France et Moi with author Jane Smyth

Welcome to ‘France et Moi’ where this week I am talking to memoir author Jane Smyth about what France means to her. You can read my review of her book French Dreams, Dogs and a Dodgy Motors here.

 

Jane Smyth and her two Fox Terriers

Jane was born and brought up in south Birmingham and although she is now living in Worcestershire, she can still return to her Brummie roots by taking a short train ride to the city. She spent the last 28 years of her working career teaching at a college in the West Mids and was a Senior Teacher and lecturer in IT before retirement. She has a keen interest in photography, for which she has a qualification and has a lifelong love affair with sport and fitness, playing netball in the Birmingham and Worcestershire netball leagues and then taking on and qualifying as a fitness instructor. She has abandoned teaching fitness, and much prefers to be a class member these days. She loves skiing and plays golf badly.  She is married to Rob, has two grown children, 3 beautiful granddaughters and two fox terriers.

 

Jane, I think France is a special place and it is famed for many things including its cheese, wine and diverse holiday locations plus, dare I say it strikes and dog poo littered streets. What do you think makes France so very unique and ‘French’?

 

Jane: France is such a diverse country in terms of its scenery and countryside. Having travelled to virtually every region over the years, we have been smitten at just how beautiful it is. I think the only thing missing in terms of landscape is a desert and an active volcano! There aren’t too many places in the world either, where you can be skiing in the mountains one minute and be lazing on a beach two hours later.  

 

As for the French, they are a unique bunch, one minute fiercely partisan and the next seemingly hankering after another revolution. I’d hate to see what would happen if there were proposals to reduce the two-hour lunchbreak to one! They also have a stockpile of non-verbal expressions to call upon that you’ll never see anywhere else, my favourite being that dismissive shrug of the shoulders. Just love it!    

 

Where did your love of France and living the French dream begin?

 

Jane: Camping holidays with our young children embedded our love of the country, which became more entrenched each time we visited. Apart from the quality and locations of the campsites, plus the amazing cuisine, those early holidays allowed us to explore so many interesting and fascinating places, some well-known and others not. With quiet roads, driving became a pleasure rather than a stressful, teeth-grinding battle through traffic, unless you ventured into a city or struggled along the Cote d’Azur in August! We also found the French to be accommodating and friendly and made firm friends, some of which we’re still in contact with today. Wherever we travelled in the world and however much we loved the places we visited, it was France that called us back and we always found time within our busy lives to visit at least once a year.  What eventually led to my French house owning fantasies, was reading Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence but you’ll have to read my book French Dreams, Dogs and a Dodgy Motor to see where it all went from there.

 

French Dreams, Dogs and a Dodgy Motor by Jane Smyth

With plenty of space and lovely scenery France is a great place to explore. If you could be anywhere in France, right now, where would you be and what would you be doing?

 

Jane: Because of Covid and lockdowns we haven’t been able to get to our French house, Les Hirondelles, for several months, so that’s where I’d be. Higher up the valley the ski resort might still be knee deep in snow. With the resort closed because of the pandemic, a walk through the snowy scenery would be on the cards. If the snow has disappeared from around our house lower down, I’d be tidying up the outside area, revealing the wild spring flowers, breathing in that pure mountain air and taking the opportunity to sit and admire the view down the valley.

 

Do you speak French? If so at what level would you say you were?

 

Jane: I can get by in most situations, but never claim I can speak French.  Once you admit that, you’re presumed to be fluent and will face an onslaught of rapid-fire French which I have no chance of understanding.  Setting a level is a tough one. I’m not a beginner, but I wouldn’t say I was at an advanced level either. I’m probably intermediate with the odd hole when it comes to exam level grammar. Our neighbours say we speak well but I think they’re being kind and very, very forgiving!

 

Every region in France has its own culinary specialty, when you are back in the Haute Provence, is there a special dish you always look forward to eating? 

 

Jane: Hard one this. During the skiing season, death by cheese is the speciality, with Raclette, Tartiflette and Fondue on offer to ensure you don’t eat again for a week. I have yet to finish half of any gooey, delicious serving. I love a salad Niçoise in the summer (although this is strictly a dish from the coast), or I might swap it for a salad Colmarsien which usually contains the local Tomme mountain cheese and goat’s cheese, plus ham. A favourite restaurant serves trout direct from the lake it sits beside. Whatever I choose, it HAS to be accompanied by an ice cold glass (or two) of the local Provençal rosé wine. Utterly delicious.

