Posts tagged ‘Paris’
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 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.
Paris Is Always a Good Idea…
That famous line, attributed to Audrey Hepburn, is actually a line she spoke in the 1954 movie Sabrina. So it is perhaps more accurate to give credit for the sentiment to Billy Wilder, Samuel Taylor, and Ernest Lehman, who wrote the screenplay. (Let’s give some credit to screenwriters here! 🙂 ).
In any case, it is a very true statement, at least for me it is. (My most-often stated feeling about Paris is that all things being equal, I am always just a little bit happier when I am there.)
And so I was very lucky–and very happy–to spend a few days there last week. I don’t need much to make me happy when I’m in Paris; it’s enough to just be there, sitting in a café, reading, writing, sipping on a café crème or a vin chaud, surrounded by French conversation. Enjoying the warmth inside, watching the world go by outside the café windows; appreciating the reflection of lights on rainy streets and sidewalks, the occasional colorful umbrella passing by.
But this time I was also lucky to be able to spend time catching up with friends I haven’t seen in a while, and even participate in a special event at the wonderful Red Wheelbarrow, my favorite bookstore in Paris. Penelope Fletcher had asked me to introduce Cathy Yandell, who would be reading from her new book, The French Art of Living Well: Finding Joie de Vivre in the Everyday World, and I was delighted to do so. Cathy is a scholar of French literature (Renaissance poetry to be precise), and professor at Carleton College in Minnesota. Her book is a wonderful blend of stories about her experiences in France over a period of many years as a student, a teacher, a parent of American children in French schools. It also includes appreciation of and really interesting information about French literature, art, music (including contemporary and pop music); and her personal reflections on French ways. Finally it is a cultural guidebook that offers readers great ideas for off-the-beaten-track adventures in France, from thalassotherapy in Royan to the hammam in the Grand Mosque of Paris. (And she doesn’t just tell you you can do these things; she does them and tells you what the experience was like.)
The selections of the book Cathy read that night included a reflection on what Montaigne would have to say about the concept of joie de vivre and a very funny story about how she learned some choice French vocabulary in an episode of (thankfully controlled) road rage between her French “brother” and another French driver on a mountainous road in the south of France.
So. You see what I mean? This book offers intellectual stimulation; valuable information about interesting things to do in France; and it is also just plain fun to read.
Left to right: 1) Penelope Fletcher introducing me; 2) Me introducing Cathy; 3) Cathy Yandell, left, me, right. Photos courtesy of Mark S. McNeil.
I also had the chance while I was there have tea with another author friend, Penelope Rowlands, who curated the wonderful collection of essays, Paris Was Ours. Having tea (or in my case, latte) at Ladurée on the rue Bonaparte is one of those delightfully civilized experiences that momentarily places you in another world altogether. Have you ever seen such a beautiful latte? Stirring the foam felt like an aesthetic crime! At least I captured the artistry before destroying it.
A couple of days later, it was time for me to return to Essoyes. As I waited on the platform for my train to pull into Gare de l’Est this magical vision of what train travel can be glided into the station…and captured everyone’s attention and admiration. You would think that the people on the platform had been transported back to childhood, where a sense of wonder at the beauty of the world shows so openly on the faces of children. We all watched, and dreamed, and appreciated–and who knows? Maybe some of us will be lucky enough to travel on that train one day…
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.
Another Wonderful Week in Paris…
I had the great pleasure of spending another week in Paris last week. My son and his girlfriend were both away and they needed someone to care for their cat. This gave me the opportunity to stay in their place in its wonderful location on the Bassin de l’Arsenal, near Bastille.
The first time I stayed in their apartment I didn’t know about the Coulée Verte, which is a beautiful green space designed for strolling on an elevated train track that goes from Bastille to the Chateau de Vincennes, on the eastern edge of Paris, a distance of a few miles. It opened in 1988 and apparently was the inspiration for the High Line in New York; it is just a few short blocks from my son’s apartment, and this time I was determined to explore it.
After a rather late and chilly spring (which actually remained chilly during the whole time I was in Paris) some of the blooms that normally come earlier in the year had not yet happened. But while I was there, roses and other flowering bushes began to blossom and it was lovely, both on the Coulée Verte and along the Bassin de l’Arsenal as well.
While I was there I had the incomparable pleasure of meeting six delightful Canadians who were traveling in France. Rosemary is a reader of my blog who became interested in my writing as she was researching the history of her husband’s uncle, a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force during WW2 who was killed in action just north of Essoyes on August 5, 1944, and is buried in the village cemetery, not far from the grave of Renoir. We had communicated sporadically for a couple of years, and when she told me that she and husband and some friends of theirs would be in Troyes during the month of May, we laid a tentative plan to meet.
