Dreaming of France -- Book Set in Paris

Thank you for joining 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.

One of the reasons I started writing books set in France was because I couldn't find many books that I enjoyed. If Nicolas Barreau had been writing, I might have skipped it all together. Last week, I picked up his novel Paris is Always a Good Idea, and I read most of it that afternoon. I finished it the next

morning before I went on a run.
Many times, I hesitate to read novels written by French authors. They rarely have happy endings and frequently they are about metaphysical ideas that go over my head, or maybe they're simply lost in translation.
This book felt magical right from the beginning, in the same way that Chocolat felt otherworldly.  It focuses on Rosalie Laurent, who runs a postcard store in St. Germain, Paris. In her early 30s, she's an artist and sells her wishing cards as well as launching one from the Eiffel Tower each year on her birthday. She has a struggling business, a nice enough boyfriend who doesn't share her interests and a meddling mother who hoped for more. Her luck changes when a publisher asks her to illustrate a children's book by a famous children's author. American Robert Sherman enters the picture when he is passing her shop and he sees her book in the store window, a story that he has known since he was five years old. He accuses the children's author of plagiarism and the love/hate relationship begins.  Robert has a law degree, but is considering an offer to teach literature at the Sorbonne in Paris. His girlfriend Rachel is furious that he isn't more ambitious.
Both Robert and Rosalie have settled for a mediocre life until they find each other and a few other surprises.
What did I dislike about the book, the title, which is a quote credited to Audrey Hepburn. I wonder if it was called something else in French.
Maybe this book just called out to something in my life right now, but I was transported to Paris and entertained on the entire journey.

Thanks so much for playing along with Dreaming of France. I really appreciate your participation and I hope you'll leave a comment plus visit each other's blogs.

Tuesday Intros -- The Ingredients of Love

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph of her current read. Anyone can join in. Go to Diane's website for the image and share the first paragraph of the current book you are reading.

I just picked this up today, although I don't know anything about it other than there's an Eiffel Tower on the front and it says it's an International Bestseller. The Ingredients of Love by Nicolas Barreau says it combines Cyrano de Bergerac with Chocolat and Amelie.

Here's the intro:

Last year in November a book saved my life. I know that sounds very unlikely now. Many of you may feel I'm exaggerating -- or even being melodramatic -- when I say so. .But that's exactly how it was.
It wasn't that someone had aimed at my heart and the bullet had miraculously been stopped by the pages of a thick, leatherbound edition of Baudeliare's poetry, as so often happens in the movies. I don't lead that exciting a life. 

According to the book jacket, Aurelie, a restauranteur in Paris, finds a novel in a small bookshop then reads it to discover that she and her restaurant are included in the book. She reads it in one night and wants to desperately meet the author, but he's reclusive and she can't get through to him until one day he writes her back.

I can't wait to dive in. I hope you're reading something interesting too.