One Very Special Rendez Vous

Elle: "Mon seul tabou, c'est l'homme marie."(My only taboo is the married man.)
Lui: "C'est fou ce que tu me plais, c'est dingue." (It's crazy how much I like you, it's mad.)

Even if "Paris in July" is over, I could not stay away from a supposedly great movie, with the talented Francois Cluzet, whose movies are a must and the beautiful Sophie Marceau. I was right. This is a piece of cinematic artistry one cannot soon forget. "Une rencontre" or "Quantum of Love" (2014)  tells the story of two people - a not so single woman and a very married man - who meet, fall in love but, for their "story not to end, in must never begin." Still, we can all create a reality that is quite what we wished for... or can we?

Belle de Jour in July

"Belle de Jour" (1967) was considered one of the most famous French movies, especially since it was directed by Louis Bunuel. With a Jesuit upbringing, the director left Spain in order to join the Surrealist movement in Paris. "Belle de Jour" is his first out of six movies he shot in France.
The universe he creates is quite strange, and the line between what is real, what is wished for and what is a mere dream is so often blurred that it becomes disturbing more often than not.

The 24 year old Catherine Deneuve plays the part of Belle de Jour, a prostitute who sells herself out of too much boredom, not because she needs the money and this is her only way of acquiring it. However, her kinkiness and depravity get the best of her and still, I felt I was left wondering what was real and what not, so this was indeed an avant-garde experiment. It is worth seeing, especially as it is seen as one of the world's cinematic masterpieces, not to mention that Bunuel himself defined his movie as "the search for truth, as well as the necessity of abandoning it as soon as you’ve found it.”



You can read a great review here. 

Vive le Pain Perdu!

Every July it's time for some simple, yet tasty recipe to try. Here's my favorite from Rachel Khoo's book, "The Little Paris Kitchen".

Pain Perdu avec Compote de Cerises et Basilic (French Toast with Cherry and Basil Compote) 

"Pain Perdu" means "lost bread" and you can top it with compote or eat it just as it comes. You need 1 egg, a tablespoon of sugar, 250 ml of milk, 4 slices of bread and a tablespoon of butter. For the compote you need 450 frozen pitted cherries, 150 g of icing sugar and a bunch of basil, but you could use any compote you like.

To make the compote, place all the ingredients in a pot and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Stir occasionally during this time to help dissolve the icing sugar.

To make "the pain perdu" whisk the egg, milk and sugar together in a dish. Place the bread in the egg mixture and soak for a minute on each side. Heat the butter in a large frying pan on a medium heat. Add the bread and cook for 2-3 minutes or until golden, then flip the slices over and cook the other side. Serve the "pain perdu" straight from the pan, with the compote spooned over and around.

Rachel has her own show on BBC Two. Click here for more info on her cooking preferences. 

Madame Bovary

What an excellent adaptation this was! I am thrilled directors still choose to return to classics and create beautiful pieces of art. I few years ago I saw "Madame Bovary" starring Isabelle Huppert (which appeared in 1991) and I really enjoyed watching it, but then, Huppert is one of my favorite actresses. This time, I think Mia Wasikowska is among my favorite young actresses. I was impressed with her acting in "Alice in Wonderland", "Jane Eyre" and "Stoker" and she did not let me down playing the part of Madame Bovary.

We all know Emma's story. She marries a country doctor and starts feeling bored in the small village where he practices medicine. She also begins to see him in a different light, until she cannot stand him any longer. If at first she can say "no" to a younger man who shows affection towards her, she then longs for a different life, with more money to spend on clothes and trifles next to a man who can have time for her. Her wish does come true, but Gustave Flaubert's novel is not a fairy tale...

Reasons to watch "Madame Bovary" (2014): Mia, the story, the scenery, the inner struggles.

