The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel

The Book of Lost Names
by Kristin Harmel
narrated by Madeleine Maby

Published: 2020
Publisher: Gallery Books
Hardback: 400
Rating: 4
Historical, WW2, Romance, France | Goodreads | Website
Travel destinations: France, Switzerland

First sentence(s):
It's a Saturday morning, and I'm midway through my shift at the Winder Park Public Library when I see it.

Inspired by an astonishing true story from World War II, a young woman with a talent for forgery helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis in this unforgettable historical novel from the international bestselling author of the “epic and heart-wrenching World War II tale” (Alyson Noel, #1 New York Times bestselling author) The Winemaker’s Wife.

Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.

The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?

As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears.

My two-bits:

Perspectives from people who are part of the resistance in varying degrees.

People's efforts however small (and maybe hidden) had meaning and impact.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

* review copy courtesy of Goodreads

* part of Paris in July (here)

* part of Armchair Autumn Travel (here)

Death in Provence by Serena Kent

Death in Provence
by Sarah Kent
narrated by Antonia Beamish

Published: 2019
Publisher: Harper
Genre: Mystery, France
Hardback: 368
Rating: 5
Goodreads

Penelope Kite Mysteries series:
Death in Provence
Death in Avignon

First sentence(s):
In early spring, everything had been so different.

It’s love at first sight when Penelope Kite sees Le Chant d’Eau—The Song of Water—the stone farmhouse tucked high in the hills above the Luberon valley, complete with a garden, swimming pool, and sweeping mountain vistas. For years, Penelope put her unfaithful ex-husband and her ungrateful stepchildren first. Since taking early retirement from her job in forensics at the Home Office in England, she’s been an unpaid babysitter and chauffeur for her grandchildren. Now, she’s going to start living for herself. Though her dream house needs major renovations, Penelope impulsively buys the property and moves to St. Merlot.

But Penelope’s daydreams of an adventurous life in Provence didn’t include finding a corpse floating face down in her swimming pool. The discovery of the dead man plunges her headlong into a Provençal stew of intrigue and lingering resentments simmering beneath the deceptively sunny village. Having worked in the forensics office, Penelope knows a thing or two about murder investigations. To find answers, she must carefully navigate between her seemingly ubiquitous, supercilious (and enviably chic) estate agent, the disdainful chief of police, and the devilishly handsome mayor—even as she finds herself tempted by all the delicacies the region has to offer. Thank goodness her old friend Frankie is just a flight away... and that Penelope is not quite as naïve as her new neighbors in St. Merlot believe.

My two-bits:

Quite a welcoming party, indeed, for an English Expat lady moving into a small town in Provence. It took awhile to warm up to Penelope as well as the serious bunch of members in this small town community. However, in the end I got caught into caring.

~*~
* cute reference to Duran Duran by Frankie character ;-)

* Listened to audiobook version.

* part of Paris in July (here)

Goodbye... Paris in July

Au revoir!

~*~

Goodbye Paris
by Anstey Harris
Chick-lit, France, Paris | Goodreads
Grace once had the beginnings of a promising musical career, but she hasn’t been able to play her cello publicly since a traumatic event at music college years ago. Since then, she’s built a quiet life for herself in her small English village, repairing instruments and nurturing her long- distance affair with David, the man who has helped her rebuild her life even as she puts her dreams of a family on hold until his children are old enough for him to leave his loveless marriage.

But when David saves the life of a woman in the Paris Metro, his resulting fame shines a light onto the real state of the relationship(s) in his life. Shattered, Grace hits rock bottom and abandons everything that has been important to her, including her dream of entering and winning the world’s most important violin-making competition. Her closest friends—a charming elderly violinist with a secret love affair of his own, and her store clerk, a gifted but angst-ridden teenage girl—step in to help, but will their friendship be enough to help her pick up the pieces?

