Her just published memoir " C'est la Vie" is the first in a new series that establishes a parallel career as an engaging memoiriste. This initial volume explains how at 50 she transitioned from a settled life as a wife, writer, shopper and mom in Connecticut to a widowed writer designing a new life in Paris.

She was recently in the states for a quick book tour and I was able to catch up with her at her New York hotel via telephone. Once we had established the inevitable fact that we had at least three Parisian expatriate friends in common we settled in for a conversation about Paris and her book.

TG: When did you first go to Paris? SG: I went to Paris as a child. My father was a doctor who worked with the World Health Organization in Geneva. I'd been going to Paris for thirty- five years before I lived there.

TG: When did you decide that you had to be in Paris? SG: I think the having to be there was a gradual thing. I would find that after research trips or visits I would be standing someplace and not sobbing but getting misty-eyed and broken-hearted thinking that I was going to leave. Of course, I knew that I'd be coming back but it was like a need to be in Paris, so I knew that someway or other I'd be there.

TG: In your book you write about taking the decision to move to Paris after Michael's (Suzy's husband) death. Talk about that please-I found it very poignant. It seemed as if he was coaching you and giving you permission to go. SG: Death is a subject that most people don't want to talk about and there's a lot of difference in a sudden death or an unexpected death and people who have this precious window. Mike and I had about three months before he died but because of the drugs he wasn't completely "on the team" for all of that time but in the beginning he was aware of what was happening and he gave me notes on everything from his computer password to what I should do and what it should cost and what the plan should be. He felt better knowing that we had both worked out a plan. Originally I was only going to go for one year but six months into it I realized that I didn't want to come back. Then I sold my house and it got serious.

TG: Where do you live? SG: I live in Montmartre now. The story of the book takes place in my first year. I moved on Feb 14, 2000 and for the first three years I lived in a rental in the seventeenth. Then realizing that I had flushed way too many euros down the toilet I bought a small apartment in Montmartre.

TG: Apart form the financial aspect why did you choose Montmartre? SG: Watching the signs in the real estate offices and seeing the pie charts in the newspapers describing real estate going up I saw that the established, western portions of Paris had gone up but they'd peaked. The only way you can make money in real estate in Paris is in eastern Paris, and specifically northeastern Paris and as someone who travels that's good for the airport and most of the trains. From that it was a question of making a smart purchase that I knew would make money for me, that was convenient for the lifestyle and I wanted light on top of that.

TG: Is there something particular about Montmartre, now that you're there, that you love? SG: To me it's like living in France, not like living in Paris. I don't think I could have done it successfully when I first arrived. My French is better, I know how things work better and I'm not frightened by people of different colors with strange headdresses and weirdness which we certainly get a lot of. It feels much more real. The frightening thing about my part of the 17th is that everybody looked alike…and I'm happy to be away from that.

TG: With your predilection for shopping I would have thought you to be a sixieme person. SG: I think that in one time in my life I was but I've evolved so much that I'm much more funky than that now.

TG: What is your favorite market? SG: I don't do the "if it's Sunday I must..." routine. I like the rue Cler in the 7th between the 7th and the 15th. My street is a market street and that's fun and funky. My greatest pleasure is just to get my dog and my wheely-wheely and find a new market.

TG: What have you found lately that excites you? SG: I'm going into more and more funky neighborhoods. I've just discovered Little Africa, a market right next to the Chateau Rouge metro. Everyone there dresses like it's Halloween. Very exotic produce-it's just exotic beyond anything you'd see anyplace else- kind of Marseilles exotic.

TG: Is it changing your cooking habits? SG: Absolutely. I'm a big person in 'Oh, what's that and what do you do with it?' What if I combine that with peanut butter and jelly? I like to add these new ingredients to my traditional recipes. Of course, sometimes the people who come to dinner aren't delighted but sometimes it works.

TG: Do you have a favorite café? SG: No, I'm actually not a café person. Mostly my style is that I make my own big cup of coffee, American coffee, not French which I bring over by the pound and sit at my balcony and look over the rooftops of Paris.

TG: So you don't go someplace to write? SG: No, I have an office in my apartment. I sit there all morning.

TG: Do you write everyday? SG: Oh yes. I write very day-Monday through Friday, and sometimes on the weekends and sometimes not.

TG: Is this the next book you're working on or the shopping guides? SG: "Born to Shop" is my regular gig and I'm on deadline for the next edition of "Born to Shop: Paris."

TG: When will that be published? SG: I turn it in on April 15 and so probably November. "Born to Shop" has a regular rotation. The research is done with laundry baskets because I'm always doing the research. Cards, clippings and notes go into the appropriate basket at the end of the day and then when I'm on deadline I start the serious writing.

TG: How many deadlines are you meeting annually? SG: I do three a year. At this point they're all rewrites. This year celebrates the 20th anniversary of the series so that makes it the 10th edition of each one because they are every other year.

