I Prefer Paris

Book Giveaway: Of Love and Paris by John Baxter

I am always excited when John Baxter writes a new book, and his latest is Of Love and Paris Romantic and Obsessive Liaisons, which looks to be a juicy and entertaining book.

Here’s a synopsis of the book.

The French may not have invented love, but they perfected it, and the laboratory in which they did so was Paris. James Joyce called the city "a lamp for lovers, hung in the wood of the world."

From the Middle Ages, Paris has drawn those who wish to experience the limits of love – intellectual, spiritual, and carnal. In Of Love and Paris, John Baxter turns the spotlight on some of them, from the medieval troubadours who seduced court ladies with flowery verse to Man Ray, whose camera conferred immortality on his lover and model Kiki, and Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, who turned their moans of sexual pleasure into music. The grandes horizontales of the belle epoque, accomplished technicians of eroticism who drew the rich and powerful of both sexes to Paris, had their modern incarnation in Gala, who left the bed she shared with poet Paul Éluard and painter Max Ernst to seduce the young Salvador DalÍ.

Love in Paris, however, can take unexpected forms. Was the devotion to Marcel Proust of his housekeeper CÉleste Albaret any less passionate than that of Anne Desclos to Jean Paulhan, for whom she composed "the strangest love letter any man ever received"—the notorious novel Story of O, the predecessor of Fifty Shades of Grey? Love has a multitude of faces, and some of the most mysterious and surprising are unveiled in Of Love and Paris.

John has been generous enough to offer two copies of Of Love and Paris.

The fifth and tenth person who leaves a comment on the bottom of this post today on this link

https://www.ipreferparis.net/2023/09/book-giveaway-of-love-and-paris-by-john-baxter-.html

will receive a copy of Of Love and Paris.

CLICK HERE to purchase a copy on Amazon.

 

Paris Blue, A New Memoir by Julie Scolnik

I am excited about having my new friend, Julie Scolnik, an American flutist, share this news about her new book, which is a love letter to Paris. Please welcome Julie to Eye Prefer Paris and read her personal message to you below. I will be posting a give-away of Paris Blue on October 5, the day the book is released. 

Hello All!

Thank you to Richard for letting me share this with you! 

I have been working on a memoir, Paris Blue, on and off for forty years. It is a story that has lingered in the corridors of my psyche, and I always knew that one day I would have to tell it. 

I don’t need to tell you how thrilled and moved I am that it will be published by Koehler Books on October 5, and is now available for pre-order  on Amazon,  Barnes and Noble, and through all independent booksellers.  All info at www.JulieScolnik.com. Here is a 1-minute book trailer.

PARIS, 1976: Twenty-year-old American student Julie Scolnik had just arrived in the City of Light to study the flute when, from across a sea of faces in the chorus of the Orchestre de Paris, she is drawn to Luc, a striking (married) French lawyer in the bass section.  This moving tale of an ebullient young American and a reserved Frenchman will transport readers to the cafés, streets, and concert halls of Paris in the late seventies, and, spanning three decades, evolves from deep romance to sudden heartbreak, and finally to a lifelong quest for answers to release hidden immutable grief.

Against a magical backdrop of Paris and classical music, Paris Blue is true fairy-tale memoir (with a dark underbelly) about the tenacious grip of first love. 

A few of the endorsements I received from other authors:

“Not every true story is like a good novel, but this one is. Not every memoir of first love has a satisfying ending, but this one does. The confluence of first love with becoming an artist makes this memoir special.” John Irving

“Julie Scolnik’s beautiful page turner of a memoir captures with beauty and rare insight the power of music, words, and Paris to drive love to madness. To read her pitch perfect writing is to relive the exhilarations and vulnerabilities of one’s twenties.” — Judith Coffin, author of Sex, Love, and Letters: Writing Simone de Beauvoir

"Paris Blue gives melody to our common fancy: that Paris is where all great romances play out. Julie Scolnik’s memoir, recalling for us the myopia of innocence, returns us to our own first loves while establishing itself as a riveting tale both unique and universal.”   —Gregory Maguire, novelist, and author of Wicked

“Paris Blue, Julie Scolnik’s memoir of first love in Paris, is written with the tender romanticism of Wordsworth and the devastating realism of Flaubert. Her lyrical writing about music transforms these discordant halves into a compelling whole, creating a dazzling love letter to a life lived in music.” Linda Katherine Cutting, author of  Memory Slips

“The haunting impact of our first true and deep love stays with us the remainder of our lives, and all of us struggle in some way to put those emotions - the exultation, the revelries of passion and belonging, and the ultimate scars of loss - into a workable context.  This book explores the process, including the barriers, the relapses and the ultimate conclusion that one's life needs to find its own forms.”  Greg Fields, author of Arc of the Comet and Through the Waters and the Wild

