Lyon is the second largest city in France and its beautiful. These were all from our 2010 trip. Ever been?
Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy. It’s easy to participate – just post a picture that was taken by you, a friend, or a family member and add your link on Melinda’s site.
(courtesy of Bookbath)
(2000)
Cast-Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Alfred Molina, Lena Olin, Johnny Depp
Vianne and her daughter, Anouk, are travelers. In 1959 they blow into a small, devout village in France and open up a chocolate shop at the beginning of Lent. This angers the mayor and moral leader of the village and the two struggle against each other for their place in the community.
Why I Love It– There are so many things I love about this movie, but the thing that stands out the most is the mysterious and mystical storytelling. It is magical realism with a message. A story of the good (the godly followers) and the bad (everyone else) it was told in such a lavish way that it wasn’t the same, stale story we’ve seen before. There is whimsy but it also gives you something to think about.
I thought the casting was perfect. Juliette Binoche was perfect as Vianne. She was kind but almost eager to stir the pot. The glint in her eye let you know that things were not as calm as they seemed. And Judi Dench was flawless as usual. I’ve seen Alfred Molina in many movies, but this is the role I usually associate him with in my mind. And, Johnny, oh sweet, sweet Johnny. He is a sexy man ‘cleaned up’ as a river rat. His subdued performance was a change from some of his more flamboyant roles and he worked well with Juliette.
And the chocolate…oh the beautiful chocolate! It made me want to go out and buy some handmade works of art. Vianne liked to guess people’s favorite chocolate and I like to think that she would have chosen her hot chocolate for me.
There is beauty on the screen and in the movie’s message. I can’t say that the message of tolerance didn’t have its problems but I found them easy to overlook. I was too busy looking at Johnny and the chocolate to care 😉
Even though the movie was set in a fictional French town I can see Vianne setting up shop here, in the Montmartre area of Paris.
(courtesy of Bookbath)
It’s rained here every day for the last 16 days and yesterday I even had to wake up Gage from his nap to take him to the basement when a tornado warning rolled through town. When we visited France in 2010 our time in Lyon was perfect but Paris gave us more than one day of rain. Enjoy some gloomy pictures from around Paris and Versailles. Paris, even is the rain, was still beautiful.
(courtesy of Bookbath)
“…I was walking with them all the way up to Montmartre, the highest point in the city. I staggered up the last steps to find the Sacre-Coeur basilica’s dome gleaming in the sunlight, covered by rows of creamy scallops that reminded me of children’s drawings of ocean waves: very regular, quite fantastic.” from A Parisian Spring chapter
Paris in Love by Eloisa James. Finished 7-5-13, rating 3.5/5, travel memoir, 258 pages, pub. 2012
Eloisa James is a professor of Shakespeare, a romance author, a wife, a mother, and a cancer survivor. Weeks after her mother died of cancer, James found out that she too had breast cancer. Calling it the ‘good kind’ her prognosis was always good and she never had that profound moment of divine clarity on life’s meaning, but she did feel the need for a change, a new experience. She convinced her husband, also a professor, to take a year sabbatical so they could move to Paris for a year. So, with kids in tow, off they went with varying degrees of excitement.
Let me say from the start that the idea of this sounds so incredibly tempting. I’m not sure how I feel about uprooting the kids for a year, but I applaud her bravery in giving them a year they won’t forget.
This book started as her Facebook posts. She organized and revised and put them into a lovely travel journal. I most appreciated the longer essays as I thought they were more thoughtful and thought provoking than just the quick take posts. I wish the book had been mainly essays with the short posts sprinkled throughout.
She touches on everything – the food, the clothes, the diet, the idea that French women don’t get fat, the schools, the housing, being an English speaking American in France. I especially enjoyed her stories about her daughter’s school ordeals. Being a pre-teen girl is no easy thing and doing it in a new country only adds to the hilarity (funny only at a distance. I’m sure).
I liked it. I won this over at Amused by Books and I want to thank Leah for sending it my way. Perfect for July in Paris 🙂
I’m going to leave up last week’s quiz for another week if you’d like to try your hand at Eiffel Tower book covers. Eiffel Tower Quiz
I’m no expert on French actors and actresses, but when I started looking I was surprised at how many I knew. Can you tell me the names of these talented thespians? And you’ll get extra points if you name one movie they were in.
