Paris In July Wrap Up & Other Fun

How did July get away from me?  I've had a delightful time focusing on Paris and France, even though I only posted two posts about it.  Yea, that wasn't so good.  I managed to cook Madeleines (which I will definitely be doing again--maybe I'll make them for my mother, who is coming to visit this weekend) and I also read and posted my review of Paris My Sweet.

I did get through a couple of movies as well, but I didn't get them posted.  That will have to happen here soon.  No worries here.  Thank you to Tamara at Thyme for Tea and Karen at Bookbath for hosting this fun challenge this month.  It was nice to just give it a try!

This summer has been very nice and calm, which was fine.  I went into it knowing that I wasn't going anywhere, that I'd be working, and that I'd have to deal with it.  Personally, I thought I'd go a bit bonkers without a trip planned, but it was just fine.   A small group of us have been planning a pretty major trip to Europe (France, Italy, and Austria) when my mother retires, so I have a goal in mind.  She actually retires this coming February, but we're going to hold off so that my friend "Doc" (as she likes me to call her) can finish up her residency.  The trip should be pretty amazing, so it's definitely something to look forward to down the road.  It's in three years--and counting!

All right.  For now, I'll head back to the glorious Olympics.  Talk about a reason to hit the gym!  Now, does anyone know where I can find a water polo team, because I've been looking in all the wrong places?  :)

I have to include this awesome YouTube video from the U.S. Olympic Swim Team, mocking to the song "Call Me Maybe."  Too darn cute.

Triple Threat Sunday Post: Review, Paris In July, & Weekend Cooking.

Do you ever feel like there is a clock ticking in the background of your life?  That has been a strange, overwhelming feeling I've had this week.  I'm sure that having online parent-teacher conference with my online job & work meetings this week all led me to this feeling that summer is ticking along.  Someone slow it down!

I'm still in the game for the Paris in July challenge, even though I feel like I need another month or two to finish all that I've started! Thankfully though, I've finished a great book that was a great challenge read & a great foodie book for Weekend Cooking.  Paris My Sweet makes me want to cook, travel, and all the good stuff of life!

Synopsis:  From Goodreads, "Part love letter to New York, part love letter to Paris, and total devotion to all things sweet. Paris, My Sweet is a personal and movable feast that’s a treasure map for anyone who loves fresh cupcakes and fine chocolate, New York and Paris, and life in general. It’s about how the search for happiness can be as fleeting as a sliver of cheesecake and about how the life you’re meant to live doesn’t always taste like the one you envisioned. Organized into a baker’s dozen of delicacies (and the adventures they inspired) that will tempt readers’ appetites, Paris, My Sweet is something to savor."

Review:  Looking back on that first and only trip to Paris, I'm still kind of sad that we didn't get a chance to explore the treats that the city had to offer.  Thankfully, I was in the group that decided to walk down to Lauderee to try out my first French macaron.  First of all, the store was such a pretty site to see, with pastel colors and sweet smells all around, that my senses were in overload.  I still remember what macaron flavor I picked out and tried first--salted caramel.  It was heaven.  I purchased a small box of these jewel-box delights, with everything from pistachio to cherry, and went on my way.  It was a harried exchange of euros and mercis, with a fast-paced walk back to the opera house, but we had our goodies!

The author, Amy Thomas, dedicates a chapter to these ethereal delights and describes them to us:

Those crisp but chewy, light-as-air meringue cookies...They're delicate yet persnickety.  A feat of mixing, folding, stirring, and timing.  A delightful combination of powdered sugar, finely ground almonds, and egg whites and not much else, save for the luxuriously creamy ganache or buttercream filling that holds the two cookies together.  Firm but tender, shiny yet ridged, with ethereally light shells and heavy middles, they're miniature studies of contrast--and deliciousness.  (105)

What's left to say that she has not, other than the innumerable varieties of flavor combinations that bakers are coming up with.  While I stuck with some pretty classic flavors, these little confections are coming in bold and crazy flavors like green tea, lemongrass, passion fruit, and green apple.  The sky is the limit, and whether you can head to Lauderee in Paris or Kee's Chocolates in NYC, macarons are the much deserved, sweet-treat craze of the moment.  
 