"Paris Blue could speak to anyone who's ever yearned for closure that never came. But Julie Scolnik's memoir doesn't simply try to make sense of a bewildering romance; through telling the story she manages to bless the past, in all its complexity, while giving herself fully to the present. - Leah Hager Cohen, author of Strangers and Cousins and The Grief of Others

“Nothing burns hotter than young love, and Julie Scolnik captures that singular fervor in ‘Paris Blue.’ But her memoir is more than that: it’s a deeply felt, bittersweet reflection on how youthful passion changes you and clings to you, forever.”  Howard Reich, author “The Art of Inventing Hope: Intimate Conversations with Elie Wiesel”

Julie Scolnik's memoir, Paris Blue, brings full spectrum color to a love affair with Paris, music, and a man whose limited vision couldn't keep her from shining. Filled with sensuousness, sound, and light, as well as the hard edge of truth, this story of first love grips the reader tight.  —Jennifer Rosner, author of The Yellow Bird Sings  

Cookbook Give-Away: Backyard Kitchen The Main Course by Sarina Roffe

My first cousin Sarina Roffe is amazing. She’s one of the most accomplished, creative, and productive people I know. Sarina is a writer and author of Jewish history, and also lectures internationally, a genealogist with her own company that provides genealogical research, sephardicgenjourneys.com, and a business consultant, with 20 years’ experience of operations, senior management, communications, marketing, public relations and press experience, as well as public speaking, and crisis management. Sarina raised three children with her husband David and their oldest son Simon was born deaf in 1975.  Sarina was the founder and  is the Executive Director of the New York Cued Speech Center, which is a highly effective, visual system of communication used with deaf people. 

Now this is just a brief list of Sarina’s accomplishments. (I feel like a lazy slug next to her) 

Sarina and I are one year apart and we both grew up in Flatbush Brooklyn, about seven blocks from each other. My grade school, P.S. 153,  was down the block from Sarina’s house, and every day I would go to her house for lunch and her mother Renee always cooked something good and nourishing. 

When we were teenagers, every Saturday we would go to Manhattan on a cultural adventure and attend either a film, the theater, or a museum. Sarina was one of the few people I knew who was as curious about cultural things as I was, and I still have many good memories of our ventures. 

As I mentioned before, I am of Syrian Sephardic Jewish descent and both sets of my grandparents came to the U.S. in the early 1900s from Aleppo, Syria, and later settled in the Bensonhurst area of Brooklyn. 

Sarina’s father Abe, was my mother Adele’s older brother from a family of ten siblings, so Sarina is my first cousin. 

Sarina’s maternal grandmother came from Syria to America as an immigrant in 1921 and could not read or write. Esther met her husband, Selim, at an Egyptian restaurant owned by her sister, and Esther and Selim converted the garage of their new home in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn into a kitchen. She supported her seven children with a thriving catering business. 

Sarina has always been proud of her ancestral culture and desired to hand down her grandmother’s recipes, which she inherited from her mother, to the next generation and the public. She published her first cookbook Backyard Kitchen – Mediterranean Salads in 2016, and with the success of that book, she followed up in February 2020, with Backyard Kitchen: The Main Course. The new book has over 90 mouth-watering recipes of her grandmother’s specialties, along with photos, and Sarina has updated and modified some of the recipes to keep up with today’s health trends and culinary lifestyles. She’s also Americanized them by altering the ingredients, so that they are easily accessible at most supermarkets and gourmet specialty shops.   

Sarina has been generous enough to offer a free copy of the book to a lucky blog reader. The fourth person who makes a comment on this post will receive a copy of the book. Email subscribers, if you go to the bottom of this email, in small print it says “You are subscribed to email updates from I Prefer Paris”. Click on I Prefer Paris, and on the bottom of the post you will see COMMENT in small letters. Click on that to make a comment. 

Click here to buy Backyard Kitchen The Main Course

Click here to buy Backyard Kitchen – Mediterranean Salads

Click here to buy both books, Backyard Kitchen – Mediterranean Salads and Backyard Kitchen The Main Course a discount. 

Proceeds from the books benefit Sephardic Heritage Project (sephardicheritageproject.org).

Sarina’s recipes have been included in the New York Times, the New York Times Jewish Cookbook, and Joan Nathan’s Jewish Cooking in America (Beardsley Award).

