A Secret Garden in Paris (2024) by Sophie Beaumont #ParisinJuly2026 #20BOS26

🌺 Paris and gardens are two of my favorites subjects, so of course I was delighted to win this book from #ParisinJuly2025 - thanks Emma! This book is about three women who have two things in common - they are in struggles, and they love flowers or gardens. First, there's Australian Emma who is grieving over her mother's death. There's a secret of her mother's past which she had had no time to tell Emma before her death - a secret about Emma's biological father's identity. Now, sad and wondering, Emma is staying at her Parisian grandmother's; and to busy herself, she decided to make over the garden, which had been neglected after her grandfather's death. One day, she visited a flower stall at the Marché aux Fleurs, located at île de la cité - a site which is actually in my "go-to" list of Paris (fingers crossed that I would have chance to visit one day, but if not, let me just dream about). 🌺 Arielle Lunel, a young widow with two little children (twins), works as florist at one of the stall, and she's an unusual one. To Arielle, flowers are not just plants, but they are also representing human emotion. That's why many of her customers visits the stall regularly whenever they need a flower arrangement. Just like this young man, David, who visits everyday, either to buy flowers for his mother's grave, or for ehm...other personal reason, who knows? Arielle's problem is related with her controlling parent-in-law who are proposing trying to take away the twins. Last but not least, there's Charlotte Marigny, a successful middle-aged garden designer with a marriage problem. Her husband Tom has been gradually reserved and withdrawn from his wife and children. Distressed, Charlotte fled to Paris; and during one of her wanderings, she visited Arielle's flower stall. 🌺 After presenting each of these three women's cause of troubles, which lead them to fruitful friendship and beautiful journey around flowers and gardens - their mutual passion - the story dwindles a little. The solution to each problem is too easy and too sudden, and felt rushed. I get the idea of using Paris and gardens for a healing point, but still, they are too suddenly resolved. Emma's garden, for instance, despite the fact that she's never been gardening before, and only learns from internet and book, yet the embryo of the garden 'miraculously' emerged just like that. Charlotte's husband also 'miraculously' awaken from his previous reserve - I had even thought it a much more serious case, like the beginning of Parkinson's disease, for example, which often changes the sufferer into a more reserved and withdrawn personality. 🌺 Fortunately, the gardens provided a much better angle for this book. My favorite part is when Emma had to take a friend of a friend (a tourist from Australia) on a garden tour (visiting gardens around Paris, in place of the usual tourist landmarks). It was her grandmother Mattie - my favorite character in this book, by the way - who came up with a nicely-curated tour. Not only that, Mattie - who had worked as illustrator - also produced a specially illustrated map for the tour, with a little scribbled note on the historical background. I would love to pay for such a tour - if only for the illustrated map. The route is as follows: they started apparently from Place des Vosges, and headed for Jardin de l'hotel de Sully, through the door to the secret garden. From there, to Rue des Rosiers, to visit Jardin des Rosiers through the grilled entrance into the hidden garden behind, where they enjoyed quiet times, accompanied by birdsongs. Next, they walked across Pont Marie, over Ile Saint Louis, to have lunch at one of the cafes or bistros, and ice cream at Berthillon at Rue Saint-Louis. Of course, after that they had to visit the Marché aux Fleurs at île de la cité. Their last destination was Jardin de Luxembourg, where the dancing faun statue "reminds us that in letting go, in trusting to the moment, we open ourselves to the gift of joy." [p.153] 🌺 So, you can see, that this book's main charm is in the gardens and flowers, and everything that they represented, either hope, joy, love, or just our connection to the nature. And I loved this book solely for that reason (and a little for the character of Mattie)! Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

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Paris in July 2026 hosted by Emma @ Words and Peace

20 Books of Summer 2026 hosted by Annabel @ AnnaBookBel

The Carter of "La Providence" (1931) by Georges Simenon #ParisinJuly2026 #20BOS26

 

🚤 This would be my starting point of reading the wide-read French detective stories of Georges Simenon. Maybe I should have started from the first book, but somehow this title sounds more interesting. First, I didn't know exactly what a Carter is - is he the driver of a horse cart? Then "La Providence" should be the name of the cart, but somehow I couldn't imagine a horse cart had a name, let alone an elegant one such as "La Providence". So, curiosity drove me to read - or in this case listen to - the (audio) book. I wasn't far wrong, the Carter is indeed a man who managed a horse-drawn-cart, and the lived at the stable, caring for the horses. But the cart isn't conveying passenger, but to tow a canal boat or barge! 

