A Love Story Born in the Palisades: Couple Weds on Bluffs, Buys Home In Neighborhood

By JACQUELINE PRIMO | Assistant Managing Editor

Photos by RICH SCHMITT | Staff Photographer

Chris Edgerly and his wife Geraldine Planchart may have just moved to the Via Bluffs neighborhood with their two children, 4-year-old Remy and 2-year-old Violet, in 2015, but their Palisades story begins long before.

The former Brentwood resident said part of his courtship with his now-wife consisted of visiting open houses in different neighborhoods every Sunday, including in the Palisades.

“Soon we had a ritual: Every Sunday we’d go to Gelson’s in the Village, get cookies from the bakery, take them to the end of Via de la Paz and sit and eat them while looking at the ocean,” Edgerly told the Palisadian-Post.

Before the couple married five years ago, Planchart told her fiancé that an ocean-side wedding was a must.

“So we ended up having a kind of ‘flash mob’ ceremony at the very end of the street next to the walking path [on Via de la Paz]. So that street has always been special to us,” Edgerly said.

The decision to move to the Palisades was easy for Edgerly, who said he has lived all over Los Angeles since moving here from Savannah, Georgia in 1997 and fell in love with the Palisades, visiting it as often as he could.

“It’s been an oasis from the hustle and bustle of a very exciting but hectic city,” Edgerly said.

As for his wife, who grew up in a high-rise penthouse in Caracas, Venezuela, Planchart was used to the city life.

“In time she saw just how great the neighborhood was for families, schools and anyone wanting a strong sense of community,” Edgerly said of his betrothed.

Many factors played a role in the couple’s decision to move to the Palisades over other surrounding high-end areas like Santa Monica, Playa Vista and Malibu. For example, they were drawn to Caruso’s Palisades Village project, the good schools and the town’s walkability.

“At night it’s so peaceful that I have to turn on a white noise machine because I got so used to the hum of activity in Brentwood,” Edgerly said with a laugh.

The real challenge was finding the right property to live in and in the right neighborhood of the Palisades, he said.

“We looked in every nook and cranny of the Palisades, from Castellammare to the Highlands to the Will Rogers area, but we knew the Village was the best bet as we loved to walk everywhere,” Edgerly explained.

However, rising housing prices caused the couple to reevaluate and the pair ultimately fell in love with a condo on Haverford in the Via Bluffs.

“It’s luxurious and new, and has a nice, elegant, modern feel,” Edgerly said.

“What we love about our condo is that it’s over 2,000 square feet and has an upstairs and downstairs, and feels very much like a house. We actually have a decent view of the hills above the Alphabet Streets, and we’re a 30-second walk from Gelson’s and are just a minute or two away from everything else the Village has to offer.”

For fun, Edgerly and Planchart take kids Remy and Violet to play at the Palisades Recreation Center almost daily, take them for ice cream or frozen yogurt in the Village, and look forward to signing them up for sports and other group activities in town, Edgerly said.

“My wife and I like to think of ourselves as semi-European. We’d much rather walk to where we need to go, sit and have a bite at a café and not be beholden to a schedule. In the Village, we’ve found a neighborhood that suits us perfectly, and we look forward to watching our kids grow up here. And once [Caruso’s] Palisades Village opens next year, we’ll be right there, seeing movies, playing on the green, shopping and having a bite,” Edgerly said.

“I hope to make the [Palisades] the last chapter in my LA story. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”