Mint Lemon Soup with Stuffed Meatballs (Kibbe Hamda)

Chicken with Eggplant Stuffed with Rice and Meat (Mih’she Svee’ha)

There’s also a blog/website with recipes https://sarinassephardiccuisine.com and an I-Phone app, Sarina’s Sephardic Cuisine, (there are cooking demonstrations on the app) https://sarinassephardiccuisine.com/the-app. I told you she was accomplished! 

Another amazing thing that Sarina does is every ten years she publishes a book documenting the genealogy of our family. As I mentioned above, there were 10 children in our parents family, and each of them had three to five children, then there were dozens of grandchildren, great grandchildren, and recently two of my aunts, who lived into their 90s, lived to see great, great grandchildren. Just to give you an idea of the size of the extended family, two years ago, one of our cousins hosted a family reunion at his oceanfront house in New Jersey. Over 400 people showed up that were just family, with no friends invited, and there still family members that couldn’t attend. So, imagine the task it takes to organize, sort through, edit, write and finally publish a book, with all the updates of the family about newborn children, deaths, weddings, bar-mitzvahs, and graduations. 

Please remember to send your Favorite Paris Story to me by tomorrow, June 10 @[email protected] 

Book Giveaway: Win a Copy of The Little Women Cookbook by Wini Moranville

My friend Wini Moranville, the author of The Bonne Femme Cookbook, another past giveaway on Eye Prefer Paris, has written The Little Women Cookbook, to tie in with the new movie adaption opening for Christmas. Wini explains below the connection between Little Women and France. She also used to write a monthly French recipe column French Cooking with Wini Moranville for Eye Prefer Paris, which I miss. Click here to see her past recipes.

In case you haven’t heard, some of today’s most gifted young actors are starring in Greta Gerwig’s new film Little Women which debuts on Christmas Day. The cast includes Saoirse Ronan (as Jo) and Timothée Chalamet (as Laurie), as well as Emma Watson (Meg), Florence Pugh (Amy) and Laura Dern (Marmee). Oh, and as if that isn’t all-star enough, Meryl Streep plays the indomitable Aunt March.

Me? As a lifelong fan of Louisa May Alcott’s masterpiece, I’m pretty excited. In fact, I love the novel so much that I wrote a cookbook that focuses on the food lovingly cooked and happily shared throughout the novel.  The Little Women Cookbook: Tempting Recipes from the March Sisters and Their Friends and Family will be published on October 1, 2019. 

So, what does Louisa May Alcott’s great novel have to do with France? Francophiles will appreciate the link! A few of the chapters take place in France, where Amy goes to perfect her métier as an artist (just as Louisa May Alcott’s real-life younger sister, Abigail did). In fact, Alcott herself spent much time in France – and I’m working on a travelogue that traces her journeys through the country. While most of the recipes in my new book are updated examples of great classic New England cooking, I just had to add some recipes that were French – as a tip of the chapeau to Amy, Abigail, and Louisa May. 

Wini and her publisher have kindly offered a giveaway of the book. The fourth person to comment on why they love Little Women will win a copy of The Little Women Cookbook: Tempting Recipes from the March Sisters and Their Friends and Family. 

*Please note, this giveaway is valid for U.S. residents only.

Some of you have asked me how to make a comment on the blog. Please go to www.ipreferparis.net and on the bottom of the post, it will say comments. Click on the link and make your comment. 

Good luck! 

Click here to order your copy of  The Little Women Cookbook: Tempting Recipes from the March Sisters and Their Friends and Family on Amazon 

http://chezbonnefemme.com/

Below are photos of some of the France-inspired recipes in the book. 

French rolled omelet

Profiteroles

Blanc Mange

Eye Prefer Paris Book of the Month March 2017: Mad Enchantment- Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies

Thanks so much for the your response to the first book of the Eye Prefer Paris Book of the Month, The Velvet Hours. How did you enjoy it?

I would love your feedback and comments. Click here to be the first person to comment about The Velvet Hours and you will receive a gift copy of our next book, which I will write about below.

Many thanks to Alyson Richman, who agreed to do an interview about The Velvet Hours.

What was the impetus to write The Velvet Hours?
A few years ago, a friend of mine sent me an article that she saw in the newspaper about an apartment in Paris that been mysteriously shuttered for over seventy years and had once belonged to an elusive courtesan by the name of Marthe de Florian
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/revealed-eerie-new-images-show-forgotten-french-apartment-that-was-abandoned-at-the-outbreak-of-8613867.html

As soon as I saw the beautiful and mysterious photographs of the apartment, I knew that there was a novel waiting to be written.  I immediately was drawn to the idea of this courtesan, Marthe, who was both a muse to Giovanni Boldini and a collector, herself.

