Author Archive
Happy Thanksgiving, America.
So once again it is Thanksgiving time and all across the United States people are trying to figure out how to get along with family members whose political views they do not share. (Takes a lot of extra figuring this year for some people, and that (I think) is all I’m going to say about it. 😦 )
Thanksgiving tends to be the favorite holiday of many Americans. It is not religious, and it is not commercial. There have been attempts to make it commercial, of course. But it seems to be more or less impervious to these attacks on the sanctity and simplicity of the holiday. (Especially if you choose to boycott that godawful Black Friday that follows so quickly on Thanksgiving’s heels…and I strongly urge you to do so. You will be much happier.)
It is not even, strictly speaking, a “national” holiday, even though we all celebrate it, in one way or another.
It is above all, as a friend said to me recently, “our kindest holiday.” It’s really just about food. Family. Friends. Feeling gratitude for our blessings (whether you want to use that word or another one). It’s about reaching out to and including new friends, or even strangers, at the table, sometimes at the last minute.
It’s also a time of cherished traditions. And one of the traditions is the requisite Thanksgiving drama. Sometimes it has to do with food. (The turkey dropped in the kitchen during the carving process. The plastic spoon melting into the stuffing. etc) Sometimes it has to do with personalities clashing at the table. Or toddlers pulling on the tablecloth and all havoc ensuing…
The requisite Thanksgiving drama is not planned and you don’t know in advance what it will be. You just know that probably there will be one, and when it happens, people just smile, shrug their shoulders and remark, philosophically, “Well. There’s always gotta be one…” 🙂
Just today I discovered a wonderful Thanksgiving post, titled “Happy Messes.” It begins with the line “There are many ways to cook a turkey, all of which require heat. When I was 12, in 1974, my mother forgot to turn on the oven…” 🙂
It doesn’t matter. It’s still about family. Friends. Food. Gratitude.
Like most Americans in France, we celebrate Thanksgiving every year, either on the Saturday before the real day, or the Saturday after. This year we celebrated five days ahead of Thanksgiving.
As usual, we invited both French and American friends to join us in our celebration. As usual there was a lot of confusion about what the final number would be. (We started out with a potential number of 15, and ended up with 6 this year as illness, deaths in the family, and other matters interfered with our carefully-laid plans.)
As usual, there was some good-natured negotiation/discussion of the menu in the days preceding our celebration. For example, must we really have turkey? (Harder to find in France at this time of year, and also quite expensive.) The answer to that was provided by one of my sons who made it very clear he was not going to be happy with any kind of substitute. (Happily our local butcher found a turkey for us and it was wonderful! Much better than the Butterball turkeys we used to get in the US, and also better than the Picard turkeys we relied on here in France for a few years, which have since been discontinued.)
Then there was the last-minute confusion and several dashes to the store for forgotten items, or items we suddenly realized we needed. For example: To my delight I had found my mom’s “fancy” silverware, discovered in the trunks of things I had shipped over here last year. (Well, okay, it’s not really silver. But it’s fancy, and it kinda looks like silver. 🙂 ) Looking happily at the sparkling display of knives, forks and spoons I had laid out I suddenly realized that paper towels were not going to be a suitable napkin to use for this meal. And so, it was off to the store again…
In the end the meal turned out wonderfully well, thanks to many cooks. Even our French neighbors who were coming to their first Thanksgiving meal had somehow heard (or been told? but not by us) about the potluck nature of Thanksgiving meals. They brought little crabmeat verrines for our apéro, providing a lovely French accent to the meal, and also some to-die-for chocolate truffles for dessert. In between apéro and dessert we had turkey/stuffing/gravy; mashed potatoes; green bean casserole; cranberry sauce; cornbread; and two kinds of pie (pumpkin and pecan). Everything, in short, but the sweet potato casserole that American friends in a nearby town were going to bring but couldn’t at the last minute because one of them got sick. 😦
We did our now “ancient” (three-year) tradition of writing what we were grateful for on slips of paper that we then drew out of the “gratitude vessel” and read aloud–trying to guess which person was grateful for each of the sentiments expressed, accompanied with much laughter and warm feeling.
And of course there was champagne: this year our chosen champagne was Nathalie Nourissat, made by good friends and vignerons who live in Essoyes, and it drew praise all around.
We did not read a Thanksgiving poem aloud this year but if you’re looking for one, here’s one of my favorites. (Along with the poet I repeat, and repeat: “Bless the world outside these windows…Dear God, grant to the makers and keepers power to save it all…”) [My emphasis]
Wishing one and all a Happy Thanksgiving, for all we have to be thankful for.
Janet Hulstrand is an American writer/editor who lives in France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France.
