Best French Food In Paris
Dec0
Good news Elflings! I am très heureuse to be a stop on Libby Schmais’s Tourapalooza in celebration of her first YA novel, The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein. If you know a teen who would love nothing more than a ticket to Paris this holiday season, then I’m thinking The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein would be a much more affordable and entirely pleasing option for said teen reader. Libby is also sharing her perfect day in Paris, as well as Lotus’s dream day in the French capital! As a lovely bonus, at the end of the post, you will find out how to enter to win an autographed copy of Libby’s book. Let’s get started with a bit about the book.
Lotus Lowenstein dreams of going to Paris and becoming an existentialist. Unfortunately, she is instead stuck in Park Slope Brooklyn, far from the world of croissants, cafés, and romance, with her particularly kooky family. She writes in her journal, her pillow book, about all things français and about her very complicated life. In spite of her daily efforts to celebrate French language and culture, Lotus feels like her Paris dream is very far away. She decides to create a French club in her high school, hoping that she might be able to organize a trip to the City of Light. The first meeting of the club brings out only three members: Lotus, her best friend Joni, and Sean, an adorable, smart wannabe existentialist. This launches Lotus’s first sort-of love affair, and she discovers that love, like any big dream, is a lot more complicated than she thought. Will there be heartbreak? Will Lotus discover the best poutine when the French club makes its first official trip to Montréal? Will she ever make it to Paris? You’ll have to read Lotus’s pillow book to find out.
Here’s the lovely trailer, which captures the spirit of the book perfectly (not always the case with trailers, I find):
Diary style writing is not easy to pull off. You’ve got to have a rock-solid sense of the character’s voice in order to make it work and to keep it engaging for the reader. Schmais definitely achieves this in her first YA novel. Lotus is often hilarious, and while she is precocious in her interests and observations about people and the world, her attitude and concerns are quite true to a typical teenager’s way of seeing things. There were many very funny moments in this book. For example:
I woke up late, ate two croissants, and had a café au lait. Read a few pages of Nausea, by Jean-Paul Sartre, and started to feel a little nauseated myself. I think it was because I totally related to the way JP felt about everything. Like how he looked at something and couldn’t even remember what it is or why it is. That’s how I feel. I mean, what’s the point? I’ll never have enough money to go to France. I’ll never fall in love. It’s just one endless day after the other.
I thought that Lotus was a really interesting girl, the kind of sassy character who stays with you and makes you wonder what she might be up to a few years down the road. She’s smart, irrepressible, and she has big dreams. I think a lot of teens will relate to her energy and vision.
I must address the cupcakes mentioned in passing in the trailer. An author who can come up with the idea for “HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE” cupcakes, is automatically working at a whole different level of funny, and deserves attention, I think. Come on. That is genius funny. Makes me smile just thinking about it.
Libby has kindly stopped by to share how she and Lotus would each spend one perfect day in Paris. Welcome Libby! So, what would a perfect Parisian day look like for you, and for Lotus?
I think both Lotus and I would sleep late and then go to a café and drink enormous amounts of café au lait and eat pain au chocolat.
Then, I would probably spend the rest of the morning wandering around and doing a little shopping, perhaps around Rue Mouffetard in the cinquième, where there’s some really cute little shops and a street market. For lunch, I’d have a picnic of baguette and some delicious fromage on Île St Louis, in the shadow of Notre Dame. And later, afternoon tea at the very elegant Mariage Frères in the Marais district. Then I would walk off my tea and pastries on the Promenade Plantée, this cool elevated park near the Bastille.
For her perfect day, Lotus would definitely have to go to Les Deux Magots, where Sartre and Simone De Beauvoir spent their days writing and hanging out. After soaking up that hallowed atmosphere along with some delicious French food, and jotting down a few pensées of her own, she would make a pilgrimage to the Père Lachaise cemetery where Sartre and DeBeauvoir are buried side by side and perhaps shed a few tears. Then, to cheer herself up, she would go shopping at Les Galleries Lafayette department store and pick up some cool French outfits. She might also try to hit some couture salons like Chanel or Christian La Croix (because she believes she can save his bankrupt fashion house) and apply for a job as an apprentice. And if there was time, she’d probably also hit some vintage stores for some interesting accessories.
At night, I think both Lotus and I would each eat a delicious dinner in some tiny neighborhood restaurant and then go see a movie at a small art house in the Latin Quarter. Afterwards, I think we’d both take a leisurely walk on the Seine and watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle (which it does for five minutes at the beginning of every hour).
Doesn’t that sound divine? In my view, any day in Paris is bound to be close to perfect. Thanks for sharing your dreamy jour à Paris Libby! Like Lotus and Libby, I too am Paris-crazy. Here’s what I would do for one day in The City of Light (very food-centered, you will note):
Wake up. Head straight to Kayser, one of my favourite bakeries in Paris. Buy one of their gigantic financiers and wander up to the Jardin Luxembourg, the largest public park in Paris. I’d pull up a chair in front of the palace and feed the birds and stare at the glamorous Parisians walking by. Then I’d make my way to Notre Dame and head up to the top for the best view of the rooftops of Paris I’ve ever seen. After my climb, an ice cream would be essential. The best? Bertillon on the Ile St-Louis. I’d wander through the Marais, checking out the cute shops. I’d spend the afternoon at Le Centre Georges Pompidou, enjoying the high-tech architecture and the astounding collection of modern art. A quick nap in my hotel and I’d be back out in the city, catching a bite at one of my favourite bistros, Le Nemrod. Then I’d go to the Seine, so pretty at night, and stare at the buildings by moonlight from le pont Notre Dame. (*Sigh*) I want to be back in Paris.
