April showers, April flowers, April produce that sings “spring”… As everyone knows April is the month in Paris, Paris when “thrill” rhymes with “chill” (okay, I’m quoting from my own book and will stop).
Spring greenery: fresh tender baby peas, artichokes, asparagus… fresh fruit from the four corners of the globe (sorry about that locavores but Paris is north of Montreal and we don’t get much to eat if we don’t ship it in)
This is also the month of miraculous metamorphoses, the transfiguration or transmogrification of all those chocolate Easter bunnies: what happens to the unclaimed, the unsold, the unwanted, the uneaten rabbits? Tune in again soon to see… waste not, want not, and when it comes to precious chocolate the famously parsimonious Parisians are very very careful–and creative.
April is swell, but May flowers will also be abundant this year, since the April showers are thorough and pleasantly cleansing. We’ll be elsewhere in May: in Chicago, the SF Bay Area and New York City.
Why? Great events!
For one thing… a month-long photo show in Chicago at the Chicago Photography Center, featuring Alison Harris’s B&W photographs of an abandoned 19th-century theater in Italy. Aptly named “Chiaroscuro” the show is about light and shadow, the timelessness of time, the lightness of darkness, and the darkness of light. That’s me palavering lightheartedly, not Alison.
Alison will also give a lecture about still-life photography. Click for info about Chiaroscuro
Concurrently, we’ll be the guests of honor at a gala spring lunch with Chicago Gourmets at Charlie Trotter’s celebrated restaurant in Chicago, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the restaurant, Alison’s photo show and the 2nd anniversary of the 2011 edition of “Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light.” It came out with Random House in paperback and e-book format in April 2011 and has gone into its 6th reprint (that makes 9 printings all told so far, including the first edition). Click for info about Chicago Gourmets and bookings
Then it’s off to the San Francisco Bay Area and two more great events:
First up on Sunday May 13 “Paris in the Springtime” a lively, friendly conversation with renowned travel guru Don George at the fabulous Book Passage bookstore in Corte Madera (Marin County). That’s May 20. For info, click on the Events tab at the website (our event is going up on the website soon). Click for info about Book Passage events
Then on May 17 it’s “Springtime in Paris”–the other way around–at the Jewish Community Center in SF. I’ll talk about Paris as it lives in literature and fact at this glorious time of year, read from “Paris, Paris” and share the podium with two other writers whose books feature the City of Light. Click for info about the JCC SF evening and to reserve tickets
Finally, we’ll wing back east to New York. An event is in the making. As soon as it’s confirmed (or not) I’ll revise this or create a new post for May.
For now: happy April showers, April flowers, and bon voyage to “Paris, Paris”
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