Thanks to her children, who introduced her to the travel-tracking app, “Been,” Christiane Lemieux knows exactly how many countries she’s journeyed to in her lifetime: 83. At least that was the current count when we last spoke with the peripatetic interior designer, whose summer itinerary includes trips to India, Vietnam and Japan.
Growing up in Ottawa, Canada, Lemieux spent her school breaks and summer vacations exploring the world with her English-Canadian mother and French-Canadian father. It’s a habit she tries to instill in her own children, despite her conviction that they already reside in the “greatest city on earth.” “It’s my choice, not my default,” she says of living in New York, where she recently unveiled the sprawling downtown-based studio and flagship store location for her brand, Lemieux et Cie.
Below, Lemieux describes the intangible souvenirs of her travels—ie, the keepsakes one carries for life—and why New York and Paris are her beloved “sneaker cities.”
All furniture and décor
Travel inspired my curiosity about design, from Canada to Japan, to India, Africa—all the places I went. Every time I go somewhere new, I’m in awe.
The first time I went to India was in 1980. I was sitting on a parent’s lap and the plane refueled in Tehran. Being in Iran in 1980, with what was going on there—crazy! I’ve been to Egypt, all over the world.
My most profound memories of my father are of him somewhere with his French ‘Blue Guide.’ I remember distinctly when I was 11, he was reading in French the full description of the ceiling frescoes of a church in Ravenna. This is how my parents educated me. It wasn't my college art history classes, it was my childhood.
When you have curiosity, and when you see the whole world and you realize we’re all fundamentally the same—we just eat different things, have different smells, and different climates and different architecture—it’s an amazing lens through which to live your life.
I’m not really a consumer when I travel. The older I get, the more I divest myself of things. But I can say ‘thank you’ in close to 20 languages. Those are the things I picked up that I carry with me.
I'm obsessed with going to Georgia because that’s where wine was born. They have a whole process around wine, which is medicinal. And then, because I love textiles, I’d love to go see where ikats were born—like the Silk Road countries. I’ve done some of that, but not the far-flung countries.
New York is the greatest city on earth. The energy here—it’s just so full-on. For some people, it’s too much, for sure. Or some say, ‘I love visiting New York, but I could never live there.’ I’m not sure I could live anywhere else.
I don’t own a car, but I own many pairs of sneakers. I love cities where your feet can carry you everywhere. Not only are you one exercising in a way that you actually love, you’re also here in it. This is life. It confronts you. As somebody who loves creativity, I can't get enough of it. I could also live in Paris. They’re both sneaker cities.
One thing that all of us are looking for is humans is a space that makes us feel safe. If your nervous system feels safe, then the world is your oyster. Joy is built on top of that, happiness is built on top of that—everything. So I think walking into a space where you feel safe—that grounds you immediately—is game changing. I come through that lens with everything.
