Posts tagged ‘Adrian Leeds’
To Paris and Back (twice!) in a week…
I made the first of two trips to Paris within just a few days last week so that I could go to Adrian Leeds’s monthly Après-Midi meetup. This is one of my favorite things to do when I’m in Paris, and not infrequently I will even come in just for the day to see one of the speakers that is being featured.
This time the speaker was Scott Carpenter, who is a fellow Minnesotan, a fellow writer, and also a part-time resident of Paris. He is the author of two wonderful memoirs about his life in Paris, French Like Moi, and Paris Lost and Found. At this event he read from both of those books, and those who didn’t already know what a gifted–and also very funny–writer he is had the chance to find out. (Word to the wise: Adrian’s meetups are always recorded so if you missed an event but would still like to watch it, you can! Here’s the link to the write-up of last week’s meetup. https://adrianleeds.com/upcoming-events/join-adrian-at-apres-midi/event-recap/ )
I went home the next morning, but just three days later Mary Duncan, author and publisher of Paris Writers Press, was hosting a lively literary soirée on Friday night, and I wasn’t about to miss that. So it was off to the train station in Vendeuvre once again, and on my way back to Paris.
I had a couple of free hours before going to the soirée and so I did it in my very favorite way to kill time. (Why do we use that expression, I mean really why do we?! I think it is very American in a not-so-great way. The French don’t talk about killing time–they are so big on enjoying it! But I digress…)
My favorite way to “kill time,” as I was saying, is to sit in a Parisian café somewhere, order something to drink, and then read and write in a leisurely way, and/or watch the passing parade. In a (French) word, to flâner.
This time I decided I wanted to find out what this “flat white” drink is that everyone is talking about these days. (True confessions of a country bumpkin, I had not even heard of it until a few weeks ago!) So I found a café that I figured might have it, and it did!
Samuél Lopez-Barrantes, a relatively new friend (and a brilliant writer!) was the featured guest at Mary’s soirée that evening, not only sharing information about his most recent book–The Requisitions (which all serious readers should read). I mean it!–but also performing a few of his beautiful songs.
His musical presentation was followed by an informal discussion Mary led about various publishing options in today’s publishing world. Among the guests was Odile Hellier, whose independent bookshop (the Village Voice) was an important–and wonderful–cultural institution in the literary world of Paris from 1982-2012. She recently published a memoir of not only her own very interesting life but the life of that bookshop as well. (Note: You can find Village Voices at your local indie bookseller (or order it from them), or you can get order it through Bookshop.org.)
I do wish I had gotten a photo that evening with Mary, and with Samuél and his wife, Augusta Sagnelli, who is also his partner in their independent publishing company, Kingdom Anywhere, and a very talented and accomplished photographer as well. But that is just one of the things I hardly ever remember to do. 😦 Oh well, next time!
The next morning I was off bright and early to get my train back to Vendeuvre-sur-Barse, which is the closest place SNCF goes to “my” little village in southern Champagne. Normally this is a delightful, direct two-hour train ride from Gare de l’Est. However, as fate would have it, this particular day was a day when SNCF was doing track work. So I had to go home through Chalôns-en-Champagne, which is not at all on the way to where I live. Thus it was going to be a four-and-half-hour ride this time.
Which became even longer when the train was delayed by an hour getting started, due to a problem of alimentation éléctrique (a power outage) somewhere along the route.
Normally this is the kind of thing that might make me feel a bit cranky. But for some reason I decided this time to not get cranky, but just submit to my fate and see what this day would bring in the way of surprises–maybe even some of them pleasant surprises.
And guess what?! It brought a very pleasant surprise when it turned out that the lovely teenage girl sitting next to me on the bus from Chalôns to Troyes (the second leg in a three-leg journey) overheard me speaking English on my phone, and took the initiative to open a conversation with me. She is French, but she speaks English with an absolutely impeccable American accent. (I’ve honestly in my whole life never heard anything like it.) Apparently this is due to the fact that she has spent much of her young life in Canada, and also traveling a lot in the US and Canada with her very adventurous family. We had a wonderful time getting to know each other in the hour-long ride to Troyes, and I hope that maybe this will turn into one of those unexpected, serendipitous long-term friendships in the future.