~*~
* image source: vintage au revoir

* part of Paris in July (here)

Murder in Clichy by Cara Black

Murder in Clichy
(Aimée Leduc Investigation #5)
by Cara Black

Published: 2005
Publisher: Soho Crime
Genre: Mystery, France, Paris
Hardback: 320
Rating: 4
Goodreads | Website

First sentence(s):
In the storefront Cao Dai temple under the red lanterns, her foot asleep, pins and needles up and down her legs, Aimée Leduc struggled to keep her spine straight, thumb and pinky together, in the half-lotus position.

Aimée Leduc, private investigator specializing in computer security, has been introduced to the Cao Dai temple in Paris by her partner René Friant. He urges her to learn to meditate: she could use a more healthful approach to life. The Vietnamese nun Linh has been helping Aimée to attain her goal, so when she asks Aimée for a favor—to go to the Clichy quartier to exchange an envelope for a package—René prompts Aimée to agree. But the intended recipient, Thadée Baret, is shot and dies in Aimée’s arms before the transaction can be completed, leaving Aimée with a wounded arm, a check for 50,000 francs, and a trove of ancient jade artifacts.

Whoever killed Baret wants the jade. The RG—the French secret service; a group of veterans of the war in Indochina and some wealthy ex-colonials and international corporations seeking oil rights are all implicated. And the nun, Linh, has disappeared.

Since the incident in which she was temporarily blinded (Murder in the Bastille), Aimée has promised to avoid danger. But somehow, it continues to seek her out.

My two-bits:

This story ventures into some history between Vietnam and France. The historical and descriptions of Parisian neighborhoods continues to draw me to this series.

Action and a touch of romance troubles keep Aimée on the move in this Leduc mystery series.

~*~
* author binge (series): Cara Black

* part of Paris in July (here)

Mystery and France

Sacré bleu!

~*~

The 7th Woman Frédérique Molay, translated by Anne Trager (Paris Homicide #1)
Mystery, Thriller, Crime, France, Paris | Goodreads

There's no rest for Paris's top criminal investigation division, La Crim'. Who is preying on women in the French capital? How can he kill again and again without leaving any clues? A serial killer is taking pleasure in a macabre ritual that leaves the police on tenterhooks. Chief of Police Nico Sirsky—a super cop with a modern-day real life, including an ex-wife, a teenage son and a budding love story—races against the clock to solve the murders as they get closer and closer to his inner circle. Will he resist the pressure?

The story grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go until the last page, leading you behind the scenes with the French police and into the coroner’s office. It has the suspense of Seven, with CSI-like details. You will never experience Paris the same way again!

Crossing The Line Frédérique Molay, translated by Anne Trager (Paris Homicide #2)
Mystery, Thriller, Crime, France, Paris | Goodreads


The Book Artist by Mark Pryor (Hugo Marston #8)
Mystery, Thriller, France, Paris | Goodreads

Hugo Marston, head of security for the U.S. Embassy in Paris, puts his life in danger when he investigates the murder of a celebrated artist, all the while fending off an assassin looking to settle an old score against him.

Hugo Marston accompanies his boss, US Ambassador J. Bradford Taylor, to the first night of an art exhibition in Montmartre, Paris. Hugo is less than happy about going until he finds out that the sculptures on display are made from his favorite medium: books. Soon after the champagne starts to flow and the canapes are served, the night takes a deadly turn when one of the guests is found murdered.

Hugo lingers at the scene and offers his profiling expertise to help solve the crime, but the detective in charge quickly jumps to his own conclusions. He makes an arrest, but it's someone that Hugo is certain is innocent. Meanwhile, his best friend, Tom Green, has disappeared to Amsterdam, hunting an enemy from their past, an enemy who gets the upper hand on Tom, and who then sets his sights on Hugo.

With an innocent person behind bars, a murder to solve, and his own life in danger, Hugo knows he has no time to waste as one killer tries to slip away, and another gets closer and closer.

