Here is a translation of the Paris Vogue Interview. Thanks so much to Sebastiana at TFS for translating!
"When you ask Charlotte Casiraghi what she’s currently reading, she reaches into her bag and tosses 2 slim volumes with faded covers onto the table: Friendship by Cicero and On the Shortness of Life by Seneca. “This dialogue by Seneca is fantastic,” she says. “I re-read it often. I studied Ancient Greek and Latin, and the Stoics are some of my favorite authors. An excessive love for literature and riding and high honors on the philosophy bac are some of the few things known about this 25-year old woman, one of the most photogenic women in the world and with a natural instinct for discretion. “I’ve always read a lot. I get that from my mother. Sometimes I read 5 books at a time. I love picking up new ideas. I read a lot of classics – The Red and the Black by Stendhal, Sentimental Education by Flaubert, The Lily of the Valley by Balzac, a lot of Emily Dickinson, and also Leopardi, Fitzgerald, Carson McCullers, Tabuchi, Joan Didion, Houellebecq, etc. I also like poetry, like Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke and La Chanson du Mal-Aimé by Apollinaire.”
Sitting in a bar at the Hotel Bristol in an easy outfit of jeans and white shirt, Charlotte Casiraghi is striking for her beauty. She has the face of a Madonna, with blue eyes and a mouth identical to Mae West’s as drawn by Salvador Dali. You think immediately of the photogenic appearance of her grandmother, Grace Kelly, who went from being Hitchcock’s muse to the so-called “model princess” in front of 30 million people watching on live TV on April 19, 1956. You think also of her mother, Caroline, whose profile was immortalized by Warhol on the cover of Vogue in 1983. Lucky genes, a miracle of blue blood and magic spells on the Med, these beauties of the Rock of Monaco must have been blessed in the cradle by Venus.
Charlotte Casiraghi doesn’t give interviews, so to speak. “No comment,” as the family lawyer says. With a deep, polished voice and with innate politeness she brushes away questions she deems indiscrete with a weary face and a wave of her delicate hands punctuated with fluorescent orange nail polish. No chatter about boyfriends, family, the future, the idea of destiny or fame. “How we view other people is very personal. Of course I could talk about it. But I don’t like to.”
For the other questions, she plays the game, friendly and clearly. “To be completely honest with you, it’s true I love literature, but I really prefer philosophy. If I had to choose, I think I would have opted for the “agrégation” in philosophy [“agrégation" is a civil service exam in France for becoming a teacher]. I love rationality, the idea of essentiality, the development of reason, analyzing concepts. I was lucky enough to be introduced it by Robert Maggiori, an amazing professor and also a journalist with Liberation. He’s fascinating and makes the subject come alive. Probably because he succeeds in approaching the temporalities of philosophy and journalism the same way despite their seemingly different natures.
“I see Charlotte from time to time,” says Robert Maggiori, “and I remember her in class. She was a shy student, like many others, but she stood out because she was smart. She is a good listener and an extraordinary thinker, with a taste for questioning, especially about morality. She is extremely scrupulous, it’s drilled into her by fear of not succeeding. She should have gone for a doctorat. She would have made an excellent professor. It’s rare to find people who are so demanding on themselves.” A “licence” [like a bachelor’s degree] in philosophy led her to study for the entrance exams for the Grands Ecoles at the Lycée Fénelon, but she dropped out.
“Perfectionism is both a strength and a handicap,” says the woman in question. “Wanting to give your best is a strong motivator, but fear of not achieving what you want can be paralyzing. I have always been a good student, and therefore I always think I was going to fail. I really torture myself. Instead of making it simple and just doing my best, I put all this pressure on myself, with goals that are too high. With the entrance exams, it just became too much.”
Today it is with international show jumping around the world, from Brazil to Monaco, Valencia to Saint-Tropez, that Charlotte Casiraghi proves her mental discipline and strength. Her goal? To become champion in show jumping. “Horses have always been part of my life. Even when I was little, my mother had me ride ponies. She had horses and I rode regularly until I was 18 in amateur competitions, before stopping while I was studying. Then suddenly the desire came back. I wanted to show that I could devote myself to a sport at a very high level. I felt that at that time, I had the necessary freedom. Later when you have a family, children, it’s more complicated.” The bulk of her time ever since has been dedicated to careful training with her coach, Thierry Rozier, son of Olympic medalist Marcel Rozier, and the care of her 7 horses, 5 of which she rides in competition. “Technically, my best horse is Tintero, who is 12 years old. But he has episodes, moods. Lately he’s been a bit disturbed, so with him I don’t do well in competition. Six months ago, it was the exact opposite. You can never lose sight of the fact that the real athlete is the horse ..." "
That's where it ends. If anyone gets the rest of the article could they please post it? Thanks!