But even if it doesn’t, what a wonderful way to turn a bad mood around, merci Lisa! 🙂
By the time I got to Troyes, where I still had to figure out how to get the 35 kilometers from Troyes to Vendeuvre, where my car was parked, I was in a fine mood to meet whatever challenge would still lie ahead.
But guess what? There was no challenge at all! Two SNCF employees approached the bus as we disembarked, and I asked one of them if he knew when the next bus would be going to Vendeuvre, since we had missed the regularly scheduled one.
“Pas de problème, madame,” he said to me. “Restez-là.” (Wait here). He located a couple who were also headed for Vendeuvre, and led us to a taxi that was to take us to the train station in Vendeuvre–courtesy of SNCF!
There’s a lot of complaining that goes on about SNCF in France, and I myself have occasionally been guilty of it. (Though mostly I love almost everything about SNCF.)
Also the French are (in)famous for not being very good about customer service. But if that isn’t service extraordinaire I swear I don’t know what is!
The taxi driver was friendly and kind, a real gentleman. He deposited the three of us at Vendeuvre, made sure we were set for the next leg of our journeys, and was on his way.
(PS: Do you know what SNCF stands for? It stands for Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer. If you speak French, say it aloud! I used to love reciting those words to my American students in Paris, to demonstrate just how lovely a set of words can be. 🙂 It is pure poetry!)
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. You can also find her writing at Searching for Home.
The Long Way from Iowa Book Tour Continues…
I was delighted to once again be invited to speak at the Adrian Leeds Meet-Up in Paris last week. I’ve been lucky to be able to talk about my various books and interests at this fun venue in Paris on a number of occasions over the past few years–on everything from Downsizing the Family Home to the beautiful départment de l’Aube (in the Champagne region) where I live in France, to Writing from the Heart, to Demystifying the French. This time I gave a presentation about my newest book: a memoir titled A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France. If you’d like to see a recording of this event, you can do so right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKsxjc6S8-8&t=1s
The next event on the Long Way from Iowa calendar is in Washington DC, in September. But I’m hoping I will be able to fill in a couple of other locations on the East Coast by the time I arrive there in August.
After a few weeks in New York and Washington, I’ll be heading home to the Midwest, where I’ll be visiting family and friends and adding a few more book events. So far I’ll be signing and/or talking about my book in St. Paul, Winona, and Red Wing, Minnesota. Exact dates still to be determined, but do stay tuned: you can watch for new book tour developments here.
Then, sometime in October I’ll be heading to the Pacific Northwest, a part of the country I’ve never been to: visiting close friends in Portland and Seattle. I’m hoping to have the chance to introduce my book to readers there also, before I head home to France.
I’m grateful for the support I’ve received from people across the US and also in Europe and Australia, and for all the wonderful comments you’ve made about A Long Way from Iowa. I’m hoping if you haven’t already done so you will share what you liked about the book on Amazon or GoodReads. Most readers have no idea how helpful these reviews are! (And you don’t even have to have bought the book from Amazon in order to write one.)
Yesterday was what we call Bastille Day (but the French call it “la fête nationale,” or “le quatorze juillet,” not Bastille Day! 🙂 ). From my home I was able to watch the bursts of color showering the sky above both Essoyes and Loches–our nearest adjacent village–on a lovely summer evening, with my son. I’m grateful for my life here in France–and for the chance to visits friends and family across the United States for the first time in a few years, very soon. I’m really looking forward to that.
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.
A Sunny, Delicious, Bookish Weekend in Nice…
It was the Festival du Livre (Book Festival)–a celebration of contemporary French literature–in Nice, on the Cote d’Azur this weekend. But it was also the ninth annual Meet the Authors event, hosted by Ella Dyer, author of Nice in Nice: The day-to-day musings of a middle-aged housewife living “part-time” in the South of France. And for the second time in a row I was invited to be one of the authors to present my book and read from it there.