Thanks for bringing back memories Libby!
Now for the tour contest. Libby will explain how to enter to win a snazzy prize:
Today’s French Word du Jour is sympa (which means “nice”). If you collect all the French words du jour on the Blog Tourapalooza, you can enter a contest to win fabulous prizes (a $25 Sephora gift card and a personally autographed Pillow Book!). Once you’ve visited all the blog tour stops and collected all the words, email the complete list of words to lotuslowenstein@gmail.com with the subject line “French Word du Jour Contest.” All e-mail entries must be received by midnight (EST) on December 21, 2009. The winner will be selected at random on December 22, 2009. Be sure to include your name, e-mail address, and daytime phone number with your entry (If you’re under age 13, give your parent’s contact info). The complete My-Life-Is-Merde-but-Have-a-Bonnes-Fêtes-Anyway Blog Tourapalooza schedule can be found at lotuslowenstein.com. Our next tour stop is Chick Lit Teens on December 17. See you on the road, mes amis!
The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein is published by Delacorte.
What’s on your minds this Wednesday?
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We’re getting more than a little tired of imperial behavior on the part of Democratic Senators who believe they are undefeatable in blue states — and thus can behave any way they choose.
Barbara Boxer is one — who recently threw a tantrum in a Senate hearing when a military general called her “Ma’am”. She condescendingly corrected him that she should be addressed as “Senator”, because she worked hard for that title. Instead of being about whatever it was the hearing was for, in reality the whole conversation was about HER. Her title. Her place high on that perch looking down at everyone. Titles were important in 1788 France. People lived for titles. The Marquess de Boxer is someone we’d love to see separated from her title in 2010.
Another one who deserves to lose his title is Chuck Schumer, who called a flight attendant a bitch this weekend, because she told him to get off his damn phone so the plane could take off. This is disgusting.
It’s a strong argument for term limits. People like Schumer come to Washington and then believe they are gods, if not just mere aristocrats. Rules don’t apply to any of them, not even basic civility.
Women should see that Democrats are the party of misogyny.
Look how fast the word “BITCH!” comes out against women, when a Democrat leader is miffed he has to get off the phone. Whatever party line you were on, Chucky, you can get right back on when the damn plane lands. If you want to talk nonstop, take the train from Washington to New York, and you can be chatty Chuckles the whole time.
It peeves us New Yorkers will blind-vote this pig back into office…just like they will more likely than not send Boxer back to Washington for another imperious term of her own.
Every day, we grow more and more disgusted by the Democrat party. We wish voters at large would feel the same way.
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Very few people here in Chicago are talking about the Gitmo terrorists coming to Illinois, to live in their cozy new home at Thompson prison, just a hop, skip, and a jihad from Chicago.
Tonight, we’re going to a holiday party at Sidetracks, so we’ll see if it’s a topic of conversation there, but in our circles no one’s talking about this at all. One friend of ours did say, “Great, now they’ll know where Illinois is. Great work, Obama”.
Occasionally, our police here in Chicago will come out in force on the CTA train lines, or will congregate around the Sears (now, Willis) Tower, because there’s some rumor terrorists are up to something. Personally, we think this is as ridiculous as when the police in Cleveland, Ohio believe terrorists are going to attack that town. Muslims have no concept of Chicago or Cleveland. If the goal is to make lunatics on the streets of Mecca, Medina, Riyadh, Tehran, Beirut, or wherever jump up and down with joy because an American city was attacked, it doesn’t make any sense to hit cities these people have no concept of.
Friends and relatives we have in Europe are educated people and have little concept of where Chicago is. “In the middle, somewhere,” they say. They know there is a building called the “Sears Tower”, but have no idea what it looks like. When these people visit here, they get confused between the Hancock building and the Sears Tower, because both are tall and black, though they look nothing at all alike. And these are people with masters’ degrees from top European institutions.
New Yorkm, Washington, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Miami…these are the cities that people overseas readily identify with the US. For whatever reason, Chicago does not register with strong visuals. They have heard of it the way you have heard of Stuttgart, Avignon, Birmingham, and other cities in Europe and Britain, but we doubt you could draw a picture of their skylines from memory or accurately identify where they are. But you know Berlin, Frankfurt, London, Paris, etc.
As much as we love Chicago, we are a second-tier American city. Cleveland is third or fourth tier, and we say that with love, too, as some of us are from there. It doesn’t make any sense for terrorists to go to all the trouble to hit a city that their brethren would have to stop and think about. “Where’s Chicago? What’s that?”, is not what these people want their fans to say. They want them to be jubilant, dancing around in the streets because NY, LA, DC, or someplace else they know well has been hit.
