Paris in July 2024

And here's another reading challenge, one that I'm keen to try. Paris in July is hosted by Emma at Words and Peace. 

Emma says,

'During this month,  our goal is to embrace and honor our French encounters by immersing ourselves in various activities, like reading, watching, listening, observing, cooking, and indulging in all things French!'

So despite the title, your book, film or culinary creation doesn't need to be Parisian, it just needs to be French. And you have the whole of July in which to take part.  I plan to integrate some French books into the 52 Book Club 2024 prompts (otherwise I'll never finish that one - I am amazed to see that some people have already completed it. They're clearly less easily distracted than I am.) 

Here are the books I have found on my shelves:

Alain-Fournier -  Le Grand Meaulnes

Kerri Andrews – Wanderers, A History of Women Walking (Anais Nin)

Pierre Balmain – My Years and Seasons

Elizabeth Bard – Lunch in Paris

Luke Barr – Provence, 1970

HE Bates – A Breath of French Air

Cara Black – Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis

Julia Child – My Life in France

Elizabeth David – An Omelette and a Glass of Wine (various chapters)

Alexandre Dumas – The Three Musketeers

Sebastian Faulks – Charlotte Gray

MFK Fisher – The Gastronomical Me

MFK Fisher - Long Ago in France

Katie Fforde – A Wedding in Provence

Claire Harkness – Monsieur de Brillancourt

Lucinda Holdforth – True Pleasures: A Memoir of Women in Paris

Ted Jones – The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers

Graeme MacRae Burnet – The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau

Peter Mayle – French Lessons

Nancy K Miller - Breathless

Heather Reyes (ed) – Paris (city-lit – perfect gems of Paris writing)

Francoise Sagan – Bonjour Tristesse

Georges Simenon – The Late Monsieur Gallet

Georges Simenon – Maigret and the Dead Girl

Georges Simenon – The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien

Georges Simenon – The Flemish House

Mary Stewart – Madam, Will You Talk?

The only ones I've read before are Bonjour Tristesse, A Breath of French Air, The Gastronomical Me and Madam, Will You Talk?

Of course I won't read all of these! I'll be doing well if I get through four or five. I'm especially keen to read Luke Barr's Provence, 1970 - and incidentally, Barr is a grand-nephew of MFK Fisher, whose writing I also enjoy. I've been promising myself I'll read Julia Child's My Life in France for years, but I think it's probably too long for me to fit in this time. 

I've also dug out some DVDs - as you see, they vary from the highbrow (The Seasons in Quincy, Tilda Swinton's films about John Berger) to the distinctly less so (Jackie Collins Paris, anyone?)  I may well just settle for a rewatch of The Aristocats, but I think Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris was well reviewed when it came out, so maybe I'll get to that too. 

And as for cooking...it's not exactly my strong point, I have to admit, but maybe I'll think of something. Or maybe I'll just buy some Madeleines, dip them into my tea and feel Proustian.

(Though I remember that my mother made a very different version of madeleines - I see from the Great British Bake Off that these are known as English Madeleines)

Or maybe I'll ask my daughter to send me the recipe for her very delicious Salade Nicoise. 

Image: BBC Food

And of course, if all else fails, there's always le vin rouge, and I also enjoy an occasional creme de cassis. In the interests of research, obviously.

If you'd like to join in, all the details can be found at Words and Peace.