France et Moi with author Julie Stock

The Vineyard in Alsace by Julie Stock

Welcome to ‘France et Moi’ where this week, to coincide with the release of her latest novel, The Vineyard in Alsace, I am talking to author Julie Stock about what France means to her.

Julie Stock

Julie Stock is an author of contemporary romance novels, novellas and short stories. She’s a proud member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. She blogs regularly on her website ‘My Writing Life’.

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’?

Julie: I think one of the things that makes France so unique for me is particular smells that just seem so French. I wrote this into my book actually, giving the example of when you first arrive in France and smell the unmistakably French smell of a boulangerie. There’s nothing more French than that really for me. The smell of croissants and pains au chocolats baking in the morning is the smell of France to me.

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

Julie: I first went to France on holiday when I was a young teenager to visit my family who are based around a village called Langon, near Bordeaux. My maternal grand-dad’s mum moved with him to France from Czechoslovakia just before the start of the second World War. She remarried and settled there with her new husband. I had never met the family before and suddenly I had a whole host of new aunts, uncles and cousins. It was fabulous and I became very close to them all.

3) Your latest novel is set in Alsace, is this a region of France you know well?

Julie: It is! I first went there on a holiday touring round France with my husband many years ago. I’d just got a new job for a mail-order wine merchant and one of their suppliers was Hugel et Fils in Riquewihr. So we went to visit and had a lovely wine tasting too! The next time we went to Alsace was when our oldest daughter had just been born – she was barely three months old! We stayed in a beautiful Relais et Châteaux hotel and really explored the area. Then we went again recently and this time, we introduced the delights of Alsace to our younger daughter. Sadly, she wasn’t as impressed as we were hoping she would be but then she was 14 at the time...

4) Would you say time spent in France has inspired your writing?

Julie: Definitely. I find France a very romantic country in many ways and fell in love with Paris the very first time I went there as a teenager. My husband and I lived in France when I was doing my degree and I think that was where we properly got to know each other. Then we went back to Paris when we got engaged, as well as spending our honeymoon there. I love the language and the culture, and I always knew, after I started writing, that I would one day set a book there. Setting is so important to me and my love of France and my wine knowledge made Alsace an easy choice for this book.

5) 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?

Julie: Well, I do love Alsace, of course, for the picture postcard beauty of its towns and villages. And I love the wines too (did I mention that?) However, most of our holidays have been spent in the Vendée, Poitou-Charentes and Aquitaine regions so I would probably choose to live in one of those départements. I love the typical French farmhouses with pale blue shutters, a little bit of land around and definitely a pool. I’d like to be by the sea and not too far from a bustling town.

6) 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?

Julie: At that time of day, I’d probably order un café crème and maybe a small pastry, a croissant or a pain au chocolat.

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

Julie: I would see myself as a creamy and rich Camembert, or a luscious Brie!

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

Julie: I love anything made from choux pastry, especially the éclairs you only seem to find in France with the coffee-flavoured icing and filling. I also love those little strawberry tarts!

9) Writing about a vineyard, must mean you’re quite knowledgeable about French wine, so what is your favourite French tipple, and yes I know there are many to choose from?

Julie: This is probably the hardest question for me! I love French wine from all regions. I am especially partial to reds from St. Emilion and the Rhône but one of my favourite reds is Corbières from the Languedoc. As for white wines, my favourite is probably Alsace Gewurztraminer. I’m always very happy to drink a glass of champagne too!

10) Can you describe your perfect French apéro for us, including the drinks, the nibbles, the location and the company?

Julie: Again, so many to choose from. We like to drink the apéritif of the region we’re in so we’ve tried a few different ones over the years. One of my favourites though, which I haven’t had for a very long time, is Pineau des Charentes. There’s nothing nicer than sitting outside in the early evening sunshine drinking a cold glass of Pineau. I could quite fancy one as I write this. On our tour of France, we visited Châtelaillon Plage and I remember sitting outside at a café drinking Pineau and eating olives and some nuts as the evening sun began to fade. Heaven.

Finally, can you tell us a bit about your new novel The Vineyard in Alsace? Can we expect more novels set in France in the future?

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

Julie: Thanks so much for having me on your blog, Jacqui. This book is the first in a series of books to be set at Domaine des Montagnes so there will definitely be some more books set in France. Here’s the blurb for this one:

 

The Vineyard in Alsace

Is there really such a thing as a second chance at love?