 

What is your favourite thing to buy in a Boulangerie/Patisserie? 

 

Jane: Impossible to name one thing as we have a bakery in the village, so the bread is ferried across the road, still warm from the ovens, not just baguettes, but a whole variety of different types, including speciality loaves. We may also be persuaded to buy a tarte aux pommes or tarte aux framboises. I avoid what I call ‘mountain cake’, as it’s so dense and heavy, that dropping a slice on your foot is likely to break a toe AND it’s as filling as all those cheese dishes. Another favourite is a Pain Bagnet which I can only get from a Patisserie in a village quite a distance away.  This is basically a Salad Niçoise in a soft bun, the size of a small dinner plate. It’s all you’ll ever need for lunch on the hoof. We usually buy one each when we pass by on our long journey back to the UK.

 

France has many different cheeses, a silly question, but which French cheese are you? Maybe, a hard and mature Tomme, a soft, fresh and lively goat cheese, the creamy and rich Camembert or even the salty and serious Roquefort?

 

Jane: I’d have to be a mix. Our local Tomme, particularly as it’s mature like me, but it does come in large rounds and I’m not large or round. A creamy, soft crottin of goat’s cheese, soft because my granddaughters can wheedle almost anything out of me. Finally, a tasty, (wishful thinking), hard (don’t cross me) and slightly sweet Compté.

 

Best French tipple, and yes, I know there are many to choose from? 

 

Jane: A Kir with Crémé de Cassis or Framboise, best start to any meal.  A coupe de Champagne or a glass of Provençal rosé.

 

France has some beautiful cities with stunning architecture, which is your favourite French city to spend time in and why?

 

Jane: I like to visit Paris once in a while. The architecture is fabulous, and it’s stuffed full of the most interesting places. A wander around the Pére Lachaise cemetery to say ‘bonjour’ to the likes of Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison and a host of other renowned individuals passes a pleasant few hours and as I like impressionist art, the Musée D’Orsay is a must. Paris aside, our friends recently showed us around Lyon, which we’d never visited before and were completely taken with. As a culinary haven, it contains superb restaurants to suit all pockets, many in the old centre, a rabbit warren of old streets and buildings. The revamped ‘Confluence’ area, where the Rhone and Soane meet, has been completely transformed from an industrial wasteland to a smart, lively area, with riverside cafes and bars and a stunning modern shopping centre. We’ll definitely visit again. 

French Dreams, Dogs and a Dodgy Motor by Jane Smyth

 

Your first memoir French Dreams, Dogs and a Dodgy Motor, takes us along as you find the holiday home in France you have always dreamed of owning, do you have any plans to write another book, either memoir or fiction? 

 

Jane: I have a few ideas bubbling around in my head, memoire and fiction, but I need to focus on which and plan out what I want to write. In either case it means doing research. My two ideas for fictional books, both set in France, will be built around real events and places. The research is the easiest bit, some of which I’ve already started, but I need to think about characters and plot. As for the memoirs, I need to grab hold of relevant individuals to glean more anecdotal evidence that I wasn’t privy to.   

 

Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions about France and you.

 

French Dreams, Dogs and a Dodgy Motor is a great fun read and a perfect escape to France. Links to Amazon, where it is available in ebook and paperback format, can be found below. Read my full review here.

France et Moi with author Harriet Springbett

Welcome back to ‘France et Moi’ where this week, to coincide with the publication of her second novel, Tree Slayer, I am talking to author Harriet Springbett about what France means to her.

 

Harriet Springbett

Although Harriet Springbett always wrote stories in her West Dorset home, she qualified and worked as an engineer. During a Raleigh International expedition in Chile she realised writing and discovering life were more important to her than her career. She moved to France, where she studied French at Pau University and then worked as a project manager, feature writer, translator and TEFL teacher. She now lives in Poitou-Charentes with her French partner and their teenage children.

Since her first literary success, aged 10, her short stories and poetry have been published in literary journals and placed in writing competitions, including a shortlisting in the renowned Bath Short Story Award. She leads writing workshops, has judged the Segora international short story competition and blogs (very irregularly) at https://harrietspringbett.wordpress.com. Her publisher, Impress Books, now has 3 of her novels and she’s working on her fourth.

