A SoCal girl packs for a Winter in France

Longer title: A girl from San Diego with occasional, but significant lapses in judgement attempts to pack for a Winter in France.

First off, I’m sorry for referring to myself as a “socal” girl – I do not condone nor would I ever encourage the use of that term – but the fully spelled out, much more appropriate version just wouldn’t fit into the already unruly title. I hope you understand.

I’m generally terrible at layering and keeping warm but given that I’ve lived most of my life in San Diego, this fact has pretty much gone unnoticed. A few months before we sold our boat, we rafted up in Mission Bay with good friends who also lived on their sailboats with us in our marina. As the end of the weekend drew near and we were anticipating rough weather on the sail back, we all ducked below into our respective boats to put on clothes that would withstand 3-4 hours of heavy wind and spray. Per usual, I am totally flummoxed by this seemingly simple challenge but find an outfit that I believe will fit the bill: flip flops, cutoff corduroy shorts (which have been since become known as my “storm shorts”), and a hoodie underneath a down vest. When I reemerge into the cockpit I look over at my Swedish friend Karin who, in a matter of minutes had changed from effortlessly shic beachwear into a highly functional, stylish, all-weather outfit topped off with a protective hat and close toed, non skid shoes. Freaking Swedes – those brilliant, gorgeous bastards.

In shopping for Western Europe Winter wear, I’ve been trying to channel Karin, with varied levels of success.

First attempt at buying a winter jacket

Adam’s reaction.

Alright, understood. So I put my nose to the grindstone and returned to the mall with a mental list of more adequate outerwear possibilities. You’ll be happy to know that I walked right by Forever XXI and straight into JCrew. So instead of being the owner of eight new sweaters made from synthetic cotton and Chinese newspapers, I am the proud new owner of two quality sweaters, one wool with leather elbow patches and the other cashmere. Additionally I stopped in at The Gap to find two great coats, pictured below. Now I’m pretty much set!

Molly not pictured

Success!

Crushing it