Books: CRY BABY by Lauren Liebenberg

Title: Cry Baby
Author: Lauren Liebenberg
Published: 2013
Genre: Fiction

I read Lauren Liebenberg's deliciously-named, The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam many years ago. I enjoyed it immensely and had been looking forward to reading her third book, Cry Baby. It is a story of an upper middle class couple, living in the Northern Suburbs of  Johannesburg  raising their two young boys - one of whom has terrifying nightmares that have an otherworldly significance to them. The author's point of view changes from that of the two adults to that of the little boy throughout the book.

Honouring the fallen on Armistice Day

This parade happens every year in my neighbourhood. Our apartment is directly opposite a historical monument, Place Winston Churchill. Along with the numerous other parades that take place in and around Paris on this day - most notably the one on the Champs Elysées - to honour the signing of the armistice between the Allies and Germany, a commemoration takes place in Neuilly-sur-Seine annually.
This year was no different. It is a brief, yet solemn event. These photos were taken last year, but the event was no different this year.

On identity: Am I still South African?

I always know when there's something bothering my children. The indicators are fairly simple really: like the flurry of questions or the rhetorical statements made the minute they walk through the door. My son's most recent bother was one that questioned his identity.
"Mommy, am I still South African?" was the first thing out of his mouth- before he had even put his school bag down.
"Of course you are! Why do you ask?" I cautiously ventured, hoping it was not going to be one of those answers that required a clinical psychology degree. Sometimes I simply do not know how to make his hurt going away, and worse still at times I just do not have the answers, and yet in my son's eyes I am the well of all knowledge - me and Wikipedia.
"Because the South African on the bus said I'm not." He references all the children on his school bus by nationality, even though he know their names. I don't know why and have never asked. He just does. Maybe it's the thrill he gets each time there's a new nationality that joins his bus route (I do know that this is a real thrill for him because he is always quick to excitedly update me if there are any changes in the country representation); or maybe he likes the idea that in any given school term, there are always at least 8 nationalities on his route (this is a 10 seater bus).

I still remember his excitement when he came back from school at the start of the school year: We have a new South African on the bus. Having another South African on the same bus route was like finding his kindred soul at long last, but now I could see that the glow of camaraderie  towards his compatriot was fading fast.
"He says that because I have not lived in South Africa for a long time, I am not a true South African.''
I will not even go into the emotions of anger evoked by that statement. But I held it together and remained reasonable in my assessment of this point of view. Okay, fair enough - we left South Africa when my son was two and a half years old. After three years in Ghana he was proudly claiming his dual South African - "Ghananaian" nationality . He identified that much with Ghana. He had a wider Twi vocabulary than a Sotho one, and mannerisms that spoke volumes about his partial West African upbringing. In France, after almost three and a half years, he declares his South African nationality without hesitation. So all things considered, it is having spent a good part of his life outside of South Africa that calls into question his nationality.

I think I have risen to the challenges of raising my children outside their country well enough. They know not to address adults by their first names; they know how to greet; they can understand their mother tongue  - although speaking it is still a problem (perhaps my biggest failure yet);  the flag colours; the national anthem (sort of); past and present presidents...let's just say the Encyclopedia Of All Things South African has been a real help. I order my Iwisa Maize Meal , biltong, and Mrs.Balls chutney from the South Africa online store every so often, and put together a real South African meal for the International Days at their respective schools - working with what I can find from the Monoprix. And with the help of gifts from my dear friends back home, they don their seshoeshoe shirts or beaded ndebele skirts and set off to show off how proudly South African they really are. Then the 'South African on the bus' turns around and questions all of this.

This had me thinking about whether when we return home, they will encounter this sort of narrow thinking on a regular basis, or if it was simply the misplaced view of a sixteen year old to an eight year old who didn't have the vocabulary to defend himself. It is difficult enough for third culture children to get on in the world, when they themselves question where they belong all of the time, without the added pressure of possibly being 'outed' by their fellow countrymen. I am still not changing tack though, proceeding as before. But now I am adding to their repertoire of life skills: 'How to defend yourself (verbally of course) if ever your identity is called into question'. I believe that  one will be an ongoing lesson.

Books: THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA by Hanif Kureishi

Title: The Buddha of Suburbia
Author: Hanif Kureishi
Published:1990
Genre: Fiction

I recently saw an interview on France 24 with Hanif Kureishi discussing his writing. I remembered that I had one of his books, The Buddha of Suburbia,  which I decided to read again. Funny how one's impression of certain books is influenced by so many other factors: one's age; current emotional state; country of residence; reviews read about the book...This one felt like a completely new book to me. I can't even remember the last time I had read it. This time it resonated a whole lot with me. Maybe it is living in France, and that feeling of always looking in being the observer; or it is watching the French tackle multi-culturalism; or maybe even raising my children in a country that is not their own. Whatever it was, I loved how Hanif Kureishi's observations on multi-culturalism in the UK then, circa 1970s, remain just as relevant now.