As it turned out, I was not in Champagne when they were in Troyes, but we were lucky to be able to meet in Paris. These Canadians–who are, specifically, from Winnipeg, and thus nearly “next door” neighbors to my hometown of Minneapolis. (Well. At nearly 500 miles apart, I guess it is a matter of “relatively speaking.”) Anyway, these Canadians turned out to be a delightful group! We met at my son’s favorite local café last Sunday morning and had one of those conversations that begins without effort, and threatens to never end. 🙂 I was particularly pleased to learn that Rosemary had enjoyed reading my new book, and that she had also recommended Demystifying the French to her friends; and when they told me that reading “Demystifying” had made a definite (and positive) difference in the quality of their experience of being in France, well that just about made my day right then and there.
I left the café feeling that I had six wonderful new friends. I hope to learn much more about Bill’s uncle, who paid a high price for his role in helping to liberate France. It was a poignant reminder of just how many lives were lost in getting Europe back out from under Nazi occupation, and an occasion for renewed–and deep–gratitude for all those brave men and women who so unselfishly did what needed to be done. 😦 I hope to be able to learn more about Bill’s uncle’s story, and write about it on this blog.
Here I am, with Rosemary in Paris, and with the rest of the gang as well.
Later that same day I had the good fortune to meet Kitty Morse, the author of a beautiful new book called Bitter Sweet: A Wartime Journal and Heirloom Recipes from Occupied France. After her mother died, Kitty had discovered a suitcase that held a wealth of archival material–both wartime journals and heirloom recipes–from her great-grandparents, one of whom perished in Auschwitz. She told the group of writers who had gathered to meet her a very moving story not only about her family’s history but about the warm reception she received in Châlons-en-Champagne when she went there this spring to do additional research into her family’s past, and to present her book.
All of this was wonderful, but the serendipity just kept rolling! As luck would have it, my cat-sitting assignment coincided perfectly with the arrival in Paris for one short day of a friend and former student of mine from my days of running a program in New York back in the 1980s, called the Junior Year in New York. Otter Bowman was one of the ones who couldn’t leave New York once she got there: she ended up staying there for several years before returning to her home state of Missouri, where she became a librarian and has carried out a career as a bookmobile librarian. Now, as president of the Missouri Library Association, she is one of hundreds of librarians across the country who are fighting the good fight against the banning of books.
Anyway. She and one of her sons, who now lives in England where he is studying classics, were doing a whirlwind trip to Paris and I was super pleased that they made time to see me while they were there.
We arranged to meet for dinner at the Bouillon République, which was not far from where both of us were staying. Otter had told me that a modest budget was what they had to work with, so right away I thought of meeting them at a bouillon. This revival of a 19th century phenomenon in 21st century Paris is explained here. Basically the idea is to provide a classic French meal at an affordable price, and in the past few years bouillons have popped up all over Paris. The décor tends to be 19th century France, and the meals are simple, classic–escargots, boeuf bourguignon, crème brûlée, for example. They are also copious, indeed affordable, and the atmosphere is very convivial. There are menus in both French and English, and the waiters very thoughtfully ask you which one you would prefer. The server we had was particularly kind and attentive, but I have found the service at bouillons to be so, generally speaking.
Unlike most French restaurants and even cafés and bistros, the bouillons tend to serve meals continuously during the hours they are open, and they don’t take reservations except for large groups. (Although I did notice that a poster outside the Bouillon République was announcing that they had just introduced the possibility of reserving tables, so it pays to check in advance, especially if you will be eating during traditional French lunch or dinnertime.) Since my friends had just arrived from London on the Eurostar, and Otter was also less than 36 hours into getting over jet lag I figured they might want to eat on the early side and I was right. So we met for dinner at 6 pm (very early by French standards) and walked right in. By the time we left at a bit after 8 pm there was a very long line to get in.
After dinner we took a stroll toward their Air B&B near Arts et Métiers and I showed them one of my favorite little parks in Paris, the Square du Temple. At nearly closing time, the playground was empty, but there were a couple of games of ping pong going on, and it turns out that Otter is a big fan of ping pong. (“Oh! If only I had known!” she said. “I would have packed my paddles.” 🙂 )
Here are a few images from the Square du Temple at other times of day, from other trips to Paris.