Last year I presented Demystifying the French. This year I was thrilled to have the opportunity to present my new memoir, A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France to a crowded room of Anglophone expats who were eager to learn about new books published in English.
In addition to the actual event I was there for, there was lots of eating great food (hanging out with my friend Adrian Leeds, there’s just no choice about that). I was also pleased to make a couple of new friends among the other writers: you can read about the whole event here. There was even some time on Sunday afternoon to venture down to the beach and dip my toes in the Mediterranean Sea. Nice!
I took the train to get to Nice. Lots of people say the train trip is “too long” but for this reader it’s never long enough. I always have more book to read when the train pulls into the station in Nice, or back in Paris at the Gare de Lyon. And so with a reluctant sigh I put my book away and do whatever needs to be done to get to the place I can finish it in peace.
And that is all I have time to report for today. Summer seems to really be here now: wishing everyone a safe and happy summer, with lots of good books to read!
Janet Hulstrand is a writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who divides her time between the US and 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.
A Few November Highlights from Paris…and Essoyes!
The real reason for my visit to Paris this month was to see and support my friend Edith de Belleville, who was the speaker at Adrian Leeds‘s monthly Après-Midi gathering. Edith is a licensed tour guide in Paris, a lawyer, and the author of two wonderful books, Belles et Rebelles and Parisian Life: Adventures in the City of Light. If you can read French, you should read both of them, they’re wonderful. I keep hoping Belles et Rebelles will be translated into English, it’s too good to stay in just one language, DO YOU HEAR THAT, PUBLISHERS? But also (to be clear), Parisian Life is already in English: Edith wrote it in English (another feather in her cap). So you should all buy it. 🙂
You can learn more about Edith in this interview I did with her for Bonjour Paris. if you are a subscriber. She is a very smart, lively, funny, interesting woman! (If you’re not a subscriber to Bonjour Paris, and if you’re a serious Parisophile, you might want to subscribe. Lots of great articles, Zoom talks, etc. available there!)
Then I got lucky: Adrian invited me to come for the weekend before Après-Midi to just “hang out” and have fun in Paris with her. (She didn’t have to twist my arm about that…)
You don’t hang out with Adrian in Paris (or anywhere, as far as I can gather) without eating a lot of really good food. This woman believes in eating at least two full meals a day, which is kind of a novelty for me; and a culinary adventure whenever I stay with her in Paris. Whenever she asks me what I want to eat for dinner, my main requirements are generally the same: “Not too expensive. Not too fancy. Not too far away (so we can walk there).” I like to keep it simple! And she always has great suggestions. Here are just a few of the culinary pleasures I enjoyed in those few days in Paris.
Then I got even luckier. My son’s girlfriend, Diane de Vignemont, is a historian, and she was recently involved in putting together an exhibition at the Musée de l’Armée at les Invalides. She invited me to attend the opening for this exhibit, which happened to fall on my last night in Paris. This was very exciting indeed, and it was really fun to see her in this professional context. (Though I’ve actually been able to see that before in my last couple of classes for Politics and Prose bookstore, which were focused on France under the Occupation, during which Diane was kind enough to visit via Zoom, and share her expertise with my students. She is, in a word, amazing!)
The exhibition, which focused on the years of the Algerian War, and De Gaulle’s role in it, was beautifully mounted and very interesting indeed. One of the things Diane was involved in was arranging for the loan of a beautiful Calder mobile called “France Forever.” (Can you see the Cross of Lorraine in it?)
Of course it would not be a trip to Paris without a visit to The Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore (Here’s another interesting interview to read on Bonjour Paris, this one is with Penelope Fletcher, the wonderful bookseller who runs the store. See what I mean about subscribing? 🙂 ) Adrian and I went there on Saturday afternoon, and I was delighted that my son and Diane were able to meet us there too. With an armload of new books, some of which I will use in future classes, I left the store very happy indeed.
Well, anyway. This is really only a sampling of what I was lucky to experience in Paris this time in just a few days: there was more! Sometimes when I am in Paris I really don’t “do much” at all, I just wander around, walking, sitting in cafés or parks, reading, writing, and eating only one full meal a day. That is fine with me too! But I have to say, this time was pretty fun, thanks so much, Adrian! (and Diane, and Phineas, and Penelope–for just being there–at The Red Wheelbarrow!)