Books: STUFFED - Adventures of a restaurant family by Patricia Volk

Title: Stuffed: Adventures of a restaurant family
Author: Patricia Volk
Published: 2002
Genre: Memoir

I have read some scathing reviews about  Stuffed, and must say that as accurate as some are in their take on Ms Volk's memoir of her family's restaurant business, there are still some elements worth reading. Personally, I enjoyed reading about some of the misadventures of her family in their restaurant business; about the eccentric aunts and uncles; the family history - all of it. Yes, without a doubt she does write too enthusiastically about even the less than admirable characters, and still manages to find something redeeming in all of them, but it is her family memoir and she has chosen to remember it as she wishes. Writer's prerogative and all that.
I read this in less than a week, much of it on the train during my commutes back and forth. It was entertaining, and funny.
I recommend it, but with a warning that Ms Volk's admiration for her family, warts and all, may come across as either too contrived or boastful. For me it made for entertaining reading about a more than ordinary family life.

Wheeling it through Prague.

We decided that exploring other slightly off-the-tourist-trail paths was required during our stay. So we succumbed to the sales pitch of the Segway guide and booked a tour for early Saturday morning. He arrived at out hotel before 11am - gave us our ten-minute tutorial, ran through the safety guidelines, and we were good to go. My son, who is eight and had has his fill with 'walking' Prague was overjoyed.
 It was the first time I has tried the Segday rides, and I would most definitely recommend them for any city that allows it. It took us away from the sites we had already seen, and added an entirely different perspective to our sight-seeing. We started with the John Lennon wall in Lesser Town; moved on to get a viewpoint from high above the city up Petrin Hill, one of Prague's greenest spaces; through the Rose Garden; past the Stefanik Observatory, named after Milan Rotislav Stefanik - astrologer and pilot. Then made our way to Strahov Monastic Brewery where we sampled the local beer. We then made our way down again after a highly interesting tour with a very enthusiastic guide.

Gastronomy in Prague: Ginger & Fred

Having recently written about Frank Gehry's newest architectural marvel in Paris, I was eager to see the building he has designed for the city of Prague, and as it so happened, the restaurant we had chosen for lunch is located in a building designed by him.  I have decided that the next exhibit I see will have to be at the Pompidou Centre where there's a current exhibition on Frank Gehry. I may as well take it all in while there's still all this attention on him.

Ginger & Fred is on the seventh floor of this Gehry building in Old Town. Oddly, no signs reveal its location. The charming young lady at the reception asked where we were headed before directing us to the seventh floor. Oddly mysterious. Very spy movie-like, given that we were in a city where most spy movies seem to be set.

The restaurant was a lovely surprise given the austere building and its minimalistic interior decor of the grey, beige and white colour palette.

Exploring Old Town, Prague - A Photo Tour

Exploring Prague's Old Town was a morning filled with the sights and sounds of a truly vibrant city. Armed with our list of places to visit, we headed out early to avoid other tourists. We walked along the famous Charles Bridge, so named because it was commissioned by King Charles IV in 1357. It is a cobble-stoned pedestrian bridge that spans the Vltava River and is a very important part of Prague's history. A sighting of the Astronomical Clock at the Old Town Square saw us competing with the hordes of people also out to do the same thing: view the hourly chiming of the clock with its moving figures, a marvel really, given that the mechanism dates back 600 years.

A photo journey inside the St.Nicholas Church, Prague

Described as one of the 'most impressive example of Prague Baroque ', the St. Nicholas Church  in Lesser Town Prague, is described in superlatives in almost every reference one reads. It is a beautiful church.
It dates back to 1703, but was built on a former parish church site that dated back to the 1300s. It is also the largest of Prague's churches founded by the Jesuits.
We took our time in this one, and you can see why.

On Prague Castle, the Changing of the Guard and...Starbucks

Fuelled on a huge breakfast, we decided to walk through the city and make our way towards Prague Castle, loftily situated up a winding road, and overlooking the city.
First off though, we spent an inordinate amount of time inside St. Nicholas Church - with some of the most impressive interiors of any church I have ever seen. From the frescoes to the statues, we took our time taking it all in. Who knew that spending time in a church would hold everyone's attention that much. The church is still used for masses, and the solemnity within probably explains why we didn't rush the visit.

A contemporary Eurasian feast in an old European city

Service: Excellent
Food: Excellent
Though admittedly the ambience could have been warmer, the impeccable service and scrumptious food more than made up for it. Dinner with the family last night, as we plotted what the rest of the weekend in Prague would entail, was a feast. Essensia at the Mandarin Oriental was a true delight.

