Sailing back to Paris

Monday was our last full day on the boat. We left Rouen at 1:00 a.m., and were in Les Andelys when we woke up. It's a lovely little village, which I walked all around (it took me less than an hour).

There are ruins of a castle which was the stronghold of Richard the Lionheart, Chateau-Gaillard, which apparently was built in a year. I didn't hike up the hill to see it, but Tod did. This is one of the many photos he took:

At around noon, we were Paris-bound again. During the afternoon, there were tours of various parts of the ship, including the galley, which was very cool.

That evening was a semi-formal dinner with the Captain, after which we (once again) staggered back to our cabin having eaten too much!

We docked in Paris at around 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday. In the morning we had a quick breakfast, finished packing, and took a cab to our hotel.

The Hotel Luxembourg Parc was very different from the Artus, where we'd stayed the week before. It was decorated in a Napoleon III style, very ornate. We were a little disconcerted by the size of the room which was much larger than we expected. We were even able to fit both of us and our luggage into the elevator!

After we checked in, we wandered around the Jardin du Luxembourg, which is huge and includes multiple playgrounds, tennis courts and fountains.

After lunch, I went back to the room to rest, and Tod went to Napoleon's tomb, which includes a military museum, which I wasn't really interested in.

We had an early dinner and returned to our room to prepare for heading to the airport in the morning. It was a wonderful trip, and I hope to go back and see the south of France someday.

Just finished reading...

Crime Fraîche by Alexander Campion.*

Reviewed by Marlyn Beebe.

Parisian Commissaire Capucine le Tellier and her husband, food critic Alexandre de Huguelet have been invited to her uncle's estate in Normandy for a shooting holiday. They arrive to find that there's been a fatal hunting accident. Nobody thinks this is terribly unusual; such accidents do happen when many people with guns are in the same place.

But when there's another accident, and another, Capucine begins to get suspicious. The local gendarmerie are either incompetent or unwilling to investigate for some other reason, so Capucine takes it upon herself to do so. Her visit to the country gets longer and longer, while the work on her desk is piles up. Fortunately, the clever and competent Commissaire has three bright and resourceful assistants to support her.

Alexander Campion creates an inventive mystery with an absorbing plot. His characters are believable and mostly appealing. But the outstanding facet of this novel is his depiction of la vie française, that of urban Paris as well as the not-so-bucolic life of rural Normandy. The author has done his research, as is apparent when he describes foraging for mushrooms, the operation of the abattoir, and the byzantine structure of the French law enforcement system.

This book will be enjoyed by francophiles, foodies, travel buffs and even oenophiles along with the requisite mystery buffs.

*FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the publisher, who sent me a copy of the book for review purposes.

Just finished reading...

The Paramour's Daughter by Wendy Hornsby.*

Maggie is still mourning the death of her husband, Mike Flint, and has been throwing herself into her work to keep from brooding. Not thrilled about her first Thanksgiving without him, she stops at the market late on Thanksgiving eve to pick up supplies for the dish she'll be taking to dinner at her mother's the next day. On her way into the store, she is stopped by a strange woman who claims that Maggie is her daughter, Marguerite.

Knowing this to be untrue, Maggie catches the attention of the store's security guards, and the woman is escorted out. The next morning, a news report of a hit-and-run in the area makes Maggie think it might be that woman, and it is.

She gives all the information she has to the police, and heads to Berkeley to spend the holiday with her family. But later that day, she discovers that the woman, Isabelle, was indeed, her mother.

Suddenly, everything Maggie has known about herself is false, and she decides to deliver Isabelle's ashes to France herself so she can meet her biological family. But when she gets there, she discovers a web of deceit and machinations which indicate that Isabelle's death may not have been an accident.

Along with Maggie's history, we learn something of the history of France and its arcane inheritance laws. Hornsby's prose is exquisite, and the joy of reading the book came to an end much too quickly. More Maggie McGowen, please!



*Many thanks to Perseverance Press for the Advance Reading Copy.