Jennifer O’Neill-Mardokh fell in love with a renovated pub dating from 1938 in the western suburbs of Paris and reared her family there. In recent years, she and her husband decided to upgrade it and gave it a 21st-century feel with eco-friendliness at its core
Jennifer O’Neill-Mardokh in her newly renovated home which was built with sustainability in mind – it’s a mainly wood structure with wool fibre insulation and has exposed wood beams and large expanses of glass. She loves her extra large terrazzo-topped island which houses both the sink and the gas hob. Photo: Tony Gavin
As Jennifer O’Neill-Mardokh rounds off a whistlestop tour of her beautifully renovated home in Paris’s western suburbs, she suddenly says: “I must show you my favourite thing” and reveals, in sharp contrast to the clean and sophisticated lines of the rest of the decor, a fun family of four almost lifesize penguins. “I bought them because they were cute and I loved the family set, which was perfect to represent my family. I read somewhere that penguins mate for life, are very loyal and family/clan driven, and that resonated strongly with me.”
And one can see why. Jennifer hails from Cork and is still deeply attached to her hometown, keeping in close touch not only with her beloved parents and two brothers, but also her old school pals – she’s in a WhatsApp group with them.