🚤 Since I have read - and enjoyed - The Narrowboat Summer (by Anne Youngson) last month, I was very excited to read a murder mystery set around the canal. A woman with stylish clothes, heavy make-up and jewelry was found strangled to death in a stable near the lock keeper's cottage near Dizy. Quite an incongruous sight it made, as how and why did the woman had come to the (usually) quiet place, at which she was so out of place? That was Inspector Maigret's first thought. He began to ask questions, to the lock keeper, the bargemen; until one Colonel Sir Walter Lampson, the owner of Southern Cross yacht admitted that the dead woman was his wife, Mary Lampson. She's been missing from the yacht for several days. Maigret also investigated a barge who arrived at the Lock the night Mary Lampson dead: La Providence. 🚤 La Providence was owned by the Cannelles, and they had a Carter called Jean, who's handling the horses that tow the barge along the towpath. He's a silent man with mysterious background, almost never opened his mouth, but worked nicely with the horses, and slept with them in the stable. Considering that he was made the title of the book, I started to wonder whether he was the murderer, or the space-goat. Maigret had been focusing his investigation on the yacht, when one of Sir Walter Lampson's crew was also found strangled to death. Some clues began to "emerge" here and there, and it's up to Maigret to put all the piece of puzzles into the correct places. 🚤 After reading my fair share of the Golden Age Detective mysteries, this book felt very different in structure. GAD are usually focusing on the plot - how the murder had been done - and the stages of investigation, and thus, emphasizing on the logical mind. The Carter of "La Providence", on the other hand, seems to be more atmospheric. It seems that Sir Walter Lampson's nonchalant reaction to his wife's death, for instance, or Willy's and Sir Water's mistress' manners during interviews are more important than the finding of the clues. I wouldn't reveal anything, but the ending is also heavy with emotion. Maigret seemed to be performing his duty more as a decent human being than a police officer. Add that with the amusing technicality of canal boats operating business, made this book an unusual read, entertaining and amusing.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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The Man Who Broke Out of the Bank and Went for A Walk Across France (2014) by Miles Morland #ParisInJuly2026 #20BOS26

 
🎒 The idea of, first, leaving one's job while one loves it; and second, going across France by walking, are two unthinkable things for me. Hence, my instant attraction to this memoir. It was the year 1989, and Miles Morland was forty five years old when he decided to retire from his high position in an investment banking company in Wall Street and London - the work he had grew to love in the last twenty years. So, why retired? Miles slipped a bit about this job - which he portrayed as "shouting down the phone" - and his subsequent decision, sandwiched in between his account of "the Walk". As a transition phase between active and post-retirement life - when Miles had no idea what he would do next - Miles and his wife Guislaine decided on taking a "mission impossible" adventure.   

🎒 Neither Miles nor Guislaine had ever walked long distance, or did trekking, or hiking, let alone a cross-country walk. Yet, they let themselves be challenged by the idea. Here I admired them both for undertaking such monstrosity. The most interesting part of this memoir, for me, is the preparation. For a newbie, you can imagine how many stuffs they must have researched, considered, and shopped for. And the fact that this had happened in the 1990s, when there were no internet or social media, made it doubly interesting. Miles is a 'map connoisseur', thus he armored himself with many maps, atlases, and guide books, before deciding what route they would take. Finally yhey agreed upon starting from Gruissan-Plage on the Mediterranean Sea, and finishing on the Atlantic coast at Capbreton, across France small towns and countrysides. 🎒 I loved the part of Miles' studying the maps, even pulling a thread to mark the route, to see the topography of their future journey; as well as how thoroughly he browsed from several different guides to find a recommended gîte or small hotel to stay the night. Guislaine then would call the establishment to make booking. They did all without at first knowing how the premise looked, nor how good (or bad) the service was. This was before the internet - you can google it nowadays. It reminded me of my own trip to Europe twenty six years ago. How exciting it was to browse for a small hotel - I browsed a guide from the library at the CCF in Surabaya (Centre Culturel Français), where I'd been taking a French course. Then one of the teachers helped me with the booking through facsimile. When I arrived in Paris - tired and hungry - lo and behold, the hotel didn't find any booking under my name! Apparently, a smaller hotel on the same street 'borrowed' my hotel's name for getting guests. The fax number was theirs (the impostor's), but the address wasn't. Needless to say, this hotel was not what I had expected, but I was too tired to complain or move (and the actual hotel was fully-booked anyway), so I stayed the night there anyway. Just like what the Morlands experienced during their Walk; sometimes the actual hotel or gîte was far from what they imagined, or advertised as; but when they were lucky, they'd get exactly what they have bargained for. And that, I think, was more fun and exciting than planning or booking hotels nowadays, when you can see photos and testimonies from fellow travelers - and yet, sometimes it wouldn't meet your expectation either! 🎒 On the whole, I loved this memoir. Sometimes travel memoirs tend to exaggerate things, and to make it less boring, adding dry humour or sarcastic comments. Miles Morland did neither. He didn't try to sound more exciting than his actual feeling, and didn't try to be funny. In fact, reading this memoir felt like listening to your friend, telling you of his adventure, from the beginning right to the end. It's not overly fascinating, yet, it isn't boring either. You just want to know what happens next, and curious of how your friend felt or cope with what he faced from time to time, be it a struggle when he's lost (out of his own fault or the map's), or a blissful rest when it's badly needed. One more thing worth noting, both Miles and Guislaine found that the Mephistos shoes are the perfect one for that kind of Walk (not sport shoes, to my surprise). As you might know, blisters are one of walker's nightmare. The memoir was dotted with, alternately, funny, disappointing, and blissful moments. Their routine might be boring, but for those moments. And Miles also slipped a bit of historical background that I would never have known, i.e. about the Black Prince. And all that makes this memoir an enjoyable read, which will take you through some of the eccentric or picturesque French countryside. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Paris in July 2026 hosted by Emma @ Words and Peace

20 Books of Summer 2026 hosted by Annabel @ AnnaBookBel

Hidden in Paris (2011) by Corine Gantz #ParisinJuly2026 #20BOS26

 