The French Widow by Mark Pryor (Hugo Marston #9)
Mystery, Thriller, France, Paris | Goodreads
release date: September 15, 2020

The Godmother
by Hannelore Cayre, Stephanie Smee (Translator)
Crime, Mystery, France | Goodreads
Inspiration for the major motion picture Mama Weed; translated from the international bestseller La Daronne, winner of the European Crime Fiction Prize and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, France’s most prestigious prize for crime fiction

Meet Patience Portefeux, a fifty-three-year-old, underpaid Franco-Arab interpreter for the Ministry of Justice who specializes in phone tapping. Widowed after the sudden death of her husband, Patience is now wedged between university fees for her grown-up daughters and nursing home costs for her aging mother. Happening upon an especially revealing set of police wiretaps ahead of all other authorities, Patience makes a life-altering decision that sees her intervening in — and infiltrating — the machinations of a massive drug deal. She thus embarks on an entirely new career path: Patience becomes The Godmother.

This is not the French idyll of postcards and stock photos. With a gallery of traffickers, dealers, police officers, and politicians, The Godmother casts its sharp and amusing gaze on everyday survival in contemporary France. With an unforgettable woman at its center, Hannelore Cayre’s bestselling novel reveals a European criminal underground that has rarely been seen.

~*~
* image source: Place de Clichy by Eugene Galien Laloue

* part of Paris in July (here)

Foodie and France

Délicieuse!

~*~
VISIT: cheese shop

La Fromagerie de SoMa, First Street (here)
Selected the cave aged Gruyere (pic below with croissant).


VISIT: bakery

La Boulangerie, Pine Street (here)
Organic Artisan Breads and Pastries
Croissant is a must.

VISIT: pastry shop

b.patiserrie, California Street (here)
...modern French style pastries along with American flavors and local influences
Sweet treat - Chocolate Caramel Toffee Mousse

COMING SOON:

Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop
by Roselle Lim
Romance, Magical Realism, France, Paris | Goodreads
Release date: August 4, 2020
Become enamored with the splendor of Paris in this heartwarming and delightful story about writing one’s own destiny and finding love along the way.

Vanessa Yu never wanted to see people’s fortunes—or misfortunes—in tea leaves.

Ever since she can remember, Vanessa Yu has been able to see people’s fortunes at the bottom of their teacups. To avoid blurting out their fortunes, she converts to coffee, but somehow fortunes escape and find a way to complicate her life and the ones of those around her. To add to this plight, her romance life is so nonexistent that her parents enlist the services of a matchmaking expert from Shanghai.

The day before her matchmaking appointment, Vanessa accidentally sees her own fate: death by traffic accident. She decides that she can’t truly live until she can find a way to get rid of her uncanny abilities. When her eccentric aunt, Evelyn, shows up with a tempting offer to whisk her away, Vanessa says au revoir to America and bonjour to Paris. While working at Evelyn’s tea stall at a Parisian antique market, Vanessa performs some matchmaking of her own, attempting to help reconnect her aunt with a lost love. As she learns more about herself and the root of her gifts, she realizes one thing to be true: knowing one’s destiny isn’t a curse, but being unable to change it is.

~*~
* part of Paris in July (here)

Films and France pt2

Incroyable!

~*~
WATCH: Netflix

Puerto Ricans in Paris (2015)
Director/Writer: Ian Edelman
Writer: Neel Shah
Stars: Miriam Shor, Luis Guzmán, Edgar Garcia
Comedy, France, Paris | imdb | my rating: 4
Two Puerto Rican NYPD detectives head to Paris to track down a stolen handbag.

HILARIOUS moments with American perspective and sleuthing in Paris.


WATCH: virtual theatre

Radioactive (2019)
Director: Marjane Satrapi
Screenplay: Jack Thorne
Based on book by: Lauren Redniss
Stars: Rosamund Pike, Yvette Feuer, Mirjam Novak
Biography, Drama, Romance, France, Paris | imdb | my rating: 5
Pioneer - Rebel - Genius. Radioactive is incredible, true-story of Marie Curie and her Nobel Prize-winning work that changed the world starring Rosamund Pike and Sam Riley.

WONDERFUL spotlight on Madame Curie's life, loves and science. So driven.


~*~
* image source: Théâtre du Gymnase, boulevard de Bonne-Nouvelle by Eugene Galien Laloue

* part of Paris in July (here)

Picnic in Provence by Elizabeth Bard

Picnic in Provence
A Memoir with Recipes
by Elizabeth Bard
narrated by author

Published: 2015
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Memoir, France, Recipes
Hardback: 384
Rating: 5
Goodreads | Website

First sentence(s):
I don't, as a rule, introduce myself to cows.

