Photos of Château Gabriel @Marianne Haas. All other images @Christie’s

The dismantling of a collection of objects amassed with care and love over a lifetime can be a rather somber affair. Especially when it belongs to the dearly departed Yves Saint Laurent. Yet after the very serious, very lucrative auction this past February of the masterpieces he and his partner Pierre Bergé collected, the upcoming second YSL sale at Christie’s France has a lighthearted, uplifting air about it.

You see, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé had a much different aesthetic in mind for their weekend home in Deauville than they did for their museum-like Parisian pad. Created with the help of French decorator Jacques Grange, their ocean-side oasis was a Proust and Visconti-inspired pastiche of 19th century decadence.

Filled to the brim with ornate, rococo furnishings, fleur-de-lys quilted couches, oversized cushions, chinoiserie vases, Indian-patterned carpets and knick-knacks galore, the abode was a cornucopia for the senses. Exactly what a vacation home should be!

Next week’s sale at Christie’s France will give admirers and collectors the chance to take home a memento of this lesser-know, far more playful side of the designer’s style. Of the 1200 objects to reach the auction block over the four-day sale (whose proceeds will go to fight AIDS) the majority come from Château Gabriel, the three-storey manor that YSL and Bergé purchased in the early 1980s.

“The atmosphere they created was incredibly loaded. We are very far from minimalism, which is why there is such a profusion of objects,” says Simon de Monicault, furniture specialist at Christie’s France.

Wildly eclectic in terms of period, provenance and style, each piece packs a different decorative punch (an element Grange undoubtedly used to achieve such spectacular flair).

Unlike the first sale with its multi-million-Euro lots, this one is far from elitist. Some pieces are estimated at only a few hundred Euros, while the highest, a gothic revival salon set (est. €80,000-120,000) is pittance compared to the €32 million Matisse fetched in February.

“It’s not the very grand things, but it’s everything else, including lots of conversation pieces,” says Jonathan Rendell, deputy head of Christie’s America.

While there are no celebrity objects in the lots, there are countless charmers and enough stuff to fill a few dozen homes. So if you’re looking to turn a ho-hum living room into one that pops, consider an enamel and rock crystal reliquary (€1,000-1,500), an elk antler chandelier (est. €6,000-7,000) or a pair of 19th century stools created for a Queen Hortense ball (est. €7,000-€9,000).

The rest of the sale consists of personal bits and bobs from YSL’s Parisian apartment and office, including his 14-piece French Bulldog statuette set, his Hermès crocodile luggage and a treasured collection of eponymous jewels that he kept on his bed-side table.

All in all, the sale offers YSL admirers a final snapshot of his intimate world through the objects he collected and loved. Those who don’t get to go home with a souvenir can at least leave with a smile.

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Auction Preview: November 12th-16th at Christie’s France,  75008 Paris (10am-6pm)
Auction Dates: November 17th-20th at Théâtre Marigny,  75008 Paris (10am-4pm)
Catalog: Click here to browse e-catalog.

Monsieur Ho is to feet as Yves Saint Laurent was to fashion—worshiped by his clients and envied by his rivals as a master of his medium.  For the last three decades his name has been passed secretly from one glamorous parisienne to another as the best pedicurist in town. None other than La Deneuve, France’s most famous and demanding diva, is his number one fan.

“Many of my clients, like Madame Deneuve, have followed me since my beginning at Carita 27 years ago,” explains Ho, a discreet and soft-spoken man who cares for his word-of-mouth clientele in his own private salon near the Champs Elysées.

In French,  pedicure means something entirely different from your twenty-buck NYC pedi.  It’s a curative treatment that only a podiatrist can perform, while beauté des pieds refers to the typical scrub and polish you get at your average nail salon. Monsieur Ho is both podiatrist and esthetician, meaning he can cure your feet and make them look divine. In a city where fashionable (read: uncomfortable) shoes are de rigeur at every age, his services bring springs back into steps.

“When it comes to shoes, comfort and aesthetics don’t mix. If they feel good, they’re ugly. That’s why I have such a steady clientele.”

Behind the rice-paper sliding doors of his mahogany-and-cream waiting area is a room the size of most studio apartments, outfitted with a single, Emperor’s throne of a chair. You’re asked to change out of your shoes and into a pair of plush slippers before ascending the steps to your perch. Lulled by the low-lit paper lamps and soothing water sounds playing in the background, you sink into the comfy leather lounge chair while Ho assumes his station at the tips of your feet.

After a lovely little foot bath and quick nail trim, Ho gets down to business. First he prepares his instruments: a thin, surgical knife (bistoury) and a slender gouge, both outfitted with fresh, disposable blades. With gouge in hand he starts working around the perimeter of each nail, carefully dislodging any dead skin that’s built up over and around them.

Once all of the skin has been ousted, he scrapes it all away with his scalpel using tiny gentle gestures so that each nail is perfectly clean. Next up? The soles of the feet. After reading your feet with his fingers, he takes his scalpel to offending mounds and patches being careful not too take off too much, then smooths the soles with a fine, hand-held file.

“The bottoms of our feet are our natural insoles, you want to keep a slight thickness for protection when we walk.”

Then comes the epic-long filing of the nails. Using five different files (emery, metal, mousse, etc), each one finer than the last, he gets nails as smooth and soft as crystal before performing the final climatic finish: the chamois cloth buffing that stimulates blood flow to the toes and leaves nails naturally rosy and glistening for up to a month.

Have a look below at Mr. Ho polishing my toes:

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Price: 150E per hour
Availability: Send me an email to be put in touch with Mr. Ho
House Calls: For an extra fee, Mr. Ho will come to your hotel room or apartment