🎀 It was on the summer solstice in Paris, that this story had begun. The French has their own celebration on that day, La Fête de la Musique. Annie, an American housewife, has been living in a big house in the 16e arrondissement de Paris, with her husband Johnny and three little boys. Theirs are a happy marriage - or so thought Annie - until, on the way to some dinner and dancing, Johnny grimly told Annie that he "have something I have to tell you". You can only imagine what it was, because in the next chapter, Annie (already at home) got news that Johnny had been killed in a car accident - a combination of booze and speed. 🎀 Fast forward to two and a half year later, Annie still lives in the same house. The boys apparently have accepted their father's death - they never even said anything about their dad, at least that I remember. But Annie, well, she's doing it rather badly. Annie becomes anti-social, neglecting her appearance, and her home - especially her kitchen - and her boys have been her only solace and protection. Them, and an old friend called Lucas, a blue blooded handsome Frenchman, who had been a loyal friend of Annie and Johnny. Nowadays, he comes visiting almost everyday, and the only friend Annie has. It was he who's get Annie realizes of her financial problem, and advised her to sell the house. But Annie loves her house so much, and finally came out with a solution: tenants! 🎀 Two American women and a young man are the three tenants that ends up living with Annie - three persons bringing three personal problems to Paris. Lola with her (verbally) abusive husband and unhappy marriage; Althea with her anorexia, rooted from abusive mother. Last but not least, there's Jared, who is drained after caring for his dying mother and grieved over her death. Annie thinks the womanizer Lucas is attracted to Lola, with her Hollywood celebrity appearance, but she's completely wrong. Lucas had been in love with her for ages. And when nobody would think the emaciated Althea is anyway attractive, Jared is instantly in love with her on first sight. Lola, on the other hand, is always haunted by the thought that she's done a crime by bringing the children to France without Mark's knowledge. 🎀 Along the book, all these characters are struggling and evolving amidst the charm of Parisian "joie de vivre" mannerism, its people and culture, and its culinary (brought in perfection at Annie's kitchen most of the time). Annie's home is the catalyst of the changes in every character, especially in Lola and Althea. That, and the charm of Paris, of course. I could not relate to any of the characters, but I felt pity for Althea. Her mother was a true bit*h, and she should have not raise any children! I was a little surprised with Annie - she befriended Lola easily and took to herself to help Lola with her problem, but ignored Althea completely. Why hasn't she tried to reach for her? If not befriend her - which was impossible as Althea closed the door for social interaction - at least tried to sympathize and more understanding, instead of ignoring her completely. Luckily, there's Jared. All in all, this wasn't a bad book, at least it entertains you with the Parisian vibes. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for: Paris in July 2026 hosted by Emma @ Words and Peace

20 Books of Summer 2026 hosted by Annabel @ AnnaBookBel

The Upside Down River (2000) by Jean-Claude Mourlevat #ParisInJuly2025

 

🚣 While searching for an audiobook of Garlic, Mint, & Sweet Basil - an essay by Jean-Claude Izzo - I've planned to read for #ParisInJuly2025 (it's a satisfying essay to read, by the way), I came across this audiobook by another Jean-Claude - a middle-grade fantasy story. And it turned out to be a gem, I loved it! The Upside Down River is a two-parts story. The one I listened to is the first, which is subtitled: Tomek's Journey. 

🚣 Tomek is a seventeen year old orphan boy who runs a store that sells everything. By everything, it means everything you can name. One day, a girl of his age came to the store, buying some barley sugar. When the girl asked for a drop of water from river Qjar, Tomek realized three things: one, that his store doesn't sell everything after all; two, that he's actually been bored for a long time, and longed for an adventure; and three, that he's fallen in love with the girl, whom he didn't have chance to ask the name.

🚣 From an old man whom he always calls grandfather, Tomek learned more about river Qjar - it's a magical river; an upside down river that runs from sea, up to the mountain. And drinking a drop of water for that river is believed to make the person immortal. Tomek was intrigued, he wanted to meet the girl, whom he knew would be on the quest of river Qjar, and he also wanted to bring the old grandfather a drop of its water. So, off he went for his journey one fine day. And what a journey and adventure it would proof to be, and what interesting characters he would meet on the way! My favorite is Marie, a widow who travels with her cart and a donkey that farts a lot :)). He met her just at the edge of Forest of Oblivion, inside which one would forget everything that happened before entering, but right after leaving, the memory would return. Not mentioning the colony of huge bears that lived in the forest, and who were blind, but had sharp hearing. Marie was a good travel company, and it's she who give Tomek encouragement to go on his journey.

🚣 But the most exciting of all, is perhaps when Tomek finally met Hannah - the girl who bought barley sugar - and they'd go together to the river Qjar. But not before Tomek went into a sort of comma after smelling a poisonous big blue flower, and got rescued by a group of farmers; and several others strange adventures. But would Tomek and Hannah succeeded to find the river Qjar? And would they get the drops of water from it, up on the summit of the mountain, to bring home? Hannah wanted to save her most beloved bird, I forgot to mention. 

🚣 All in all, it's a short read, but packed with fun adventures. Jean-Claude Mourlevat is, surely, a great fairy tale, fable and fantasy books writer! I might perhaps get to read (or listen) the second part of this book someday (Hannah's Journey), but for now, it's my last read for #ParisInJuly2025, and a very satisfying one to wrap it up! Thank you for Emma for hosting it this year. Au revoir!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

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Garlic, Mint, & Sweet Basil (2003) by Jean-Claude Izzo #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

🧄 This short book is an essay written by Jean-Claude Izzo, a native Marseilles poet and writer. The main theme of the essay are his love of Marseilles - its sea, its cuisine, its people and culture; and the subject that made him famous: Mediterranean Noir. Izzo wrote three noir novels of the Marseilles Trilogy: Total Chaos (Total Khéops), Chourmo, and Solea. 

