drip in my old house is 20 degrees F (-7 C) outside air temperature.
But we have some days to go before we no longer have to worry about nighttime low temperatures. I know, however, that in many parts of the US and elsewhere, the problems inflicted by cold, ice, sleet, and snow are far greater. If you are in one of those areas, I hope you prepared well and are reasonably comfortable.
Things Are Wearing Out
In the previous Nouvelles I mentioned that when my much-loved French press coffee maker wore out, I replaced it with an AeroPress (which I still do not much like for a variety of reasons.)
Now it’s my bread machine that has to be replaced. Not surprising. This Regal was a gift to my mother back in the late 1980s. She used it for about 10 years and then it went into storage when she went to a nursing home. About a dozen years ago, the bread machine that I was using then died. I brought the Regal out of storage. It has made excellent bread until about a month ago when I noticed that my dough was needing additional water while mixing. Last week I discovered the problem: The seal on the bottom or the bread pan had rusted. Water was leaking out.
Fortunately the replacement bread machine I ordered arrived before our winter storm hit and shut down deliveries. The priority for this afternoon (after I post this Nouvelles) is to get the bread machine out of the box and set up for bread baking. I am down to my last slice of the last loaf the old machine made. But it served to the end. Even though the heating element went out before the end of the baking, it delivered an edible loaf.
I am sure that one reason I get long and good service out of my appliances is that before I put a new one into operation, I read the instructions carefully. And endeavor to follow them. As in many efforts, “first do no harm.”
Also when shopping for a new appliance, like most people, I read lots of online reviews and comments by users of the appliance before I choose. When I fail to heed their warnings I am usually sorry. As I am with the bathroom lavatory faucet I had installed about a year ago. One reviewer said the stopper lever broke soon after the faucet was installed. I told myself that was because he installed the faucet himself. Mine would be installed by a professional plumber. But my stopper lever broke despite the pro plumber installation.
be chic, stay slim, live well, stay warm — Anne Barone
|| 31 December 2025
Forward In 2026 Despite All
I am writing this Nouvelles the afternoon of the last day of 2025, looking both backward and forward.
Oh, dear! If I were to give a name to this year, it would be The Year of the Leaks. Beginning early in the year with the mysterious living room ceiling leak that refused to be repaired. Misdiagnoses of the problem became evident in November when the installation of new shingles to repair severe hail damage to my roof revealed four square feet of rotten wooden decking beneath the old shingles.
Then in December the leaks moved outside. The first caused by a handyman who was trying to remove a garden hose from the backyard faucet and broke the faucet pipe. A five-day wait for a plumber. Then, a few hours after the repair was completed, a new, far worse leak bubbled up out of the ground. Another five-day wait for a plumber during which the water had to be kept turned off except for a few minutes each day to fill jugs and bathtub with water.
The backyard leaks seem to have been repaired, but now my poor cat has injured her leg and we are dealing with her recuperation.
I find myself facing a new year exhausted from coping with the continuing calamities of the old.
Yet, as I was writing this Nouvelles, I was listening to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony which includes the “Ode to Joy”. Beethoven was deaf when he wrote this symphony, depending on his inner ear to hear the music he was writing. A reminder that we can move forward despite all.
Happy New Year
be chic, stay slim, live well — Anne Barone
|| 24 August 2025
Comment on Benefits of Walking After a Meal
In the previous post, I discussed the medical advice to take a short walk following each daily meal. I received an interesting comment on the topic from Pilar about her own experience with the exercise. Pilar wrote:
Anne, I can verify that for myself, walking after a large meal is so very effective.
Recently, for a couple of months, I wore a Dexcom continuous glucose monitor (CGM) — no prescription necessary — to monitor how my body reacted to certain foods.
But the most revelatory insight from the CGM was how much my glucose dropped even after just 10-15 minutes of walking after a meal. Whereas a healthy meal would cause my glucose level to go from 100 to 130/135 (perfectly normal), a 10-15 minute walk would drop it back down to 105. This means less insulin in the body which is a huge win. Sincerely, Pilar
Much thanks to Pilar for sharing her experience, and especially for providing us with the specific readings and type of glucose monitor. Her comments also reminded me that we now live in a time where reasonably priced medical devices are available that make it possible for us to have information that helps us to live a healthy lifestyle.
be chic, stay slim, live well — Anne Barone
|| 13 May 2025
Good Words For Anne’s Books And A Sunscreen Reminder
Recently an email from Synthia had good words for my books and also reminded me to preach my annual sermon on sun protection for the face.
Synthia wrote:
Just purchased your new book and I'm so excited to read.
Like many others have explained to you, your books have changed my life. I was able to travel much in the last 20 years, and for the most part, keep my wardrobe and weight in check and just live a very European inspired lifestyle.
I am so grateful for you and the lessons you have taught me which I now teach the new generation; my children who are now adults. I am proud of their interest in travel, reading, food, cooking, etc...They are rarely on social media and focus on developing their minds and living a full life.
My husband and I are planning a trip to Scotland this July. I don't know what to expect but I will let you know!
Merci to Synthia for her comments on my books. Perhaps after her trip to Scotland she will report her take on Scottish chic and slim.
You may remember that about a year ago, I shared with you Synthia’s experience with a Merkel Cell Carcinoma that had developed in the area just below her eye and required rebuilding her lower eyelid after the carcinoma was removed.