Ne le Dis a Personne

If you are an avid movie buff like myself, especially when it comes to French movies, you surely have seen at least one starring Francois Cluzet. If you haven't, then it's time to do your homework and you may even start with "Tell No One", and then move to the spectacular "Les Intouchables" which you will surely adore. "Ne le dis a personne" is not the only collaboration between Cluzet and the young director, former actor, Guillaume Canet. In 2010 he also starred in Canet's movie "Les petits mouchoirs", which is also an interesting movie about friends, family and love that ties all that.

"Ne le Dis a Personne" tells the story of a pediatrician who marries his childhood sweetheart, and then, his wife is killed... or so it seems. Then, years later, he is accused of having killed his wife and he finds himself struggling to prove that is not true... Of course, you cannot trust anyone's words in this thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat until you realize the final credits are on the screen. Definitely worth seeing, especially because my favorite actress, the versatile Kristin Scott Thomas, stars as well and I cannot but love it every time she speaks French with that fancy accent of hers :)
Here's the trailer!

Barefoot in Paris

Happy Bastille Day! 
How could we better celebrate La Fete Nationale than with some French cuisine? I am not much of a cook, but when I stumbled upon this book, "Barefoot in Paris" I did want to check some of the (easy) recipes. Actually, the book offers more  than simple ways of cooking a la francaise, the author also writes about French cookware or ingredients and how to dress a table... I have chosen five or six recipes I would like to try in the near future, such as "eggplant gratin", "moules marinieres" or "pain perdu" but nothing beats the classic CROQUE MONSIEUR! Here's the recipe from the book!
Bon appetit!

Croque Monsieur
SERVES 4 TO 8
One day, my friend Frank Newbold and I found ourselves on the way to the Louvre at lunchtime.
We passed Café Ruc, which is one of the Costes brothers’ restaurants, and spotted two seats
outside under the awning. They serve traditional French food, but with a modern twist. This was
inspired by the delicious croque monsieurs we ate there. These sandwiches are on the small side,
so serve one or two per person, depending on appetites.
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups hot milk
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of nutmeg
12 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated (5 cups)
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
16 slices white sandwich bread, crusts removed
Dijon mustard
8 ounces baked Virginia ham, sliced but not paper thin.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan and add the flour all at once, stirring with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes. Slowly pour the hot milk into the butter–flour mixture and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce is thickened. Off the heat add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, ½ cup grated Gruyère, and the Parmesan and set aside.
To toast the bread, place the slices on two baking sheets and bake for 5 minutes. Turn each slice and bake for another 2 minutes, until toasted.
Lightly brush half the toasted breads with mustard, add a slice of ham to each, and sprinkle with half the remaining Gruyère. Top with another piece of toasted bread. Slather the tops with the cheese sauce, sprinkle with the remaining Gruyère, and bake the sandwiches for 5 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the topping is bubbly and lightly browned. Serve hot.

"Le Week-end" in Paris

 If there is only one movie you should see this month, then it has to be "Le week-end", a British bittersweet comedy/drama written by Hanif Kureishi, whose book "Intimacy" I also enjoyed watching on the screen years ago.
The movie is about a married couple who decide to celebrate their 30th anniversary by going to Paris, where they spent their honeymoon. Nothing spectacular so far, except that they seem to feel differently about the stage they are in, and their relationship.
Although Nick feels that she is the only one he could love, Meg may be on the brink of asking for a divorce since she feels there is more than "THE one" in one's life. To quote her, "love dies only if you kill it", while Nick honestly states that "love is the only interesting thing, far more difficult to do than sex".
However, they do meet somewhere in the middle (on a Parisian bridge, maybe) to realize that the love between them is stronger than any whim or even resentment they may have. As The Telegraph put it, it is simply "sophisticated, sharp and funny". Is there anything else to ask for in a movie? Maybe that it be set in Paris? Checked :)

Paris in July est la!

To celebrate Paris, France and other lovable things that are related to these, in July, everything turns into French, even the music I listen to ...