Tree Slayer by Harriet Springbett

Firstly, I think France is a special place and it is famed for many things including its cheese, wine and diverse holiday locations plus, dare I say, its strikes and dog poo littered streets. What do you think makes France so very unique and ‘French’?

 

Harriet: Its people. They are more discreet than us Brits, so it’s rare for them to ask lots of questions when you first meet. This can make you feel ignored until you realize it’s just a cultural difference. There is also a real sense of family and community, and they often put the group before the individual – which is why French children are so polite. For example, during street theatre performances, adults will always make way for children to go to the front – and there’s never any elbowing to be the first in a queue. Their approach to life is much more abstract than our practical approach, which I love. And the French walk at a more leisurely pace than the British. Have you ever noticed that?

 

2) What is your first memory of a trip to France? 

 

Harriet: I was 13 when my parents put me, alone, on a ferry in Weymouth to stay with an unknown penfriend in Tours for 3 weeks. She was the daughter of friends of a man in my village… Actually, the holiday went well, considering the girl’s parents had just divorced and that she spent most of the time crying. They took me to lots of Loire châteaux. I remember the smell of the air – it had a sweet quality, the smell of freshly baked brioche. I still catch that aroma sometimes and am reminded of my first French trip.

 

3) When you first arrived in France what was the best thing about being immersed in French life and the scariest thing?

 

Harriet: I stayed with my (then) French boyfriend’s family near Dax for my first few weeks in France, when I was 26. Then I moved to Pau, where I lived alone while I studied French at university. The best thing was discovering the differences in a French family’s life. For example, when it was sunny, they retreated indoors as if the sun were an enemy. In England, the minute the sun appeared, I’d go outside with a book and sunbathe in a corner of my family’s farm.

 

The scariest thing was when, after 3 months in Pau, I could no longer speak English properly (honestly!) and I hadn’t yet mastered French well enough to express my feelings. It was a lonely few months during which I felt I didn’t exist. I almost gave up France.

 

4) With plenty of space and lovely scenery, France is a great place to explore by bike. If you were to take a day off from writing where would you take your bike?

 

Harriet: I adore cycling. When I was 22 I cycled across France, from Cherbourg to Beziers, to do a grape harvest. It was the best time. I loved the freedom of being able to stop and explore wherever I liked. Last summer my partner and I cycled along the River Charente towards its source, which was wonderful – you can read about it on my blog. I think I’d continue where we left off – especially as it would count as research for the novel I’m writing at the moment.

 

5) With mountains, rugged coastlines, chic cities and coastal towns perfect for people watching, where in France is your perfect holiday escape?

 

The Pyrenees 

Harriet: Without doubt, the Pyrenees mountains. We camp there most summers and I literally cry when I come down from my last walk each year. I love the quality of the silence in the mountains, the colours, the feeling of achievement when you walk upwards for hours and then collapse beside a mountain lake. I was lucky enough to be invited on a writing residency in the Val d’Azun in 2017, while I was researching for Tree Slayer, and it was inspiring to see the mountains as soon as I awoke.

 

6) Every region in France has its own culinary specialty, do you have a favourite regional dish? 

 

Harriet: My partner comes from Le Mans, and the Rillettes du Mans are one of my weaknesses. Don’t be fooled: the supermarket versions are nowhere near as good as the true Rillettes. So he says, anyway!

 

7) Imagine you are sitting outside a French café at 10.00am on a sunny morning watching the world go by, what do you order from the waiter?

 

Harriet: An espresso, if it’s the summer, hopefully with a little biscuit. My daughters and I have a mission to find the best hot chocolate in any town we’re visiting, so in winter I’d have a chocolat chaud viennois. On a summer afternoon, it would be a Monaco (beer, grenadine and lemonade) because it’s smooth and sweet – and I love its foamy red colour.

 

8) What is your favourite thing to buy in a Boulangerie/Patisserie?

 

Harriet: Pain aux raisins. I love raisins. In my opinion, the French put pepites de chocolat in too many of their pastries. Though I love a raspberry or strawberry tart when my budget is higher.

 

9) France has many different cheeses but which French cheese are you? A hard and mature Tomme, a soft, fresh and lively goat cheese, the creamy and rich Camembert or maybe the salty and serious Roquefort?

 

Harriet: What a fun question! Difficult… I’m probably the cheese that was the wrong shape and didn’t make it to the cheese counter.