On reading everything and not taking myself seriously

I am always scouring websites, blogs and newspaper articles on books - looking for recommendations by readers, writers, bloggers,...Oprah!
My FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is not socially-related, it is about the books. As a result I am plugged into everything to do with books. It is not just news about the new that holds my attention, it is also everything about the old. But lately I have grown rather weary of those lengthy lists drawn up by a somebody of the literary world, listing the books that one can read, tick off,  and comfortably declare themselves as well read after.

So in protest to what feels like mandated reading, I have been reading a lot of Young Adult (YA) fiction, and am loving it. It has taken off the pressure of having to read the 'serious' books, and by serious I mean high brow literary fiction that comes with literary awards - as opposed to teenage books about dystopic worlds that come with movie deals.

Books: FRANCE'S GOT TALENT by Peter Gumbel

Title: France's got Talent : The woeful consequences of French elitism
Author: Peter Gumbel
Published: 2013
Genre: Non-fiction

I have been sitting on this review for a while. Whilst I really enjoyed Peter Gumbel's book, in it giving me a whole new understanding of some of the workings of the french education system, it left me hungry for more.
Peter Gumbel writes of his experiences as the Communications director of Sciences Po, under the then director of the university Richard Descoings, who was a fire-brand and controversial anti-elitist figure. He covers the differences in teaching methods of french tertiary institutions and how they often do not allow for as much debate as say  American institutions; the hierarchical structure amongst the teaching staff; the elite nature of the Grand ´Ecoles and how they have been, are,  and will remain the breeding ground for France's ruling class. But moreover he points to the fact that the elitism in France is, by international standards, not normal.

Paris gets arty and controversial

Winter's finally come and with it enough art exhibitions to see us through to January. We have set our clocks back and are once again familiarising ourselves with the shorter days and longer nights. This is not my favourite season but I am approaching it with a positive attitude and  a fuller appreciation of what it can also offer.

Paris has been abuzz with all things art this last week. The annual contemporary art fair,  FIAC came to and end yesterday. American artist Paul McCarthy's controversial installation at Place Vendôme met its demise swiftly after Parisians decided that it had no place there, given its form - a view that was not supported by the artist, who defended it as... art, of course.

The art of tattoos at Musée du Quai Branly

There is an interesting array of shows and exhibitions currently on and upcoming at the Musée du quay Branly - making for a potentially busy autumn and winter. I quite enjoy the exhibitions at the MQB ,more so than at other museums because it showcases art and music of African, Asian and Oceanic origin, adding a bit of flavour to the extensive other museums which focus solely on European art. It has exhibitions that are always interesting for both children and adults alike.
I took my daughter to the Tatoueurs, Tatoués (Tattoists, Tattooed) exhibition. The exhibition is an extensive presentation of the world of tattooing from the Oriental, African, Oceanic and Western worlds; from the ritual to the purely decorative.

At various places around the exhibition are silicone models of body parts that have been used to illustrate some of the more detailed works of old and new artists. There are jars of preserved tattooed pieces of skin for the more gory sections, and some of the more basic tools used in past and present.

Books: QUIET: The Power of Introverts by Susan Cain

Title: QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Author: Susan Cain
Published:2012
Genre: Non-fiction

I am an introvert, or more accurately as I have recently discovered, an ambivert. I can fake it like an extrovert, but long before all the excitement of socialising and the exuberance of any highly stimulating environment wears off, I am quietly seeking a corner to recharge.

Reading Susan Cain's book was an eye-opener. It explained a lot about my own personality, and gave me more insight into my children's personalities. I am raising both an ambivert and a highly extroverted-introvert - my own term here because my son does not seem to fit into any of the moulds described. It was also the kind of book that I would normally not have read had the subject matter not been close to my heart. 

The author is herself a self-professed introvert, who defied all the introverted stereotypes by firstly attending Harvard Law School - described as  the most unsuitable place for introverts - and by further going on to become a Wall Street lawyer - a haven for all extroverts.

Wine pairing at the Brasserie Les 110 de Taillevent

On a random walkabout on Sunday, my husband and I, sans les infants, decided to detour for lunch to one of our favourite places, the brasserie of Les 110 de Taillevent.  Note: The restaurant of Les 110 is on rue Lamennais and serves more haute cuisine, with an ambiance more suitable for a more formal dining experience. The brasserie worked well on our casual detour for Sunday lunch. 

The 110 is the number of wines they have available on their menu - all for your pleasure. Theirs is an ingenious way of selling their products, their truly sublime food and their many and varied wines.

I enjoy going to restaurants that pair their food with wine, but it can be extremely overwhelming for an amateur wine lover when faced with too wide a variety. Les 110's concept makes the wine pairing experience a truly affordable and enjoyable experience.