🧄 You would get how Izzo loved and was proud of his Marseilles from what he wrote in this essay. I loved how he described the view of the sea from uphill; but especially how he described the food! He titled this essay garlic, mint, and sweet basil not for no reason. To Izzo, the three ingredients symbolized the simple unpretentious dishes you'll love in Marseilles: "I like to feel Marseilles pulsating beneath my tounge." Family atmosphere in restaurant is what Izzo looked forward to. He talked a lot about fish and vegetables, Boullabaise, pizza on the sea, and bread rubbed in garlic.

🧄 Izzo loved garlic and talked a lot about it! First girl he kissed smelled of garlic, one summer, when he's 15 years old. Garlic reigned supreme in Izzo's kitchen, because:

"Garlic welcome all the flavors."

"Nothing goes better with garlic than wine. Preferably red wine."

"[It's] like the intoxication of first kisses."

🧄 Imagine reading about mouthwatering food in the poetic beauty that poets usually writes. That's what this essay is about. Of course Izzo talked about mint and sweet basil too. Can you imagine mint as a love potion? Well, reading what Izzo wrote will change how you see mint. "Spread mints around you. Breath in those peppery smell, and you'll add 1001 nights to your dreams."  And do you know that basil frighten away insects? Putting it on your kitchen's window sill, will keep the insects away. But will that make you house full of basil's fragrant? Well, believe Izzo when he said: "An excess of basil is like an excess of love, (it) will not damage the heart." He's a sweet dear, wasn't he?

🧄 This essay might be light and and short, but I guarantee, you'll want to go to Marseilles right away! A tip from Izzo: The best time to arrive in Marseilles is by sea, in the morning, in certain sunshine. Because Marseilles plays with perspective. And remember to visit the markets when you're there, because it's in the markets where Izzo had found "the wonders of the world" - "Here's where you'd find basis of taste... Pleasure of the day - the happiness of living in the south." What a refreshing read this had been for me - loved every single sentence in this little essay! - and what a perfect read for #ParisInJuly!

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Paris in July 2025

hosted by Emma @ Words and Peace

20 Books of Summer 2025
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The Greengage Summer (1958) by Rumer Godden #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

💚 The titular greengage summer is the summer when five siblings were staying at Hotel Les Oeilletes in a French seaside village. The story is narrated by Cecil Grey (13 y.o.), girl number two. The rest of the siblings are Joss, the eldest girl of 16; Hester (third girl); and the Littles, Will and Vicky. But wait, are they holidaying to France unchaperoned? Initially, their widowed mother took them there to see the Battlefield of France, however she got very ill on the way, and collapsed right upon arrival at the hotel. The proprietress, Mademoiselle Zizi almost let the family away - what hotel would receive a very ill woman with five children anyway? - but her charming and mysterious lover Monsieur Elliot interfered, and rescued them. He put Mrs. Grey into hospital, and the children are staying under his care.

💚 Without their mother's care, Joss and Cecil turned to womanhood, faster than any would expect. Especially Joss, she turned to be a very attractive woman, and this brought the children, previously left alone and unnoticed, to be under limelight. I loved all the children, from Hester who's always honest, to Will with his fashion aficionado. Even Vicky, who has the least role in the story - I loved how she's always hanging out in the kitchen with the old cook (and who always supplies hot news to her siblings!).

💚 At first, it seems like a perfect holiday for the siblings - loitering leisurely around the orchard, among greengage trees, picking and eating the fruits, and be free. But of course it's not that. I knew instantly that Elliot wouldn't have received them without reason, there's a catch somewhere. The children were drawn to Elliot instantly, and also with few of the other residents. Monsieur Armand the painter is my favorite! However, little by little they noticed strange, inexplicable things, mostly concerning Elliot. You'll be wondering all the time, whether he is a good man (he really took care of the children) who was misunderstood, or a genius villain hiding his crime behind his kindness? 

💚 I won't reveal further of the plot, because what happens next is the key to enjoy this book. In short, it is, unexpectedly, a rather intense coming-of-age story with a hint of mystery and a sinister plot twist at the end. It was an evocative reading, not the lazy one you'd enjoy during summer holiday - but definitely a perfect one for #ParisinJuly; it celebrates the glorious summer of a French seaside village!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
 

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Paris in July 2025

hosted by Emma @ Words and Peace

20 Books of Summer 2025
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The Elegance of the Hedgehog (2006) by Muriel Barbery #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

🦔 The story takes place in an elegant apartment building in central Paris, where two of our heroines live. One is a genius teenage girl from a bourgeois family, the other is the concierge. Paloma, the little girl, is planning to end her life by committing suicide, because she feels she'd never fit in the world. Nobody understands her - neither her family, her schoolfriends, nor her teachers. Paloma feels she would never manage to be whatever the world expect her to be. So, ending her life seems the only possible solution.

🦔 Having the entirely different background than Paloma, Renée, the concierge, is also having the same predicament. She is actually an intelligent and cultured woman, though autodidact. She loves art, literature, and even Japanese culture. However, the apartment tenants regards her as a server. So, she hides her talents as best she could, and appears to be the dumb concierge everyone expect her to be. Both Paloma and Renée hide into obscurity, because the world would not have them to be different from themselves.

🦔 Paloma and Renée would have lived through their lives as usual, albeit separately - if Monsieur Ozu, a wealthy Japanese man, hasn't arrived in the building as a new tenant. From the on, both lives change completely, because Mr. Ozu isn't like everybody else. He is himself an intelligent and cultured man, and on his first encounter with both souls, Mr. Ozu noticed right away, both Paloma's and Renée's hidden talent. 