 

10) Can you describe your perfect French apero? The drinks, the nibbles, the setting and the guests?

 

Harriet: I have a very wild garden and my favourite place for an apero is in the depths of it, surrounded by nature. I’m drinking a cool glass of Coteaux du Layon white wine with my friends from Le Mans and Cognac, during the week-long party we have most summers. We’ve been cycling or running in the morning, lazing beside the River Charente all afternoon and have just returned from a few rounds of Pétanque. My friend Nico, who’s an amazing cook, will have prepared some tapas, and we’ll be teasing each other, talking politics, discussing our children (who are running wild, independent for the week) and deciding whether to play ‘Times-Up’ or ‘Loup Garou’.

 

Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions about France and you and best of luck with the publication of Tree Slayer.

 

Harriet: Thank you, Jacqui, for asking questions that brought back lots of happy memories.

 

Having read both of Harriet’s novels I think they are fantastic books that will whisk you away into a different world, whatever your age, and I can’t wait for the next one. You can read my reviews here:

Tree Magic 

Tree Slayer 

 

You can find and follow Harriet online here:

Harriet’s blog 

Facebook page 

Twitter 

Instagram 

 

 

France et Moi with author Karen Webb

Karen Webb, A Stranger in Paris

Welcome back to my ‘France et Moi’ interview feature where this week I am talking to memoir author Karen Webb about what living in France means to her.

Karen left Aber Uni in 1989 and ran away to Paris chasing a French boyfriend who had fled to the tropics to escape her. Alone in the city she worked in an American software company before retraining as a language teacher, eventually setting up her own language school. With two children, her father, and a car-load of animals in tow, she moved her entire family to Gascony in SW France in 2005, where lack of available work (other than picking garlic or stuffing geese) entailed a change in career from teacher to estate-agent. Karen now lives in Lectoure, is married with two children and runs her own real-estate agency:  www.blissimmo.com

Karen Webb, A Stranger in Paris

Karen graduated with an MA in Creative Writing as a mature student at Lancaster University in 2015, and after this devoted herself to fulfilling her life-long ambition of becoming a published author. The result is the release of “A Stranger in Paris” the first book of a trilogy, recounting an often “unexpected” life in France. I’ll be posting my review of A Stranger in Paris on the blog tomorrow.

Firstly, I think France is a special place and it is famed for many things including its cheese, wine and diverse holiday locations plus, dare I say it strikes and dog poo littered streets. What do you think makes France so very unique and ‘French’?

Karen: For me there is Paris and there is France. From 1989 till 2005 my life was spent in the capital city. If I think back and try to capture specific memories, I can feel immense nostalgia for a life which is utterly different from my rural life in SW France. 

Paris to me is the Champs Elysées at Christmas with tree-lined avenues of a thousand twinkling lights. It is the grand façades of shops with minimalistic displays of fashionable items I could never afford. 

Paris is squeezing my car into the tiniest of spaces, bumping the vehicle in-front and behind to make sure I fit in. It is driving home late at night, whizzing round the Arc de Triomphe and then down the Avenue de la Grande Armée, the voice of my first French driving instructor bellowing in my ear: “Foot down! Accelerate! If you stop you are DEAD”    

Paris is the double séance at the cinema in St Germain des Prés before a bowl of hot onion soup. It is the thousand different and wonderful Art déco cafés in which to eat: the linen table cloths, the platters of oysters and sea-food piled high and carried in by a waiter dressed like a penguin. In spring it is the pink blossom on the trees, and a trip to WH Smiths on the rue de Rivoli to pick up an English paperback, before wandering in Le Jardins des Tuileries, amidst dust and pigeons to sit beside the pond and watch children sailing paper boats as they have done for a hundred years. It is the inimitable smell of rubber and urine in the metro and the screech of doors closing on a huddle of passengers packed in like sardines.  And yes there are poo-smattered pavements, in Paris but with the stars in your eyes and your head in the clouds, it is easy to dance around the odd turd in the City of Light.  