The book is based on a true story: In 2010, a Paris apartment that had been locked up since 1942  was reopened and was found to have been virtually untouched by time. Can you elaborate on the details?  
When the apartment was opened, it resembled a time capsule.  Thick veils of dust covered sumptuous antiques and gilded mirrors.   Most striking of all was a magnificent portrait by the 19th century Italian painter Giovanni Boldini of Madame de Florian that hung over the marble fireplace.  Adding to the allure, love letters, written by the artist, were found in Marthe’s vanity.   No one knows why Marthe de Florian’s granddaughter, Solange Beaugiron closed the apartment during WWII, but as a historical novelist I knew I had plenty of rich material to create a novel.
Aside from the abundance of art and antiques that filled the rooms, I was immediately drawn to the portrait of Marthe de Florian.   Dressed in a sumptuous gown of pale silk with exuberant cloud-like sleeves that fell seductively off her shoulders, one could see how beguiling Marthe was. Looking at the painting, my mind filled with questions.  Who was Marthe de Florian, how did she come to be painted by the famous Boldini?  Were they lovers?  Or was Boldini’s affection for Marthe unrequited?  Who was Marthe’s granddaughter, Solange Beaugiron?  And why did she shut the doors of her grandmother’s elegant apartment and never return to it, yet pay the maintenance on it until her death in 2010?

What did your research entail and did it involve being in Paris for period of time?
Factually, we know little about her life except that she was born Mathilde Beaugiron, the daughter of a laundress and that years later, after several years of working as a seamstress, she renamed herself Marthe de Florian. We also know she had a son by the name of Henri Beaugiron and that he was the father of Solange.

Luckily the photographs of the apartment that were published online when it was opened by Solange’s grandchildren in 2010, gave me a lot of visual guidance for my novel.   From looking at the images of Asian porcelains and myriad of oil paintings, one could see that Madame de Florian was an avid collector.  The photographs also enabled me to reconstruct the furnishings and illuminate the eclectic taste of its owner.
 
I also made two trips to Paris. Although the apartment had already been sold and its contents auctioned off (the portrait of Marthe de Florian was sold at auction for close to 3 million dollars,) I wanted to walk through the streets that bordered the apartment on La Square Bruyere and imagine the daily life of Marthe and her granddaughter, Solange.  I also met with a costume historian so that I could ensure that the clothes that the two women wore were appropriate to the time periods in which they lived.   On top of that, I also researched the rituals of beauty that women of cultivated pleasure like Marthe took to maintain themselves.  All the descriptions in the novel about Marthe’s toilette -from her bath steeped in lime blossom to her using an exfoliant made from crushed pearls- are based on fact.
 
And lastly, I was lucky enough to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and have two paintings by Boldini pulled from storage. Looking at his exuberant brushwork proved very helpful when writing the scenes in the novel when Boldini paints Marthe.

Was the character Marthe based on a real life person or mélange of similar women?
Although I tried to maintain certain facts about Marthe’s life, such as her being born the daughter of a laundress and reinventing herself, from her original life as Mathilde Beaugiron, I also incorporated a lot of my own grandmother into her personality. My grandmother was a very feminine woman who loved beautiful things and a lot of her went into the way I wrote Marthe.

The story of the makers of ancient Haggadah, which is such a strong part of the book, is that based on fact?
I loved the idea of using the Haggadah as metaphor for Solange’s exodus with Alex and his family from Paris just before the Germans occupy the city. I thought the parallel would be an interesting one.  In order to make sure I got the descriptions of the ancient Haggadah correct, I visited the Library of Congress in Washington D.C, and looked at some of the ones in their collection.  I also was lucky enough to speak on the telephone with Doris Hamburg who worked on the conservation of the famous Washington Haggadah.  She was an essential resource for me in the scenes where Solomon is forced to restore parts of the Haggadah when they reach Marseille.

What was some of the feedback and comments you received from your readers?
I’ve gotten a lot of wonderful, positive feedback from readers.  I think people love the fact that the novel was inspired by a true story, and also that it has a lot of layers woven into to it.  One of the themes of “The Velvet Hours” is that it is not the monetary value of our possessions at the end of our life, but rather the stories that they hold.  From the pearl necklace that Madame de Florian wears in her portrait, to the vanity that holds her love letters tied in satin ribbons, the people who gifted these to Marthe were the most precious.  And I think that’s a message that warms a lot of hearts.

Now on to the book for March, Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by Ross King.