A Reminder:The area just beneath the eye is particularly sensitive to sun’s harmful rays, So a good sunscreen (without any carcinogenic ingredients) and sunglasses with UVA and UVB filtering are helpful in protecting you from things that might develop there.
be chic, stay slim, live well — Anne Barone
|| 10 April 2025
Choices
It’s spring here at Provence-sur-la-Prairie. The hailstorm over the weekend took its toll on the budding iris and roses — and a lot of the new leaves on the trees and shrubs. But despite the near-freeze early Sunday morning, the warmer days this week are encouraging the survivors.
One of my joys of spring is asparagus. My brother arrived this morning delivering two big bunches freshly cut from the field of a farm just outside the town where he lives. Bringing also just-laid eggs from the same farm. So omelette with asparagus is on the menu.
Recently two comments on my new book concerned choices. Nicolle in New Zealand wrote:
Congratulations on your new publication, I purchased from Kindle instantly. It was a very enjoyable read and compliments your other titles. Also I revisit your advice regularly and always read your website Nouvelle updates.
As I approach 50, the importance of exercise is made so clear, and your routine of Pilates and stretching is a good reminder for me to maintain my Tracy Anderson Method subscription as I age. Yes, it’s hard, but it’s harder not doing it. And in the end, we choose our version of hard, don’t we?
Warm regards, Nicolle
Vicki in Friday Harbor also wrote on the topic of choices. In her lengthy and interesting comments on The Barone System, she wrote:
One of the quotes I pay attention to daily is: What people have the capacity to choose, they have the ability to change. This one from Madeleine Albright. I firmly believe that our daily choices are just that: choices.
About six months ago my favorite neighbors decided that it would be better for their children to grow up in Europe and made the choice to relocate. Their sea freight is on the ship. They depart in a few days.
One of the questions I was asked often in the early days of this website was why I did not remain in France instead of returning to the USA. The answer was family reasons. But in hindsight it appears I might have made a better choice. Oh dear!
|| 31 March 2025
Reader Comments on The Barone System
Such a reward for me when a reader tells me my information has been useful. Recently I was especially rewarded by comments from Donna who has been reading my books and articles for more than 20 years. Donna wrote:
Hi Anne,
I have been reading your books and blog for over twenty years. The books changed my life by introducing me to a new way of living (the French way) which led to a better figure, better wardrobe, better work relationships (using the mystique technique) and more walking. It would take a book of my own to explain how your writings changed me fully.
I read your new book last night and was shocked by all the health information you now possess. I can tell that you have thought about and studied these issues for many years. I was very impressed and you have motivated me yet again, to become even more conscious of good eating and maintaining my health as I approach age 70.
When I look back on my weight journey over the years, I am always impressed that the factor that changed me the most was the Chic and Slim books, especially the first three. Your writings worked their magic on me as I believe your new book now has.
The other day I had a doctor's appointment. There was a 3rd year medical student with my doctor and as I was answering her intake questions, my doctor reviewed my weight graph with her. She asked me what the single most-important factor was in my weight loss journey which was slow and steady over several years. I told her it was the philosophy of Anne Barone's Chic and Slim books and found myself explaining the French Chic way of life that started it all.
Anne, I am so grateful you wrote those books. And I am so grateful to be able to start implementing the teachings of your latest one.
Thank you so much,
Donna
And, thank you, Donna for your lovely email.
Some techniques are useful for staying slim whatever your age. But each advancing stage of our lives brings new challenges to staying slim — and healthy. My aim in writing The Barone System was to give you both the techniques that helped me lose weight and stay slim 55 years, as well as those that I am finding helpful coping with the special difficulties in staying slim and healthy now that I am 80.
be chic, stay slim, live well — Anne Barone
|| 26 February 2025
Comment On A Comment
Last week Provence-sur-la-Prairie was enduring a Mini Texas Freeze. This week we are enjoying lovely spring. Nice compensation.
Lots of interesting comments on the new book coming in. Karen in Rosemount commented that she did not remember me writing on the website about suffering the pelvic prolapse that I discuss in the book. That was because I did not write about it there. Nor did I write on the website about my severe digestive problems, my problems with low protein, the West Nile Virus episode, why I did not gain weight during the Covid pandemic as many did, and several other matters covered in the book. This was purposeful.
First of all, I particularly dislike buying a book by a writer whose articles I have been enjoying and finding that the book is just a rehashing of the articles with little or no new material.
Just as I have always tried not to repeat in a subsequent book remedies and techniques I wrote about in a previous book, in The Barone System on staying slim and healthy despite coping with the problems of ageing I wanted to offer material that I had not written about on the website.
Secondly, in the new book, I wanted to be able to not only discuss a problem, but to explain the solution that I found for that problem. In the case of my severe digestive problems, finding a workable remedy required years of research as well as many trials of various solutions — the majority of which, I am sorry to say, did not give the results I had hoped for. But just as in my mid-20s I eventually found a solution for getting rid of my excess weight, I am happy to say that I did eventually find a solution for those severe digestive problems and for other problems plaguing me the past six years. In the new book I was able to discuss solutions for those problems too.
More comments on the comments on the new book in coming Nouvelles.
be chic, stay slim, live well — Anne Barone
|| 10 February 2025
The Barone System in paperback—and Kindle
For those of you who prefer print over ebook you can find The Barone System at the links below.