For me, reading Paris My Sweet was a journey with someone living the life I would love to live.  Because of that, I loved her candor in the book.  You get a real sense that in the midst of her love affair with the cuisine and culture of Paris, she saw its flaws and how it compared to the life she had left behind in New York City.  For every travel story, there really does seem to be "grass is always greener" version that we're not being told.  In this case, the author is very candid about the difficult time she had making friends, meeting men, and missing family.  I really appreciated her candor and felt that her story was less of a fairytale and more about opportunity and vision; she looked for moments to be thankful.  With the bitter though, came the sweet, and that was an even bigger part of her story--the food.  She recognized the invaluable opportunity she had before her, of living in Paris, and she wasn't going to waste it thinking about her New York home for too long.

Mainly told as a personal exploration of sweet delights, we are introduced to the styles of cooking in Paris and New York.  We see the difference in macarons, cookies, carrot cake, cupcakes, and Madeleines & muffins.  What a sweet journey it is!  The chapter on cookies seemed to be the strongest dissimilarity of any of the treats, as Paris prefers a lighter, crunchier cookie to our American mix of buttery-crunch with the chewy.  She also talked about how much she missed French Toast (ironic, right?), which is an American standard and treat for breakfast.  In Paris, however, they enjoyed la pain perdue, an eggy, caramely, bread-soaked dessert served after dinner.  Both were similar in some ways, but very, very different in others. 

I could go on and on about the confections and treats that author, Amy Thomas, shares in her book Paris My Sweet.  If you are at all a foodie or love to travel and soak in the culture through its food, you have to read this book.  My only sorrow is that I didn't have this book last year before we went to France!  Now, I have to make a trip to New York and Paris before these shops and goodies disappear.

*FTC Disclosure:  This review was based on a review copy of the book.


As mentioned earlier, this post was done in participation with two great challenges I'm joining in on.  Stop by these sites to see some more great recipes and posts for Paris in July and Weekend Cooking!

Paris in July is a challenge being hosted by Tamara at Thyme for Tea and Karen at Bookbath.  See their sites for more information and great posts about all thing French.  They have posts up about books, food, music, culture, etc. 

Weekend Cooking is a great, weekly post run by Beth Fish Reads.  There are some really great food-related posts there.  Stop by to check out other great posts from this weekend.

Paris in July Meets Weekend Cooking

Hartini, "Madeleines" July 17, 2008 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.

Happy Sunday!  What a strange week, but so nice at the same time.  I'm working on a professional development course online, as well as teaching a class, so I often feel like I spend way too much time online.  As I mentioned earlier this week in my "The W's of Reading: Required Reading," that has taken me away from some of my own reading.  I'll get back there though.  I always do.

In the meantime, I've been reading a couple of books set in France, I've watched a couple of French films, and I finally tried out my new Madeleine pan.  I've wanted to make these cute little desserts for awhile now.  I know they are supposed to be a cookie, but they have a bit more of a cake consistency and texture.  My first introduction to Madeleines wasn't from my trip to France (I wish), but from the show Extra Virgin on the Cooking Channel.  It stars Debi Mazar and her adorable husband Gabriele Corcos.  In one episode they whipped these little beauties up and I was sold!  The real struggle was the pan.  I looked here in my area and I found a couple of different types--small and medium molds.  I finally settled on the smaller ones and purchased one little pan.  Using the Extra Virgin recipe they provided for Madeleines (see link), I made a batch today. 

I'm kind of kicking myself that I didn't go ahead and take a picture of them, but I was embarrassed by their turn out and want to try again.  Because I only had one pan, I overfilled the molds.  As a result, they puffed up as they cooked and many of them cooked together along the back.  Now, that didn't affect the taste, just the look.  I also noted that if I left them in a little longer than the recipe called for, they had a really nice, buttery flavor to the lightly browned edges. 

Here's my take away:

• 1st attempts sometimes aren't perfect (imagine that).
• Don't overfill the molds!
• Maybe use a piping bag to load the molds so you don't spill in between the cookies--the look is essential to these beauties.
• Be prepared to share!  They taste best right out of the oven, so I think these are a treat I'll be making when I have more people around who want to snatch them up right out of the oven.
• Take a picture! Regardless of whether they're messy or not doesn't matter.  Right?  It's a journey, not a destination.  

Well, this was a fun experiment.  I'd like to try it again and hope to dig up a few more recipes that I can try out.  For now, I'm pretty happy about my first try!

This post was done in participation with two great challenges I'm joining in on.  Stop by these sites to see some more great recipes and posts for Paris in July and Weekend Cooking!

Paris in July is a challenge being hosted by Tamara at Thyme for Tea and Karen at Bookbath.  See their sites for more information and great posts about all thing French.  They have posts up about books, food, music, culture, etc. 