A few days later, in Essoyes (and all around France), Armistice Day was being celebrated. This is a very important–and moving–national commemoration of the day that brought peace (temporarily! 😦 ) at last to war-ravaged Europe in 1918. Here are a few photos from that day here in Essoyes.
Let’s hope that today’s fragile peace in Europe can be maintained, and the forces of hate and tyranny pushed back. We can’t afford to keep fighting like this all the time. We have big problems to solve together!
Janet Hulstrand is a writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who divides her time between the US and France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You. Her memoir, A Long Way from Iowa, will be published in early 2023.
September in Essoyes, Paris, and Nice!
My goodness, what a busy month this has been!
First of all, there was the vendange (the grape harvest) which of course is always a busy and important time of year in Essoyes. This year, despite a very dry summer, there was a very abundant harvest, which made everyone both relieved and happy.
To add the excitement for me, this year one of my oldest and dearest friends in the world came for a visit. She and her husband were lucky to finally, on their third try, be able to take a Rhine River cruise to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary, after two previous cruises were postponed due to Covid restrictions. And I was lucky that after their cruise was over they chose to meet me in Paris and then come with me to Essoyes for a couple of days before they had to head back home to Colorado.
They had a whirlwind couple of days in Paris, in which they were able to make it to two of the three sights that Colleen’s 95-year-old father had told them were “must-sees”: the Basilica of Sacré Coeur in Montmartre, and the rue du Bac. We weren’t able to work in a visit to Chartres, Mr. Foy’s third must-see, in the short time they had, but we did stop in the beautiful medieval city of Troyes on our way to Essoyes. Troyes has many beautiful churches, as well as a cathedral, a synagogue, and a mosque. I took them to see my favorite church, the Eglise de la Madeleine, and they also were able to visit the very cool Musée de l’Outil et de la Pensée Ouvrière (Museum of Tools and of Workers’ Thought).
Then it was on to Essoyes. My friends got there too late to see the grapes being pressed, but not too late to be given a wonderful private tour of the pressoir owned by our friends Bethsabée and Léa Roger, which they declared a highlight of their visit.
Their visit to Essoyes was wonderful, but short. And almost as soon as they left I had to leave Essoyes again, to go to Nice, where I had been invited to present on Demystifying the French at a conference my friend Adrian was hosting. It was a very interesting, friendly and responsive audience, composed of (mostly) Americans who are considering the possibility of moving to France. We had a great time discussing some of the cultural differences between the French way of doing things, and the American way, that can lead to confusion and even sometimes dismay not only for Americans, but for French people as well. I tried to give them some tips about how to understand these differences and how to avoid cultural clashes over them, and I was very happy that quite a few people told me afterward that they really enjoyed my presentation.
The day after my presentation I was invited to join the group in a one-day tour of the lovely Côte d’Azur area before they went on to Provence and Occitanie. What a treat! Here are just a few images from a lovely day.
Then it was back to Essoyes, and time to settle into autumn activities: stacking wood, resuming my writing projects, and preparing to continue exploring the history of France with the students in my online class. There’s room for more students this time, so if anyone is interested in learning about how France recovered from World War II, we’ll be reading three very interesting books and we’ll have a couple of great visitors to the class who will share their expertise to augment our learning.
Wishing everyone a happy, safe, productive autumn. (You can keep wearing your masks if you want to 🙂 )
Janet Hulstrand is a writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who divides her time between the US and France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You and will soon publish her next book, A Long Way from Iowa, a literary memoir.
It’s been an exciting week in Essoyes…
Most of the time my life here is pretty quiet, and that is a large part of the reason I love it so much. In Essoyes I have found a place where peaceful solitude, and the ability to concentrate on my work is fairly easy to achieve.
But last week was different….
Continue Reading October 17, 2018 at 11:03 am Leave a comment
Writing from the Heart, Reading for the Road 