Take A Class On Etiquette With Countess LuAnn De Lesseps

Countess LuAnn de Lesseps, of The Real Housewives of New York City, stopped by the studio to talk about her new book out called Class with the Countess: How to Live with Elegance and Flair.

The reality series also features Alex, Bethenny, Jill, Ramona, and new cast member Kelly Killoren Bensimon. We watch them as they continue to juggle their careers and home lives with busy calendars packed with charity fund-raising galas, the social whirl of the Hamptons and nights on the New York social scene.

This season, we find De Lesseps running a household with her two active children while still finding time to participate in her active social life. With daughter Victoria headed off to boarding school, LuAnn uses her free time to pursue being a writer, sharing with us her vast knowledge of manners from her experience as a Countess.

Nuggets of De Lesseps' wisdom can be found in her new book, Class with the Countess: How to Live with Elegance and Flair. In it, she stresses that class is a state of mind, not a birthright. Raised in Connecticut—half French Canadian, half Native American—she worked as a nurse before she started modeling. On her first trip to Europe, she was awed by the lifestyle of the Italians and stayed, eventually becoming a television personality. She began a fairytale romance with Alexandre Count de Lesseps, a French aristocrat of the Suez Canal dynasty, who made her a countess.

This notion that elegance can be acquired is explained in her advice on the art of being yourself, seducing others, and making others comfortable, among other useful tidbits.

Class with the Countess: How to Live with Elegance and Flair is in bookstores now. You can catch De Lesseps on The Real Housewives of New York City Tuesdays at 10 pm on Bravo.