🦔 Someone has given me a hint before, that at the start the story seems boring, but it would get much interesting after Mr. Ozu's appearance. I must thank that hint, since without it, I might have stopped reading after several chapters. They were so boring (I skipped a lot of the philosophy stuffs), and yet I felt that Barbery could have made it that way purposely. It was like the kind of life Paloma and Renée had expected they would have to endure the rest of their lives. But if they waited a little longer, something unexpected, more exciting and meaningful might come from the next corner. It's a lesson for us all to never lose courage.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

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hosted by Emma @ Words and Peace

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Jacqueline in Paris (2022) by Ann Mah #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

🔻 A little confession... I have picked this book just because of the title (everything with "Paris" attracts my attention) and the cover (again, every images of Paris will catch my attention).  I knew vaguely that this was set in post World War II, but had no idea what (or more importantly who) this was about. Although the heroine's name: Jacqueline Bouvier seemed vaguely familiar, I must have been almost mid way through before I caught 'White House' being mentioned casually. I thought, why would Jacqueline go to the White House, and what was the significance? I then browsed about this book, and just realized that this book is actually a historical fiction about the inimitable Jacqueline Kennedy!!

🔻 The story covered Jacqueline's earlier life, when she, in her twenty, spent one year in post-war Paris to study. Away from her mother's pressure to find a brilliant match, and the rigid social circle of New York, Jacqueline found freedom in Paris. She and some of her friends from the college were billeted with de Renty family. She soon found that Madame de Renty and her deceased husband had been spies during the war - Madame had even spent time in a women's concentration camp. It was unimaginable for Jacqueline, and so, instead of spending much of her time with her friends to museum, theatre, or dances, Jacqueline started to have interest in the war. She visited the poverty stricken post-war Germany, where she met John.

🔻 John was an impoverished writer, and for his new novel, did many researches on Communist communities - which were starting to emerge during the post-war. From de Renty family, she came to know that Communist spies had been spreading their wings around France. It's difficult to know the difference between real friends (or lover) and enemies. Was John, with whom Jacqueline was falling in love, the man he told her he was? Or was he a communist spy which one of de Rentys accused him of? Even if he's not, how would her mother react to their relationship?

🔻 At first, this book seemed to be about a girl's having fun in post-war Paris for a year. It was, until midway. After that it's a mixture of semi-political story with a tiny bit of mystery. But on the core, it was a coming of age re-imagining of Jacqueline Bouvier's earlier life. That one year in France touched and influenced the girl who would become one of the most famous first lady of the United States. I felt related to Jacqueline's first love to France, and I'm happy for her that she could always bring that in the next stage of her life. I loved that Ann Mah didn't stopped at Jacqueline's departure from Paris, but ended the story with her coming back there after she became Mrs. Kennedy. It was a bitter sweet way to end a book!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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20 Books of Summer 2025
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The Red Notebook (2014) by Antoine Laurain #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

📕 Antoine Laurain has become a staple author for me. His books (so far) are always highly entertaining, and so I had decided two or three years ago that I will read at least one Laurain's every #ParisInJuly. This year, The Red Notebook was my choice - red is my favorite color too - and again, I loved it! Laurain never disappoints, and I can't wait to read more of his next year. Now to the story...

📕 The red notebook belongs to a Parisian woman in her forty, who had been mugged one morning, and lost her handbag. Her head got hit quite hard from the incident, and for several days she was in hospital, having a coma. Meanwhile, the thief thrown the bag (after stealing the smartphone and purse, of course) on nearest garbage bin.

📕 That morning, bookstore owner Laurent Letellier was on his morning stroll when he noticed a mauve handbag discarded on top of a garbage bin. On impulse, he saved the bag, intended to drop it at the police station. But one thing led to another, he ended up taking the bag home to his apartment. Searching for any identification (which was none), he was fascinated to read the contents of the red moleskin notebook, which was a diary. Little by little Laurent came to "know" the woman, though not her name or address. Laurent was then on a mission to track down the woman, using some of the bag's contents as clues: a dry cleaner's receipt, a key ring with hieroglyphics, and a signed copy of Patrick Modiano's book. Would he succeed in his quest? 

📕 A little mystery, a quest, and a budding romance are the best ingredients for a lovely light book, and this one has all of them. Rare glimpses of the exotic profession of a Gilder added the charm; not mentioning the everyday life in Paris' apartment buildings, streets, and cafés which seeped through every lines of the story. Together, they create a little bubbling of happiness I always feel during #ParisInJuly, especially while reading Antoine Laurain's! ;)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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A Year in Provence (1989) by Peter Mayle #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

🍷 A Year in Provence became my first entry for #ParisInJuly2025, hosted by Emma @ Word and Peace. It's the first of a series of memoir written by Peter Mayle, an American guy who moved to France with his wife and two dogs in the 1980s. My initial choice had been Toujours Provence (the second book in the series) - planning to read it for A Century of Books project, but unfortunately I couldn't find any available ebook. So, I picked the first book, which was available, and someone has commented that it was slightly better than the second. In the end, I'm quite happy with the book - it was an entertaining read.

🍷 The premise is quite cliché - a foreigner found Provence a charming place, fallen in love with the Francophile life, decided to move in, then struggle to adapt at first, but loved the adventure anyway. There are more than a dozen books similar to this, I believe. And so, it's the narrative that would make one book different from the other. In this case, I loved Mayle's witty and humorous prose, with steady pace, alternating between frustrating and triumphant moments.

