Lille, France

Was in Lille last weekend. Lille is in the northern part of France, close to Belgium.

Highlight of the trip was seeing a Marikmekko exhibition at the Museum of Art and Industry (or was it the Museum of Industrial Art... Somewhere along those lines... It was in French; my translation skills ain't that flash).

Marimekko is a design house that proliferated our lives with their iconic fabric designs in the 60s and 70s. A lot of the "retro" fabric, prints and cards we see are either reproductions of Marimekko designs or knock offs (!!!).

But what stood out about the exhibition was not just its designs from the best decades of the 20th century. The Marimekko design house was created and ran by women. There were photographs of these outstanding women at the exhibition; it was great to see the exhibition visitors read the narrative next to their portraits with admiration and respect. They certainly had mine.

When one is from a country where the last two prime ministers were women, one of the largest organisations in the country is headed by a woman, and the head of the division you work in is a woman, we know we no longer have to cook those eggs every morning. Every one of us can make a difference. As did Simon de Beauvoir.