Fran Schell has only just become engaged when she finds her fiancé in bed with another woman. She knows this is the push she needs to break free of him and to leave London. She applies for her dream job on a vineyard in Alsace, in France, not far from her family home, determined to concentrate on her work.

Didier Le Roy can hardly believe it when he sees that the only person to apply for the job on his vineyard is the same woman he once loved but let go because of his stupid pride. Now estranged from his wife, he longs for a second chance with Fran if only she will forgive him for not following her to London.

Working so closely together, Fran soon starts to fall in love with Didier all over again. Didier knows that it is now time for him to move on with his divorce if he and Fran are ever to have a future together. Can Fran and Didier make their second chance at love work despite all the obstacles in their way?

The Vineyard in Alsace is a contemporary romance set against the enticing backdrop of the vineyard harvest in Alsace in France.

You can read my review of The Vineyard in Alsace here.

You can connect with Juile on Twitter, on Goodreads and via her Facebook Author Page.

Book review of The Somme Legacy by M J Lee

The Somme Legacy by M J Lee

Today I am taking part in the virtual book tour for The Somme Legacy by M J Lee, hosted by Neverland Blog Tours.

Synopsis

July 1, 1916. The Somme, France.

A British Officer prepares to go over the top on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

March 28, 2016. Manchester. England.

Genealogical investigator Jayne Sinclair, a former police detective, is commissioned by a young teacher to look into the history of his family. The only clues are a medallion with purple, white and green ribbons, and an old drawing of a young woman.

Her quest leads to a secret buried in the trenches of World War One for over 100 years.

Who was the real heir to the Lappiter millions?

From the author of the best selling, The Irish Inheritance, comes a gripping new book revealing family secrets hidden in the fog of war.

The Somme Legacy is the second book in the Jayne Sinclair genealogical mystery series, but it can be enjoyed as a stand-alone story.

My Review

This is the first book I’ve read in the Jayne Sinclair series and I immediately liked Jayne. She is a no-nonsense woman, maybe lacking a little emotionally, but perfect for her investigator role and with a determination never to give up.

This story is set in parts; some take place in the present day, where Jayne has a tight time deadline to discover the truth about Mark Russell’s family history and some take us back to the war years and David and Rose’s romance. This meant there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, which sometimes made it difficult to follow, however I liked that these flashbacks often made me think I was one step ahead of Jayne and the Russell family.

David and Rose’s story is a wartime romance between two people from very different backgrounds, and with a difficult family situation, there is a lot of sadness too. Rose was an extraordinary woman; strong and feisty who I enjoyed reading about. My favourite parts of this book were definitely Jayne’s discoveries of Rose’s early life.

Some of the other characters however were horrid. They were supposed to be, I know, but for me their actions, lies and spite went too far. From the author’s initial description I had worked out the villain Herbert Small was an odious weasel, so I didn’t need to read about his childhood torture of cats, I certainly didn’t need to read about it twice, especially as in my opinion it didn’t add anything to the storyline.

I did enjoy following Jayne and the steps she took in the archive records, and I’m sure anyone with an interest in genealogy will enjoy it too. This is an interesting historical novel, with the twist of a mystery to be solved and I really wanted Jayne to succeed, just to prove to the doubters that Rose was so much more than a batty old dear.

The Somme Legacy is available in paperback and ebook format and can be found on Goodreads here. Links to Amazon are bellow.

 

M J Lee

About the Author

Martin has spent most of his adult life writing in one form or another. As a University researcher in history, he wrote pages of notes on reams of obscure topics. As a social worker with Vietnamese refugees, he wrote memoranda. And, as the creative director of an advertising agency, he has written print and press ads, TV commercials, short films and innumerable backs of cornflake packets and hotel websites. He has spent 25 years of his life working outside the North of England – in London, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Bangkok and Shanghai, winning awards from Cannes, One Show, D&AD, New York and London Festivals, and the United Nations. Whilst working in Shanghai, he loved walking through the old quarter of that amazing city, developing the idea behind a series of crime novels featuring Inspector Pyotr Danilov, set in the 1920s and 30s. When he’s not writing, he splits his time between the UK and Asia, taking pleasure in playing with his daughter, practicing downhill ironing, single-handedly solving the problem of the French wine lake and wishing he were George Clooney.

