Highly Specific Recommendations: Long Distance Gifting

Paris-inspired gifts for when you have to travel far or celebrate from afar.

Gifting can be tough when you live far from your giftees. Every year, I have to begin the search for very flat and/or unbreakable gifts if I’m flying home to California for the holidays. If I’m staying in France, I have to find gifts with impact that feel thoughtful and meaty enough to make up for the fact that I not only live far away, but I’m staying far away for Christmas.

I’m using this tricky situation as the basis for a little gift guide because, yes, I do think we need another gift guide. I love gift guides. I look at every single gift guide that crosses my desk, the more niche the better. I love using the background remover on Canva and pasting my little images over the template I made. Just humor me and enjoy my highly specific gift recs. Maybe buy one of them for me if you’re in the mood.

Gifts That Fit In Your Suitcase

When I say fit, I mean size-wise, but also items that are flat or flattenable, and also not likely to break. This is why my family gets a lot of cloth-based gifts and books, the flatties.

Carnet, Marin Montagut: Marin Montagut’s cabinet of curiosities and treasures has many appropriate gifts for a transplant traveling home for the holidays. Many are Paris-themed, and many are flat. I’m talking posters, art kits, postcards, and beautifully designed notebooks that are a feast for the eyes.

Canned Foie Gras: Everyone is always going on about bringing home butter from La Grande Epicerie, but I think foie gras is a better epicerie gift. Why gift a meltable commodity when you can bring home a controversial canned classic of French cuisine that’s illegal in some parts of the US? Give me shelf-stable vs. pantry staple any day. (Okay, I just checked, it’s only illegal in California, which makes perfect sense if you know how it’s made.) Sub for pâté or rillet if your conscience requires it. Also, the can is key here, because you don’t want a smashed glass jar of duck liver in your valise.

Merci Cabas: Every time I see a new colorway or special edition cabas from Merci, I rue the day I bought a monogrammed bag from L.L.Bean. It’s a beautiful, useful, well-made bag that will lie flat in your suitcase for your holiday gifting convenience.

Canelé Mold: For the gourmand who has everything: bring them vintage or new canelé molds. They’re beautiful objects that create beautiful little cakes, are French AF, and best of all, they won’t break in your suitcase. Maybe hunt for them at Landline General Store or Maison Cuilleret.

A313 Pommade: The perfect face de-wrinkling stocking stuffer that is easier to come by in France than in the US. I think you can order it via Canadian Amazon for delivery in the US, but I’m not sure anymore (also, Amazon, gross). What I do know is that you can find this pommade at any drugstore in Paris for like nine euros. When used consistently, it has de-aged my forehead at least five years.

French Food Jellycats: I love that Jellycat pelouches come in so many different recipes. The cakes and tarts are adorable. My son has a taco Jellycat here in France and a croissant in California. They make a great gift because everyone loves them, they have cute faces, and they won’t break in your suitcase or take up much space. Grab a patisserie or vienoisserie to give your gift a French flair.

France-Focused Travel Books: I not-so-secretly try to induce people to come visit me in France every chance I get. One way to do this is by gifting them France-focused travel books that will get them pumped to come to France, and also will make both of you look kind of silly if they don’t come. Like, how are you going to see that Alps hiking book on the coffee table every day but never do anything about it? I guess the real gift is a guilt trip? You’re welcome.

Gifts To Send Home

As soon as you’ve made the difficult decision not to travel back to the US for the holidays, you have to start shopping for the commiserate apology-level Christmas presents. High impact enough to help your family to forgive you for ditching them, yet personal enough to feel like they’re coming from “the asshole daughter who left the country and doesn’t come home enough.

The real trick here is finding good gifts that ship from the US, or can be shipped internationally, and NOT to buy, package, and send gifts yourself. La Poste is having trouble sending packages to the US this season due to the assbackwards tarrif situation. So keep things simple and predictable by shopping local-ish.

Customized Children’s Book For Grandparents: My mom reads books to my two-year-old son over FaceTime, so it made sense to make a custom book for her. I like Wonderbly because you can make the books in English or French, and can switch to the US site if you’ll be shipping it directly there. The personalizations aren’t too shabby either (I’ve seen some sites where they feel like creepy AI cartoons, or don’t feel very custom), and the stories are cute, not cringe.

Marriage Freres Tea Tin: I believe it was my sister-in-law who first sent us a tin of Marriage Freres Marco Polo tea from France, back when we still lived in LA. I was immediately hooked by how delicious it was, and kept the tin to store lesser tea for years after. While the tea brand is famously French (founded in 1854 and all), you can purchase it via US vendors directly to avoid international shipping and duties.

Custom Embroidered Shirts, Scarves, etc.: I was served with a billion ads for these custom embroidered garments this year. One of them finally got me, and I ordered a shirt for my dad with a little embroidered likeness of him and my son. It turned out adorable, and I think he shed a tear when he saw it. There are companies that will do this in the US, so you don’t have to pay for international shipping. I used Wear Your Moment because my parents were coming here ahead of the holidays, but I had to pay duties on it, so that was my bad.

New Yorker Puzzles: If you just thought to yourself “puzzles are a boring gift,” you are sorely mistaken, and I feel bad for you that you’re walking through life with so much misinformation and despair in your head. I recommend puzzles as a gift because I have been gifted long-distance puzzles on three occasions, and each one was a greater thrill than the last. The New Yorker ones tend to be a favorite because the odd shapes of the pieces make for a good challenge. I’m also partial to these Piecework Puzzles for their aesthetics, though they’re kind of too easy to be honest.

Veggie Bougies, Merci: Okay, hear me out on this. Veggie candles are the perfect gift. They’re cool to look at, but they’re the type of thing you see at Merci and want to buy but don’t buy, because who actually needs a food candle? If you’re traveling, you know better than to buy a candle that you’re going to have to babysit for the rest of your trip. But if you ship one directly to your friend or family member from Merci, they can finally get that baguette or grape candle of their dreams without the fuss.

Travel Slippers: Another travel-related gift as a way to subtly encourage them to visit you more often. Like, maybe if I give them these dark brown leather travel slippers with an accompanying pouch, they’ll think, “Oh, I may as well buy a ticket and see Shelby, I need to get some wear out of those travel slippers.” Also, I want these for myself.

And finally…

A Gift Subscription to Franchement: Get them psyched for their next trip to France while also supporting the arts or whatever it is that I do here. It’s kind of like one of those gifts where you name a star after them or adopt a sea lion that they’ll never see; it’s the thought that counts. Except with this gift, you’ll also be helping me to do my thing.

Oh P.S. if you happen to be an American in America and you want to show some love to your American friend living abroad, I also have you covered. Check out my gift guide for your American friend living in France.