Dreaming of France -- That's Paris: An Anthology of Life, Love and Sarcasm in the City of Light

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.

When I found out that Vicki Lesage and Adria J. Cimino were putting together an anthology of stories in Paris, I got excited. What's better than hearing stories about Paris?

Some of these short stories are blips of experience in Paris. Others are more complicated and slowly unwound with the scenery of Paris as the setting.
Cimino wrote a story, "Love Unlocked," about an activist trying to convince people to stop attaching locks to Pont des Arts, a bridge over the Seine. She chains herself to the bridge and meets a man searching through the locks.

"I'm unlocking it." He pulled a small key out of the pocket of his jeans, released the lock and tossed it into the trashcan a few feet away.
"Why did you do that?"
"Our story is over. We broke up today."
"You only wanted to get rid of your lock because the relationship is over? Typical. You're not doing this because you care about the bridge or our environment."

Some of the stories aren't about Paris. They are simply human stories that are set in Paris. Like "La Vie en Rose" by Marie Vareille about a young widow whose friends force her to go out with them after two years of widowhood. In a French bar, she meets a man who doesn't treat her as if she's fragile, and she begins to feel whole again.
In "Le Chemin du Dragon," an intriguing story by Didier Quemener, takes place in Pere-Lachaise cemetery at the mausoleum of Chopin. The young musician is about to make a discovery in the dark of the graveyard.
Along with enjoyable stories, I learned some things about moving to Paris, like the fact I should get an international driver's license before I move so I don't go through the pains that Jennie Goutet wrote about in "Driving Me Crazy." She spent three years and thousands of dollars for driving school, so that she could get her French license.
These stories are lovely little appetizers for those of us hungry for Paris.
The book is available on Kindle at Amazon for 4.99.
Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. Please leave a comment and visit each other's blogs to see more examples of people Dreaming of France.
 

Dreaming of France -- Confessions of a Paris Potty Trainer

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.

Today for Dreaming of France, I wanted to give you my review of a new memoirs, Confessions of a Paris Potty Trainer by Vicki Lesage.

I've become blog friends with Vicki, who is an American married to a Frenchman. But sometimes I become friends with an author, and I still don't enjoy their books. When that happens, I avoid saying anything. Joyfully, I can say that I truly adored Vicki's latest book.
I read her previous book, Confessions of A Paris Party Girl, and that was fun, but her second book is better. At least I related to it more. Her first book told the story of a party girl moving to France and ended with her marriage to a Frenchman. This book began with her pregnancy.
I love the insights into the different ways the French handle things, like finding an apartment and going to doctor visits, not to mention the difference between giving birth in the U.S. and in France.

By the time I announced the pregnancy to my boss, I had been employed at my French company about a year. I hadn't quite gotten used to the lax French working style and the fact that they only actually work about half the year, once you factor in national holidays, a minimum of five weeks' vacation, and coffee breaks.
So I was shocked to learn I would be getting sixteen weeks of maternity leave. what would I do with all the time? Sure, take care of my baby. But as someone who has worked every day of her life since age 14, the prospect of four months sans travail was hard to imagine. 

Getting the baby a passport, finding the baby a school, trying to re-establish her party life with her friends, I relished the journey with Vicki.
It was one of those books that I had a hard time putting down. Luckily, I had it on my Kindle, so I could pick it up anytime I had a few spare minutes and finished it in just a few days.
It's available for $4.99 on Kindle or $13.49 in paperback on Amazon. Here's the link: Confessions of a Paris Potty Trainer. 
And, this topic is mildly related to Dreaming of France -- I'm giving away a $10 Amazon gift card on Tuesday to everyone who has liked my author page on Facebook since it hit 300. The odds are pretty good cause I'm only at 305 likes. So, if you're on Facebook, stop by my author page and click like. You may win an Amazon gift card and have the money to buy this book or one of my books on Kindle.
Also this month, jumping the gun by a day, it's time for Paris in July.

Head on over to the main website to play all month. I'll still be here dreaming of France every Monday throughout the year and in July too. 

First Paragraph, Tuesday Teasers -- Confessions of a Paris Potty Trainer

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 should probably save this French book for Paris in July, but I started it this week so I'll go ahead and share the opening and a teaser here. It's Confessions of a Paris Potty Trainer by Vicki Lesage. I previously read and reviewed her book  Confessions of a Paris Party Girl, which was a lot of fun in a Bridget Jones memoir-style. I loved the explanation of all the hoops she had to jump through to marry her Frenchman. Now Lesage has moved on to child birthing and child rearing in the City of Light.  Here's the intro.

"Oh la la," she said, surprised. "I can fit two fingers in there."

Now, if you're like me, I immediately guessed what she was talking about. Here's a hint though, the first chapter is titled "Confessions at the Check-Up."