TG: Was Born to Shop Paris the first book? SG: No. Born to Shop began as a series. There were four when they first came out and the first was Born to Shop:France. Paris was broken out later, then London, Italy and a few weeks later Hong Kong.

TG: So your passion for Paris began as a result of the series? SG: No, my passion for Paris grew out of knowing it, knowing people. It's somewhat of a practical decision for me to be there-I knew a lot of people and I knew what I was doing. I've been to some cities that touch my soul more, like Santa Fe and Nairobi. I started taking French lessons at fifty and got to the stage where I speak fluent bad French. And it just made sense!

TG: Do you have a favorite little bistro? SG: Chez Francis remains my favorite. It's right across from the Eiffel Tower on the Right Bank at Alma, great location and I could sit there for days.

TG: When you celebrate a big event is there a 3 star restaurant that you prefer? SG: I am good friends with Alain Ducasse, personal friends and we became friends before he became so famous. He just had the 3 stars in Monaco before he developed the other parts of the business. It was a time when you could connect with him in ways that you probably couldn't now. So a celebration usually means dinner in the kitchen at one of his restaurants. But I'm also friendly with Jean-George Vongerichten so sometimes I'll go to Market. If I have people in from out of town and I want to show them a fun Paris night I'll take them to Market because I think the crowd is hilarious…and I always explain that those young girls are out with their uncles.

TG: When you're kicking back at the apartment what is the house plonk? SG: It's very embarrassing but I'll tell the truth. What I drink is called Floc? I was introduced to it in New York by the tourist bureau of Gascony. It's a mixture of cognac and something else, perhaps a prune cordial-it's very sweet-sweeter than pineau des charente.

TG: Do you drink it as an aperitif or as a wine-glass after glass? SG: If no one is looking and I'm not serving a meal that's what I drink. If I'm serving a regular dinner I serve wine-usually red but in terms of drink of choice it's Floc.

TG: When you're really celebrating is there a luscious wine that you like to get your tongue around? SG: I'm a blanc de blanc champagne person.

TG: Do you have a favorite park or garden? SG: Neither my dog nor I are park people. We're more likely to be window shopping-lache vitrine.

TG: Do you have a favorite museum? SG: D'Orsay, how can you not love it?

TG: You're a fan of the impressionists? SG: No. It's a combination of the whole. I don't really care for the art or what's hanging. It's the architecture and the gift shop and the way the space and the light feel.

TG: What do you do to stay connected to America, outside of frequent visits? SG: I have one of those 4 cents a minute telephone deals and of course email. But I think part of the point of living in France is that I really live in France.

TG: Do you celebrate Thanksgiving? SG: Absolutely. Thanksgiving in Paris is a big deal. I have strangers calling me to be invited. I fly to America in the weeks before and I buy an enormous butterball turkey. The trick is that you have to keep it frozen and check it in with the luggage because it's cold down there. I buy everything in an American supermarket: cornbread, marshmallows on top of the sweet potatoes, cranberries-complete American Thanksgiving.

TG: And you invite Americans or a combination? SG: I'm very big on introducing people to other food cultures. I'll have people who aren't Jewish for Jewish holidays; people who aren't American for American holidays. I just had three generations of a French family come to Thanksgiving this past year.

TG: You don't do chile con carne, tacos, burritos? SG: We have a football night. I'm a big football fan and we get Monday Night Football on Tuesday nights in Paris. The game goes on at 6:30 with a French voice track laid over. The announcer is a Canadian and he has an accent worse than mine and he goes: 'ooh la, la, la, la il gagne trois yards. Ah, mon dieu! Holding. And after the game we always have American food. That might be fried chicken, hamburgers, Tex-Mex.

TG: Two final questions. How has Paris affected your work? SG: Born to shop is not affected at all.

TG: I meant internally. How has it changed your thinking about work? SG: I think part of the reason that those of us who like Paris do because the pace is so different? I knock off earlier. I've come to accept the French concept that the friends and the food are more important than the job. I don't work as much; I don't hustle as much; I'm not aggressive. I gave up the New York thing and I'm happier for having done that. I still meet my deadlines but I do not do the work of two people anymore. And as long as I maintain the quality of Born to Shop it's okay. "C'est la Vie" is a departure for me. It's the first memoir in a series.

TG: What is the title of volume two? SG: Merci, Madame. It's the story of my house in Provence and meeting Mr. Right. I met him in Provence. He was the right age, not married, comfortable financially- a zillion really nice things.

TG: So you're with Mr. Right? SG: No, no. He asked me to marry him and I realized that I couldn't marry a Frenchman. The cultural differences are enormous and no matter how right the little details are the bigger things of always being told how to cook the dinner DRIVE YOU CRAZY! Don't wear those sunglasses. I think your hair should be more blonde.

TG: At a certain age they are all blonde. I think that up to forty there are no blondes in Paris and over forty they are all blondes. SG: Just like Miami.