We doubt moving those Gitmo prisoners to Illinois is going to suddenly make us a target.
However, we think it’s one of the dumbest moves this administration has made, in that there’s now the possibility radical Muslims will have access to the prisoner population — which has a large number of radicalized homegrown Muslims in it. Prisoners learn from each other. Instead of being rehabilitated, the majority of them just become better prisoners by being at “sleep away camp” for extended periods of time…learning from the best of the best. Or, worst of the worst, depending on how you want to couch that.
More and more every day, it really does feel like this administration wants to make this country less safe so something terrible can happen.
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Here’s an interesting story we heard last night that surprised us: of a can’t fail business failing miserably here in Chicago.
We’ve told you before that gay bars in cities like Chicago are gold mines. Beers are sold for $5.00 a bottle, when the unit cost for each is easily 50 cents on the dollar, if that. You can buy an 8 pack of Pilsner’s at Binny’s (big liquor store) for less than $10. We can’t imagine what sort of wholesale discount the gay bars on Halsted get, but it seems very impressive. And while everything is falling down around us in this economy, the one thing people are still doing is drinking, even if they HAVE seemingly curtailed that a bit.
Well, a few months ago one of the VJs at Sidetracks left — on bitter terms — and started a new bar called The Cattle Call, up north, passed Andersonville. He tried to steal all the best playlists and video setups of Sidetracks, while also trying to steal the country western theme of Charlies (an after hours bar that, during normal operating hours, has line dancing).
He chose a bad location, but thought people would still come because he stole all those great ideas. But, he treated his customers badly: some nights, he’d have four people in the place, but wouldn’t comp any drinks and wouldn’t allow requests for videos on the playlist. In Chicago, every third drink you buy at a bar (if you go to the same bartender) should be free. It’s common practice here, just as a simple thank you. If you’ve been tipping the $1 a drink that’s standard, you more than earn that little bit of kindness. Well, The Cattle Call didn’t think it had to do that.
Not long after it opened as a western themed bar, complete with cow logo, the owner decided to rename the place “The Call” and get rid of the cattle and western elements. He tried, now, to steal ideas from MiniBar (where the pretentious go to S&M…”stand and model”). That, apparently, didn’t work either…so now The Call is up for sale.
It’s all interesting to us because if we had the startup capital we’d totally open up a gay bar…they practically print money. You just need a great staff that’s friendly to people and a solid security team to keep the drugs and druggies out, and your high-priced drinks should make the money flow right in. Maybe it’s the economy, or maybe it was the terrible location, or maybe it was the way this clown treated his customers…but he failed in less than a year.
It’s like that sandwich shop we told you about on Halsted, Wally & Agador’s, that also failed after just a few months in business. For starters, everyone thought it was a dog bakery, when in fact it was a deli. But, they had all these signs up that had dogs on them, and “Wally” and “Agador” sound like dogs names. For people who bothered to look in the window at the menu, most were turned off by $15 sandwiches that were too gourmet for street fare (Bavarian ham with Swiss mustard on pretzel bread with Gruyere cheese and brie). Too complicated, and too pricey when Nookie’s diner is right next door, where you can get a GIANT sandwich, soup, and a drink for about $10 (and you don’t have to leave a tip if you get takeout).
It is surprising these places aren’t even lasting a year, though. The dog bakery, uh, sandwich shop, lasted less than six months. Cattle Call, renamed ‘The Call”, will be gone before its first anniversary too. How much of their failure is chalked up to the economy and how much is just bad business practice remains to be seen.
But, we can’t help thinking that if the White House had its way, these businesses would be propped up when no one wanted them. It would be like the Soviet Union where people sat around all day in empty stores, with nothing to sell, just because the government wanted a store there. The workers would literally stand and stare at the white walls all day, behind empty display cases. In the Golden Age of Hope and Change we live in now, that’s what the current president wants to see too…good money thrown down the drain after bad. Wally & Agador’s deserved to fail because it made products no one wanted, and it never convinced customers it wasn’t a dog bakery. Cattle Call deserved to fail because it never connected with customers, no matter how much it stole from other successful bars.
The market decided these two endeavors were fools’ errands, and the market punished them accordingly. Neither were, of course, too big to fail.
Just an example of every day life in Boystown driving home the message that this administration’s spending spree to prop up failing businesses is utter folly.
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The Lockerbie Scotland bomber is now missing. Scotland, quite stupidly, released him from jail four months ago — claiming he only had three months left to live. Well, he’s very much alive, and has disappeared, refusing to meet with his monitors. Nobody knows what he’s up to. Scotland, quite frankly, has earned consideration for being the most stupid place in the world over this.
A family friend was a flight attendant on that PanAm flight. Scarily, a friend’s mother was almost aboard…but she got sick and couldn’t work her shift, so her friend took that flight for her. Her friend was killed, while the mother we know lived…thanks to food poisoning eating bad oysters in a French restaurant the night before.
So, it matters to us that Scotland let this animal walk free, while all those people aboard that plane are dead.
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