Armistice Day/Veterans Day 2024
It’s been called Veterans Day in the United States since 1954. But it was originally called Armistice Day, and the date on which we remember the veterans of all wars was originally chosen because it is the day on which Germany surrendered to the Allies at the end of World War I, in 1918.
It is still called Armistice Day in France, where most of the fighting was done in that bloody war, and it is a solemn day to remember the costs of war, and those who gave their lives fighting pour la France.
Millions of lives, most of them young lives, have been lost in battle. Every veteran killed has family and friends who mourn that loss. Every veteran who managed to come home came home forever changed, and chastened by what they saw and experienced at war.
Almost all of us regret the loss of the talent, courage, and promise that went into the graves with those young lives.
Today we pay tribute to them, and honor the sacrifices they made to protect freedom, decency, democracy. We can never thank them enough. We can only do all we can, each of us, to find ways to protect and honor those same ideals.
Missing in Action, Presumed Dead August 1944
Two of my uncles lived long and honorable lives after their military service in World War II. You can read their war stories in the links provided.
These sacrifices have not been forgotten in France. Let’s not any of us forget.
Janet Hulstrand is an American writer/editor who lives in France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France.
Back in Essoyes: October 2024
It’s been a while since I’ve shared my news here, other than news about the endless task of downsizing and redistributing things that appears to be an ongoing feature of my life from here on out (c’est la vie!) so this will be an attempt to share a few highlights of the other parts of my life for those who may be wondering. (I know. It’s a small public. But it matters, to me anyway, and I hope to some of you. 🙂 )
I’m back in Essoyes after six intense (and wonderful) weeks in Minnesota spent catching up with friends, family, and engaging in the task of getting some of those precious artifacts (referred to in my previous post) into the collections of places that will find them interesting and keep them safe for posterity.
Now, after a few weeks here I’m almost settled into something resembling my “normal” routine. It has been an unbelievably beautiful autumn here, warm and mostly sunny with just enough rain to keep the greens green and the crops in the fields next to our home growing.
I have been to Paris twice in the past month, once as a featured author at the American Church in Paris’s annual Bloom Where You’re Planted orientation program for Anglophones new to Paris. (Thanks, Red Wheelbarrow bookstore, for the support!) That trip allowed me to pop over to Lille also for a quick visit with my son Sam before he left for a couple of weeks in New York to do some recording of his songs, play a couple of shows, celebrate the release of his new single, and catch up with his friends too.
I want to say a SUPER BIG THANKS to the friends who came to see me in Minnesota, and even hauled me around a bit, sometimes at great inconvenience to themselves, because I wasn’t able to get to where they were this time. It was so wonderful connecting with these friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in a very long time.
The BIGGEST THANKS OF ALL goes to my wonderful sister and brother-in-law who not only hosted me for most of the time I was in Minnesota, but also carted me around more than any of us had planned, due to the fact that my leg injury was taking its own sweet time to get better. (It’s finally almost normal again, thanks for asking! 🙂 ) My sister was my patient and kind chauffeur on a series of projects I had lined up for my time there, some of them mundane, some of them kind of fun (a visit to the Howard County (Iowa) Historical Society), and some them really fun (Cousins’ Week 🙂 . She and my brother-in-law kept me well nourished with mostly Mexican meals and included me in their social activities–church, wine tastings, book group meetings, trips to the lake. I owe them EVERYTHING for their warm hospitality and their steadfast love. MUCHISSIMAS GRACIAS, HERMANITA Y CUÑADO!!!
Upper left: Cousins week on the banks of the Mississippi; Upper middle: Me and my sis at Rustic Roots Winery in Scandia, Minnesota. Upper right: Visiting the wonderful Howard County (Iowa) Historical Society. Lower left: Me and my sis at the classic old Carnegie Library in Cresco, Iowa. Our grandmother and great-grandmother loved to come here! I gave them a copy of A Long Way From Iowa for their collection. 🙂 Lower right: Me, my sis, and my brother-in-law as I’m heading off to the airport.
Now it is nearly November, and it’s time to hunker down and hope for a good outcome to a very important presidential election back home. I’m grateful to friends back home who have been doing the footwork I can’t do from here–canvassing, phone banking, helping to get out the vote. The Harris/Walz ticket has given me (and so many others) hope that we will have the chance to continue to recover from the disastrous presidency of you-know-who (and I don’t mean Biden!) We’ll see what happens. I’m just hoping that enough Americans will see that “the man behind the curtain” is a fraud, a real fraud (among many other despicable things); and they will vote for someone who cares about democracy, and about all of us. And who is super smart and capable of managing one of the most important, and most difficult jobs in the world.
On this side of the ocean, Democrats Abroad have been working hard for that goal. They will be having an election night “watch” party in Paris, which of course we all hope will be a happy event.
