Remembering Paris by Denis Tillinac
A Bakery in Paris by Aimee Runyon
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Maigret (1992) on BritBox.
Maigret (2018) on BritBox.
Remembering Paris by Denis Tillinac
A Bakery in Paris by Aimee Runyon
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Maigret (1992) on BritBox.
Maigret (2018) on BritBox.
Today's Featured Book:
A Bakery in Paris
by Aimie K. Runyan
Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: August 1, 2023
Page Count: 384 pages
Summary:
1870: The Prussians are at the city gates, intent to starve Paris into submission. Lisette Vigneau—headstrong, willful, and often ignored by her wealthy parents—awaits the outcome of the war from her parents’ grand home in the Place Royale in the very heart of the city. When an excursion throws her into the path of a revolutionary National Guardsman, Théodore Fournier, her destiny is forever changed. She gives up her life of luxury to join in the fight for a Paris of the People. She opens a small bakery with the hopes of being a vital boon to the impoverished neighborhood in its hour of need. When the city falls into famine, and then rebellion, her resolve to give up the comforts of her past life is sorely tested.
1946: Nineteen-year-old Micheline Chartier is coping with the loss of her father and the disappearance of her mother during the war. In their absence, she is charged with the raising of her two younger sisters. At the hand of a well-meaning neighbor, Micheline finds herself enrolled in a prestigious baking academy with her entire life mapped out for her. Feeling trapped and desperately unequal to the task of raising two young girls, she becomes obsessed with finding her mother. Her classmate at the academy, Laurent Tanet, may be the only one capable of helping Micheline move on from the past and begin creating a future for herself.
Both women must grapple with loss, learn to accept love, and face impossible choices armed with little more than their courage and a belief that a bit of flour, yeast, sugar, and love can bring about a revolution of their own.
September 2, 1870
“Come away from the window, Lisette. I don’t want anyone knowing we’re up here.”
Runyan, Aimie K.. A Bakery in Paris: Two Women, Two Eras, One Bakery of Courage, p. 1. Kindle Edition.
Madame Dupuis ushered me in to her apartment with the warmth of someone welcoming an old friend. She walked with a cane, but she never allowed it to detract from her graceful comportment. She somehow managed to glide, despite being dependent on the stick for support. Though I had to be fifty years her junior, perhaps more, she made me feel awkward and gangly.
Runyan, Aimie K.. A Bakery in Paris: Two Women, Two Eras, One Bakery of Courage, p. 56. Kindle Edition.
This book is two stories---one of a rich girl, Lisette, in 1870, who meets a man, Theo, fighting for the common people; and one of a young woman, Micheline, in 1946, waiting for the return of her mother after the war to relieve of her of the burden of caring for her sisters.
Both stories involve baking, and both involve a bakery, and, for me, that's the best part of the story.
I shall attempt, for the first time, a croissant. From the book:
“Always start the morning before you plan to serve. Mix four cups flour, two spoonfuls of salt, one-third cup sugar, one spoonful of yeast, one-and-a-half cups milk, and one cup water. Mix well, place in oiled bowl, and chill in icebox or coldest part of cellar overnight.
The next morning, take three-quarters of a pound cold butter and roll between two sheets of parchment. Shape into a square, roughly half an inch thick. Keep butter as cold as you can. Roll your dough into a square the same width, but twice the length of your square of butter. Fold the butter in the dough and seal edges. Fold the dough-and-butter sheets in half, and then again into thirds. Let dough rest and complete this process two more times. Roll out the dough and cut into triangles three inches at the base. Roll into the croissant shape, stretching the dough as you work. Let rest one hour. Brush the tops with egg whites and bake in a medium oven one half hour. Let cool one half hour before serving. Serve with butter and any variety of jams, jellies, or preserves."
Okay, these might have a few problems. I used the recipe (above) from the 1871 portion of this book, and I might have needed a little more guidance about temperature than "a medium oven," especially as I imagine this might have been a wood stove of some sort. There was a lot (a lake, if I am being completely honest) of melted butter halfway through the bake. They may not be beautiful, but they do have great flavor (as you might expect, with 3/4 lb. of butter in the recipe).
The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.
July 11th - 17th - How many weekly bookish posts do you put on your blog and/or social media? (submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver's Review)
For seventeen years, I've aimed at posting once a week. I've now posted for 884 weeks and I've posted 2,794 times. That's an average of three times a week.
How it worked: I picked up a crawl card at Then & Now Bookstore in Galveston, one of the 25 participating stores. I got my card stamped or signed by each of the stores I visited through the end of April. Once I visited 10, I submitted my card to any of the participating bookstores to be entered into a raffle for gifts. Every store I hit after the first 10 counts as an additional entry. The cards had to be turned in by the end of business on April 30.
Basket Books & Art · Blue Willow Bookshop · Books Abound · The Book Attic · Books by the Bay · The Book Readers Venue · Brazos Bookstore · Buy the Book · Candescent Books · CLASS Bookstore · Copperfield's Books · Dreamers Books + Culture · Good Books in the Woods · Good on Paper Books and Stationery · Gulf Coast Cosmos Comics · Houston Book Warehouse · Kaboom Books · Katy Budget Books · Kindred Stories · LIT bookbar · LIT Java Coffee & Books · Mossrose Bookshop · Murder by The Book · Then & Now Bookshop · Village Books
I visited twelve bookstores in April.
Here is my tenth bookstore:
17939 Keith Harrow Blvd., Suite 202
Houston, TX
(281) 815-5151
I got my tenth stamp for the crawl...and turned it in...though I couldn't resist going to two more bookstores...
Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (10)
After being stranded in a desert after a crash, a pilot comes in contact with a captivating little prince who recounts his journey from planet to planet and his search for what is most important in life.
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.