Mad Enchantment tells the full story behind the creation of the Water Lilies, as the horrors of World War I came ever closer to Paris and Giverny and a new generation of younger artists, led by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, were challenging the achievements of Impressionism. By early 1914, French newspapers were reporting that Monet, by then seventy-three, had retired his brushes. He had lost his beloved wife, Alice, and his eldest son, Jean. His famously acute vision--what Paul Cezanne called “the most prodigious eye in the history of painting”--was threatened by cataracts. And yet, despite ill health, self-doubt, and advancing age, Monet began painting again on a more ambitious scale than ever before. Linking great artistic achievement to the personal and historical dramas unfolding around it, Ross King presents the most intimate and revealing portrait of an iconic figure in world culture.

The book has received rave reviews internationally and was shortlisted for a number of book awards. I personally can’t wait to read Mad Enchantment.

Please support Eye Prefer Paris and order Mad Enchantment by clicking on the SHOP NOW button below

Click here to be the first person to comment about The Velvet Hours and receive a gift copy of Mad Enchantment.

New Paris Books: Saint Germain des Pres, The Mistress of Paris & The Only Street in Paris: Life on the rue des Martyrs in Paperback

Two new books about Paris and the release of an existing bestseller in paperback and in French head up the fall and winter reading list.

Saint Germain des Pres: Paris’s Rebel Quarter by John Baxter
Following up on his popular book The Most Beautiful Walk in the World, John Baxter is writing a new series of books about the great neighborhoods of Paris. The first in the series is about Saint Germain des Pres, one of the most beloved areas of Paris. Part history and part guide book, Baxter infuses the book with entertaining and fascinating stories including the bizarre account of a garden behind Saint Germain church memorializing poet Guillaume Apollinaire involving Jean Cocteau and Picasso, the juicy details of legal brothels in Paris in the late 1800s including two gay ones with Proust as an investor and one on rue Saint Sulpice catering almost exclusively to priests from the church, the history of chocolate including the first chocolatier in Paris Debauve et Gallais and the Beat hotel where Burroughs, Ginsberg and Corso resided. The easy to read book also contains a map with key points of interest, addresses, photos and drawings. In the introduction chapter Baxter fondly recounts his first visit to Paris in 1969 and falling for the village of Saint Germain des Pres.

https://www.amazon.fr/Saint-Germain-Pres-Pariss-Rebel-Quarter/dp/0062431900/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1479304623&sr=8-1

The Mistress of Paris: The 19th-Century Courtesan Who Built an Empire on a Secret by Catherine Hewitt
Painted by Manet and also the inspiration for Emile Zola for his scandalous novel Nana, Comtesse Valtesse de la Bigne never the less had a dark secret from her past: she was not a comtesse. In fact she was born in extreme poverty and raised on the infested dark streets of Paris. The lady of mystery did what she could to hide her secret and went on to attain a small fortune, which afforded her three mansions and opulent carriages. Her rumored affairs with Napoleon and future King Edward VII kept the press buzzing. Hewitt’s chronicle of a woman who scaled the heights of French society in spite of her dubious background richly depicts one of the most extravagant and decadent periods in French history, the mid to late 1800s.

http://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250120663

Saint Martins publishing has generously offered a free copy of the book. The first person to post a comment on the bottom the this posting will receive a copy of the book. Applicants must live in the U.S. to participate. Subscribers, you need to go to http://www.ipreferparis.net to leave a comment.

The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs by Elaine Sciolino
One of my favorite books of last year, The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs is now out in paperback and also in French, La Dernière rue de Paris : Enquête sur la rue des Martyrs with additional new photos. Click here to read my review.

Paperback version https://www.amazon.com/Only-Street-Paris-Life-Martyrs/dp/0393353400/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479301572&sr=8-1&keywords=the+only+street+in+paris

French version https://www.amazon.fr/dernière-rue-Paris-Enquête-Martyrs/dp/2912969778/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479301498&sr=8-1&keywords=la+dernière+rue+de+paris

 Eye Prefer Paris Postcards

I am thrilled to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Postcards, a 3, 6 or 12-month subscription service where the subscriber receives three physical postcards of my iconic Paris photos every month. Each month will have a specific theme, from architectural street scenes to romantic outdoor cafes to beautiful gardens to unique shots of iconic monuments. Each mailing will include two postcards in color and one in black & white or sepia, beautifully packaged in a special French Blue postcard holder with a custom designed seal.

Each 6” X 4.25” traditional size postcard is printed on thick matte coated card stock, similar to traditional vintage postcard stock that enhances the vibrancy of every image.