You can follow Martin on Twitter and his view his website here.

Fun with languages

The destruction of tempête Zeus

It is early March and the March winds already seem to have joined forces with the April showers, leaving the ground soggy and our trees were bent double as tempête Zeus attacked from the north Atlantic yesterday.

We were lucky; a few power flickers and some loose tiles on the barn seem rather insignificant when compared to the loss of life, injuries, roof damage and long power cuts that were reported in the news this morning. It certainly seems that lazy afternoons spent in the garden followed by meals eaten in the shade of the terrace are a long way off, even if I’ve spotted the first spring blossoms.

It is especially important at this time of year to have something to keep me occupied, as the wind clattering around the roof tiles is enough to drive me crazy.

Fun with languages - dictation

On Saturday I joined some French friends at our village library to have ‘fun’ with the French language. It was one of our regular dictée (dictation) afternoons. I can’t really remember doing too much dictation at school, but it is still an important part of the French curriculum and whether it is because it brings back fond memories of childhood or maybe a kind teacher, our dictées are always popular events.

While some attend with the aim of reproducing the chosen text without any spelling, grammar or misplaced accent errors, I am not that hard on myself. For me it is a quiet moment of concentration; I listen to the text, attempt to understand it and try to write down every word, paying attention where possible to grammar and verb endings. Realistically I know it is too fast (or rather I am too slow) to have the time to get it correct. However, as the only non-native French speaker there, they are kind and full of praise for what I do manage to achieve. I find that by focussing on what I am hearing in order to write it down, I see and understand things (like the dreaded liaisons – one word rolled into the next) that I often miss in a spoken conversation. It is hard work, but good fun and our efforts are always rewarded with cake, cider and friendly conversation afterwards.

Yesterday I was (hopefully) helping French people have fun in English. Monday lunchtime is my weekly English conversation club at the local secondary school, something I have been involved in since 2009. A small group of 11 year olds give up their lunch break to improve their spoken English by listening to real English people. The aim is to play games in English, so we can help their confidence and vocabulary and I’m sure they were glad to be out of the windy playground yesterday. I did consider talking about the weather, as the wind howled around outside, but our topic was food; something French people always seem to enjoy talking about and playing a game that led to them saying “I am a chicken” certainly made them laugh.

My afternoon was then spent at the school of nursing attached to the hospital in Niort, where for the first time I joined a team of volunteers who come in to talk to the student nurses, in English. Every year a small group of students are selected to study abroad as part of the Erasmus programme. This year two are off to Newcastle to work in paediatrics and two are off to Poland, (where they are hoping English will be spoken) to work in a surgical ward and as community nurses. The Erasmus student exchange programme has been providing foreign exchange options for students from within the European Union, thanks to cross-border cooperation between EU states, since the late 1980’s. Once the UK has invoked Brexit, doors will close for this programme, meaning a loss of opportunities for many students from the UK and the EU.

As well as ‘playing’ at being patients who have no spoken French, we also chatted in English about their lives and the expectations of their trips; anything to help their vocabulary and confidence in English. It was good fun and a good distraction from the battering from Zeus, plus it’s always nice to be able to give back to the community.

This post has been linked to Paulita's Dreaming of France blog link-up.

Book review of Rosie's Little Café on the Riviera by Jennifer Bohnet

Rosie's Little Café on the Riviera
by Jennifer Bohnet

My review today is for the new release from Jennifer Bohnet, Rosie’s Little Café on the Riviera.

Set with the exclusive backdrop of the French Riviera where yachts, expensive villas and champagne are part of daily life, we meet three strong, but very different women, each at a time in their lives when they are ready to move on to something new.

Rosie has invested all she has in her dream, a café by the sea. She knows it will mean a summer of hard work, but what she doesn’t expect is trouble, competition from next door or what the past is about to throw at her. She finds herself with some difficult decisions to make, but thankfully her friends are there to help when things get tough.

Erica and her young daughter Cammie have spent the last year coping with the sudden death of her husband. Reluctant though she is to make too many changes to Cammie’s life, Erica realises the time has come think about their new future, one small step at a time.