On attendra l'hiver
Pour s'écrire qu'on se manque
Que c'était long hier
Que c'est long de s'attendre.

Japanese Literature Challenge - 2014

I have been looking forward to this challenge since February, when Tony's reading challenge "January in Japan" ended and it seems I can't stay away from Japanese literature for long, and why would I? It is so different from other types of literature, enchanting and introspective, hesitant and modest, yet strangely powerful.
I am sure I will be reading more than three books for this challenge, but for a start, I decided to spend my summer with the ones mentioned in the collage. I will be expecting Ryu Murakami's book "Almost Transparent Blue" to take me by surprise, just the way the others did; Endo's book "When I Whisle" is listed as his "most unusual" one so, that should be an interesting read and Kawabata' s "Beauty and Sadness" is considered a "beautiful drawing of love and revenge" by Time Magazine. I will definitely write down my thoughts on this one :)

Hello summer! Hello Japanese Literature! Thank you, Bellezza, for hosting this challenge!

Venice All the Way

Vanessa et Benjamin

The most beautiful song of Vanessa's album "Love Songs" is definitely this one, mainly because I also love Benjamin Biolay who produced the entire album and signed eight of its songs. Voici la version live "Le Rempart" and I also recommend "Les Roses Roses" :)

Moi j’ai peur du noir
J’ai peur de la nuit du hasard
J’ai peur ici de n’plus savoir
J’ai peur de me perdre, il est tard
Là sans lumière, j’ai quel espoir ?

If you like it and you want to listen to the whole private concert, then click here :) 

La Musique de Paris en Juillet

I decided to join, for the third year, Paris in July Challenge, which is one of the simplest yet most entertaining challenges, mainly because one can mix books with movies or music, not to mention other fun activities, all related to France and/or Paris. You can read book about France, written by French authors or listen to some French piano bar music... your choice and your delight, since you cannot think about Paris without a smile lingering on your face, but what happens or will happen in Paris stays in Paris, right? :)

The soundtrack for this July will be Patricia Kaas and Vanessa Paradis, whose latest albums are simply beautiful.
Do you have a preference for one of the two? :)

Dan Puric (or How to Speak Beautifully about Your Past)

 If you come from Romania, then you are bound to have heard and even admired Dan Puric. However, this post is not about his great talents as an actor, it is about how beautifully he can talk when it comes to his and our past, us as a nation, his family and his torments.
Last month I had the chance of meeting him, hearing him speak about Romanian martyrs and the Romanian church along the years, and because I am a lucky person after all, I managed to steal two autographs on his two (out of three) books. Oh, and he also wished me Happy Birthday :)
Dan Puric is an exceptional person and I am glad we have already realized that, taking into account how many people were present for his talk and how crowded the grand ballroom at Metropolis seemed before he entered. And because nothing could speak better about his nature than his own words, here are a few quotes from his most recent book, "Be Dignified!" which I tried to translate without omitting their poetic side:

"I truly believe that people who understand life in its depth cannot be too cheerful."
"What's with some memories that cannot be forgotten? Maybe they are pieces of a soul that accompany us forever..."
"After all, what is friendship but that wonderful honor of our soul in which truth can rest."
"Not everything that you have lived has the right to become a memory."
" Then, growing up, I gave to them, to those that looked at me from beyond the fence, my soul. And they rolled it around in the dust of life and gave it back to me, squashed, beaten and lifeless. I sadly took my own soul into my arms and caressed it. Then, when it would heal, it would leave me smiling and throw itself naively into the longing arms of those around. And again, smashed by the cheerful yet unknown waves of life, it would lie tired at my feet, telling me it was for the last time. Since then, I have been burying and digging out my own soulful flight just like a curse." 

You can watch a wonderful interview with Dan Puric here.

Piercing - Six Word Sum Up

You probably know about my Japanese Literature Challenge... and "Piercing" is one of those books read for this challenge and which really made me thankful for having decided to join in, since it is a book you will never forget. If this is not enough for you to read it, then take into consideration that I stopped twice because I was shocked by the images and situations it presented... My first book by Ryu Murakami, but definitely not my last!