Only $30 for a 3-month subscription plus shipping or

Only $60 for a 6 month subscription (plus shipping)or

$110 for a 12-month subscription (plus shipping)

Click here to order a 12-month subscription from my Etsy store

Click here to order a 6-month subscription from my Etsy store

Click here to order a 3-month subscription from my Etsy store

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

 Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com 

  Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte's professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 195 euros per person (about $210)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday,Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 2 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

Friends with Books

It seems as though everyone is writing a book these days. In fact four friends of mine have released new books in the last two months about Paris. Each book has a very different subject matter, from a spy novel with a transgender hero to a practical Paris restaurant guidebook.

Bernie’s Paris: Travel Stories with Love by Linda Spalla
My good friends Linda Spalla and Bernie Verdier from Huntsville, Alabama spend two months in Paris every year, renting an apartment in the Marais around the corner from me. We have become great friends over the last six years and I am always giving them tips and suggestions on where to go and what to see. Linda saves many of my blog postings during the year, visiting the destinations when she is here.

Bernie’s Paris: Travel Stories with Love is Linda’s new book about her special relationship with Bernie. Part auto-biography, part romance story and part travel guide, the book is about how she unexpectedly met Bernie and the exciting but sometimes challenging adventures they encountered coming to Paris over the last 12 years.

In a never too late fairy tale romance story, Linda, a retired television network executive with two failed marriages behind her, had no illusions about ever falling in love again. She is introduced to Bernie, a retired military man, and suddenly she finds herself falling for him, even though he’s not like any other man she’s ever been attracted to before. It takes her a while for him to win her over but his kindness and tenacity pays off when Linda falls head over heels for him.

Bernie was born in Paris but moved to the U.S. while still in elementary school, when his mother divorced his father. Fluent in French, Bernie coaxed Linda to come to Paris with him so he could show her his Paris. In subsequent years Linda’s love and appreciation of Paris and Bernie blossoms and the book illustrates Paris from Bernie’s perspective.

Linda has generously mentioned my name and tours several times in the book. Bernie took the 40 color photos.

https://smile.amazon.com/Bernies-Paris-Travel-Stories-Love/dp/1523491159/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475935223&sr=8-1&keywords=Bernie%E2%80%99s+Paris%3A+Travel+Stories+with+Love

My (Part Time) Paris Life: How Running Away Brought Me Home by Lisa Anselmo
My new friend Lisa Anselmo is a bit of an international celeb, having risen to fame a few years ago when she and her friend Lisa Taylor Huff started the anti- love lock campaign, which went viral. Eventually they met with mayor Anne Hidalgo and the locks were removed permanently from Pont des Arts.

Lisa’s first book, My (Part Time) Paris Life comes out today. The memoir is about Lisa’s struggle to find herself after her mother dies of breast cancer in 2011. Her mother was an overwhelming force in Lisa’s life and the book deals with her conflicted feelings about her overpowering mother. Instead of playing it safe she acts out and as a survival tactic to distance herself from her mother’s death she creates a new life for herself,  which includes buying an apartment in Paris.

Lisa is also a Paris insider like myself and has a blog with the same title. She also stars in a series of short videos where she interviews local bakers, chefs and neighborhood celebs.

https://www.amazon.com/My-Part-Time-Paris-Life-Running/dp/1250067472/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1462575868&sr=8-1&keywords=lisa+anselmo&linkCode=sl1&tag=parttimeparis-20&linkId=72ae83fba8bbc53a6dddee0b89a90530

Transformed: Paris: A Quirky Queer Spy Novel by Suzanne Falter and Jack Harvey
Suzanne Falter was my landlord when I lived in a brownstone in New York near Union Square from 1986 to 1992. We became fast friends and Suzanne was multi-talented and creative- actress, singer, entrepreneur and writer. We lost touch after I moved but we recently reconnected. Suzanne spent almost a month in Paris last year researching a new spy novel she was writing. We hung out a lot together and Suzanne did my Marais tour and a tour of the 9th arrondissement, to get a feel of the varied neighborhoods of Paris.

The fruits of her labor have become the book Transformed: Paris: A Quirky Queer Spy Novel. It’s the second of a series of books whose main character is Charley MacElroy, perhaps the first Transman spy hero.

Charley travels to Paris to help authorities to expose a Neo Nazi plot to plant dirty bombs around Paris. His older lover Electra tags along to study French but becomes involved in the plot when she discovers the lavender haired British aristocrat Dickie Borque may be be behind the planting of the bombs. Enter Odile, Dickie’s feisty 80 –something year old milliner, who helps to uncover the plot. Drama ensues when Electra disappears and Charley frantically pursues her in the rainy gray streets of Paris in winter.

https://www.amazon.com/Transformed-Paris-Quirky-Queer-Novel-ebook/dp/B01K0T768E/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1476113993&sr=1-1&keywords=suzanne+falter

Dining Out in Paris - What You Need to Know Before You Get to the City of Light by Tom Reeves
Dining Out in Paris is the second edition of my friend Tom Reeves book. The first section of the book is a comprehensive and well detailed account of how to dine in Paris from how to order to tipping to classifying restaurants to etiquette. Also included is a section listing the different type of gourmet and food shops plus outdoor food markets.