Keep your fingers crossed, your prayers ascending, and your encouragement of your friends and family to vote (and vote wisely!!!!) Remember: it ain’t over til it’s over. (And…being American, I would say it ain’t over even then. That may be when the work really begins…)
Janet Hulstrand is an American writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who lives in France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France; and coauthor of Moving On: A Practical Guide to Downsizing the Family Home. You can also read her writing on Substack.
Adventures in historic preservation…
Here is part of my What I Did on My Summer Vacation “report” this year. More to come later (on nonarchival activities). Stay tuned 🙂
Janet Hulstrand is an American writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who lives in France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France; and coauthor of Moving On: A Practical Guide to Downsizing the Family Home.
And on another topic entirely, here’s an update on how I dealt with “all that stuff” in my GDSL. 🙂 With big thanks to all who helped me with an enormous task–you know who you are, and I will be eternally grateful to you for your help!
Janet Hulstrand is an American writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who lives in France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France; and coauthor of Moving On: A Practical Guide to Downsizing the Family Home.
The Least Boring Summer EVER!
I must say as an American who lives in France I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more exciting summer in both places. In fact exciting things have been happening on both sides of the ocean at such a pace that every time I thought about trying to write a post about it I wouldn’t know where to start. So for a while I just didn’t write anything.
Now, with a couple of months having lapsed, you will get the condensed version. Sometimes that is best. 🙂
First of all, in June/early July there were the snap elections in France, which were initially nail-biting, and ultimately both surprising and joyous, at least for people not on the far right on France. I think here I will refer you to Sara Somers, who wrote quite a nice summary of this very complicated (and very interesting) political situation. https://sarasomers.com/2024/07/09/cest-ouf-or-what-the-heck-happened-in-france/
Of course the controversy and the complications have not gone away–they have just been pushed aside and postponed by President Emmanuel Macron, who is using the Olympics as a good reason (or excuse, depending on your political views) for keeping his government in place until after the Olympics, since his government has now been discredited and he does not want to accept the choice for prime minister that the Nouveau Front Populaire (a coalition of leftist groups, and the winner of the most votes) has put forward. However, at some point he will have to choose a new prime minister. So: Stay tuned!
Here we switch the stage for a moment to a much more limited venue: our home in Essoyes, where on July 20 we had a wonderful birthday celebration for one of my sons. It was a beautiful evening (except for the storm that chased us all inside when we had planned to eat on the terrace; but actually the storm was quite beautiful also, just a bit wet. As storms tend to be.)
In fact it was the wetness of the evening that caused an unfortunate bit of drama, fortunately after a joyful celebration had been had, and our guests had left. As I approached the skylight window in our upstairs bathroom with the intention of closing it so that the pouring rain would not come in, I did not notice that the rain had already come in, in abundance; and that, as a consequence, the floor beneath the window was VERY slippery. And so I did something I had never before done in my life; I did the splits, meaning I went from a standing position to an on-the-floor position, with one leg all the way in front of me and the other one behind, quite suddenly. (See photo below for what doing the splits looks like when it is done by someone who knows what they’re doing and has trained for it for years, and warmed up thoroughly before trying it. Needless to say it did not look at all like that when I did it, and there are (blessedly) no photographs of my “Olympic” feat to show you. Trust me. You wouldn’t want to see it…)
I’ll spare you the gory details of what we have taken to calling The Incident in our home; I’ll just give you a few highlights:
- The emergency medical technicians who came to help me get up from the floor (and decided I needed to go the hospital, and took me there) were super-professional, highly competent, and very kind. Gratitude!!
- The official diagnosis, eventually, was déchirure ischiojambiers. (In English, a torn hamstring. As usual, everything sounds better in French; but it doesn’t feel any better.) Never done that before. Don’t recommend it! 😦
- My sons, and my son’s girlfriend, came with me to the hospital and spent all night with me in the ER. They are the best. (I knew that already, but that night just was more proof of it. More gratitude!)
- Healing from this kind of injury takes time. And patience. But of course, as painful and annoying as it was, it could been so much worse. More cause for gratitude.
- Moral of the story: When closing an overhead window against the rain be sure to check under the window to make sure it is not slippery before proceeding. (!!!) Duh. (You’d think…oh, never mind…)
Now, with my déchirure ischiojambiers I was limited to trying to find a comfortable position from which to apply ice to my throbbing thigh every few hours, hobble around every few hours also, so as to not lose the ability to walk at all, and figure out what else to do with my time.
Et voila! The very day after my gymnastic feat on the bathroom floor, Joe Biden announced that he was withdrawing from the US presidential race, and endorsed his VP, Kamala Harris, to run in his place. And this one thing seems to have injected what was a very moribund, depressing, concerning election year into something genuinely exciting and hopeful. (One observer in Paris noted that the announcement of the news in some public place he was in was met first with a general gasp, then a great cheer.)