🍷 The Mayles chose a small and remote Southern French country called Lubéron as their new homeland. They found a 200-year-old dilapidated stone farmhouse, and bought it. And this book is a yearlong story of their introduction to the new Provençal life. They not only endured the mistral or frosty winter, but also with the fact that living in a farmhouse means never-ending repair works to be done. And with the Provençal laissez faire way of life, it may frustrated town people on their first arrival in Provence, but little by little Peter and his wife got used to it. Mrs. Mayle even came up with a clever way to get the repairmen worked their house faster - a gentle kick it was - and very efficient, and wonderfully hilarious!

🍷 On the whole, it might not be an enlightening book (you'll read many of these kinds), but if you are yourself a Francophile, this would be a charming and delightful book to read. It'd transport you to Provence, And together with the Mayles, you'd experience the charm and beauty of living in a Provençal farmhouse. You'd be imagining harvesting your own grapes, or hunting your own truffles, or cooking your own French cuisine. I loved this book, and enjoyed every page of it. It's rather difficult to convey the nuances I got from this book, but I found a passage that might describe it well:

"And, as for the oil, it is a masterpiece. You’ll see.” Before dinner that night, we tested it, dripping it onto slices of bread that had been rubbed with the flesh of tomatoes. It was like eating sunshine.”

Well, can you imagine what I have felt, and why I think his is a perfect book to read for #ParisInJuly2025, n'est-ce pas?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

Paris in July 2025

hosted by Emma @ Words and Peace

20 Books of Summer 2025
hosted by Annabel and Emma

Paris Virtual Walks to Wrap Up #ParisInJuly2024

A French Frye in Paris is a YouTube channel belongs to a New Yorker guy now living in Paris called Corey Frye. He is now a full time tour guide and photographer. These walks in Paris are a weekly Facebook Live videos, archived in this YouTube channel.

My first introduction to Frye's virtual tour was Montmartre in Bloom. I loved to find little hidden gems like this patch of flowers tucked up somewhere around Montmartre, for instance. As a photographer, Frye has a keen eye of beauty and proportion, and thus his videos are usually very nice to watch.

My next virtual walks are all in the park, garden, or just a little hidden green space that is hushed up from Paris' noise.

🌱 Springtime in the Jardin des Plantes

🌱 Autumn Bike Ride in Vincennes

🌱 Hidden Garden Walks

- La Coulée Verte

- a green space near Place de la Bastile

With these (virtual) walks, I - reluctantly - say goodbye to #ParisInJuly2024. Huge thanks to Emma @ Words and Peace to host this fabulous event!

My contributions:

Book reviews:

--click the titles to go to my review--
📚 Perestroika in Paris (Jane Smiley)

📚 Madam, Will You Talk? (Mary Stewart)

📚 The Girl Who Reads on the Métro (Christine Féret-Fleury)

📚 Vintage 1954 (Antoine Laurain)

📚 The Rest of Our Lives (Jean-Paul Didierlaurent)

Movie review
--click the title to go to my review--

🎬 Le Silence de la Mer

Music & Travel

--click the link to go to my post--
🎵 The Daily Francophile Playlist

🚶🏻‍♀️Virtual Walks in Paris (+Wrap Up)

I have enjoyed every moment of my journey to Paris (and other regions in France), but for now, I must say... Au Revoir!

The Rest of Their Lives (2016) by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent #ParisInJuly2024 #20booksofsummer24

💜 Embalmer. How many people could boast that as a profession? Or, how many author out there ever thought of writing about it? Jean-Paul Didierlaurent made a good decision to pick an Embalmer as maun character of this wonderful book of his.

💜 Though Ambroise Lanier is the son of a noble laureate in medicine, he chose a usually frowned-upon career: embalmer. I feel that he might wanted to pursue it in the first place as rebellious act against his arrogant and self-centered father who strongly opposed it. But regardless of his initial purpose, Ambroise quite enjoys his works.

💜 Talking about frowned-upon jobs, Manelle's home-helping services for elderly people is equally inglorious choice of career. Emptying chamber pots and cleaning houses - especially to suspicious old men - are definitely not everyone's dream of profession. However, like Ambroise, Manelle enjoys her meaningful job.

💜 It's not strange that both Ambroise and Manelle stays single until now. For Ambroise, particularly, it's not easy to attract a girl with his kind of job. But their lives are about to change completely, thanks to one of Manelle's sweetest patients. The octogenarian Monsieur Samuel Dinsky has had throbbing headaches recently, and after the MRI result revealed he had a brain tumor, with only three months to live, he made a drastic decision. It involves a journey to Switzerland, accompanied by Manelle and Ambroise - the first, friendly; the latter, professionally. Whose life would completely change, do you think? The octogenarian's? The youngsters? Or both?

💜 You know how French novels are often quirky? This one's quirkiness is in the profession of embalmer. It's not just the main character's job, Didierlaurent goes all in about Ambroise day to day job; the meticulous details of the step by step of embalming process, as well as what he deals with - his colleagues, the deceased's relatives, etc. It goes the same with Manelle's jobs. You might say this is a story of embalmers and home-helpers, and you're not entirely wrong. It is more that that, though. This is also a story about life and death, fear and hope. Ambroise and Manelle, each has a wholesome job, because they provide comforts for those who need it most: elderly people who need a dignified life, and family of the deceased who need to preserve the memory of their beloved.