In the remainder of the compact book, instead of writing reviews of various restaurants all over Paris, Tom wisely narrows it down to ten restaurants in his own neighborhood, the Latin Quarter. Each extensive review gives a total overview of the restaurant.

https://www.amazon.com/Dining-Out-Paris-Before-Light/dp/0981529216/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1476034154&sr=1-1&keywords=Dining+Out+in+Paris+tom+reeves

Eye Prefer Paris Postcards

I am thrilled to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Postcards, a 3, 6 or 12-month subscription service where the subscriber receives three physical postcards of my iconic Paris photos every month. Each month will have a specific theme, from architectural street scenes to romantic outdoor cafes to beautiful gardens to unique shots of iconic monuments. Each mailing will include two postcards in color and one in black & white or sepia, beautifully packaged in a special French Blue postcard holder with a custom designed seal.

Each 6” X 4.25” traditional size postcard is printed on thick matte coated card stock, similar to traditional vintage postcard stock that enhances the vibrancy of every image.

Only $30 for a 3-month subscription plus shipping or

Only $60 for a 6 month subscription (plus shipping)or

$110 for a 12-month subscription (plus shipping)

Click here to order a 12-month subscription from my Etsy store

Click here to order a 6-month subscription from my Etsy store

Click here to order a 3-month subscription from my Etsy store

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

 Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com 

  Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte's professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 195 euros per person (about $210)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday,Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 2 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

The Only Street in Paris- Life on the rue des Martyrs by Elaine Sciolino

I receive a steady stream of books throughout the year about Paris from publishers asking me to read and review their books. I don’t have a lot of time to read books except when I go on vacation but when I go on vacation I also take my mind on vacation and like to read escapist stories or things that take me to other worlds besides Paris. So most of the time I skim through the books about Paris and write a summary rather than a review.

One of the few books I recently read from cover to cover (no skimming) was The Only Street in Paris- Life on the rue Des Martyrs by Elaine Sciolino. I was looking forward to reading it because much like Elaine, the rue des Martyrs is also one of my favorite streets in Paris and it’s the highlight of my SOPI/South Pigalle- 9th arrondissement tour.

Elaine Sciolino moved to Paris in 2002 when she was assigned the position of bureau chief for the New York Times. First living on the rue du Bac in the haute bourgeois Saint Germain raising her two daughters with her husband Andy, she always had the desire to live on the rue des Martyrs, since discovering it when she first moved here. Rue des Martyrs, was her antidote to the snobby St. Germain and over commercialized and touristy Marais, with its reputation as one of the great food shop streets and a more down to earth and authentic Parisian neighborhood. Wanting to downsize her living space when her daughters went off to college in the U.S. in 2010, Elaine found here dream apartment on rue Notre Dame de Lorette, just a few steps from her beloved rue des Martyrs.

A combination of a true passion for her new neighborhood, the respect and genuine caring about her neighbors and local shopkeepers, and a good reporter’s persistent curiosity in uncovering a great story, the book from page one is delightful and highly entertaining.

A major part of the book is the stories about the shop owners: the troubled fish shop that eventually closed which the neighborhood was up in arms about, the touching chapter about the aging octogenarian showman Michou and his past glory as the greatest and oldest ongoing drag show in Paris, the quirky shop that restores old barometers, getting past an insecurity from college by bravely befriending the owners of a bookshop with a sign saying “Non Intellectuals Not Welcome”, and a lovely story about a Tunisian antiques dealer who gives her his Hermes scarf right from his neck and invites her to his Passover seder, and a funny madcap caper about retrieving an enormous neon sign from the junkyard cherished by a shopkeeper who was forced to close his shop.

There’s also a lot of rich history about the street from the fascinating to the mundane including Francois Truffaut and how scenes from his iconic film The 400 Blows was shot there, where Renoir and Degas painted circus acrobats, Emile Zola writing about a lesbian dinner club set on the street in his novel Nana, and where the first strip tease invented.

It’s also about her personal journey, from never being able to fully fit in on the rue du Bac no matter how “French” she became to being comfortable as an outsider who was proud of her Sicilian American working class roots and was fully embraced for it in her new neighborhood.