Weekend Cooking is a great, weekly post run by Beth Fish Reads.  There are some really great food-related posts there.  Stop by to check out other great posts from this weekend.

Paris in July 2012

Bonjour! It's that glorious time again to celebrate Paris in July!  Last year I had just gotten home from France, so I was really eager to join in.  Although my trip was a year ago, that one month wasn't long enough and I'd like to participate again. 

As with last year, Tamara at Thyme for Tea and Karen at Bookbath are hosting this fun month.  It will run from July 1st to the 31st, and as they mentioned, "...the aim of the month is to celebrate our French experiences through reading, watching, listening to, observing, cooking, and eating all things French."  Here are some of the things you could do to participate:

• Reading a French book--fiction or non-fiction
• Watching a French movie  (Here is my "triple" review from last year if you want options!)
• Listening to French music
• Cooking French food
• Experiencing French art, architecture, or travel (or reminiscing about past travel to France)
• Or anything else French inspired you can think of...

I'm really excited to do something non-work related, so I'm eager to get going on this fun challenge!  I know I have two books already started and a few other ideas brewing.

Last year I purchased some Edith Piaf music, thanks to a little experience on our bus ride through France that I'll share later.  I've seen this movie before, but remember very little about it and had next to no context for the story.  This time, I'm coming with a bit more knowledge and a lot more curiosity!

Remember this disaster?  Well, I'd like to try this again.  I'm going to do a little reading up on Apple Tart Tatin and see if I can get it right.  Now, who can I take all my attempts to, because this would ruin my diet!

I'm actually already reading Paris My Sweet and want to finish it up soon.  The discussions about food are torture, but such SWEET torture! 

Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow is actually Juliet Grey's follow up novel to Becoming Marie Antoinette, which I reviewed here on my blog.  (See review here:  Becoming Marie Antoinette)  I've had this on hold at the library for months now, so I'm excited to get reading.  I actually started it today and got sucked in pretty quickly.  I've been reading a lot about Marie Antoinette and the kings of Versailles, so this will be another fun one to read.

Well, that is what I'll be doing.  I'm not sure if I'll be posting on specific days or not, but I really am excited to get started.  For information, visit Tamara or Karen's blogs to get started.  I'd love to know if you'll be joining in and what you're thinking about doing for it.  Au revoir!

Saying Goodbye to July

Every day I've thought, "I need to get online and write a post today!"  That just didn't happen--obviously.  One of my cousins got married yesterday and we've had lots of family time.  Plus, two of the groom's siblings have had babies in the last month, so there was a lot of baby cuddling going on during the wedding and reception.  Talk about two cute, sweet babies! All of this family time helped drive out the moody blues I had last week and I'm feeling much more prepared for the craziness of school starting soon.

With the month ending, let me also say a quick thank you to Bookbath and Thyme for Tea for hosting the Paris in July Challenge.  I feel pretty satisfied with my triple movie reviews, my look at Edith Piaf, and my review of Anna and the French Kiss.  I had a great time and will definitely be doing more with Paris-related stuff in the future! 

Well, that's my sum up and weekend. For this last weekend in July, it was a pretty great one and I'm feeling more up to the challenges ahead.  Now it's time to face August head on!  

Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

It's time for another installment of Paris in July!  I think this challenge needs to stretch along another couple of months, especially because I feel like I'm just getting on a roll.  In fact, I just got my hands on David Lebovitz's book The Sweet Life in Paris, as well as the movie Paris Je T'Aime (after Tasha at Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Books mentioned it).  It seems that I'm going to be busy for awhile with my newest Paris finds!

To be honest though, I'm a book rotater, as I've mentioned before.  That usually makes my reading time a little longer than normal, because I'm reading a million things all at once.  Anyway, I had heard a lot of glowing reviews about Anna and the French Kiss and finally got my hands on a copy.  Let's just say that I started it one day, read a couple of chapters, and put it down.  I picked it back up, and forget putting it back down!  I stayed up half the night finishing it.  For me, that's really saying something!  I love it when a book demands my attention.

Synopsis:  From Goodreads, "Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.

As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near - misses end with the French kiss Anna - and readers - have long awaited?"

Review:  I couldn't put this book down.  I really worried that with all the hype surrounding it, that I wouldn't like it.  That wasn't the case at all.  Anna is a great character, who is sent off to Paris by her Nicholas Sparks-esque (or that's how I pictured him) dad, who had gained his riches and notoriety from a number of successful tear-jerker novels turned films.  Of course she resents being ripped from her life in the U.S., along with a new possible love interest she had been crushing on before being forced to leave.  Thankfully she meets a small circle of friends who show her the ropes and make her time a little bit easier.  Also, it helps that one of them is an English American guy named Etienne St. Clair who is the school hottie and her new best friend.  The trouble is that he has a longtime girlfriend at another school and Anna has established Etienne as her friend.  That's a hard line to cross, even with enough chemistry to light the city.