To me it feels like perhaps the tide is turning, away from a frightening drifting into fascism, and back to hope for the revitalization of democracy in our country. I certainly hope so. It isn’t going to be easy: there are powerful vested interests that definitely do not want this to happen, and the mainstream media has not been helping matters. In a democracy the power rests ultimately with the people–but to benefit from that power, the people must be willing to take responsibility for using it in a constructive way.
Anyway. We had only a few days to focus primarily on this very exciting news. Now it was time for the Paris Olympics!
I will not go into a whole diatribe about the various reasons the Olympics was quite controversial; it was quite controversial, and for some very good reasons. (And most of the reasons apply to the whole general idea of how Olympics anywhere are handled, and the question of whether it is really a good idea for us to be hosting events anymore that involve people traveling by air for such long distances in such large numbers. We do have something of a climate situation on this planet that we seem to keep forgetting about…) One of my sons even wrote a song about this: https://www.instagram.com/p/C99-gRIM_e7/
Having said all that, despite all the controversy the Opening Ceremony in Paris, on the Seine River, was carried out with typically magnificent French intelligence/style/boldness/panache, I dunno, you find more adjectives, there are so many that apply. In short, it was spectacular and amazing, and it pretty much blew everyone away. (Some in a good way, some in a not-so-good way. 🙂 )You can read about it here, among many other places you can read about it. I just happened to find this particular report very interesting. https://walkparis.substack.com/p/the-whole-ceremony-was-very-you (NB: The post is long. It’s worth reading. Sit down, be ready to spend a little time reading it, don’t skim, and learn a LOT (not in just the Part One, but the Part Two that follows).
The Opening Ceremony itself also became quite the controversy, with “woke” people very happy with its message of multiculturalism/diversity/inclusion/avant-gardism etc.–and people on the right and far-right not happy at all. In my opinion, no matter what your politics are it’s worth watching, and if you are in France, you can watch the whole thing here https://www.france.tv/france-2/ceremonie-d-ouverture-des-jeux-olympiques-paris-2024/ I’m not sure how you watch it anywhere else, but I hope you can do so. (Not necessarily the whole four hours (!) surely there must be a way to watch highlights only…)
Aside from the controversies I have to say that from what I have seen from a distance, in clips on television, social media, etc, it looks like the Paris Olympics have been on the whole a very joyous affair. It looks like something worth doing, bringing all these people together. Giving attention and credit to and admiration for the athletes who have worked so hard to excel. Celebrating the beauty of Paris and joining in the joie de vivre of the French people that is sometimes eclipsed by their tendency to complain a lot, but always there, ready to burst forth with heartfelt, heart-on-sleeve emotion given half a chance. There have been many touching moments to enjoy, moments that inspire a feeling of affection for humanity to begin to rise again; and it has been especially nice to see the French people so happy with the way their city has shown the world just how wonderful Paris is and can be.
The Olympics are still underway for another week, and it sounds like aside from the Metro being a mess, things are going pretty well. I hope they will continue to do so.
Such a whirl of excitement this year that I have not even mentioned the fact that for the fourth time in the past 15 years the Tour de France passed through Essoyes on July 7. That was fun and exciting too!
Meanwhile, some things go on pretty much the same from year to year, when the gods (of weather, war, etc) are smiling on us. The farmers plant winter wheat in the fall, and harvest it the next summer. The vignerons tend to their crop all year long, and harvest the grapes in the late summer/early fall. It has been quietly busy here with the grain harvests (colza, wheat) nearing completion, and another one (grapes) soon to begin. Through all this drama in the world at large and in our home I’ve been enjoying watching the farmer harvest his crops in the fields next to our house, as he does every year; and the sound of the enjambeurs heading into the vineyards in the early mornings.
All around the world we count on the ongoing labor of farmers to tend the earth so that we can eat. And enjoy the fruit of the vine.
Gratitude.
Janet Hulstrand is an American writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who lives in France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France; and coauthor of Moving On: A Practical Guide to Downsizing the Family Home.
What Is Going On In France?
Well, in the end, it’s mostly good news, since Sunday. Here’s a wonderful summary of recent political events from my friend Sara.
Janet Hulstrand is an American writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who lives in France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France; and coauthor of Moving On: A Practical Guide to Downsizing the Family Home.
Searching for Home
Part Two: Brooklyn Read on Substack
Janet Hulstrand is an American writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who lives in France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France; and coauthor of Moving On: A Practical Guide to Downsizing the Family Home.
Searching for Home
Part One: Minnesota Read on Substack
Janet Hulstrand is an American writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who lives in France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France; and coauthor of Moving On: A Practical Guide to Downsizing the Family Home.
Writing from the Heart, Reading for the Road 