NON! to school on Wednesdays

Photo: Lionel Bonaventure / AFP / Getty Images

French parents and teachers have been up-in-arms again about the government's  reforms to the education system. Not to a drastically changed school curriculum, but to the new system that means that the French scholarly weekly calendar will now be five days.

That age-old system that gave primary school French children Wednesdays off was done away with last year, causing quite a furore amongst teacher trade unions and the parents who felt that the longer school week would prove to be too disruptive to their little ones' lives.

HURRY DOWN SUNSHINE by Michael Greenberg

Title: Hurry Down Sunshine: A Father's Memoir of Love and Madness
Author: Michael Greenberg
Published: 2009
Genre: Memoir

I read this immediate after reading An Unquiet Mind and can definitely say it gave a different perspective to how privilege can earn one a safer place in the world amidst metal illness.
Whilst Jamison's account of her manic-depressive illness was cushioned by the stability of home and subsequently the safety of her medical world, Michael Greenberg's daughter in Hurry Down Sunshine has an entirely different experience. To be fair in making the comparison, Jamison's background made her steely in the face of her illness, and she did throughout her high school and undergraduate years deal with it on her own.

Street Art at the Panthéon

The powers that be of French Institutions did something surprising a couple of months again. The hallowed floors and ceilings of the Panthéon were opened by to the French photographer JR to play with as he wished. Shock, horror! "They let him do this?" was my daughter's incredulous response when she saw it. By this, she was referring to the large black and white photos of faces that have been used to cover the entire floor of the Panthéon and the ceilings below the dome. It looks amazing just because one realises that, this is after all the Panthéon that has its walls covered in this manner. Read the write up about it from the Huffington Post here.

A mausoleum that contains the remains of 73 distinguished French citizens, from writers to scientists. The crypt below holds the remains of the likes of Voltaire, Emile Zola,  and Marcellin Berthelot with his wife Madame Sophie Beethelot, one of only two women along with Marie Curie buried there. Marie Curie was the second woman buried there, but the first to be honoured for her own merits.

Books: AN UNQUIET MIND by Kay Redfield Jamison

Title: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
Author: Kay Redfield Jamison
Published: 1996
Genre: Memoir

Kay Redfield Jamison is an academic. She is, according to the bio in her book, a Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, who has written extensively about manic-depressive illness. She also suffers from the illness. I expected the book to read more like an academic text given the author's background. It does not. It is a candid piece of writing about a widely misunderstood illness from the viewpoint of someone who has, and continues to live it.

Gastronomy: The River Café - Issy-les-Moulineaux

La Rentrée is almost upon us yet again, which means the restaurants are reopening, the local boulangeries are reverting to their normal hours, and the streets are once again bustling as people prepare for their start of yet another year post their summer holidays.
It has been a pleasure during the last couple of weeks being able to just turn up at restaurants - for those that remained open - and get a table. The River Café was one such treat. We made reservations, but on arrival it was clear that there was no real need to have bothered. The restaurant was nearly empty when we arrived but but the time we left, the tables had filled up substantially.
It's out of the way - it was my first foray into Issy-les-Moulineaux - but well worth the trip out there.

Books: INDIGO by Catherine McKinley

Title: Indigo:  In search of the colour that seduced the world
Author: Catherine McKinley
Published: 2011
Genre: Memoir

Catherine McKinley writes of her Scottish heritage, and the use of the colour indigo in the tartans of her people. She deftly links it to her African heritage and the indigo in fabrics that she'd seen, namely her introduction to the indigo-dyed fabrics of West Africa.
Her search for the fabrics that are steeped in the historically lucrative dye takes her across eight West African countries - all sponsored by a  Fulbright Scholarship.

Monumenta 2014: The Strange City

This year The Grand Palais has invited Russian artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov to exhibit at the annual Monumenta exhibition. The nave of the Grand Palais is an enormous space to work with and to curate an exhibition that can effectively make use of its grand volumes. Previous artists have done it fairly well. This year's 'Strange City' installation has been partitioned off into various parts, taking the visitor through a journey of differently-themed sections, each meant to inspire introspection into the human condition.

Places: Parc Zoologique de Paris

After renovations that lasted four years, the Paris Zoo finally re-opened its doors again last month. I took my son and a friend last Friday.
We had pre-booked our tickets online to avoid long queues but it was a surprisingly quiet day.
The zoo has undergone a €164 million overhaul which has turned it into a theme park-like space that's been sub-divided into five biozones: Madagascar, Amazon-Guyana, Europe, Patagonia and the Sahel-Sudan - the single largest area in the zoo, and home to the animals of the African Savannah. We saw all of the big cats but missed out on the white rhino though - which was of particular interest to the boys because of it endangered status.
The zoo has been completely rebuilt and now looks less like your average zoo, and more "like Jurassic Park", as my son put it.