Ten years ago, New Yorker Elizabeth Bard followed a handsome Frenchman up a spiral staircase to a love nest in the heart of Paris. Now, with a baby on the way and the world's flakiest croissant around the corner, Elizabeth is sure she's found her "forever place." But life has other plans.

On a last romantic jaunt before the baby arrives, the couple take a trip to the tiny Provencal village of Céreste. A chance encounter leads them to the wartime home of a famous poet, a tale of a buried manuscript and a garden full of heirloom roses. Under the spell of the house and its unique history, in less time than it takes to flip a crepe, Elizabeth and Gwendal decide to move-lock, stock and Le Creuset-to the French countryside.

When the couple and their newborn son arrive in Provence, they discover a land of blue skies, lavender fields and peaches that taste like sunshine. Seduced by the local ingredients, they begin a new adventure as culinary entrepreneurs, starting their own artisanal ice cream shop and experimenting with flavors like saffron, sheep's milk yogurt and fruity olive oil.

Filled with enticing recipes for stuffed zucchini flowers, fig tart and honey & thyme ice cream, Picnic in Provence is the story of everything that happens after the happily ever after: an American learning the tricks of French motherhood, a family finding a new professional passion, and a cook's initiation into classic Provencal cuisine. With wit, humor and scoop of wild strawberry sorbet, Bard reminds us that life-in and out of the kitchen-is a rendez-vous with the unexpected.

My two-bits:

This story tells the tale of the transition of big city Paris to small town Provence living. Also, the trials and tribulations of starting a small business, ice cream.

Peek into the french culture and family essence are captured well.

Loved the food focus with its descriptions, bit of history and recipes.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

* part of Paris in July (here)

Falling For Provence by Paulita Kincer

Paulita Kincer

on tour

July 20-31

with

Falling For Provence

(women’s fiction, romantic suspense, family life)

Release date: June 5, 2020
at Oblique Press


245 pages

Author’s page
Goodreads

SYNOPSIS

Running a French B&B isn’t all wine and smelly cheese, Fia Jennings discovers as she tries to create a new life for herself and a smooth path for her teenage twins, while not—absolutely not – falling into a new romance. But she didn’t anticipate a handsome stranger showing up on her doorstep and sucking her into an art caper with dangerous overtones.

Can she make a new life in France or will she retreat to the States and her broken marriage?

Jaunt out of Paris

Allons-y!

~*~

The Reader on the 6.27
by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent, Ros Schwartz (Translator)
Contemporary, Books, Travel, France | Goodreads
An irresistible French sensation - Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore meets Amelie - The Reader on the 6.27 explores the power of books through the lives of the people they save. It is sure to capture the hearts of book lovers everywhere. Guylain Vignolles lives on the edge of existence. Working at a job he hates, he has but one pleasure in life ...Sitting on the 6.27 train each day, Guylain reads aloud. And it's this release of words into the world that starts our hero on a journey that will finally bring meaning into his life. For one morning, Guylain discovers the diary of a lonely young woman: Julie. A woman who feels as lost in the world as he does. As he reads from these pages to a rapt audience, Guylain finds himself falling hopelessly in love with their enchanting author ...

The Safe Place
by Anna Downes
Thriller, Mystery, France | Goodreads
Emily is a mess.

Emily Proudman just lost her acting agent, her job, and her apartment in one miserable day.

Emily is desperate.

Scott Denny, a successful and charismatic CEO, has a problem that neither his business acumen nor vast wealth can fix. Until he meets Emily.

Emily is perfect.

Scott offers Emily a summer job as a housekeeper on his remote, beautiful French estate. Enchanted by his lovely wife Nina, and his eccentric young daughter, Aurelia, Emily falls headlong into this oasis of wine-soaked days by the pool. But soon Emily realizes that Scott and Nina are hiding dangerous secrets, and if she doesn't play along, the consequences could be deadly.

