Dreaming of France -- From Here to Paris

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.

I started a new memoir this week. From Here to Paris by Cris Hammond tells the story of a nearly 60-year-old man living in Los Angeles who lost his job just before the recession. He and his wife decided to buy a barge in France and live on it for part of the year.

Hammond is also an artist who paints while he is in France and I'm enjoying his adventures. My husband is also reading it and has actually laughed aloud at parts of the book.
My review of this book won't be published until the end of June, so you'll have to wait a while to see my final verdict on the book.
Here's an excerpt from early in the novel:

The sun was setting by the time I checked into my room at Chez Holiday Inn on Rue de Lyon in Paris. I was jet lagged and tired but desperate to stretch my legs, so I went down the street to wander around. The glass doors at the Holiday Inn slid open and the city poured in. Contrary to just about every movie depiction of Paris, the true sounds of the city aren't accordions playing La Vie en Rose. Rather the broad tree-lined boulevards and quaint side streets reverberate with whining scooters, thundering motorcycles, small honking cars, tinkling bicycle bells, and bleating police claxons, all clog dancing over a background buzz of people talking a mile a minute. The pace is manic. Engines of all sizes impatiently rev at stop lights while pedestrians, dressed in black with nine-foot-long scarves, leap off the curbs with the assurance of trapeze artists who know they'll always be caught by their lover and greeted with a kiss on each cheek. 

I enjoy most books that take me away to France. A well-written book, I enjoy even more.
What are you sharing about France today?