Books: RED INK by Angela Makholwa

Title: Red Ink
Author: Angela Makholwa
Published: 2007
Genre: Fiction

In a word: gripping. I love watching the TV show Criminal Minds, and reading Red Ink was like watching an extended show of it. Angela Makholwa writes boldly about the violence that is at the centre of her crime novel. She's descriptive and does not shy away from the details of the blood and gore. In the same way that I cannot turn away from Criminal Minds, I could not stop reading.

Books: THE HAPPINESS PROJECT by Gretchen Rubin

Title: The Happiness Project
Author: Gretchen Rubin
Published: 2009
Genre: Memoir

I finally read Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project. It has been on my kindle for a while, but I felt that it would have been a better read in paperback - but in the same breath I could not bring myself to pay for a paperback copy having already downloaded the ebook. It is one one of the most useful and enjoyable books I have read this year.
It is part memoir, part self help. The author spent a year exploring what is is that makes people happy and testing out whether putting into practice some of her readings could help her become happier. I know, it sounds all really navel-gazing and very much like a self help book. It wasn't any of those. Not really. Rubin has researched her subject extensively and takes some esoteric philosophical debates and breaks them up into digestible chunks to be applied to your everyday life.

# Bring Back Our Girls

The tweet that started the online campaign for Nigeria's government to take action, and bring home the more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram militants on April 14 finally has the World talking.
In praise of social media, the petition has now overshadowed reports on the wars in Central Africa and Syria, and the crisis in the Ukraine. Finally the World is paying attention.
Emboldened by the inaction of the Nigerian government, the militants have acted with impunity once again and abducted eight more girls.
This story is heartbreaking in more ways than one can imagine: not just in the families' frustration over the government's  lack of active response, but in the future that these girls face if they are not found. Adding my voice in one small way to a petition that needs the World's action.

Books: AMERICANAH by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Title: Americanah
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Published: 2013
Genre: Fiction

I have been sitting on this review for a while. Writing it feels like being unfaithful in some way. Here goes: I was disappointed. I loved every single one of Chimamanda Ngozi's books. A friend gave me a copy of Purple Hibiscus when it was first published, and since then I have read and re-read the stories in The Thing Around Your Neck; have sunk my teeth into Half of a Yellow Sun - eagerly waiting for its release now that Biyi Bandele has had the genius to make a movie of it; and like everyone else that is a fan of Adichie, I eagerly anticipated the release of Americanah - especially since it promised to also tackle that 'hair issue'.

French May Day Blues

My muguet and a single rose are on the dining room table in water, thanks to hubby. He was out early this morning and came back bearing gifts and bonheur - happiness. The selling of flowers, without a permit, is permitted to the general public only on this day. It is a tradition, along with the marches around the world on this International Worker's Day.

I was watching the France24 debate and once again astounded at the conflict the French go through each time one of their large national conglomerates fails - thus requiring being sold off to another (often foreign) conglomerate - and the debates that this raises each time.  Business reason and good economic sense fail and instead make room for a sentiment of nationalism based entirely on the nostalgia of an economic power of yesteryear, what one analyst called a form of "nostalgianomics".

Solitude for Gabríel Garcia Márquez

I have yet to meet anyone that does not profess to loving One Hundred Years of Solitude, and to follow it up with how 'Márquez's magic realism brought Latin American to the world.' It was,  when I was in my 20s, a literary rite of passage for those that aspired to be well read. Well, I confess: I still have to read it.
It has been on my reading list for years, and like Ben Okri's The Famished Road, I just cannot read and finish it. Maybe it's just me and magic realism. But with 2014 being the year I read everything, One Hundred Years of Solitude has just crept up the reading list - nothing like the death of what the world calls a brilliant writer to suddenly make one seek out a piece of their work - or in this case, a Nobel Prize-winning piece of their work - if only to understand what the world has been talking about all these years. Gabríel Garcia Márquez, or 'Gabo' as he was affectionately known throughout Latin America, was a prolific writer. Colombia and his adopted Mexico, together with the world mourned the loss of a remarkable writer on April 17, 2014.

Happy 20th Anniversary South Africa!

Today marks the 20th Anniversary of South Africa's first democratic election of April 27, 1994. South Africans will go to the polls once again on May 7 to cast their ballots in the fifth democratic election of the country. By all standards, the country is still a young democracy. In just two decades it has changed from being a country with a legally mandated national policy of racial oppression to one that is transitioning to being inclusive and representative of its diverse people.