💜 I might unwittingly describe this as a gloomy story - blame that to my current mood; this reminded me of my deceased father - but it's actually a charming, funny, sweet, hopeful, and heartwarming. I loved all the main characters, including Beth, Ambroise's grandmother. It's a story that reminds you that life... is always worth living! 💜

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

Paris in July 2024

hosted by Emma @ Words and Peace

20 Books of Summer 2024 
hosted by Cathy @ 746 Books

A Powerful French Movie for #ParisInJuly2024

🤫 Le Silence de la Mer  is a 2004 French movie directed by Pierre Boutron. Based on a novel by Jean Bruller with the same title (I would love to read it if it's translated). It is a compelling love story between a French girl and a German captain during the 1941 German occupation of France in WW2.

🤫 Jeanne Larosière, a piano teacher, is a young orphaned woman living with her grandfather. She preserves the memory of her parents (probably died during the war) by keeping their bedroom pristine, with fresh flowers every day. But then the Germans forced Jeanne to vacate the room, as their captain will occupy it while lodging with them.

🤫 Werner von Ebrennac turns out surprisingly to be a young, handsome, kindhearted, and polite gentleman. He's a composer - hence appreciates Jeanne's playing the piano - and a connoisseur of French culture. Jeanne and her grandfather treat their guests with fierce silence and indifference, to show hostility against their enemy. Nevertheless, Werner politely invites himself to the living room every evening to share with his hosts, his ideals and passion. Throughout these monologues, Jeanne is slowly infatuated with him. It is now the question of loyalty to one's nation or... to one's own heart.

🤫 It's been a long time since I've seen such a powerful romantic movie. There's no romantic scene at all, not a single kiss or touch, no romantic dialogs - there's hardly any dialog between them. But the emotional tension is so electrifying, and Jeanne's inability to express it is so heart-wrenching. The actress, Julie Delarme, played Jeanne's part so well that she was awarded Best Actress award in 2004 Saint-Tropez Fiction TV Festival. It's just another example that powerful romantic movies are often the ones without any romantic scenes.

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Watched for:

Paris in July 2024

hosted by Emma @ Words and Peace

Vintage 1954 (2018) by Antoine Laurain #ParisinJuly2024

🍾 The year 1954, wine and UFO. These are three elements that Antoine Laurain had woven into a fantastic time-travelling story set in Paris.

🍾 1954 was historically the year of UFO sightings wave in France. Almost every day there were news of strange phenomenon in their newspapers. In this particular story, a winegrower called Pierre Chaveau was walking across a vineyard in Beaujolais when he experienced a UFO sighting. Fast forward to 1978. The old Pierre Chaveau was having a family dinner at home. He unwittingly drank a vintage wine produced from the very place and time of his UFO sighting - Beaujolais, 1954. His dog also tasted the wine that night. The following morning he left the house for a walk with his dog, and mysteriously disappeared.

🍾 Fast forward again to 2017 in an apartment building in Paris. Monsieur Hubert Larnaudie, the property owner/manager; Julien and Magalie, residents; and an American Airbnb tenant Bob, founnd themselves in an awkward moment one day, which would cement their friendship. To celebrate a triumph over a previous apartment struggle, Hubert opened a bottle of vintage wine he found on his cellar, and shared it with his new friends. The wine was 1954 Beaujolais! The next morning, the four friends discovered themselves transported back in time, to the Paris of 1954.

🍾 What follows are highly entertaining piece in three stages. The shocking moment when they realized their predicaments are quite hilarious. Their euro coins received with suspicion, public transportation changed to vintage systems. They were naturally shocked at first, but then came the determination to seek a way to return to 2017. But in the process, they also had a lot of fun while exploring the 1954 of Paris. There's Les Halles, which was still existed, where they could explore the Belly of Paris in Zola's universe. And there's the personages they encountered - and for some, hung up with - Salvador Dalí, Jean Gabin, Édith Piaf. That was a glorious time for our four friends.

🍾 But the main business remained. They must go back to their own time. Could they do it properly? What surprises awaited them? And if they do come back, what will happen then? Two things for sure, their perspectives of life changed for good, and in the end they have forged a friendship that would last a lifetime.

🍾 Laurain did it again! This is a wholesome read, very entertaining, fast-paced, and memorable. The atmospheric of 1954 Paris is the main highlight for me.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

Paris in July 2024

hosted by Emma @ Words and Peace

The Daily Francophile Playlist #ParisInJuly2024

Besides reading French or French-themed books for #ParisinJuly, I have a habit of compiling French music playlist to listen to during the month. This list is growing from year by year, and for this year, I am compiling a special playlist from the master list, which I call my Daily Francophile Playlist. It consists of cheerful or comforting and uplifting songs that I can play from morning to evening, depends on my mood. Not continually, of course, but from time to time. Here they are:

Dave Coz: Together Again (1999) from album: The Dance

I know this is neither a French song nor written/played by a French musician, but it always reminds me of Paris. 24 years ago I went to Paris with a friend. But we arrived separately; I was one day earlier. 24 hours in Paris, I felt homesick and lonely. I haven't spoken to anyone, except for asking direction or ordering food. I had had dinner in a little bistro the night before and the other dinners asked me where I came from, where is Indonesia, etc. Apart from that, I was alone all day. That afternoon, while spending time before picking up my friend from the metro station, I had a walk. Suddenly from a fashion boutique came a familiar sound - it's Dave Koz' Together Again! That song was my favorite at that time, I used to play it all the time at home. Hearing it far away in Paris, was really comforting. I didn't feel alone anymore. Since then, I always associate Together Again to my wonderful moments in Paris. It's a song I would listen to whenever I feel wretched, and it never fails to uplift my spirit. That's why it has to be included in my Francophile playlist. It's playful tune fits with Paris vibes too, don't you think?

