Virginie Queen ; Still Reigning over French Cinema Ten Years after She Set Sail for the Beach, Virginie Ledoyen Grants Janine Di Giovanni an Audience

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Styled by GIANLUCA LONGO

Virginie Ledoyen is on time. She glides into La Rotonde, a cafe in Montparnasse not far from her home, on a rainy morning, looking like a little sunbeam in an electric- blue leather jacket. She sits on a red velvet chair, politely asks for a pot of tea and opens her handbag to take out her BlackBerry. I spot a pack of Marlboro Reds, and I think of the YouTube posting of Ledoyen sitting in a Parisian cafe, smoking, eating something delicious and laughing out loud: ' J'adore ca!' It made me like her before I met her: someone who still drinks and smokes and eats and looks like they enjoy it.

The morning we meet, Ledoyen is not wearing Chanel - …