Click here to order The Only Street in Paris- Life on the rue Des Martyrs by Elaine Sciolino.

Elaine will be speaking at the American Library of Paris, 10 Rue du Général Camou, 75007 this Wednesday, December 16 at 7:30PM.

It’s holiday time and I know you are going over your gift list as I write this.

Now more than ever we need to cherish and preserve the great beauty of Paris, so what better way to do that then by sending an Eye Prefer Paris Postcard Subscription.

I am offering, the perfect gift— a special 3-month subscription of Eye Prefer Paris Postcards for December only for $30 plus shipping.

Click here to order a 3-month subscription.

I am also offering a sale on a 12-month subscription, which includes an extra month free, a total of 13 months for the price of $110, instead of $120, plus shipping.

Click here to order a 12-month subscription

Six Month Subscriptions are available for $60 plus shipping.

Click here to order a 6-month subscription

I will hand write a personal note for you if you send me name of the person you are gifting and the message you want me to write.

I look forward to your visit to my Eye Prefer Paris Postcards Etsy shop.

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

 Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com 

  Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte's professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 195 euros per person (about $210)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday,Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 2 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

Paris Cocktails by Doni Belau

Doni Belau, the creator of the very successful website Girls Guide to Paris has just written Paris Cocktails, an elegant collection of over 100 recipes inspired by the City of Light.  

I ran into Doni earlier this year at a bar where I was interviewing Forest Collins of the blog 52 Martinis and she told me she was doing research for her new book. She later invited me to come to Paris Soirees with Patricia Laplante Collins where she demonstrated and shared some cocktail recipes, a preamble to the book.

Many months and cocktails plus 50 bars later, the finished product is impressive, even to a mostly non-cocktail drinker. First, I love the clever and elegant cover, cherry red with a cutout of a martini glass with a map of Paris behind it. The information in the book is not only entertaining but also useful with listings for 100 bars, soiree planning themes (including a Midnight in Paris Party), insights into mixologists and bartenders,shopping lists, and enticing photos.

In the first chapter, Doni writes about how when she came to Paris in the late 80s it was near impossible to get a mixed drink anywhere, even though there was a history of the cocktail culture in Paris dating back to the 1800s, and how the cocktail made a big comeback in 2007 with the opening of the first modern day cocktail lounge The Experimental Cocktail Club.

Excellent coverage of the Paris bar scene includes a broad range of cocktail venues, from dive bars to elegant hotel bars to trendy craft bars making artisanal cocktails to wine bars to outdoor cafes.

I also love the names of some of the cocktails and the appetizing ingredients: Amour a la Francaise, Suze and Soda, Rosé Salty Dog, Tijuana sizzle, Oh My Dog, 100% Winter Vitamin, Baron of Brooklyn, and Sade’s Taboo.

And yes Martha, you can make these delish cocktails at home.

Click here to order a copy of Paris Cocktails by Doni Belau

Photo courtesy of Paris Cocktails

Photo courtesy of Bespoke Bar

Photo courtesy of Paris Cocktails

 

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

 Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com 

  Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte's professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 195 euros per person (about $210)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday,Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 2 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

 

Bridges of Paris

I receive many requests from publishers, authors, and publicists to write about their books. About a month ago I received an offer for a copy of a new coffee table book, Bridges of Paris, which is unusual because publishers usually don’t want to incur the expense of shipping a large book from the U.S.

Bridges of Paris arrived about a week ago and I was very impressed. Not only is it a comprehensive photo book with over 350 photos featuring 37 bridges, it is also a rich and fascinating history lesson. In fact, I learned many new facts about Paris I didn’t know before and can now incorporate them into my tours. One interesting tidbit is the Passerelle Debilly bridge built in 1900 was the setting for real life tale of espionage when a secret agent from East Germany was killed in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was discovered afterwards the bridge was a popular meeting spot for East German spies during the Cold War.

The author and photographer of the Bridges of Paris, Michael Saint James, has traveled much of the world and in 2013 visited Paris. The bridges of Paris inspired him to live here for a year, recording as much as he can about them and his intense pursuit spawned the 275-page book.

The book is divided into four chapters, Island Bridges, Palace Bridges, Downstream Bridges, and Upstream Bridges and each bridge includes the year it was built and the dimensions along with a one page history. 

Not only does Saint James capture the wonderful architectural details, he also makes the bridges come alive in a different way with his portraits of people doing various activities.

The price of Bridges of Paris is $85 and shipping is free.

http://www.bridgesofparis.com/

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

 Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com 

  Click here to watch a video of our famous Marais tour

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte's professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 195 euros per person (about $210)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday,Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 2 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.