Happy Bastille Day! Oh, we'd love to be in France right now, eating cheese and watching the fireworks display. Since that's not possible, we're doing the second best thing and getting inspired by French style in the home, from country kitchens to formal Parisian living rooms to eclectic lofts.
Shown above, top row, left to right:
• Dining Room Gallery: French Country Style from Grange
• France's DIY Parisian Apartment
• Chez Pierre & Masa
• 8 I Learned on Vacation in France
• A Mini Bedroom that Doesn't Skimp on Style
Bottom row, left to right:
• Personalizing your Kitchen with Scraps
• Chez Francois and Raphaelle
• Chez Ed
• Chez Pascale
• La Chambre de Bonne
Images: as credited on original posts
Apartment Therapy's Sofa Shopping Guide
Nikki’s Sweet and Cheery Print Studio
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Stanley Console by ...
Vacation House Cooking: 5 Dinner Menus You Can Make in Any Kitchen
Summer Recipe: Brown Butter Peaches & Chantilly Cream
With the exception of the first (catalog) pic and those w/ the herringbone wood floors - I'm not seeing anything overwhelmingly "French" about most of these rooms...
...some of these could just as easily be in DesMoines or St Louis.
Copper pots and pans hanging on a kitchen wall? French.
Leaning mirrors against a wall? Very French.
Prized antiques mixed with newer pieces? So French it's not even funny.
Never, ever striving for perfection? The French invented it.
"Never, ever striving for perfection? The French invented it."
Is THAT ever off the mark...
Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte?
The Grand Boulevards of Paris?
The French Revolution?
Dom Perignon?
French Cuisine?
The S.S. Normandie?
Citroen DS?
Balenciaga, Christian Dior & Yves St Laurent?
i'm confused...are we listing french things or are we discussing the photographs? i mean the "ease" of the looks is French...isn't that the idea? not fussing...and Country French is definitely about that.
sigh it's Bastille Day let's celebrate and not pick apart such things. Vive la France!
ps: bepsf i do enjoy many things on your list and there is no ease or simplicity in the design of the City of Lights...you are correct
it's website about design in general. i don't think it specifies that spaces be AMERICAN....so yeah...uh...mmmkay it's ok to think outside the box and become a smidge more worldy. i'd hate to try and design with a closed mind.
Isn't this an American web site so why would we be celebrating Bastille Day?
Just for that I'm going to celebrate the Day After Bastille Day by swilling champagne Chez Pascale in virtual reality.
"Isn't this an American web site so why would we be celebrating Bastille Day?"
Well as a French reader and longtime member of the AT community I do appreciate the greeting. I had a wonderful Bastille day, thanks.
That first photo reminds me of this Michael Sowa painting: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~vicic/Erika.jpg
That porch (or is it a sunroom?) in the forth pic is so inviting. Wow, I love it. I wish I could see more of what is hiding in that garden.
Well, Ansela, as an American who's lived in French for 11 years now, I can tell you that they do, in fact, celebrate the Fourth of July on design sites with examples of American design.
*raises a glass of rosé de Provence, refrains from chopping off any heads*
(that's a joke, eh. Bastille Day was when quite a few heads were cut off, in case anyone's not aware.)
(lived in French? Lived in FRANCE. Sorry. Had a bit too much rosé.)
does not conjure up any "french" images at all - rather "anywhere in the world" style.