Estate agent, GeeGee, knows that something has to change in her life. While her image is all-important in front of her wealthy clients, it’s not cheap to maintain on the Cote D’Azur and financially things are now too tight. Can she take on the big boys and go it alone?

Jennifer’s characters are strong and believable and I really enjoyed getting to know them and trying to guess what their decisions would be. This book is full of surprises popping up at unexpected times, from family members and old boyfriends to potential new ones as well. Everyone comes with baggage and history, and with them are the emotions that have to be carefully unraveled along the way too. These certainly gave me lots to think about and kept my interest as I read. I felt for Rosie and the heartache from her past and I too fell for the charm and sophistication of one of male characters, but life seems so unfair when someone is blessed with good looks, talent, money and also the annoying ability to always be right. 

March is the perfect time to be thinking about your summer holidays so I think now is also perfect time to think about your summer holiday reads, and this is one you should put on your list.

Rosie's Little Café on the Riviera is available in ebook format and in paperback, in conjunction with Sainsbury’s. Links to Amazon can be found below.

You can follow Jennifer on her website here, and on Facebook and Twitter too.

You can read my recent France et Moi interview with Jennifer here and see my reviews of her other novels by clicking on the links below.

A French Pirouette

You Had Me at Bonjour

Rendezvous in Cannes

Follow Your Star

On the bikes to St Fraigne

Cycling in St Fraigne, Charente

The weather, work and everything else seemed to align nicely for us yesterday. Adrian is home after almost three weeks away in the UK, the sun was out after a frosty start and having done over an hour of weeding (me) and cutting back and tidying in the potager (Adrian), plus hung the washing out and enjoyed lunch in the garden, we got the bikes out. This was my first outdoor ride of 2017, so officially the start of my Tour de Rêves training, and I was worried my legs would feel like jelly.

Adrian planned a local route that in 36kms took us through seven neighbouring villages and saw us cycling underneath wind turbines and alongside Cognac vineyards that were already neatly pruned for the new season. Our midway point, where I was refuelled with a muesli bar, was in the village of St Fraigne whose church of the Notre Dame (Our Lady) hides a special secret.

Louis Mazetier murals, Notre Dame, St Fraigne

The small commune of St Fraigne is in the Charente, just over the Deux-Sèvres border, and has around 450 residents. The church, originally a priory that dates back to the 12^th Century, was rebuilt in the late 1860’s, but it was in the late 1940’s that it became rather special.

Louis Mazetier murals, Notre Dame, St Fraigne

In 1944 the artist and master glassmaker Louis Mazetier, who completed many murals, stained glass windows and mosaics in churches all over France, came to St Fraigne with his wife to create a stained glass window dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Louis Mazetier murals, Notre Dame, St Fraigne

The parish priest then commissioned him to paint the vaulted ceiling in the choir as well. Sadly, while he was working on the church his wife died, so in her memory he created a unique painted masterpiece of the Stations of the Cross throughout the church.

Louis Mazetier murals, Notre Dame, St Fraigne

Painted mainly in red ochre it is in many different styles that all happened as the inspiration led him. This was his last completed work and has been classified as a monuments historiques since 1999. Louis died in St Fraigne, in 1952, a year after finishing the decoration of the church.

To see such huge works of art in a small space is quite overwhelming and I hope my photos have done them justice. On one of my recent visits to the church I met a retired French man who was revisiting the area with his wife. As a young child he regularly attended mass with his grandmère and has never forgotten the images on the walls that he says terrified him every Sunday. Looking closely, although they are stunning, I can see how disturbing they must have seemed to a young boy.

Tour de Rêves 4th to 9th September 2017

While the art in this church is certainly unique, the discovery of something like this in rural France isn’t. That is part of the beauty of discovering France by bike; even the smallest village can have a treasure just waiting to be found. This makes me even more excited for September and our charity tour of the Deux-Sèvres by bike (Tour de Rêves), where there will be plenty more small villages and their secrets to discover. You can follow our training progress on our Tour de Rêves Facebook page here.

This blog has been linked to All About France at Lou Messugo.

France et Moi with author Jennifer Bohnet

Rosie's Little Café on the Riviera by Jennifer Bohnet

Welcome to ‘France et Moi’ where this week, to coincide with the release of her latest novel, I am talking to author Jennifer Bohnet about what France means to her.