PLEASE join in the fun. You can guess as few or as many as you want and you entered to win a prize at the end of the month. No Googling please 🙂
1. 
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
1.Brigitte Bardot 2.Gerard Depardieu 3.Juliette Binoche 4.Olivier Martinez 5.Marion Cotillard 6.Jean Reno 7.Catherine Deneave 8.Vincent Cassel 9.Leslie Caron 10.Marcel Marceau
(courtesy of Bookbath)
Pere Lachaise from above. In 2007 #10 was buried in this cemetery.
Here we are at the French Open in 2010, the clay courts are cool, right? The line was long to get in and then I didn’t have proper ID so we had to wait some more, but we had a great day, even if we spent too much time baking in the sun. It was fun to get up close and personal at the smaller courts and in the earlier rounds that meant we saw some great matches. Another great day in Paris with friends. (I look like I have an elf ear, right?)
I post this today in honor of Andy Murray’s Wimbledon win yesterday! The first British man to win since 1936. I was so happy for him and loved his emotion after winning the title. We’re tennis fans here (Jason more than me since he’s actually a good player) and we’ve been to two of the four big tournaments, next up, Wimbledon!
(courtesy of Birdbath)
We took a trip to Michigan this week to visit Jason’s family. After visiting the Livonia and Flint areas we’re back home getting into our routine.
Jason’s dad has a big pool but Gage kept wanting to go in the little pool, aka the hot tub, so I let him sit on the top step when nothing else would do. I brought a few books to Michigan, Lola Goes to Work, is his new favorite, so it was awarded hot tub status. Kathy wrote a great review of this one and then sent it on to Gage. I wasn’t sure he’d like it since he doesn’t have any favorite books with photos, but from our first reading, Lola has been a hit. He likes to finish reading each page for you, but I should mention that Gage’s ‘Lola’ sounds suspiciously like ‘Lellow’, but no matter, it only makes her cuter.
Lola is a five-pound Yorkshire Terrier who wanted a big job so she worked very hard to become a therapy dog. I wish I had taken a picture of the page I stress to Gage, “I learned to sit and stay, to lie down and wait patiently.” Lola eventually passes her test and becomes a therapy for the elderly and classrooms.
This is a sweet book that all ages can enjoy. It was written and photographed by Lola’s mom, Marcia Goldman. It’s 32 pages and even has a page at the end for teachers so they can better use the book in the classroom. Visit Lola’s website for some cute photos.
(courtesy of Birdbath) I know Lola’s not French, but I think she could pass with that sassy red scarf, don’t you?
A friend we found at Versailles (you’ll probably have to click on it to see). A few days later Jason and our friends would be dining on his family and friends. I don’t understand how that is possible after meeting the little guy.
Notre Dame from a distance.
A little closer. Beautiful.
I hope you click on them to see them up close. The craftsmanship is amazing.
Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy. It’s easy to participate – just post a picture that was taken by you, a friend, or a family member and add your link on Melinda’s site.
(courtesy of Birdbath) I’m having fun looking through our France photos again 🙂
(courtesy of Birdbath) Enjoy this month in France!
Tell No One, 2006
Tell No One was my first Harlen Coben book and after I devoured it I went out and read everything he’d written. As much as I love some of his others, this still remains my favorite and I recommend it often. I was thrilled to learn that it had been made into a movie, even willing to embrace the fact that it would be a French movie with subtitles. Subtitles and I have a rocky relationship. I saw it at the theater when it came out and watched it again this week with my mom. I liked it better the second time because I followed all the characters a little better.
How does a New York story transfer to Paris? Very well. It is different, but the idea is the same. A doctor is contacted by his dead wife eight years after her murder, only the police and paid killers are after him too. I thought this fast paced movie was great. For all Harlan Coben fans, he has a cameo, pay attention or you’ll miss it.
This has nothing to do with the movie but I loved this window we found in Bordeaux country.
(courtesy of Birdbath)
Happy 4th of July from Americans at the Louvre (2010)!
Stacy's Books 