Well before the pandemic started to change office-going habits, independent director was on a flexible working arrangement. A self-described “nomad,” her homebase is, well, at home--but she’ll set up shop in her garden, at the stables (where she rides horses), at client sites, at cafés and sometimes even at a real office, namely that of MJ Hudson, where she works as a managing director.
“No, no, no, I don’t,” she says, cheerily, asked if she has clear boundaries between working hours and non-working hours. She likes to prep for meetings before the professional working day begins, for example, but in exchange she’ll go out for a walk (or a ride) in the middle of a weekday if the mood strikes. Weekends and evenings are fair game for work, too.
“I like it this way,” she says, adding that she can of course disconnect during family dinners or other private-life moments. “I decide when I have private time, when it’s more suitable to me.”
One cannot, perhaps, draw a finer line between working and private worlds than Tournier-Demal has when it comes to the location of her desk, which is actually in a corner of her bedroom. (Although she is eying some real estate upstairs, which will become available when her youngest daughter moves out in the near future.)
So, what’s on her desk?
Notebooks
Permanent notes on the left, temporary notes on the right. Wherever Tournier-Demal is working, on any given day, she’ll have these two objects with her. Photo: Romain Gamba/Maison Moderne
“This is my life,” Tournier-Demal says of a yellow and well-thumbed Moleskine notebook, heavy with ink, notes and even little mementos picked up along the way. The weekly notebook is good for one year, after which it gets filed on the shelf along with its predecessors.
Next to it is another notebook, this one homemade from recycled paper. “I do it myself,” she says, flipping through the halved pages of scrap paper. “I’ve been on this model for many years. I’ve only met one person who did the same… and I think we should all do that!”
Chocolate
“I’m addicted to dark chocolate,” says Tournier-Demal, who moved to Junglinster from Paris some 20 years ago. Photo: Romain Gamba/Maison Moderne
“Salted dark chocolate is my drug,” says the independent director, holding up a bar of organic Flor de Sal chocolate negro from the Algarve, Portugal. She assures us that she doesn’t eat it all day long, just a square with coffee after lunch and, perhaps, another in the afternoon.
Glasses
One of several pairs of glasses kept by the independent director. Photo: Romain Gamba/Maison Moderne
“Glasses,” says the former lawyer, by way of introducing the next object. “Because I don’t see well.” She keeps pairs everywhere: “in my purse, but also on my desk, at the stables…” She even has a pair at the MJ Hudson desk because the distance to the computer there is different.
Antique calendar
“These two dogs are called Tik and Tok, according to my grandmother. No: Ric and Roc!” She emailed later to clarify: “Ric and Rac. ” Photo: Romain Gamba/Maison Moderne
“This came from my grandfather. He had it on his desk.” Made of wood, the calendar features two dogs, figures from a French comic by Jean Fayard from the 1930s. The dogs are called Ric and Rac.
Unfortunately, most of the day and month cards have gone missing. “So that’s my permanent diary,” laughs Tournier-Demal, “but the date is always wrong!”