Jennifer Bohnet

Jennifer is English but has lived in France for the past 17 years. After 11 years down on the Cote d’Azur where her husband Richard was a guardien for a villa, they moved from the Mediterranean coast to a small quirky cottage in Finistere, Brittany. This was a bit of a culture shock to say the least! When she is not writing she loves reading, cooking and having friends around for lunch - lunches that follow the French tradition of lasting for several hours. Rosie’s Little Cafe on the Riviera is her tenth book and she is thrilled @HQDigital are issuing it in paperback in conjunction with Sainsburys.

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’?

Jennifer: Their attitude to life makes a huge difference I think. Their mantra still tends to be ‘work to live’ rather than ‘live to work’. I love the properties too that all seem to have the ‘patina of a bygone age’ - all that peeling paint and genteel air of neglect! I do agree with you though about the dog poo littered streets!

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

Jennifer: Being met at Nice airport by our son and daughter-in-law and being driven along the coast to Antibes. Not only was it my first trip to France, I’d never been abroad before and I saw everything with the heightened vision of a new traveller. I had no idea then that just five years later I would be cycling down the west coast to make the Cote d’Azur my home for the next eleven years.

3) You have written novels set in many locations in France, from Brittany to the South of France, but do you have a favourite holiday location in France?

Jennifer: Antibes. It has everything you could want on a holiday.

4) How does France inspire your writing?

Jennifer: There is just something about the diversity of France - both in its geography and its people. Down south it’s a very cosmopolitan population constantly changing, while up here in Brittany it’s still very much an agricultural community with its roots in family life. Both intrigue me.

5) You have lived in France for many years now, but when you first arrived in France what was the best thing about being immersed in French life and the scariest thing?

Jennifer: The scariest thing was arriving in France with two bikes, a tent and a dog in a trailer behind Richard’s bike and no real idea  of what we were doing! France sort of scooped us up and showed us a whole new way of life that we could embrace if we were brave enough.

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

Jennifer: Cannes has a wonderful stall in its daily market selling local artisan food produce and shortly after we arrived down south, I made the classic mistake of asking for dried fruit without preservative! (In French for those who are not aware preservatives are condoms.) I was mortified!

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?

Jennifer: At that hour in summer I’d have a black coffee, any other time of the year it would be a hot chocolate - an hour later it would have to a glass of rosé.

8) France has many different cheeses, a silly question, but which French cheese are you? 

Jennifer: Oh definitely a creamy rich Camembert - that and Brie are my absolute favourites.

9) Every region in France has it’s own culinary specialty, do you have a favourite regional dish?

Jennifer: Not really, but I do love tapenade something I was introduced to down south. It’s a mix of olives, capers, garlic, anchovy, basil, lemon juice and olive oil. Spread on slices of  baguette at it makes a quick, easy and delicious aperitif. (When I make it I do leave the anchovy out though!)

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

Jennifer: A nice cold glass of Pinot Gris takes some beating - although if money was no object it would be a cold glass of a good champagne every time!

 

Rosie's Little Café on the Riviera
by Jennifer Bohnet

Finally, your latest novel Rosie’s Little Café on the Riviera was published yesterday, can you tell us a little bit about it?

Jennifer: It's a summer of taking chances for three different women down on the exotic French Riviera.

Rosie is opening her dream cafe and intends to spend the summer turning it into a success -  only to find life tossing some unexpected events and people onto the menu.

Then there's GeeGee who uses the cafe as her summer office - but this year she’s facing a summer of no money and no home.

Recently widowed Erica runs a gift shop with a difference that she has been neglecting since the death of her husband. This summer, together with her young daughter Cammie, she needs to find a way of moving on with her life.

What none of them expects is a summer romance.

Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions about France and you, I really enjoyed meeting Rosie and spending the summer on the Riviera with her. I will be posting my review here next week.

Jennifer: Thank you for inviting me Jacqui.

Rosie’s Little Café on the Riviera is available in paperback and ebook format, links to Amazon can be found below.

You can follow Jennifer on her website here, and on Facebook and Twitter too.

Here are the links to my reviews of some of her other novels. All of them are worth packing in your suitcase for this years summer holiday.

A French Pirouette

You Had Me at Bonjour

Rendezvous in Cannes

Follow Your Star