French collections

To celebrate Bastille Day this week (on Saturday), I have compiled ze little list of items that have ze authentic French flavour.

According to the clever hamsters who churn out Wikipedia, Bastille Day is properly La Fête Nationale (The National Celebration), and most French people call it le quatorze juillet (that's...the fourteenth of July). Of course, it celebrates the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris in 1789, which liberated a cache of gunpowder and weapons, and seven prisoners. Ninety-nine people died in the attack.

There were also three births - Liberté, Egalité and their brother Fraternité.

Some say they're still alive today.

But ahem, the list:

Secrets of a Lazy French Cook - Marie-Morgane Le Moël

A homesick French journalist in Australia uses Maman's recipes to help her get through the culture shock. With chapters called things like "Crocodiles, Mimi and the salade niçoise", what's not to like? Will have you salivating and sympathising by turns, and comes complete with recipes. Bon appetit.








Heartbreaker (DVD)

This is a fun romantic comedy of the kind the French do brilliantly. Vanessa Paradis plays the estranged daughter of a wealthy gangster, who is concerned his little girl is marrying for security rather than love. He hires professional heartbreaker Alex (Romain Duris) to test her affections. Alex is a master at wooing women from unsuitable partners, then skipping into the sunset. Or at least he was...Could this be the one woman he can't love and leave?

I also recommend Hugo and Midnight in Paris, which recently featured in Tosca's blog.


The Lavender Keeper - Fiona McIntosh

Lavender farmer Luc Bonet is raised by a wealthy Jewish family in the foothills of the French Alps. When the Second World War breaks out he joins the Resistance. Lisette Forestier is on a mission of her own: to work her way into the heart of a senior German officer - and to bring down the Reich in any way she can. What Luc and Lisette hadn't counted on was meeting each other. When they come together at the height of the Paris occupation, German traitors are plotting to change the course of history. But who, if anyone, can be trusted? As Luc and Lisette's emotions threaten to betray them, their love may prove the greatest risk of all.
 


Le Road Trip - Vivian Swift

Sounds a bit Eat Pray Love, with illustrations. Here's what the blurb says: "Part journal of the splendor of being footloose in the French countryside, part instruction manual on how to survive the pitfalls of the vagabond lifestyle, Le Road Trip is a beautiful celebration of the pleasurable perils of travel, love, and France".







Murder on the Eiffel Tower - Claude Izner

Just to leaven the romance a bit, here's a mystery from the belle epoque. The brand-new Eiffel Tower is the glory of the 1889 Universal Exposition. But one day a young woman collapses and dies on its second floor. Can a bee-sting really be the cause of death? The first in the popular French series starring bookseller and amateur sleuth Victor Legris. "Claude Izner" is actually two sisters, both booksellers on the banks of the Seine...Read them all!






French Food Safari - Maeve O' Meara with Guillaume Brahimi

Another one for foodies. Accompanies the TV series (which we also have on DVD). Co-author Guillaume Brahimi is a French chef who owns two top restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne, and recently featured as a judge on Junior Masterchef Australia. The book is an adventure through all the best of French cuisine. Read, watch, drool.







Peaches for Monsieur le Curé - Joanne Harris

The sequel to Chocolat and The Lollipop Shoes. It isn't often you receive a letter from the dead. When Vianne Rocher receives a letter from beyond the grave, she has no choice but to follow the wind that blows her back to Lansquenet, the village in which eight years ago, she opened a chocolate shop. But returning to her old home, Vianne is completely unprepared for what she is to find there. Women veiled in black, the scent of spices and peppermint tea - and there, on the bank of the river Tannes, facing the church, a minaret. Nor is it only the incomers from North Africa that have brought big changes to the community. Father Reynaud, Vianne's erstwhile adversary, is now disgraced and under threat. Could it be that Vianne is the only one who can save him?

Paris I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down - Rosecrans Baldwin
 

Rosecrans Baldwin always dreamed of living in Paris - drinking le café, eating les croissants, walking in les jardins - so when an opportunity presented itself to work for an advertising agency in Paris, he couldn’t turn it down. Despite the fact that he had no experience in advertising. And that he barely spoke French. But when he and his wife arrived, things were not exactly as he remembered from a family vacation when he was nine. This is a comic account of observing the French capital from the inside out, a book about a young man finding his preconceptions replaced by the oddities of a vigorous, nervy city - which is just what he needs to fall in love with Paris for the second time.


The French Dog / The French Cat - Rachael McKenna

In The French Dog, renowned New Zealand animal photographer Rachael McKenna (née Hale) has captured a host of unforgettable dogs: dachshunds, poodles, Labradors, bulldogs, and more in a variety of stunning locations, from stately chateaux to chic Paris addresses to cobblestoned streets in quiet villages. In The French Cat, Rachael also tells the story of her move to France and experience discovering the beauty of her surroundings, the culture, and, of course, the cats, with her husband and new baby in tow.

My French Affair - Amanda Taylor-Ace

A Kiwi woman moves to France with her teenage son for a change of scene and in the process of living out a new, European life and renovating two 18th century houses into guest accommodation, finds her 'joie de vivre'. Everyone is jealous. The End. Also includes more than 30 French recipes.