Early the next morning I needed to get back to Essoyes so I was on my train at Gare de l’Est before 9 am. I love taking the train between Essoyes* and Paris. It is such a wonderful way to travel! And I love the Gare de l’Est. It is not huge, and overwhelming like the Gare du Nord. And it is not huge and modern like Gare Montparnasse. It is old, and beautiful; big enough to be grand, but not so big as to be overwhelming; and it is full of interesting things to look at if you have time between trains. For example this painting, which I wrote about here.
When I got home I learned that Otter and her son had made time in their one precious day in Paris to go my favorite bookstore there, The Red Wheelbarrow, and I even have documentation of their visit, thanks to Penelope, the bookstore’s manager, who kindly snapped these photos of Otter enjoying a peek at my new book. (For those you who may not know, this is really the best Anglophone bookstore in Paris to go to, especially if you wish to go into the bookstore without having to wait in a long line (!) and if you fancy the idea of strolling across the street with your new books into the lovely Jardin de Luxembourg, which is also an absolutely perfect place for reading.)
And so here I am back in Essoyes, where there is less excitement, but also lots and lots of peacefulness and quiet. Our little orchard needed watering, and our new willow tree and flowering bushes did too. And so I am here to do these things, and to enjoy sunsets like this one nearly every night. And am counting my blessings…
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.
*You actually cannot take the train all the way to Essoyes (sadly). The closest station is Vendeuvre-sur-Barse. And the closest place where you can rent a car to drive the rest of the way is Troyes. But Troyes is also a fascinating and beautiful city with some wonderful museums. So well worth putting on your list!
The Evolving Face of Paris: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Now for the next thing on my calendar.
Which is my next (online) class with the wonderful Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington D.C.
I am very excited about this class, because the four books we will be reading and discussing in it will give members of the class a very diverse, vibrant, exciting look at today’s Paris through the eyes of some of its most engaging, thoughtful–and fun!– contemporary personalities.
And we will even have the chance to chat with each of the authors in the last half hour of the classes devoted to their books.
You see above the cover of the first book we will be reading–and though class starts a week from tomorrow, don’t worry about having the time to read the book. Edith de Belleville’s book is a quick and delightful read: you will have plenty of time to read it, especially if you start today!
To be perfectly honest I do need a few more people to sign up in order to make this class a “go.” So I hope a few of you Parisophiles out there will sign up. You wouldn’t want to disappoint the ones who are already looking forward to this class, now would you?
Plus, this class is going to be really fun and interesting. I promise!
You can learn all about it here. So. I hope to see some of you in those little Zoom boxes, a week from tomorrow.
In the meantime, happy reading!
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 Long Way from Iowa Launches at The Red Wheelbarrow, Paris
With my friend (and bookseller extraordinaire) Penelope Fletcher, at the launch of A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France.
I stated on my Facebook page not too long ago that having my book launch at The Red Wheelbarrow bookstore in Paris was a longtime dream come true, but that is not strictly accurate.
The truth is I never really dreamed of having a book launch at a bookstore in Paris, at least not until fairly recently. Not until I became friends with Penelope Fletcher, the manager of my very favorite English-language bookstore in Paris (and in my opinion the very best one too).
Penelope is what every indie bookstore manager should be: a voracious reader with boundless love and enthusiasm for books and writers, and a passionate interest in putting the right readers together with the right books. (Being possessed of abundant energy and indefatigable persistence and determination is helpful too. 🙂 )
I could go on and on about Penelope’s talents, skills, and excellence as a bookseller, but perhaps I will save that for another post. For now let me just say that she has become a good friend, and a faithful supporter of my work, and I am deeply grateful for that.
Anyway. So it is that I found myself living that dream come true last night, at The Red Wheelbarrow in Paris. Here are a few photos of the event.
And so this book, a labor of love that I worked on off and on over a period of many years, is finally out in the world–and on the shelves at The Red Wheelbarrow as well as other bookstores (for example at my favorite Washington DC bookstore, Politics and Prose), and online as well. You can learn a bit about the book here, and I hope you will be interested enough to buy it. I hope even more that you will like it (and that if you do, you will write an online review of it). These things help authors so much!
The best thing about the event, at least for me, is that it was a wonderful mix of friends, and people I’d never met before. (The best thing for Penelope, I imagine, is that almost everyone who was there for the reading bought the book!) And I think it was fun for everyone that I had brought one of my favorite champagnes from the Côte des Bar (which is where I now live) to celebrate the event.
There is one more best thing about the event for me. And that is that both of my sons were there, with their very nice girlfriends. Nothing could have made the event more special for me.
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.
An Interview with BonjourParis.com
Thanks so much to Mary Winston Nicklin for this wonderful interview spotlighting my new book, A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France. BonjourParis.com is a great resource for anyone who loves Paris: if you don’t know about it already, you should!
