Les Femmes & Les Hommes Respond. . .

The Question: What is the best gift (or gifts) you have ever received?

About the only generalization one can make from this completely unscientific survey is: Men will be boys. They really like their toys. 

This is what they told me:

Les Femmes:

Cristal: A Je t'aime from the man I love.

Patou: From my husband, all in one gift, every piece of Louis Vuitton that exists excluding the large suitcase and the trunk. Inside the carry-on was a handbag, inside it was a wallet, key case, glasses case, credit card case, etc.

Edith: From my father-in-law a small, electric chain saw so I can cut down small trees and branches without the help of a man. 

Anne-Françoise: From my father-in-law, a washing machine. (Ed. Note: I can't just let this pass. AF, I say, "Puh-leese -- the equivalent in French -- that's almost as bad as a chain saw. Whereupon she answered: "It was something I needed at the time with a four-year-old and six-month-old twins and no one seemed to notice, but him so I was extremely touched.")

Sophie: My sapphire and diamond engagement ring. Not only because it's beautiful and for what it signifies, but my husband had no money at the time he bought it and he earned every centime himself to give me a beautiful bague.

Frederique: From my parents, a gold medallion the size of a silver dollar (I've seen it, I'm giving you the scale) with the name of my son cut into it from Arthus Bertrand.

Mimi: From my father, my first Hermes scarf. It is not the scarf I remember so much as the whole day. My father picked me up, took me to lunch and stood by as I chose the scarf. I have never seen him so happy, that is what I remember most of all.

Joelle: My first night ever in a hotel with my new husband in London.

Aurore: A platter of cookies and cakes made by a Muslim neighbor to celebrate one of her high holidays. I was so touched I had tears in my eyes. She knows I'm Catholic and don't understand her religion, but the gesture was so kind.

Michelle: One day I walked into the Guerlain boutique and saw my husband buying my perfume for Christmas. I was so moved. I slipped out the door, he never saw me.

Annie: A diamond solitaire my husband gave me when our first son was born.

Letitia: I have two. The first is the German shepherd puppy my father promised me when I was a little girl and my mother gave me after he died. (Her name was Suzie.) The second, is the love letters my husband writes to me and slips in my handbag every time I travel away from him. They are to be opened only after the plane is in the air.

Les Hommes:

Jean-Paul: A white polar bear from Sevres. It was in our house when I was growing up and I loved it. One day my parents wrapped it as a gift and gave it to me. I still have it of course.

Jean: A racing bicycle from Pere Noel.

Timothy: A set of Legos to construct the moon and the planets from Pere Noel.

Michael: It's not material, my best cadeau. It was the day of our wedding when all my relatives from every corner of the world came to France to be with us. (Michael, an American, is the youngest in a family of six, has lived his entire life in France and is married to a gorgeous French woman.)

Arnaud: Les Femmes.

Jacques: My first bicycle when I was five-years-old. We lived in the middle of nowhere and it represented my first taste of real freedom. I would get on it in the morning and I was gone.

Robert: Two gifts really, a collection of poems by Jacques Prévert and on a trip to Russia, a private visit to the home of Dostoyesfski.

Bruno: My parents gave me a small wooden boat when I was about 10 or 12. That was the moment when I truly discovered the sea and how much I appreciate solitude. 

Martin (age 4): My horse calendar. (His grandmother called today to tell me he put it on his list for Pere Noel, but has yet to receive it. Martin is the youngest respondent in the survey. . .)

Alexandre: My wife. (I intercede: "You can't say that," I say. "Why not?" he responds. "Because," I counter. "In that case I don't have an answer. If happiness isn't the best cadeau someone can give you from the first time you meet and ever since, then I don't know what a cadeau is."

"OK, then." I relent.