Unimaginable obsessions defeated by daring prostitute.

The Guardian has a great review here and I have a tempting passage below :)

"As he opened his eyes he found that his senses of sight and sound and smell were getting entangled with one another, and now came a snapping, crackling sensation and a pungent whiff of something organic burning. Yarn or fingernails, something like that. He moaned beneath his breath: Not again. It always started with the sweating, followed by this smell of charred tissue. Then a sudden sense of utter exhaustion, and finally that indescribable pain. As if the particles of air were turning to needles and piercing him all over. A prickling pain that spread like goose bumps over his skin until he wanted to scream. Sometimes a white mist clouded his vision and he could actually see the air particles turning into needles.
Calm down, he told himself. Relax, you’re all right, you’ve already made up your mind you’ll never stab her. Everything’s going to be all right."

Read for The Japanese Literature Challenge and The New Authors Challenge.

The Summer Without Men - Six Word Sum Up

It has been my first encounter with Siri Hustvedt ( the surname has Norwegian origins) and I am sure I will be reading some of her other books in the near future, especially since she is so interested in psychoanalysis and she has included this aspect in her writing. Here's one of her interesting interviews on the topic.

A cheated woman goes beyond despair.

Read for the New Authors Challenge.

Catherine Locandro - Clara la nuit

Ce soir-là, je ne redescendis pas sur le trottoir.
Je regagnai ma chambre habituelle et me livrai à une introspection minutieuse. La conclusion de cette plongée en moi-même tenait en deux questions-réponses très simples : avais-je eu peur ? Non. Allais-je recommencer Oui. Le lendemain, j'achetai des porte-jarretelles à ma taille. "

"Clara la nuit" is one of those novellas which you wish it had been longer, so you could discover more about the mysterious character.


During the day, Claire is an ordinary woman who reads and loves walking on the streets of Paris, but during the night she turns into Clara, a prostitute of Rue du Temple. One night, a man asks her not to have sex with him but to read a letter instead. She is moved by it and she seems she cannot forget him. When she finally finds him while being drawn to a portrait resembling herself, she also discovers the sadness in his heart. The relation between them changes when, in danger, she finds comfort in his house and his arms.
Besides Clara's story and her past, the writer also examines the human condition, struggling between loneliness, vice and the need to love and be loved.
There is still an unanswered question: why did she choose to become a prostitute? She tells the painter that it is what she does best, but can that be truly convincing?

Read for the New Authors Challenge.

Venice in Black and White

My beautiful, my own
My only Venice-this is breath! Thy breeze
Thine Adrian sea-breeze, how it fans my face!
Thy very winds feel native to my veins,
And cool them into calmness!
~ Lord Byron "The Two Foscari"

Venice Reading Challenge - The Passion

There is no better combination than to read your favorite author while reading for a challenge involving Venice! Does it matter that it is my fourth read of The Passion, by Jeanette Winterson? Not at all. :)


I first read this enchanting novel more than ten years ago and it is still in my top five favorite books. You may surely wonder what is so special about it? Here's a short list:

~ Jeanette's style is incomparable to any other author, dead or alive;
“Perhaps all romance is like that; not a contract between equal parties but an explosion of dreams and desires that can find no outlet in everyday life. Only a drama will do and while the fireworks last the sky is a different colour.”

~ the (love)story that gradually unravels between Henri, Napoleon's cook and Villanelle, the mysterious Venetian:
“In that house, you will find my heart. You must break in, Henri, and get it back for me.'Was she mad? We had been talking figuratively. Her heart was in her body like mine. I tried to explain this to her, but she took my hand and put it against her chest.
Feel for yourself.”

~ the key phrases will follow you long after you finish reading the book and you may find yourself quoting them now and then.
"I'm telling you stories. Trust me."
"You play, you win, you play, you lose. You play. It’s the playing that’s irresistible. What you risk reveals what you value."



