Paris is Always a Good Idea

-
From a young age, I determined to adhere to the words of the incomparable Audrey Hepburn, who once declared, "Paris is always a good idea."

 Paris is always a good idea: as a vacation destination, a place of residence, and as a setting for movies and novels.

In the movie Sabrina, Audrey's character writes a letter home to her father, waxing poetic about her feelings for Paris.  
"I am looking at the world through rose colored glasses and it says everything I feel.  I've learned so many things, Father...I have learned how to live."


 Why?  Why is Paris the setting parfait for an exploration of one's character...or for a novel?

 Because when you are there, every breath you inhale is tinged with hope, every exhalation with gratitude. Hope for a grand histoire d'amour -  a great love affair.  

 Hope for one of those serendipitous moments - when the light filters through the spires of Notre Dame leaving a lacy patterned shadow on the square in which you stand, when the setting sun transforms the Seine into a river of gold, when the scent of fresh bread permeates the air, when a handsome stranger strides across the bistro and says, 
"Je suis ravi par votre beauté."
"I am enraptured by your beauty."
Because, let's face it, those things don't happen in Poughkeepsie, Pomona, or Portland.  They just don't.


Edith Piaf got it.  La Vie en Rose.  Life through rose colored glasses.  Sigh.  (Click here to listen to Edith's version)

 So, if life is looking a little bleak through your RayBans, grab one of these fabulous novels and transport yourself to that magical, rose-stained city, Paris.  










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cheri Herouard ~ La Vie Parisienne

-
Image
While looking for artwork to decoupage onto candle jars, I serendipitiously found vintage covers of the French magazine, La Vie Parisienne .  Founded in 1863,  La Vie Parisienne was originally designed to appeal to the upper-classes, offering literary pieces, society gossip and articles about the arts.  It also featured the work of immensely talented artists like Georges Barbier , Gerda Wegener , Chéri Hérouard , Georges Léonnec , Maurice Milliere .  The artwork was considered risqué, even erotic (think early porn for the intellectual). I adore the work Chéri Hérouard did for La Vie Parisienne and wanted to share some of it with you.  I hope you find it as titillating as I do!
Read more

Have Plot, Will Travel

-
Image
(This article was first published in Writers Digest, August 2005) So you have become obsessed with the idea of writing a novel about a daring spy in Revolutionary Paris? Or maybe you have decided to plot the perfect murder by writing a cozy set in a crumbling old manor home located somewhere in the Scottish borders? No? Perhaps you are working on a time-travel romance wherein your modern-day heroine takes a hike, falls through a fairy hillock, and finds herself in medieval Ireland? You have given birth to the characters and toiled over the plot, all that is missing now are setting details. The small particulars that make your story really come alive. Whatever the plot, wherever the setting, you will need those details to add authenticity to your story. How would your daring spy have moved about Paris undetected? What food would one find in the refrigerator of a crumbling Scottish manor home? Do the Irish still believe in the mystical powers of the fairy hillocks? Do fairy hillocks ...
Read more

Creepy Château de Chaumont & Catherine's Shady Squad

-
Image
The first time I visited Chateau de Chaumont was in the winter of 2003 - a brief visit that lingered in my imagination for years after.  Since the castle was closed to tourists, I wandered the grounds alone in hopes I might encounter the spirits of inhabitants past.   This might seem an unusual pastime unless you pause to consider the castle's rather unusual history.  Chaumont was once the home of Catherine de Medici, queen to Henri II of France.  Catherine practiced what some called "the darker arts" at Chaumont, inviting astronomers, numerologists, and a host of shady characters.   The astrologer  Nostradamus was one of the member's of Catherine's shady squad.  He  visited her at Chaumont on several occasions.  Legend has it Catherine attended ritualistic animal sacrifices in the castle's front hall (this told to me by a groundskeeper I encountered) .   On that first visit, when the wind eerily whispered thro...
Read more