 

Lectoure, Gascony

Gascony is another country. A world so far removed from Paris that I may as well have slipped back in time to another world. It is open fields, and huge (at first) terrifying night skies, where there aren’t as many street lamps to light the way home. It is directions given with confidence, by farmers in blue-zip up overalls with accents I cannot at first understand: “turn left at the oak, by the bins, down the track past the pond, until you get to the gates in the Back of Beyond. “

It is sunflower fields and garlic, melons and grapes, peregrine falcons puffed up on frosty mornings on the telegraph wires or hovering for prey over dark earthen ditches. It is mouse-poo in the cupboards and the smell of wood-burning fires in old and damp stone kitchens. Gascony is flaky pastry apple-pies, dank truffles and fruity red wines. It is summer sunshine in narrow streets filled with tourists in socks and sandals; it is the relief at the end of August when the last white camper-van pulls away, and the trees turn golden brown, as once again it is possible to drive the fifteen miles between town and home passing only a tractor.  

Paris and Gascony are a million miles apart but both to me are unmistakably “French”.

2) You arrived in Paris aged 21, having followed your heart, and with very little French. Can you tell us what the best thing about being immersed in French life was, and the scariest thing?

Karen: I have always loved words. For me the best thing was always learning a different language. When I first arrived, I would absorb every poster and each billboard I passed, reading the words and saying them in my head. I remembered my best friend at Uni (Scarlett in the book) calling her French boyfriend from a red phone-box in Aberystwyth and watching as she fed the coins into the slot, as she turned into a French person throughout the course of the conversation. I watched how her mannerisms changed speaking another language and her personality too. I thought it was a fascinating thing to become a French version of one’s self. 

For many years the worst thing was that gap between hearing and complete understanding. This was particularly difficult when trying to stand my ground at work, or with my French mother-in-law! I discuss these problems a lot in book 2, and it is fair to say that often in the early years I was reduced to a snivelling wreck and would cry from the sheer frustration of not being able to answer back and defend myself. This is hard enough in your mother-tongue but a nightmare in a second language when you have the vocabulary of a five year old!

3) Do you have any top tips for wannabe au pairs looking to start their French adventures?

Karen: My advice to wanabe au-pairs is seriously - don’t! Unless you have a serious desire to work with children, or in teaching and you enjoy spending time with them. 

I would encourage anyone wanting to do this to have baby-sitting experience and basic household skills! It is fair to say when I was an au-pair I had about as much knowledge of looking after a house and children as the five year old girl assigned to my care. Looking back now it seemed an ideal solution to experience Paris - but today I am sure there are easier ways! 

Later, as a mum myself, I also had au-pairs come to work for us - and in all honesty our experiences even as a host family were just as bad! 

4) Having lived in France and spoken French for many years do you have any top tips for my readers on how to learn French? 

Karen: The only real way to learn French is to go to France and remove yourself as much as possible from anyone who speaks English. It is amazing how quickly anyone can learn when totally immersed in the language. 

When I first arrived in Paris I listened to a lot of French music. My favourite is Charles Aznavour whose music always tells a story. I enjoyed learning the lyrics in French and patting myself on the back when I recognised the words or could even sing them myself. 

My favourite is “Je n’ai rien oublié” which is a song full of ambiance and poignancy. It tells the story of a man who meets the one true love of his life in a café at closing time, a life-time after they parted. The couple sit together and Monsieur explains how it was her father who drove them apart, how he has never found love or married, but hopes she is well, married and happy. He says so poignantly and kindly, despite the grey hair and wrinkles which we imagine, that she has not changed, only her hair, perhaps a little....

There is a whole movie in this song and it never fails to move me with its understated pain and heartbreak.  

French songs are always rich in detail, and the nature of French language allows for easy rhyming schemes. By learning songs, it is easy to pick up the intonation and flow of language.  

Another French singer to look out for: Serge Lama. “Je suis Malade” is a very powerful song. 

I love musical theatre so learning French through “Les Miserables” and “Notre Dame de Paris” was fun!

“Belle” is a particular favourite from “Notre Dame de Paris” - suggestive in parts! Once you get the nuances you are on the road to being properly French!

5) Do you have any embarrassing language mishaps you are happy to share?

Karen: My language mishaps .....

A funny one always came up when talking about weddings. I always heard it said that the bride’s father would drive her to the hotel. I registered this fact many times over the years. 

I imagined some French tradition in which father and daughter sat alone in a hotel and the father gave advice or ran through the facts of life before taking her to the church. 

It turned out they were saying the father led his daughter to the “autel” which is the altar but is pronounced almost the same as the French pronunciation of “hotel”. 