I'm joining Teaser Tuesday this week too.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Open to a random page of your current read  and share a teaser sentence from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser.
Here's a teaser from 42% on my Kindle as she prepares the baby for daycare:

 "In the beginning, the babies will drink bottles at mealtimes. As you introduce new foods at home, let us know and we will do the same here. Each Monday, Chef posts the menu for the week. You can check the meal plan to ensure you don't serve the same dish for dinner."

That explains so much about the French, doesn't it? Every preschool and daycare has its own chef. Can you imagine? Pretty different from the lunch ladies with the hairnet at American schools.
I look forward to seeing all of your intros and teasers this week.

France Book Tours -- Confessions of a Paris Party Girl

France Book Tours asked me to review a copy of Confessions of a Paris Party Girl by Vicki Lesage. 

Here's the synopsis from the author:

Wine, romance, and French bureaucracy – the ups and downs of an American’s life in Paris. This laugh-out-loud memoir is almost too funny to be true!

 Drinking too much bubbly. Meeting sappy Frenchmen who have girlfriends or are creeps or both. Encountering problème after problème with French bureaucracy. When newly-single party girl Vicki moved to Paris, she was hoping to taste wine, stuff her face with croissants, and maybe fall in love. In her first book, this long-time blogger and semi-professional drinker recounts the ups and downs of her life in Paris. Full of sass, shamefully honest admissions, and situations that seem too absurd to be true, Vicki makes you feel as if you’re stumbling along the cobblestones with her.

Will she find love? Will she learn to consume reasonable amounts of alcohol? Will the French administration ever cut her a break?

 This memoir traces the lucky life of Vicki who moved to Paris in her 20s and made an exciting new French life. Part Bridget Jones' Diary, part Le Mariage by Diane Johnson, the author takes us on a roller coaster of ex-pat fun.

Those of us who are enamored of France imagine what life would be like if we moved there. Mostly we dream of baguettes and wine. We don't really picture the difficulties.

The author pulls no punches in laying out the difficulties. Making life a little harder for herself, she parties like Bridget Jones and has many regrets afterwards. 

We ordered off the English menu anyway, and passed the evening in a blur of indulgent food and copious amounts of wine. I recall a tasty after-dinner drink (or three) comprised of white wine, wild berry liqueur and cognac. I'm sure I no longer had any control over the volume of my voice.....In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have had so many after-dinner drinks. Then again, they shouldn't make them taste like Kool-Aid if they don't want me to order fifty of them. Who can win a fight against wild berry liqueur? 

 I'm well past my partying days, and mostly as the author described her overindulgences, I felt glad I had moved on.

Vicki Lesage is an IT Director by day, writer
by night. And a full-time nerd. She loves fondue,
 wine, math, and zombies.She lives in Paris with her
 French husband and rambunctious son.

Much more interesting to me were all of the French quirks of culture, like yogurt as dessert. I loved hearing about the classes she had to take to be allowed to work in France. And who knew about the number of hoops someone has to jump through to get married to a Frenchman. That was really fascinating. I wonder if they could have avoided it by getting married in the United States.
But what Francophile girl hasn't dreamed of being married in Paris? The author achieves this goal.

At the crack of dawn on Saturday, we headed to our appointment with Père Nicolas. Normally sleeping off a hangover at this hour, I saw a new Paris during the five-minute walk. Store owners straightening their shops, old ladies rolling their grocery caddies, street cleaners sprucing up the sidewalks....
According to the rules of the French Catholic Church, you have to get married in the church in your quartier unless you are an active member of another church. I supposed this was to avoid everyone clamoring to marry in Notre Dame of Sacré Coeur.

 I loved seeing the details of planning the marriage and pulling it off.
This was a fun read and I recommend it. Maybe for vacation, or if you can't afford a vacation this year. Go to Paris and sow your wild oats in this memoir.

First Paragraph, Teaser Tuesday -- Confessions of a Paris Party Girl

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.
This week I started a book for France Book Tours called Confessions of a Paris Party Girl by Vicki

Lesage. It's a story about Lesage's trip to France as a young 20-something and so far, it looks like partying was an important part of the trip. Here's the intro from Chapter 1:

I would like to say that when I first stepped off the plane and embarked on my new life in France, something memorable happened. Or something funny or amazing or romantic or at least worth writing about. Truth is, I don't remember. I take that to be a good thing. Considering all the mishaps I've had since moving here, "uneventful" nearly equals "good" in my book.
Looking back all these years later, I see myself as a hopeful, naive girl full of energy stepping off that plane. Tired of running into my ex-boyfriend seemingly everywhere around my midwestern American hometown, and having been unceremoniously freed from my IT job, this fearless 25-year-old was ready for a change. 

Also this week  is Teaser Tuesdays. Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Open to a random page of your current read  and share a teaser sentence from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser.
Here's a teaser from 19% on my Kindle as she explains a popular fondue restaurant in Paris:

I lied when I said I didn't know what I liked most about the place. Their gimmick is that you drink wine out of baby bottles and this is what stole my heart. It's a guaranteed hit with out-of-town guests, who wear out their camera batteries in various poses with the baby bottles.