~ Venice, described as the "city of mazes", where one can lose one's way, where nothing is certain and everything is unfolding into another thing:
"This is the city of mazes. You may set off from the same place to the same place every day and never go by the same route. If you do so, it will be by mistake. Your bloodhound nose will not serve you here. Your course in compass reading will fail you. Your confident instructions to passers-by will send them to squares they have never heard of, over canals not listed in the notes."

~ magic realism, which gives you the feeling that one day you could live (in) this fairy tale yourself: "Rumour has it that the inhabitants of this city walk on water. That, more bizarre still, their feet are webbed. Not all feet, but the feet of the boatmen whose trade is hereditary."

~ the switch in narrative voice which, if you are not careful, can make you lose yourself between the lines, just like you might lose your way on the small streets of Venice;

~ crossing boundaries and transgression: Villanelle can be as mysterious and provoking as Venice itself.

~ in short,it's a book about loving so/too much: “Whoever it is you fall in love with for the first time, not just love but be in love with, is the one who will always make you angry, the one you can't be logical about.”

Venice will taste, feel and smell even better after you've read The Passion!

Read for the Venice Challenge and the European Reading Challenge

Venitian Masks

It's carnival time in Venice and since we are not there showing off our expensive costumes, we'd better lean a few things about the different masks that appear during Carnevale.

Venetian masks have a long history of protecting their wearer's identity during promiscuous or decadent activities. Made for centuries in Venice, these distinctive masks were formed from papier-mâché and wildly decorated with fur, fabric, gems, or ribbons. Eventually, Venetian masks re-emerged as the emblem of the Carnival.



After the 1100s, the masquerade went through periods of being outlawed by the Catholic Church, especially during holy days. Their policy lead to eventual acceptance when they declared the months between Christmas and Shrove Tuesday free for Venetian mask-attired decadence. This period evolved into Carnival, the pre-Lent celebration meaning "remove meat." Although Carnival lost popularity as Venice's cultural production faltered during the Enlightenment, it was officially reintroduced in 1979.

Drop by soon to discover the types of masks and their meaning :)
Click here or here if you are interested in buying a handmade mask.

Nos Separations - David Foenkinos

Most French authors write with a humour and charm that is so typical of them and David Foenkinos is no exception.


"Nos Separations" presents the story of Alice and Fritz and their other relation(ship)s with secondary characters such as Fritz's friend Paul and his lover Virginie, Fritz and his wife Iris or Alice and her husband. The book is more about the two lovers' sad separations rather than their relationship; it is about the constant need to be with the one you love even though you hurt that person and he/she hurt you as well.

"Encore une fois, nous étions dans une ambiance mi-prune mi-pêche (chacun ses expressions), et j'ai pensé que je serais peut-être heureux de passer ces moments sans elle. Depuis des mois, nous vivions collés, dans l'autarcie de notre révélation amoureuse, alors cette première séparation serait sûrement bénéfique."

The writer gives us the chance to see a few of the decisive moments in Alice and Fritz's liaison: we learn how they fell in love, how they quarrelled and how Fritz cheated on Alice. It is with so much ease that Foenkinos presents his lovers' story that you might think their situation is not serious. He even mentions at the beginning of the novel that we might all be cliches. Still, with delicate humour the final separation takes place and we are left with the character's struggles to avoid any place they walked together in Paris and with ironic dictionary definitions in which he as well becomes one.

“Il y a des personnes formidables qu’on rencontre au mauvais moment, et des personnes qui sont formidables parce qu’on les rencontre au bon moment.”

The end is still optimistic. A boy and a girl - Alice's and Fritz's children from different relationships) meet in Pere Lachaise cemetery (read the wonderful book to discover why) and we may think the story can begin once more. maybe with a different, better ending this time :)

Read for: New Authors Challenge and European Reading Challenge (France)