Another funny one was when I heard of veal calves at the butcher’s shop which were particularly tender as raised “under sea level” or “sous la mer” - I imagined a variety of veal that were bred in coastal regions and somehow imagined they wallowed in salty water by the beach which made their meat nice and juicy. It turned out the veal were raised or fed by their mother “sous la mère” and far from the sea after all. 

One final funny misunderstanding came whenever I drove out of a village and saw the name of the village crossed out with a red line.  For years I imagined the French regularly changing the names of their villages and crossing out the old ones. I didn’t understand until I came to drive myself that the names of the villages were not changing but that it was to indicate one had driven out of the said village. 

6) With your experience of working alongside French people, I have to ask what do you think makes them different to us and gives them that je ne sais quoi?

Karen: Working in France and in French comes easier to me now than working anywhere else. I have worked in France for my entire adult life. 

One thing I have noticed is that there is a natural tendency to initially see all the objections and problems to an idea or to proclaim that something is impossible to fix when it isn’t (usually with much shoulder-shrugging and gesticulation).  

However, I have learnt to ignore the initial wave of objections and in the end - it always comes good. There will be a solution and most often it is found. The secret is not to become initially disheartened. This is always the case whenever I make a suggestion to my French husband. I listen to the wave of objections and then finally he will tell me what a good idea something is. 

The other thing in business is that French people love a meeting. So much so there are meetings about meetings about meetings. This is a tradition - as are the long lunches with wine and three course meals. Don’t expect a sandwich at your desk. 

7) France has many different cheeses, but which French cheese are you? A hard and mature Tomme, a soft, fresh and lively goat cheese, the creamy and rich Camembert or maybe the salty and serious Roquefort?

Karen: An interesting question, but as a Gemini with two contradictory twins to handle on a daily basis, I feel I must choose one soft and one hard cheese for each twin. 

So, I plump for the deliciously soft and creamy “Forme d’Ambert” which is not so bitter on the tongue as a Rouquefort and which mushes deliciously on baguette and salty butter. And with this I choose the cheese every “cheese-monger” in France dreads being asked to cut: the hard and dried up orange Mimolette. The one which breaks the counter each time a slice is cut. 

8) Every region in France has its own culinary specialty, do you have a favourite regional dish? 

Karen: A regional dish I love - found more often in a Parisian bistro than in SW France is the “Os à la moelle” which is a huge bone, like a dog bone, with soft marrow to suck out. Often served with boiled potatoes and stew. Great with a bottle of fine red wine. 

In recent years I have become almost entirely vegetarian - but I do have happy memories of this dish, albeit during the Mad Cow crisis, it was banned from most restaurants in France and is now making a slow come-back. 

9) France has some beautiful cities and there are a few that constantly battle to be my favourite, what is your favourite French city and why? Do you miss living in Paris?

Karen: A hard question because I love so many. Paris has been my favourite city for years and yes, I do miss living there. I often think when I retire I would like to go back and fulfil my twenty-year old self’s dream of living in a flat up in Montmartre. 

10) If you could travel to anywhere in France for a weekend away (money no object) where would you go?

Karen: If money were no expense I would choose to go to Arcachon for a massage at one of the nice thermal centres there, and I would eat sea-food and drink champagne at a lovely market-side place on the port which serves fish straight from the nets. I love salty butter and oysters! Pink Champagne of course. 

 

A Stranger in Paris, Karen Webb

Finally, I thoroughly enjoyed your first memoir about the beginning of your Parisian adventure, but I think there is more to tell! Can you let us know a little bit about your second memoir and when it will be available? 

Karen: The second book sees the narrator (I won’t say “me” as although it is a memoir it is easier to put a distance between me and the character) do a lot of growing-up in a short time. There are lighter episodes in the first section of the book, which take place in a cowboy language school, where the main character works as an English language teacher and soon realises that a variety of students who come for lessons are motivated by many things other than learning English. Marriage to a wealthy bourgeois man brings with it a litany of problems not least a terrifying French mother-in-law, who just happens to be a Magistrate, along with some scenes which were difficult to re-live when a family tragedy back home in England forces the narrator to address many of the problems she initially ran away from and which result in her old English life crashing into her new French one and changing things forever. 