Death in Provence
by Serena Kent
Mystery, France | Goodreads | my review | my rating: 5
The first entry in a clever, lighthearted mystery series set in modern Provence—a delightful blend of Agatha Christie and Peter Mayle—featuring the irrepressible Penelope Kite, a young-at-heart divorcee with a knack for stumbling across dead bodies.

It’s love at first sight when Penelope Kite sees Le Chant d’Eau—The Song of Water—the stone farmhouse tucked high in the hills above the Luberon valley, complete with a garden, swimming pool, and sweeping mountain vistas. For years, Penelope put her unfaithful ex-husband and her ungrateful stepchildren first. Since taking early retirement from her job in forensics at the Home Office in England, she’s been an unpaid babysitter and chauffeur for her grandchildren. Now, she’s going to start living for herself. Though her dream house needs major renovations, Penelope impulsively buys the property and moves to St. Merlot.

But Penelope’s daydreams of an adventurous life in Provence didn’t include finding a corpse floating face down in her swimming pool. The discovery of the dead man plunges her headlong into a Provençal stew of intrigue and lingering resentments simmering beneath the deceptively sunny village. Having worked in the forensics office, Penelope knows a thing or two about murder investigations. To find answers, she must carefully navigate between her seemingly ubiquitous, supercilious (and enviably chic) estate agent, the disdainful chief of police, and the devilishly handsome mayor—even as she finds herself tempted by all the delicacies the region has to offer. Thank goodness her old friend Frankie is just a flight away . . . and that Penelope is not quite as naïve as her new neighbors in St. Merlot believe.

~*~
* image source: Chair Car by Edward Hopper

* part of Paris in July (here)

The Black Swan of Paris by Karen Robards

The Black Swan of Paris
by Karen Robards
narrated by Nancy Peterson
Published: 2020
Publisher: MIRA
Genre: Historical, WW2, France
Hardback: 480
Playlist on Spotify - get in the mood
Rating: 4
Goodreads | Website

First sentence(s):
When the worst thing that could ever happen to you had already happened, nothing that came after really mattered.

A world at war. A beautiful young star. A mission no one expected.

Paris, 1944

Celebrated singer Genevieve Dumont is both a star and a smokescreen. An unwilling darling of the Nazis, the chanteuse’s position of privilege allows her to go undetected as an ally to the resistance.

When her estranged mother, Lillian de Rocheford, is captured by Nazis, Genevieve knows it won’t be long before the Gestapo succeeds in torturing information out of Lillian that will derail the upcoming allied invasion. The resistance movement is tasked with silencing her by any means necessary—including assassination. But Genevieve refuses to let her mother become yet one more victim of the war. Reuniting with her long-lost sister, she must find a way to navigate the perilous cross-currents of Occupied France undetected—and in time to save Lillian’s life.

My two-bits:

Good mix of historical, romance and some thriller set in WWII Paris. Got different perspectives for this resistance story.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

* part of Paris in July (here)

WW2 and France

Extraordinaire!

~*~

The Paper Girl of Paris
by Jordyn Taylor
Historical, WW2, YA, France | Goodreads
Now:
Sixteen-year-old Alice is spending the summer in Paris, but she isn’t there for pastries and walks along the Seine. When her grandmother passed away two months ago, she left Alice an apartment in France that no one knew existed. An apartment that has been locked for more than seventy years.

Alice is determined to find out why the apartment was abandoned and why her grandmother never once mentioned the family she left behind when she moved to America after World War II. With the help of Paul, a charming Parisian student, she sets out to uncover the truth. However, the more time she spends digging through the mysteries of the past, the more she realizes there are secrets in the present that her family is still refusing to talk about.

Then:
Sixteen-year-old Adalyn doesn’t recognize Paris anymore. Everywhere she looks, there are Nazis, and every day brings a new horror of life under the Occupation. When she meets Luc, the dashing and enigmatic leader of a resistance group, Adalyn feels she finally has a chance to fight back. But keeping up the appearance of being a much-admired socialite while working to undermine the Nazis is more complicated than she could have imagined. As the war goes on, Adalyn finds herself having to make more and more compromises—to her safety, to her reputation, and to her relationships with the people she loves the most.

