Saturday, February 15, 2020

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.









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.

61 comments:

  1. That 17 days flew by!! It's always kind of bittersweet when an adventure like that ends, isn't it?

    I can't believe how quickly you read!

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    1. I enjoyed every day. Bittersweet is the perfect word to describe my return home.

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  2. Ah, so you weren't with your husband then? I thought it was the two of you. And where did you find the time to read 17 books? I've never read Zola, always seemed too daunting to me, but of course, I still haven't read Don Quixote yet :) and probably never will.

    Portlandia? Hmmm. Doesn't seem like your cup of...coffee, but hope you enjoy. Kim and I enjoyed parts of it; other parts of it, much too weird, but it is a sketch show so you can take some and leave some.

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    1. No, I went with my sister. She goes every year with her son and daughter-in-law and their two children, so that she can help with the young children. Her son is in the wine business, and spends a month in the winter working in France. This year I came along. The children love walking and art and readalouds so I was right in my element.

      Zola is surprisingly readable, and surprisingly relevant. I will read more Zola.

      Porlandia reminds me a lot of the old show Laugh-In. It's hit-and-miss for us, too, but overall, it's refreshing.

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    2. Ah.... Wiiiiine. Now I understand. 🙂 And, of course, family.

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    3. Yes...I drank more wine the last seventeen days than I ever had in my life.

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  3. Amazed at how many books you read on the plane home and during your time there. Welcome back stateside :)

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    1. I'm one of those people who reads anytime I have a five-minute stretch of time, and I always have my e-books with me. I am happy to be home.

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  4. Plane rides are great for reading! Mind you, I don't tend to choose what to read based on where I'm going to, but these sound good. I really should read some Zola one day (I know, I'm a bad girl)!

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    1. You should. I stayed away from Zola, thinking he might be a difficult read, but I was wrong.

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  5. I'm glad you had a good time and found some good books to read.

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  6. Welcome home; it sounds like you had a wonderful time reading, exploring, and enjoying Paris. But really, how could you not?! I am also pleased with our CYBILS choice though we had quite a heated and long discussion about which book to pick.

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    1. I feel like the Cybils winners this year were particularly well chosen. I love One Fox and Jump, and I hope that being named the winners this year will help them get more visibility.

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  7. That trip sounds awesome. I wonder if I would do any reading on a trip like that, but maybe while waiting on planes, etc. Hmmm....

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    1. I did the bulk of my reading on the plane to and from (a total of over twenty hours). I read every night for the last hour before I went to sleep and I read the first hour of the day before I got up. That adds up to a lot of time I was able to spend reading.

      The rest of the time I mostly ate and drank wine and walked.

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  8. Wow, I can't believe your trip is over already. It sounds like it was wonderful and all that reading, too! Sounds like fun.

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    1. It actually felt like the perfect amount of time to be gone. I missed my husband a lot, though, and I'm happy to be home.

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  9. 17 days?! It doesn't seem like you were away that long. Welcome home! And bravo for reading so many books on your flight back. That's about the only thing I love about flying; uninterrupted time for reading. I slept the entire flight over to Germany, but read the entire was back home. Hope your jetlag isn't too awful. It's worth it though, right?

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    1. My sleep patterns are off, but I hope that I will get back to normal soon. It's definitely worth it.

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  10. I would definitely like to spend 17 days in Paris as well. I'm happy to hear you enjoyed L'Assoimmoir, I really want to read more Zola but don't really know where to start.

    Have a wonderful week!

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    1. Fanda Classiclit hosts a Zoladdiction every April. I hope to participate this year by reading another Zola novel that month.

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  11. I’m glad your trip was as delightful as you hoped it would be, and you were welcomed safely home!
    In Other Words sounds interesting.

    Wishing you a great reading week

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    1. I read a library copy, but I hope to get a copy for myself soon.

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  12. that's funny...about your reading on the plane.
    sherry @ fundinmental

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  13. Welcome Home!!! At first thought that was a lot of reading on the plane but 11 and 1/2 hours with few distrations would be perfect for that much reading. You can only look at clouds out the window for so long. :) I can't wait to hear all about your trip!

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    1. I can't wait to start talking about my trip. I hope to start sharing a few pictures each week.