A lot of the book is an analysis as to what it means to be a traditional French wife in high society, having shot from rags to riches, and yet how to reconcile this new life and all the demands her new family make upon her to become the “perfect Parisian wife”,  with a crumbling family in the UK - and all the consequences on her life this demands.  It is currently called “French for All That” though the publisher IMPRESS may change this!

I hope it will be ready for publication for Christmas. 

Thank you, Karen, for taking the time to answer some questions about France and you. I am looking forward to reading more in book two.

A Stranger in Paris is published by Impress and links to Amazon can be found below. It is beautifully written and with some quite heart-stopping moments as we follow the young Karen around Paris, alone. You can read my review of A Stranger in Paris here on the blog tomorrow. 

France et Moi with author Karen Clarke

France et Moi interview with author Karen Clarke

Welcome to ‘France et Moi’ where this week to coincide with the release of the first book in her French Café series, I am talking to author Karen Clarke about what France means to her. You can read my review of Escape to the Little French Café here.

About Karen

Karen lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband and three grown-up children where she writes romantic comedy novels.

Over the years she’s been a secretary/bookkeeper, a wedding photographer, a pub manager, worked in a supermarket, a newsagent's, and as a librarian - all good for story ideas. 

She now writes full-time, and is the author of the popular BEACHSIDE and SEASHELL COVE series. When she’s not writing Karen reads a lot, enjoys walking - which is good for plot-wrangling and ideas - watching boxsets, baking and eating cakes. 

France et Moi

Firstly, I think France is a special place and it is famed for many things including its cheese, wine and diverse holiday locations plus, dare I say it strikes and dog poo littered streets. What do you think makes France so very unique and ‘French’?

Karen: Everything about it, from the culture to the landscape, the appreciation of food and wine, and the respect for work/life balance – and the sunshine. Oh, and eating snails!

2) What is your fondest memory of time spent in France?

Karen: It has to be my honeymoon in Paris, for obvious reasons. It was my first time in France, and I remember being amazed by the Eiffel Tower, which was taller than I was expecting.

3) How does France inspire your writing?

Karen: The language definitely inspires a sense of romance, and I was drawn to the Ile de Ré in particular by its vista of wild beaches, cobbled streets and pretty harbours, and knew I had to set a story there. 

 

Escape to the Little French Café

4) The first novel in the French Café series has just been released, but if you were sitting outside a French café at 10.00am on a sunny morning watching the world go by, what would you order from the waiter?

Karen: Like Natalie in my book, it would have to be a milky coffee and pain au chocolat (or two!)

5) Do you have a favourite treat to buy in a Boulangerie/Patisserie? 

Karen: Definitely a plump chocolate éclair, oozing with chocolate crème patissiere. 

6) France has many different cheeses, a silly question, but which French cheese are you? A hard and mature Tomme, a soft, fresh and lively goat cheese, the creamy and rich Camembert or maybe the salty and serious Roquefort?

Karen: It would have to be the goat’s cheese, though I’d prefer to eat a Roquefort.

7) In Escape to the Little French Café, your character Nat finds herself up against a couple of French women, what do you think makes French women different to us and gives them that je ne sais quoi?

Karen: I think French women seem to have nailed looking stylish in an effortless way I’d love to emulate!

8) Ile de Ré, the setting of Escape to the Little French Café is one of my favourite places to explore by bike. If you were to take a day off from writing, would we find you on your bike in France?

Karen: It would definitely be the Ile de Ré, cycling through the salt marshes and along the coast between Saint Martin and Loix. I’m not very sporty (or good on a bike) so it would be perfect as the terrain is mostly flat! 

9) If money and commitments were no object where in France would you like to own a property and what sort of place would it be?

Karen: If money were no object, I’d buy a villa in Sainte-Marie-de-Ré overlooking the sea (I do like to be beside the sea).

10) Do you have any plans to visit France again soon?

Karen: I plan to visit the Ile de Ré with my husband in the not too distant future.

Finally, can you whet our appetites and give us a hint about what things we can expect from book two in the series?

Karen: In Summer at the Little French Café, Elle Matheson is in Chamillon looking for her birth mother, and ends up accidentally working at the Café Belle Vie, fighting an attraction to a sexy fisherman.

Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions about France and you. I can’t wait to read more in the French Café series.

Karen: Thank you so much for inviting me, Jacqui, I hope you enjoy the rest of the series.

You can find more about Karen at her website here and find her on Facebook and Twitter.