I have been watching  BBC's South Africa Direct series and Working Lives shows which have been covering the country - presenters have been meeting and interviewing South African's from all walks of life, discussing the social and economic issues with captains of industry, average working and middle class South Africans, and my all time favourite population sub-group: the 'Born Frees'.
This is a term used to refer to the generation of young South Africans who were born after 1994. They are the ones who will be voting for the very first time this year. The are the ones who did not grow up under apartheid, and the ones who see a South Africa of possibilities, no matter the colour of their skin. That on its own is something to celebrate.

Despite progress made in the past twenty years, the challenges of high unemployment , rising inequality, stagnant economic growth rates, and persistent industrial action in the mining sector remain at the forefront of economic and political debate for this democracy that is still in its nascent stage. Disappointment in progress that has not happened fast enough; anger for slow service delivery to the poor; despondency in a government that has not changed the lives of many; and in equal measure  determination to be a part of the change will be all the emotions that will decide voter choices next month at the polls.

Today however,  for South Africans across the country and in the diaspora, marks the day South Africa truly became a nation free to all. Happy Freedom Day South Africa!

Books: THE WIFE by Meg Wolitzer

Title: The Wife
Author: Meg Wolitzer
Published: 2003
Genre: Fiction

The Wife opens with Joan Castleman making the decision to leave her husband, Joe while en route to Helsinki where he is to be honoured with the Helsinki Prize, a literary award which is the culmination of what he has worked for all his life. Meg Wolitzer takes the reader through the lives of Joe and Joan: from Joan's days as a freshman at Smith. She goes on to have an affair with his professor, Joe. His marriage crumbles, his wife leaves him, taking their baby son with him. Joe and Joan move in together - while he attempts to write the great American novel, she works, supporting his writing dream and in the process abandoning her own writing ambitions. They raise their children, she works, she edits his writing, and ultimately writes his books for him, and he gets the accolades while she plays the dutiful wife by his side.

Hidden delights at Le Kaïku, St Jean-de-Luz, France

I made reservations early and we apparently got the last table for four. Who would have thought that St. Jean-de-Luz, a small fishing town would require advance booking for their restaurants. It is a 15 minute drive from Biarritz, and like the other small towns in the region - St. Jean-de-Luz also had its own charm.
We walked around the bustling, cobbled streets, and slowly made our way to Le Kaïku. It is hidden away - a step or two below the pedestrian path, with a small sign and menu board outside, which is so obscure you'd probably walk past it.
Again, not a huge restaurant - but one with an open kitchen and a clientele that ranged from young couples, to more mature couples and young families in between. The restaurant only serves one seating at lunch - and I cannot count the number of people that were turned away.

Sundowners at Le Comptoir du Foie Gras, Biarritz France

One of the things we delighted in was the local custom of saving those few hours before the sun sets for tapas and sundowners. Around 7pm, the tables outside most restaurants came out onto terraces, or pavements and were quickly populated with people.  Le Comptoir du Foie Gras served up foie gras with its perfectly chilled bottles of rosé.
'A hole in the wall' my husband called it. A bit, but not quite. The tables are barrels that have been placed randomly around the bar counter.

Les Rosiers, Biarritz France

As if the Basque region had not been a gourmande's delight all on its own, we found yet another gem in Biarritz where we had one of the finest meals at  Les Rosiers.
It is not on the tourist trail in the city, it was a bit of a drive from our hotel. Hidden away in the residential non-descript part of Biarritz, this was a gem of a place. Small, with an approximate seating for twenty. The service was excellent, the food was excellent, and en plus, the chef - whose feet I was ready to kiss after our meal - came out and made the tour around the restaurant meeting the patrons. It was a great evening, served up with genuine smiles and bonhomie. 

Exploring Espelette & tasting Basque cuisine, France

We hired a car and decided to explore a bit further beyond Biarritz. I have always been curious about the the town Espelette - a curiosity fed by references to the spice produced in that area: piment d'Espelette. The spice is not fiery as one would expect from a chilli product - but has the mildness of cayenne pepper.
The town is a 30 minute scenic scenic drive from Biarritz, and has built its entire tourism around the production of its peppers, which are harvested, hung up to dry outside houses and celebrated in a festival d'Espelette in October. We walked around the town, bought the local produce which comes in the form of dried spice, salt flakes, jam, jelly and every condiment from mustard to olive oil. The signs in Espelette, as in many of the small town around this region are in the Basque language, and you will spot the Basque cross on everything from the linen, to the ubiquitous souvenir merchandise, as well as the green, red and white of the Basque flag.