The thing that I most loved about the novel, besides being set in Paris, was the development of the characters and their relationships.  Anna was a fun, unique character who had interesting flaws (a fear of going off of campus alone) and some real sounding conversations.  Her friends were people you wanted to know, and her romantic interest was agonizing and exactly the way any teenage girl could dream.  There is a crazy amount of tension in the story that keeps you flipping pages, praying for a resolution in the story.  Not to mention that there are enough misunderstandings to drive you to distraction!  Then, when it all ends and it has come together, you're sad and wish it would just go on.  

This is one charming story.  Thankfully, the buzz about this book was spot on and I'll definitely be recommending it to others!

*FTC Disclosure:  This review was based on a library copy of the novel.

The Paris in July Challenge is being hosted at Bookbath and Thyme for Tea.  Stop by to join in today or to check out other great posts.

Sunday Blatherings & a Little Paris in July

This week has seemed like a month!  Since I have never been around "home" here for my summer break, in years (literally), I'm finding that there are a lot of things I'm trying to take care of so that I won't have to worry once the school year begins.  When I'm away from home, I'm forced to relax and let it go.  Maybe that's a good reason to get out of Dodge! Where did those lazy days of summer go that we used to have as little kids?

One nice thing about being around home is that I was able to plant a little urban garden that I put on my back patio.  Growing up in Idaho. we had a huge garden, so I've always kind of missed having plants to tend over the summer.  Now I have a few of my own with a cherry tomato plant, a basil plant, and a couple pots that have lettuce.  I didn't get to put these up until the first of July, after I got home from my trip, so I think they are doing pretty good (the lettuce was just last week & I see little plants popping up). I also planted a couple lavender plants, just as a reminder of France.  They're looking pretty gnarly though, so I'm not sure if they're going to make it?  I had to buy the lavender though, because as we drove from Calais to Paris, I noticed these small fields of lavender and had to recreate a small piece of it on my back patio.  I love it.  Now I have to hope that the tomatoes and lettuce pull through or I'll be at the farmer's market more than I originally planned!

This week, although I had meetings to attend and a general list of things to do at home, I listened to some of the French music I brought home for my Paris in July Challenge.  My main focus was Edith Piaf, who I have to say was like a vacation to Europe for my ears.  If I didn't want to spend my life traveling the world before, her music really set me in that direction!  Many of us are already familiar with "La Vie en Rose", and in fact, I had even seen the movie about her life with the same title.  (Here is a link to Edith singing "La Vie en Rose" which I can't embed, but wanted to share because it's my favorite.  Also, here is a beautiful translation of the lyrics.)

Edith was famously abandoned by her mother and alcoholic father and went to live with her paternal grandmother who ran a brothel in Paris.  Edith was later discovered when she was singing on the streets, and upon beginning her career, would tremble before taking the stage.  This earned her the title "The Little Sparrow" which followed her throughout her career and life.  Spanning the time before and after WWII, Edith is still considered one of the most famous artists of France.  In fact, on that drive from Calais to Paris that I mentioned above, we listened to the "Best of Edith Piaf" over the bus intercom.

Although I don't speak any French, I have to say that the music really does transcend language barriers.  I may not know what Edith is singing, but I can feel it.  One song that I really like is "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" which I translated and means "No, I Do Not Regret".  It has a fantastic musicality to it that makes it feel like a real anthem to survival.

I still have more French music to explore, but what better way to begin than with Edith Piaf?  I've really enjoyed listening to her CDs this past week and plan on downloading her music so I can keep a copy. 

*The Paris in July Challenge is being hosted at Bookbath and Thyme for Tea.  Stop by to join in today or to check out other great posts.

So, how was your weekend?

Paris in July: Triple Film Review

In general, I love art house films, independent movies, and foreign films.  In fact, I think I've seen my fair share and really love the thought that goes into them.  I will admit that I've often struggled with French films and even had a conversation about it with a historian/guide on my trip last month to Paris.  After a pretty lengthy conversation about what the French find important or enjoy exploring, I learned that they like to consider existential questions about the true nature of man, his relationships with others, and his relationships with larger "truths" around him.   Honestly, I'll have to give some of these contemporary French films another chance.