From Paris in July 2023 I've been falling in love with Tatiana Eva-Marie & Avalon Jazz Band's music. Here are some of them that I enjoy the most. One is Cole Porter's song, the rests are mostly from Charles Trenet - I love their cheerful tone!

💐 I Love Paris (Cole Porter)
💐 Fleur Bleu (Charles Trenet)
💐 Un Rien Me Fait Chanter (Charles Trenet)
💐J'ai ta main (Charles Trenet)
💐 Ménilmontant (Charles Trenet)
💐 Qu'est ce qu'on attend pour être heureux (Paul Misraki & André Hornez)

These two are from their album Je suis Swing:

💐 La complainte de la Butte
💐 Coquette

Here are my two latest finds from YouTube:

From Flonflon Révolution/Flonflon Syndicate:
💐 Gitan Swing
💐 Nostalgie d'Amour
💐 Swing Valse

This one is for my after work relaxation, to be played while having dinner, perhaps...

From Flonflon Syndicate
💐 La Folle Complainte

And finally to close the day, here are mini concerts that I love:

Sébastian Giniaux Quartet
YouTube Channel: Auberge Des Vergers


Are you familiar with these songs? Do you have a special #ParisinJuly playlist?

The Girl Who Reads on the Métro (2017) by Christine Féret-Fleury #ParisInJuly2024 #20booksofsummer24

💛 Juliette doesn't love her 9-5 job at the real estate agent, but she loves her metro journey to the office every day. Juliette lives a melancholic life as an ordinary young woman, a life ruled by monotony, devoid of either purpose or passion. Her sole entertainment are two things: books and imagination.

💛 Besides her love for reading, she loves to imagine the lives of her fellow metro passengers, through books they read every day. There's a woman who always cries when she gets to page 247 of the same book she always read on the Metro. Then, an ornithologist who loves reading book about insects, and a lady with her cook book. Juliette's imagination brings colors to her otherwise bleak existence.

💛 Her life changes when Juliette passes a different road to office, and notices a curious little bookstore with a book wedged on its gate. Intuitively she enters the tranquil courtyard which feels like another world from the hustle bustle of Paris. There she becomes acquainted to Soliman, the bookshop owner, and his daughter Zaide, and without realizes what's happening, Juliette agrees to be a passeur.

💛 Soliman's bookshop isn't an ordinary one. He hired passeurs who match books with people they see - books that they would need or books that match their personalities. The kind of occupation that suits Juliette perfectly and correlated to what she's been doing lately on the Metro. But her biggest life change didn't happen until Soliman asked her to move into his house to take care of little Zaide while he's away.

💛 This is the kind of book without much of a plot. Its strength lays on the beautiful writing and its deep understanding of human struggles and the power of books to heal or guide human lives. I would love it better if it tells us more about the bookshop and the passeur concept. Are the secondhand books passed on to people freely, or should they pay for them? Because Juliette only passes them on to people, there are never any transaction. And if they are free, then how the bookshop keep itself running? If the books are sold from the shop, but some of it are passed on to readers, there are no hints of business along the story. These aspects made the story less relatable to me, though I love the bookshop itself - the tranquil hushed-up atmosphere which seemed to transport me to a secret alley in Paris which is hidden from tourists.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

Paris in July 2024

hosted by Emma @ Words and Peace

20 Books of Summer 2024
hosted by Cathy @ 746 Books

Madam, Will You Talk? (1955) by Mary Stewart #ParisInJuly2024 #20booksofsummer24

🚘 Set in the 1950s (about ten years after WWII), a British widow named Charity Selborne is on holiday in Provence with her friend Louise. At the hotel she gets acquainted with a 13-year-old boy and his dog who introduced himself (the boy, not the dog) as David Shelley. Now, Mrs. Selborne was formerly a teacher and is very fond of poems. The boy's name Shelley naturally amused her, and the fact that the boy himself knows of the poet David Shelley. So casually she's jokingly mentioning David Byron, at which, surprisingly, she noticed David turned pale.

🚘 That incident later on became a significant clue to the forthcoming events that will completely change Charity's life. Another important clue related to poets or poems is that another guest of the hotel who was reading T.S. Eliot at breakfast. There's yet another poet-related fact to this story - Charity learned from other guest that David is actually the son of Richard Byron, an antique dealer who had been accused of murder. Mrs. Bristol, who's travelling with David, is Byron's second wife, and David stepmother.

🚘 David and Mrs. Bristol are clearly scared and worried, but of what it who? Charity got the answer when she took David to a local trip, where a man called Richard Coleridge chatted with her - yet another poet! His reaction when she let slip that she knew David, md his persistent question of David's whereabouts made her realize that the man was none other that Richard Byron - David's father, the murderer. Thanks to Charity's quick thinking, she and David had time to flee from Byron's clutch. But how long will it take for him to trace them?

🚘 From the queen of romantic mystery genre, this is more of a gripping thriller with high-speed car chase scenes from Provence to Marseilles, than a mystery. Charity turned out to be a terrific driver and quite a resourceful heroine with iron nerves, though not of the same quality as a sleuth. The romance is cliché, and I think I prefer a proper mystery with a sprinkle of romance than an equal portion of romance and mystery. The romance here feels a bit rushed to be plausible, but too much for just a sprinkle to spice up the thriller. All in all, it's an entertaining page-turner book, where you could explore the roads of Provence and Marseilles in the 1950s.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

Paris in July 2024

hosted by Emma @ Words and Peace

20 Books of Summer 2024
hosted by Cathy @ 746 Books