The Dressmaker's Gift
by Fiona Valpy
Historical, WW2, France | Goodreads
Paris, 1940. With the city occupied by the Nazis, three young seamstresses go about their normal lives as best they can. But all three are hiding secrets. War-scarred Mireille is fighting with the Resistance; Claire has been seduced by a German officer; and Vivienne’s involvement is something she can’t reveal to either of them.

Two generations later, Claire’s English granddaughter Harriet arrives in Paris, rootless and adrift, desperate to find a connection with her past. Living and working in the same building on the Rue Cardinale, she learns the truth about her grandmother – and herself – and unravels a family history that is darker and more painful than she ever imagined.

In wartime, the three seamstresses face impossible choices when their secret activities put them in grave danger. Brought together by loyalty, threatened by betrayal, can they survive history’s darkest era without being torn apart?

The Book of Lost Names
by Kristin Harmel
Historical, WW2, France | Goodreads | my review
Inspired by an astonishing true story from World War II, a young woman with a talent for forgery helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis in this unforgettable historical novel from the international bestselling author of the “epic and heart-wrenching World War II tale” (Alyson Noel, #1 New York Times bestselling author) The Winemaker’s Wife.

Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.

The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?

As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears.


COMING SOON:

Red Mistress
by Elizabeth Blackwell
Historical, WW2, France | Goodreads
Release date: July 21, 2020
In the wake of the Russian Revolution, a determined young woman breaks with her past to become a spy in 1920s Paris, where shadowy intrigues and a dangerous romance put her loyalty to the test.

In the spring of 1914, Nadia Shulkina, the daughter of Russian aristocrats, looks toward a bright future. She has no premonitions of war, let alone the revolution that is about to destroy her comfortable world.

Her once-noble family is stripped of every possession, and more terrible losses soon follow. To save what’s left of her family and future, Nadia marries a zealous Bolshevik in an act of calculated reinvention.

It won’t be her last.

When she agrees to work undercover for the Soviets in 1920s Paris, Nadia is drawn into a beautiful yet treacherous world of secrets and deceit. Beset by conflicting loyalties and tested by a forbidden love affair, she becomes embroiled in a conspiracy that ends with a shocking murder. What chances will she take to determine her own fate?

~*~
* image source: Place de la Madeleine by Eugene Galien Laloue

San Francisco and France

Legion of Honor
Fine Arts Museum | Website
The Legion of Honor museum is a French neoclassical building inspired by the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur in Paris. The courtyard includes Rodin's The Thinker and a glass pyramid skylight reminiscent of the one at the Louvre.

~*~
Here are shots from the French Quarter of San Francisco.

"Paris of the Pacific" was the name given to San Francisco during the 1850s Gold Rush when French immigrants sailed to SF bringing their expertise in products that the miners needed, along with skills, stores, food, salons and culture -per Consulate General of France in San Francisco

Cafe Claude
French restaurant with Left Bank vibe and live music | Website

Café de la Presse
for French breakfast and brunch | Website

a Tabac store, Brasserie and Hotel des Arts
located on Bush Street (and Grant Avenue)
~*~

French San Francisco
by Claudine Chalmers
History | Goodreads
Nineteenth-century California was not a destination for the faint of heart, and Frenchmen are usually said to prefer their slippers to their traveling boots. Yet many visitors from France--starting in 1786 with legendary explorer Count de LapAA(c)rouse--made their way to the remote and beautiful territory, leaving enduring accounts and images of their experience. As France's troubled revolutionary era began in the 1840s, tens of thousands of Frenchmen journeyed to California's goldfields. Some found wealth, others freedom, and some death. Many remained in San Francisco, helping shape the city and make it French from the inside.

French character in San Francisco story:

Frog Music
by Emma Donoghue
Historical, Mystery, San Francisco | Goodreads
Summer of 1876: San Francisco is in the fierce grip of a record-breaking heat wave and a smallpox epidemic. Through the window of a railroad saloon, a young woman named Jenny Bonnet is shot dead.