One film that set me on that road was the movie Paris, starring Juliette Binoche and Romain Duris.  The basic premise of the film is centered on the life-threatening illness of Binoche's brother, played by Duris.  From this story, we see a number of other human stories play out around them.  We see the story of the couple who work in the market, who have separated.  We see the professor, who is undergoing a bit of a mid-life crisis.  We see the girl across the street, who seems so carefree and happy, but who can't settle on one thing.  And so the stories go on and on and on, each connecting back in some way to the brother and sister.  Through the stories, the city of Paris itself plays an integral role through its beauty, culture, and history.

Although a bit drab, with the hard issues and crazy relationships, I thought it was really beautiful.  Maybe having gone through caring for a family member who was terminally ill made the solemn, soul searching in the movie more palatable, but I thought the relationship complex and intriguing.  I wouldn't say that the entire movie is drab, and in fact would say that it really draws on the small beauties of life.

The second film I actually rewatched was Marie Antoinette with Kristen Dunst.  How could I not come home from Paris and watch this film again?  I wanted to see more of Versailles (minus the zillions of tourists) and see a dramatization of that amazing palace with someone living there!  I'll admit that the first time I saw the movie in the theater, years ago, that it was zany and felt like a Rocky Horror film mock up of what it must have been like.  Now, having read a bit and visited Versailles, I kind of get what they were going for in the film and totally loved it!  I suppose it also helped that Laduree, where I picked up my own box of macaroons, supplied the cookies and the color palate for their movie version of Marie Antoinette's life. 

Finally, I went to see Midnight in Paris, starring Own Wilson and Rachel McAdams.  The basic premise of the film is that Wilson plays a film script writer from Los Angeles who is vacationing in Paris with his fiance, played by McAdams.  In the quirky style that is a Woody Allen film, there is a lot going on in the dialogue and conversations that you have to pay careful attention to.  Basically, Wilson loves Paris and reminisces about the 1920's and how much inspiration he could have gotten there as a novel writer, had he lived at that time.  From this one little wish, the story takes off and he has quite a crazy experience with many of the authors, artists, musicians, and intellectuals of that period.  How would you explain such inspiration and the need for more with the people around you?

I really loved this film and thought it was too short!  There is a lot of name dropping and one liners and quotes that I had to pay very close attention to catch.  I quickly found myself scouring my memory for every discussion I'd sat through in my Humanities classes back in college and thankful for every biography of an artist or author that I've read.  I still know that I missed a few and have a few others that I want to look up more information on their lives.  On the whole, this was such a fun movie, with quirky dialogue and snappy wit.  If you love art and culture, reading and philosophy, then this movie is just your cup of tea.  The real relationship in the movie seemed to be between the artist and his creative muse, but the overriding message of the movie is the best of all (which I'll leave to you to discover because it would give too much away).  Paris is a wonderful center for the film, and definitely steps in as one of the main characters in the film.  Without it, you wouldn't have all the other crazy characters.  This was a fun, thinking man's film, and one that made me yearn for more like it!

Thank you SO much to everyone who left me recommendations for other great French films, or films that center around Paris.  I have a long list to try out! 

If you've seen any of these films, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Paris in July

Having just returned from Paris in June, I really couldn't help myself when I saw this challenge pop up over at Bookbath and Thyme for Tea.  The event runs from July 1st through the end of the month, and you can do a wide variety of things to celebrate.  Really though, all you need to do is blog about Paris or France throughout the month of July.  Here are a few things that were suggested:

• Reading a French book - fiction or non-fiction
• Watching a French movie
• Listening to French music
• Cooking French food
• Experiencing French art, architecture or travel
• Or anything else French inspired you can think of...

Here's what I would like to try out:

Watch some these...

Read these...

Listen to...

And, I might just try to cook something delightful.  I've thought about really trying a good quiche, ratatouille, a clafouti, or even a tart (since I've never actually used that new tart pan I own).  Maybe I'll finish the last couple of macaroons that have manged to survive the trip.  I picked them up at the famous Laduree.  (Check out their website--linked previously. The cakes, cookies, and pastries on their site look so luscious.  Besides, their site is just so pretty!)

Sadly, I haven't joined hardly any challenges this year.  When the new year rolled around, I was feeling way too overwhelmed to start anything new, so this will be a fun time.  I'm eager to get started.  Once 4th of July celebration stuff settles down, I can jump back in and try to enjoy a little Paris in July!

What are some of your favorite French films, books, music, food, or other things you might suggest?