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  14. Welcome back - it sounds as if you had the most wonderful homecoming and congratulations for having such a marvellous time and reading so many books! I hope the coming week is a relaxing one, as it sounds quite a full-on holiday, if great fun:)

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  15. 17 days was a nice long time to enjoy everything Paris has to offer. Glad you got to read as well. Long flights can be brutal.

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    1. It was lovely to stay in one place for such a long time and walk (and eat and drink our way) around Paris.

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  16. I'm still terribly tired from the long plane ride.

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  17. How funny that your husband grew a beard while you were gone. Quite a change!

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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    1. Yes, he and my sister's husband both grew beards. They surprised us with them when they met us at the airport.

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  18. No matter how lovely a trip away is, it's always nice to come home! I hope you enjoy settling back in and that big pile of books that was waiting on you!

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  19. Oh Deb, what a delightful post. I am so glad your trip to Paris was a roaring success. I JUST checked Dreyer's English out of the library on your recommendation, and after I get to that, I'll be looking for In Other Words too. I'm at the library this afternoon and plan to look for all the Cybils winners I am not already familiar with. We both chose winners! Though you might have a slight advantage, since the book you nominated also won the Newbery. Such great taste!

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    1. It makes me feel so happy when I nominate a book that wins. It has happened several times in the past. Good job, you!

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  20. My husband would have grown a beard if I was gone that long too. I'm glad you had a wonderful time.

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    1. It wasn't much of a beard, truth be told. It would take him a year to grow something of any sizable length.

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  21. so funny about 'I read three books and started a fourth on the plane home!' How he have thought you only read that during your whole trip, lol!
    I can't wait to hear more about your French adventures.
    So glad you are a Zola fan now - which reminds me, one day, I want to read the whole series, I only read a few.
    I also enjoyed a lot The President's Hat

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    1. I hope that Zoladdiction happens this April, and I can join in.

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  22. Wow, I wish I could read as fast as you. If I went to Paris for 17 days, I’d probably get no reading done at all. Have a great week!

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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    1. I really didn't expect to get much reading done. My sister and I stayed in apartment separate from the rest of the family and that gave us some nice reading time.

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  23. I was going to say that 3 and a half books is very reasonable number to read when on a 17-day vacation / trip. Wow, 3.5 on the plane alone? I'm impressed. Isn't it so sad when your vacation just whizzes past so quick? Hope you made plenty of memories and have lots of souvenirs!

    I haven't been following the Cybils as closely over the last few years but just checked the winners and nominees for 2019. Definitely a great list and I've found several new-to-me that I need to check out.

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  24. I have the two winners in your category on my wishlist. I've seen two or three episodes of Portlandia and decided it wasn't for me.

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    1. I'm always on the lookout during these oh-so-serious political times for comedy. It's rather hard to find comedy I like.

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  25. Hallo, Hallo Deb,

    Thank you for the warm welcome into linking with the Sunday Salon! I wanted to reach out to more bloggers as I'm sharing my Sunday Posts and I thought this might be a good way to do it. I was on a bit of a roll a few years ago participating in the Sunday Post but had to take a long absence until now. I appreciate your visit to my blog and I was returning today to read your post, too.

    Sounds like you had a lovely excursion to Paris! I had to laugh about how many books you read on the plane vs how many you read whilst you were gone (in total). You read a lot faster than I do! I might have been able to get through one audiobook on a flight of that length OR maybe one or two books max.

    I look forward to browsing through your blog today!

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  26. Welcome home! I am glad that you enjoyed your trip, and that your homecoming was so perfect! :) It sounds magical all the way around. And you read so many books!

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  27. I'm sure it's nice to be back home, but probably was a little bittersweet leaving Paris, too. Three and a half books even on a long flight is VERY impressive. You must be a very fast reader. Enjoy your time back home and have a lovely week.

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    1. I read so fast that sometimes I do not enjoy it. I like it best when I slow down.

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  28. Welcome home. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

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  29. That's hilarious about the reading on the way home. :) Although yeah that is a long time in the air. Glad you had a safe trip!!

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  30. How wonderful that you can read so much on the plane! On long flights I tend to fall asleep! Your trip to Paris sounds so wonderful. Glad you had a fantastic time.

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