The survivor, her friend Blanche Beunon, is a French burlesque dancer. Over the next three days, she will risk everything to bring Jenny's murderer to justice--if he doesn't track her down first. The story Blanche struggles to piece together is one of free-love bohemians, desperate paupers, and arrogant millionaires; of jealous men, icy women, and damaged children. It's the secret life of Jenny herself, a notorious character who breaks the law every morning by getting dressed: a charmer as slippery as the frogs she hunts.

In thrilling, cinematic style, FROG MUSIC digs up a long-forgotten, never-solved crime. Full of songs that migrated across the world, Emma Donoghue's lyrical tale of love and bloodshed among lowlifes captures the pulse of a boomtown like no other.

DID YOU KNOW?

San Francisco Book Company
since 1997
an English language bookshop
located in the heart of the Left Bank of Paris | Website
Definitely a place to visit while there ;-)

~*~
* part of Paris in July (here)

Fashion and France

Très jolie!

~*~

The French Photographer
by Natasha Lester
-Historical, WW2, France, Paris, Lee Miller | Goodreads
Inspired by the incredible true story of Lee Miller, Vogue model turned one of the first female war photojournalists.

Manhattan, Paris, 1942: When Jessica May's successful modelling career is abruptly cut short, she is assigned to the war in Europe as a photojournalist for Vogue. But when she arrives the army men make her life as difficult as possible. Three friendships change that: journalist Martha Gellhorn encourages Jess to bend the rules, paratrooper Dan Hallworth takes her to places to shoot pictures and write stories that matter, and a little girl, Victorine, who has grown up in a field hospital, shows her love. But success comes at a price.

France, 2005: Australian curator D'Arcy Hallworth arrives at a beautiful chateau to manage a famous collection of photographs. What begins as just another job becomes far more disquieting as D'Arcy uncovers the true identity of the mysterious photographer -- and realises that she is connected to D'Arcy's own mother, Victorine.

~*~
House of Dior:

The Paris Secret
by Natasha Lester
Historical, France, Paris, Christian Dior | Goodreads
A wardrobe of Dior gowns, a secret kept for sixty-five years, and the three women bound forever by war... from the New York Times bestselling author of The French Photographer

England, 1939 Talented pilot Skye Penrose joins the British war effort where she encounters her estranged sister, Liberty, and childhood soulmate Nicholas Crawford, now engaged to enigmatic Frenchwoman Margaux Jourdan.

Paris, 1947 Designer Christian Dior unveils his extravagant first collection to a world weary of war and grief. He names his debut fragrance, Miss Dior, in tribute to his sister, Catherine, who worked for the French Resistance.

Present day Australian fashion conservator Kat Jourdan discovers a secret wardrobe filled with priceless Dior gowns in her grandmother's vacant cottage. As she delves into the mystery, Kat begins to doubt everything she thought she knew about her beloved grandmother.

An unspeakable betrayal will entwine all of their fates.

House of Chanel:

The Queen of Paris
A Novel of Coco Chanel
by Pamela Binnings Ewen
Historical, France, Paris, Coco Chanel | Goodreads
Legendary fashion designer Coco Chanel is revered for her sophisticated style—the iconic little black dress—and famed for her intoxicating perfume Chanel No. 5. Yet behind the public persona is a complicated woman of intrigue, shadowed by mysterious rumors. The Queen of Paris, the new novel from award-winning author Pamela Binnings Ewen, vividly imagines the hidden life of Chanel during the four years of Nazi occupation in Paris in the midst of WWII—as discovered in recently unearthed wartime files.

Coco Chanel could be cheerful, lighthearted, and generous; she also could be ruthless, manipulative, even cruel. Against the winds of war, with the Wehrmacht marching down the Champs-Élysées, Chanel finds herself residing alongside the Reich’s High Command in the Hotel Ritz. Surrounded by the enemy, Chanel wages a private war of her own to wrestle full control of her perfume company from the hands of her Jewish business partner, Pierre Wertheimer. With anti-Semitism on the rise, he has escaped to the United States with the confidential formula for Chanel No. 5. Distrustful of his intentions to set up production on the outskirts of New York City, Chanel fights to seize ownership. The House of Chanel shall not fall.