Sea, Surf and Espadrilles - A photo tour in Biarritz

There is a fairly laid back attitude among the locals in Biarritz, almost typical of most towns with a high community of surfers. We walked around discovering little corners of the town. It is not a big town, and the community spirit amongst the locals was a refreshing change from the brusqueness of the Parisians.
Every other store tempted with delights of some Basque delicacy, or pastry - leaving us with no choice but to get into the spirit of things. So we stopped at Pariès and sampled the mouchons - a type of macaroon; the owner of the 'Real Chocolate' store plied us with his piment d'espelette-flavoured nougat; Maison d'Adam - which is a famous pastry shop specializing in Basque macaroons and the delightful Basque cake became our go-to place for their takeaway goodies - we returned again, and again in the week we we there.

Eating at the fishermen's port at Chez Albert, Biarritz

A five hour TGV trip from Paris to Biarritz, a walk around the town for an hour or so, and we were ready for dinner just after sunset. Reservations were made by the hotel concierge at Chez Albert, and for a change I went in blindly. I have written often about striking a balance between well-rated, as per  Trip Advisor or in Michelin Guides traveller tips, and local knowledge when it comes to picking restaurants in places foreign. I let the concierge be the local knowledge in this case, or more simply the one who refers all hotel guests to Chez Albert. Who knows?  As we left the hotel though, I did a quick search on Chez Albert and read some positive reviews.
A friendly host and a menu of mainly seafood dishes, with traditional Basque dishes. I have made it a point to sample some of the traditional culinary delights of Basque cuisine while we're here, but on this night I kept it simple, sticking with the catch of the day of a roasted Saint-Pierre served with vegetables. Their paëlla looked and tasted just average - although I must admit I am not such a fan of this dish -  too much of everything in one dish for my liking.

Books: THE TRINITY SERIES by Fiona Snyckers

Title: Trinity Rising  &  Trinity On Air
Author: Fiona Snyckers                      
Genre: Fiction                                    
Published: 2009  &  2010

The first two books, in a series of three written by Fiona Snyckers were meant to be my holiday reading. I finished them in two days, before the Spring break. I could not put them down. They were hilarious. The protagonist Trinity Luhabe, is a young 'born free' South African about to begin her first first year at Rhodes University. Even though her father is a former Robben Island prisoner and anti-apartheid activist, and her mother a former activist and social worker,  "Trinity Luhabe is so over the whole Robben Island thing."

Books: FASTING, FEASTING by Anita Desai

Title: Fasting, Feasting
Author: Anita Desai
Genre: Fiction
Published: 1999

I enjoyed Fasting, Feasting enough to finish it but can't really say it is was one of my favourite reads. Anita Desai weaves her story around an Indian family with three children - all three of whom represent the family's ambitions in some way.
Uma, the eldest is unmarried, clumsy and not particularly bright. The author describes her hunger for knowledge, and her attempts at being scholarly - but it is apparent that her thirst for knowledge is probably that of a spiritual kind. For this her aunt Mira-Masi, a widow and a rather odd character becomes Uma's guide. She encourages Uma's search for spiritual knowledge, inviting her for spiritual retreats and ashrams, much to Uma's parents' discouragement.

Tea break at Le Café Kousmichoff

Not quite high tea, but good enough. I met a friend, who is a very good designer and photographer, for tea this morning. It ended up being lunch at Kusmi Tea on the Champs-Elysées. I've walked passed the Kusmi Tea store  a few times but only recently learnt that this is their flagship store in Paris, and en plus, that there is a tea house with a terrace beyond the colourful tea canisters displayed in the store.
It does not have the old world feel of Mariage Frères with its wood panelled interiors and that slightly sultry feel to it. In fact Le Café Kousmichoff  is just the opposite - bright decor, Havana-inspired (or is it communist-era inspired?) prints on the wall and an interesting mix of old school black and white photographs. I 'turned tourist' on the waiters and went about taking pictures here, there and everywhere as they tried to get our orders.
As per the blurb at the back of the menu: "Café Kousmichoff offers Franco-Russian fare which is a tribute to the history of Kusmi Tea founded in St.Petersburg in 1867 by Pavel Kousmichoff and established in Paris since 1917."

History lessons in Bayeux, Normandy

"A wealth of history can enrich us"  

This trip was an entire history lesson wrapped up in a holiday. A visit to the Normandy D-day Beaches was long overdue, and as much as we did not see even a fraction of the numerous historial sites that commemorate the Second World War around this area - we saw enough to come out of it more knowledgable than we had been.
If you do go, be prepared to visit  a very small town. You can probably walk the length and breadth of Bayeux in two hours. Its entire tourism is managed around the famous Bayeux Tapestry and its War Museums. Bayeux was the first city to be liberated during the Normandy D-Day landings of 1944. It was also the only city that was not destroyed during the German bombings.

Finding Wanderlust at the Cité de la Mode et du Design

When Wanderlust - that is the venue - opened in Paris two years ago, a friend was quick to let me know that: "They've taken your blog name!" Not quite, but my photoblog Wanderlust in PARIS is very similar to Wanderlust's site name: Wanderlust Paris, so a lot of traffic gets directed to that blog. Good for me I suppose, not so much if you're searching for the hippest, coolest place to dance the night away in Paris and you land on a photoblog.

