Alice Moireau
Childhood Memories
French foodie and table enthusiast Alice Moireau spends time between her Paris apartment and her family houses on the countryside. The same places where she spent her childhood. We visited her in her Paris apartment where nothing has changed since she was a little girl.
The apartment
“Hi, come on in. It´s a bit messy,” says Alice and closes a door to a sun yellow room where we get a glimpse of a bunk bed. She prepares a nice cup of tea, and we continue the conversation in her green living room.
The colours of the walls are beautiful and vibrant. “I love the walls,” she says. “The texture and the colours. Both my parents were artists, and my dad painted the walls with a paintbrush in 1992, four years before I was born. We have the blue kitchen, the dark bluebedroom, the yellow bedroom, and the green living room. I think everything becomes more interesting in colours. It sparks my creativity.”
“The interior is still as it was in my childhood so most of the things belong to my parents, and that is fine. But I had a need to create my own little space. Each month I decorate the shelf above the fireplace with some of the things I love. At the moment, I have a ceramic bowl from the 50ies with an ostrich egg in it, some candles made by a very skilled 92 year’s old Mexican woman – and some dried corn. I love the natural craftsmanship that they represent.
Besides this, I don´t want to change anything in here. I like to live in this. To me it is not a ghost from the past. When I was younger, I had my own apartment because I wanted to create my own personal space but then came Covid and I longed for a bigger apartment, and nobody lived here, so I moved in.
Was it like coming home to your childhood when you moved in again?
“Yes, definitely. It is the smell of my childhood. My bed smells like my bed when I was two years old, it is the same sound when I take a shower. It brings me back. Not in a nostalgic way, more in a safe, warm, and comforting way.”
“It is the smell of my childhood. My bed smells like my bed when I was two years old, it is the same sound when I take a shower. It brings me back. Not in a nostalgic way, more in a safe, warm, and comforting way.”
We decide to walk around in her apartment while we talk – and we get to the yellow room. “Normally I don´t show this room to anyone. It is my childhood room,” she says about the sun yellow room. When I was a child, we stayed in the apartment one weekend each month to explore the city, going to the theatre and exhibitions. To begin with I slept in a baby bed here and afterwards I got this bunk bed that I shared with my brother – even the mattresses are still the same.”
“I have so many magical memories from my childhood. For example, this little cabinet. It is a robot in papier maché with a door in the middle of the stomach. The knitted children´s hats from my childhood are still inside. See.” The little door in the cabinet reveals the most beautiful, knitted hats in different styles and colours. “My parents made it for a shoot for Marie Claire and afterwards they felt that we had to use it for something, so it came in here.”
How has it affected you living with all these curiosities?
“I think it pushed me to be more creative. I have a playful approach to make food, setting the table and to dress myself. I really like to have fun with my items. It should not be too minimalistic, rather extravagant. I think this is closely related to my childhood and how I grew up with colours and funny items with a story. Also, my mother did a lot of work for the architect and interior designer Paola Navone, and she often brought me for meetings in her house. It has also been a huge inspiration for me.”
“In a way I still live in my childhood. My childhood is an important part of me and reflects my life today. As a teenager I grew up really fast because my mother died of breast cancer when I was 14, and I had to take care of myself in many ways. In a way I am a grown-up adult. On the other hand, I am still Alice at 14 years.”
“As a teenager I grew up really fast. In a way I am a grown-up adult. On the other hand, I am still Alice at 14 years.”
Do you think this is why you stick to your childhood memories in this way, because you had to grow up so fast?
“Maybe. I did not know that we were going to talk about this, but it iscool. This conversation feels a bit like going to a therapist.”
You have many childhood memories that have shaped you. For example food.
“I have been interested in food since I was able to talk. My father told me that I was always talking about going to the market and when I was playing, I always decorated the table. I took this game super seriously and I never stopped playing it. I have always been very interested in the rituals related to food. Going to the market and afterwards going home to prepare it and set a nice table.
Both my parents were into food. In my childhood my father prepared all meals while my mother did the grocery shopping. She went to the market twice a week – never to the supermarket. The food was always organic and made from fresh ingredients and from scratch. We didn´t have a freezer or microwave, and candy was banned. In that sense my home was very strict, but at the same time I grew up with the most delicious food.”
As a child Alice learned to cook from a distance: “I never took part in preparing the food but every day I observed my dad working in the kitchen. I saw how he worked with his hands. We didn´t have a tv so I spent a lot of time observing my parents.”
“I never took part in preparing the food but every day I observed my dad working in the kitchen. I saw how he worked with his hands.”
“My mother was very strict in her way of raising my brother and me. When she got breast cancer it intensified her focus on healthy food, because she wanted to live as healthy as possible, and she wanted us to do the same. It is funny because normally I don´t talk about my mother and her strict way of raising us. Now it is the second time I touch upon it this week."
The rituals from her childhood are still present. “During the weekends I often gather my friends. On Fridays I go to the market all day to buy the groceries. Afterwards I prepare the food and set a nice table. I always try to dress like the table.
For example, if I made a white table, I would wear a white dress or if I made a red table, I would wear a red dress. Voila! This started when I was a child and played setting the table. When my parents had friends over, they took the time to prepare the food and to dress up. This was a magical moment for me. To see the table come together and to see my parents dress up. It was a bit of a show but in a good way.”
It seems like you always take the time to cook. Never in a rush. Why is this important to you?
“I am an energetic person, and the only occasion where I really take the time to slow down is when I cook. I am not into meditation. I wish I was. So, preparing a nice meal is my way of meditation. To do something with my hands, clears my mind."
“Preparing a nice meal is my way of meditation. To do something with my hands, clears my mind.”
Text and images cannot be shared without permission.
