Au Revoir, Paris!

I am home after seventeen days in Paris. 

The flight home was eleven and a half hours in the air, and then it was another hour and half ride home in the car. I was so happy to see my husband---he grew a beard while I was gone. The house was spotless and I found a huge pile of books that have arrived in the mail while I was gone...it was a perfect homecoming.

I told my husband when I arrived home that I'd read three books and started a fourth. He looked surprised and said I'd slowed down my reading while I was gone. You misunderstand, I said. I didn't read only three books and start a fourth during the seventeen days of my trip to Paris; I read three books and started a fourth on the plane home!

So what did I read in the last seventeen days?

I am now a Zola fan. I finished my first Emile Zola book, L'Assoimmoir, while I was in Paris, and it went straight to my list of Favorite Books Ever and Must-Reads.

I delighted in reading Champagne Baby. I was expected to enjoy this book mainly for its French characters, but I ended up enjoying the memoir itself as well as all the information I learned about wine and the wine industry.

The Reader on the 6.27 was great fun. Guylain works at a job he hates: Guylain shreds books. His one joy in life is reading aloud each day on the 6.27 train. And then he discovers a diary on the train, and he feels compelled to find the author of the diary.

And The President's Hat, the story of a hat that travels from person to person, empowering each one to do the things he had been afraid to do, was also a delight.

I also read and reviewed lots of small books while I was in Paris: The Little Bookshop on the Seine; Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude; City Trails of Paris: Literary Paris: A Photographic Tour: The Little Paris Kitchen; L'art de la Liste; Charlotte in Paris; Forever Paris: 25 Walks in the Footsteps of the City's Most Illustrious Figures; Pretty Minnie in Paris; The Knight and the Dragon; There Was An Old Dragon Who Swallowed a Knight; Introduction to French Poetry. All of these are reviewed at Goodreads.

Every morning in Paris, I would eat a jar of Bordier yogurt, drink a cup of coffee, and read a few chapters in the only book I brought with me on the trip, Paris in Winter: An Illustrated Memoir by David Coggins.

I'm still reading it, now that I'm home.

How many months of the year do I work on the Cybils? We start at the end of the summer, organizing the year, creating images, and continue through the fall, seeking out judges, encouraging nominations, working through the winter, reading books, discussion books, choosing finalists, and finish on Valentine's Day with the announcement of the winners. It's a tremendous amount of work, but it's all worth it when the winners are chosen and announced, as they were this week here. I can't remember when I've loved the Cybils Board Book and Cybils Fiction Picture Book winners more than I have this year. Please check out the amazing board book, Jump! by Tatsuhide Matsuoka, published by Gecko Press, and the fabulous fiction picture book, One Fox: A Counting Book Thriller (the first picture book thriller I've ever read, btw) by Kate Read, published by Peachtree.

While I was off in Paris, I posted three times about French words from In Other Words: A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World. I loved this book so much that I plan to get my own copy.

In Other Words: A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World

In Other Words: A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World (Deuxième Partie)

In Other Words: A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World

(Partie Trois)

Someone recommended Portlandia to me. Thank you. Good and quirky. 

I'd love to hear about your week.

I'm very happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. There are no real requirements to linking up at Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is simply a place for us to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. Sunday Salon is a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below.