Mont St. Michel revisited - A photo tour

The Spring school holidays are almost upon us, and I just got around to organising all the pictures taken during the last school break. Better late than never.
It was Normandy, once again, with a visit to Le Mont St. Michel and a few days spent in Bayeux. This felt like an entirely new trip for me - if you recall the last trip to Normandy passed in a bit of a haze.

This time, we spared time for a tour of the Mont St. Michel Abbey, we had the famous agneau pre-salé at a hotel restaurant - Mont St. Michel is not exactly a gastronomic heaven, barring one or two places - and we ticked off this historic place as definitely done and fully experienced.

A promenade along les Berges de Seine

A couple of weekends ago, looking for a bit of inspiration on what to get up to on a Sunday afternoon, I thought a walk and lunch along the banks of the Seine would do it. Les Berges are deemed the coolest place to hang out and a definite hot area for the young and old alike. Following on the advice of Hip Paris blog and others I plied my children out  of the house with promises of some really cool places along the Seine, and great places to have lunch. Let's just say the marketing exercise by the city of Paris has been a wondrous success.

The economics of a foreign language

The Economist recently published an article on a study about the worth of a foreign language. To briefly summarize: the overwhelming negative listed against the better decision-making and cognitive development positives was an underwhelming 2% premium on earnings to Americans - with French, Spanish and English earning different premiums.

This had me thinking about my experience with speaking a foreign language in a foreign country.

These days the words flow easier. I no longer phrase, re-phrase and edit my sentences, silently trying them out in my head before I blurt them out. I am not yet dreaming in French, but I am at least thinking in it - there is less mangling of my articles and verbs, and an easier switching from English to French. On some days I do not have the energy to conjugate the conditionnel and on others the  plus-que-parfait just stumps me.  

Speaking a foreign language requires energy, significant alertness and constant levels of concentration. On the good days I am like the language Energizer bunny, on others, Franglais (a convenient mix of French and English words) flows easier off my tongue, and on the worst days I speak in perfectly enunciated English only.

Thirteen years ago, in the early days of the opening up of Europe when foreigners were still viewed with much suspicion, my English-accented French was grudgingly tolerated; these days speaking English earns me better service than it did back then. Sales people are more tolerant of my average French, and even quicker to make the switch to English. Sparing me further embarrassment or saving their language? I still haven’t figured out which one it is.

Government officers are not as easily won over though, but I have also learnt that when dealing with civil servants, start with your best French; maybe use a sprinkling of Franglais –and even then only if you’re truly stuck – but never, ever use English. They are still as quick to dismiss you if you flaunt your foreignness by not using their language.

The good service I get is all a matter of economics. I represent the expat, but not the immigrant. Fact is, no matter where you are in the world, that distinction earns you a certain kind of treatment. I am not here to steal jobs from the French, or burden the country’s social services. If anything I inadvertently wield potential spending power. That is what earns me better service, not my engaging personality. Knowing this, I am happily playing along to the script: I greet in and exchange niceties in French, make a few enquiries in some light Franglais, and then make my switch to English, all depending on how quickly and efficiently I want to be served. Speaking a foreign language carries quite the premium for me in France, and for now I am milking it for all it’s worth.

This article was initially published on African Writing blogs as "Why speaking English gets me better service in most places in France."

On local politics and cabinet reshuffles

Out with the old, in with the new.         Photo: www.dw.de

After his Socialist Party's crushing defeat at the polls this past weekend, The Hexagon's President, François Holande was quick to make like other past Presidents of the Republic: fire the right hand man. So Jean-Marc Ayrault is out, and Manuel Valls is in as the new Prime Minister.
Debates abound on whether Marine Le Pen's anti-Euro, anti-immigration National Front Party poses a real problem to a left-leaning France or whether the high abstention rates of French voters - at a new historic low of 53% -  is the real concern. There have been only two new appointments: Ségolène Royal  as Ecology Minister and Manuel Valls; and a number of reshufflings, all of which have made the evening news debates a lot more interesting.

France's new ecology minister.Photo source: AP/ Patrick Kovarik

The real people to watch though are Michel Sapin, who takes over the Finance portfolio, and Arnaud Montebourg who was named Economy Minister  - a portfolio that now includes industry and the digital economy. Manuel Valls may have been given the responsibility of 'managing' the country under the President, but it's the appointment of these two - the ones taking over the helm of France's economy that are under the most pressure.
They will have to steer an economy suffering through its highest unemployment rate at 11%, a slowing growth rate, an extended recession, and a leadership that is seen as either reluctant or unable to implement change. Bonne chance to them!