I hope you enjoy this interview, which touches on a number of the key themes in my book: writing, motherhood, travel, family relatonships, women’s lives, and France!
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.
Paris in August (2022)
I have just spent a very nice week in Paris, apartment and cat-sitting for my son and his girlfriend while they were vacationing in Italy.
They live in the Bastille neighborhood, and have a very nice view of the Bassin de l’Arsenal, which is a canal that feeds into the Seine. I haven’t spent a lot of time in this neighborhood before, so this time I was pleased to have the chance to get to know it better.
One thing I didn’t find right away, and missed, was a nice little pocket park (or “square,” pronounced “sqwar” in French) nearby, which most Parisian neighborhoods have. From their window I could see the canal and the boats, and I could see a place to stroll along a cobblestone quai next to the boats; but I didn’t see any benches to sit on or any green space along the canal, and what I always want in Paris (or anywhere, really) is a bench to sit on while I read and watch people stroll by. I was feeling a little bit sad about this, so one day I looked at the map and saw that according to the map, the largest nearby green space was the Jardin des Plantes across the river. That is not too far away, but as I was walking toward there I found an even closer little park, the Square Henri Galli, before crossing the river.
But really, I should have known Paris better! I should have known that there would be green space nearer than that and indeed when I decided to explore my son’s immediate neighborhood a little more carefully I found that all along the Bassin de l’Arsenal there are lovely places to walk, with little playgrounds, and benches to sit on, plenty of trees and flowers, and everything that makes me love being in Paris, especially on a nice day when you can find such a place to sit and read. In other words, there is all that literally right across the street from my son, duh; and all I had to do to find it was walk down a winding stairway next to the passerelle that crosses the canal. (When he had returned from his vacation my son also showed me the (not all that easy-to-spot) entryway to the Coulée Verte, a lovely elevated linear park built on top of an obsolete railway infrastructure just a couple of blocks away from his apartment.)
The moral here, folks, is: if you’re looking for green space, or a nice place to stroll or to sit and read in Paris, and you can’t find it, you’re not looking hard enough. 🙂 )
Bastille is a very busy neighborhood. The area right around the memorial to the Bastille–the original prison that was famously raided in 1789 at the beginning of the French Revolution is long gone— has an abundance of restaurants and sidewalk cafes, and generally lots of busy urban activity: skateboarders, people on trottinettes (motorized scooters, watch out for them, they are dangerous!!!), and so on. There is also a big outdoor market there two days a week, a couple of movie theaters, and one evening–it happened to be on a Catholic holiday, the Feast of the Assumption, which is a national holiday in France–there was an open-air gospel concert. One of the two opera houses in Paris, the Opera Bastille, is also located there and was announcing a current production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. I thought I would go to that one night, but alas, when I went to inquire about tickets I learned that the opera was taking its annual August vacation and so: no such luck. Well, another time…
France has for hundreds of years welcomed and offered asylum to refugees from many countries around the world, and that continues today. There is a mini tent city for homeless youth sponsored by an association right on the main square, across from the opera. And all along the sidewalk leading from Bastille to the passerelle that crosses the Bassin de l’Arsenal there are tents pitched by homeless people, sometimes whole families, who I must say seem to be bearing their circumstances with equanimity, sometimes even joy. (I know this sounds naïve and maybe even heartless. Surely they deserve better housing! All I can say is, that is what I have seen, and it has caused me to reflect: some people can’t be happy no matter how lucky they are, and others find ways to do so no matter how unlucky.)
The other day there was also a very moving installation in the square drawing awareness to the victims of a massive wave of state-sponsored executions of political dissidents in Iran in 1988. I was not aware of the extent of this tragedy before. Thanks to this effort to memorialize the victims, I am now.
While I was in town I was able to see a couple of friends. I met one of them for a catching-up-with-our-news lunch in the Jardin de Luxembourg one day. Another day I met a friend in the Marais, where we had a delicious lunch at Café Charlot, and then went to an exhibition about Proust and his Jewish heritage at the Musée d’art et d’histoire du judaisme.
Honestly my absolutely favorite thing to do in Paris always is just to 1) walk; 2) find a nice little café for lunch, dinner, or just a drink or un café, and then sit there and read, and listen to the lovely sound of French conversation going on all around my ears.
I did plenty of that too.
But how can you write a post about cat-sitting in Paris without a picture of the cat?
You can’t, that’s what. And so, here you go.
Janet Hulstrand is a writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who divides her time between the U.S. 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.
Writing from the Heart, Reading for the Road 