While Chanel struggles to keep her livelihood intact, Paris sinks under the iron fist of German rule. Chanel—a woman made of sparkling granite—will do anything to survive. She will even agree to collaborate with the Nazis in order to protect her darkest secrets. When she is covertly recruited by Germany to spy for the Reich, she becomes Agent F-7124, code name: Westminster. But why? And to what lengths will she go to keep her stormy past from haunting her future?

House of St. Laurent:

Yves Saint Laurent
His Life and Times
5 Avenue Marceau 75116 Paris
Director/Writer: David Teboul
Documentary, Biography, Yves Saint Laurent | imdb | my rating: 5
FLY on the wall perspective of preparing for a collection was both tedious but interesting.

House of Margiela:

Watch out for this dynamic duo: Maison Margiela & Leon Dame

German model, Leon Dame, became a sensation after his fierce walk for the Maison Margiela Spring-Summer 2020 ‘Défilé’ Co-ed collection designed by John Galliano (here). This collection has an old-timely wartime vibe.

Leon is set to walk again in the Maison Margiela Artisinal Collection, Autumn-Winter 2020 video.



Compilation of Leon walks:



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Paris Fashion Week: stay-at-home edition

Watch the Paris Couture Fashion Show Videos (here) -NY Times, July 5, 2020

Featuring:
Maison Margiela
Franck Sorbier
Guo Pei
Elie Saab
Jean Paul Gaultier
Bouchra Jarrar
Christophe Josse
Adeline Andre
Viktor & Rolf
Julie de Libran
Chanel
Alexis Mabille
Aganovich
Stéphane Rolland
Julien Fournié
Aelis
Rahul Mishra
RVDK Ronald Van der Kemp
Imane Ayissi
Christian Dior
Ralph & Russo
Azzaro Couture
Antonio Grimaldi
Xuan
Giambattista Valli
Georges Hobeika
Schiaparelli
Ulyana Sergeenko
Iris Van Herpen
Maurizio Galante
Maison Rabih Kayrouz
Valentino

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* image source: Flower Market by Eugene Galien Laloue

* image source: Leon Dame photo credit: Peter White/Getty Images (here)

* part of Paris in July (here)

Royals and France

Scandaleuse!

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Marie Antoinette’s World
Intrigue, Infidelity, And Adultery In Versailles
by Will Bashor
History, France | Goodreads
Visit the book tour for details and giveaway
July 17 - August 14 (here)
This riveting book explores the little-known intimate life of Marie Antoinette and her milieu in a world filled with intrigue, infidelity, adultery, and sexually transmitted diseases.

Will Bashor reveals the intrigue and debauchery of the Bourbon kings from Louis XIII to Louis XV, which were closely intertwined with the expansion of Versailles from a simple hunting lodge to a luxurious and intricately ordered palace. It soon became a retreat for scandalous conspiracies and rendezvous—all hidden from the public eye.

When Marie Antoinette arrived, she was quickly drawn into a true viper’s nest, encouraged by her imprudent entourage. Bashor shows that her often thoughtless, fantasy-driven, and notorious antics were inevitable given her family history and the alluring influences that surrounded her. Marie Antoinette’s frivolous and flamboyant lifestyle prompted a torrent of scathing pamphlets, and Bashor scrutinizes the queen’s world to discover what was false, what was possible, and what, although shocking, was most probably true.

Readers will be fascinated by this glimpse behind the decorative screens to learn the secret language of the queen’s fan and explore the dark passageways and staircases of endless intrigue at Versailles.

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Lady J (2018)
Mademoiselle de Joncquières (original title)
on Netflix
Director/Screenplay: Emmanuel Mouret
Based on book by: Denis Diderot
Stars: Cécile de France, Edouard Baer, Alice Isaaz
Drama, Romance, France | imdb | my rating: 5
Fooled by a notorious libertine, a widow plans her revenge.

BEAUTIFULLY done - the gardens, the home decor, the costumes. Despite snooty despicable people, felt the injustice for a certain someone - sad.


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* image source: Place de la Concorde by Eugene Galien Laloue

* part of Paris in July (here)