Colorado French Life Travel Writing & Books: Colorado French Life Travel Writing & Books
by maribeth
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Reflecting Upon Two Hundred Blog Posts
Clara, My Editorial Assistant
I happened to notice a few weeks ago that I was nearing two hundred blog posts. Jeez, I thought, I’d like to commemorate this momentous occasion! Two hundred stories in just over three years. I’d be kidding you if I said I never thought I’d have so much to write about. I was a chatty child and am an equally loquacious adult. This propensity for telling tales, recounting experiences and sharing information has hopefully translated well into my writing. It’s my wish that you find my stories fun, entertaining and informative.
It has been quite the journey. It seemed to take me forever to get Bonjour Colorado off the ground but once I did, I feel that as hard as it sometimes is to find time to “feed the blog,” I am hooked.
Initially, I felt a lot of inertia around the whole editing process—or lack thereof—with my blog. I authored four books with a major U.S. publisher where every word was viewed and reviewed by many sets of eyes. How could I publish something—albeit blog posts on the Internet—without it passing through a stringent editing process? Well, I do. And even though I go over every word I write countless times, it still takes a lot of letting go. I often remind myself that a friend once told me that the Navajos deliberately weave a flaw into their rugs, a concrete reminder that there’s no such thing as perfection, nor is it something we should strive for.
The whole tech aspect of creating a blog also held me back. Most of it I now manage pretty well; other aspects boggle me beyond belief. I’m an eighteenth century person living in the twenty-first century. Recently, however, I learned how to post podcasts of my Travel Fun radio show myself, so hooray for progress.
Art & Culture Food & Wine French Life French Provinces Girl Talk Paris Podcasts Romance & Relationships Travel: Art & Culture Food & Wine French Life French Provinces Girl Talk Paris Podcasts Romance & Relationships Travel
by maribeth
Comments Off on Elizabeth Bard Talks About Lunch in Paris, Love and Provence
Elizabeth Bard Talks About Lunch in Paris, Love and Provence
Elizabeth Bard
I don’t think there’s a woman out there that hasn’t dreamed about falling in love in Paris. C’mon, admit it to yourself. See, I told you—I’m sure you’ve allowed just a shred of this fantasy to play out in your head at least once in your life. Many women indulge themselves with full-blown visions of strolling hand-in-hand with a lover alongside the Seine or sharing a tête-à-tête in a cozy French bistrot over a savory coq au vin and a good Bordeaux with the man of her dreams. Others just allow a glimmer of a romance flash through their minds. I bet there are some men (those sensitive types!) that have thought wistfully about love in Paris as well. I may be biased but Paris is surely the most romantic city in the world.
What makes it so? Well, it would take a whole book to divulge that—the decor, the mood, the ambiance, the food and wine. Elizabeth Bard does just that in her book “Lunch in Paris: A Love Story with Recipes.” I found it to be a terrific read. And I know Paris, love and the whole bonne salade of it all. Elizabeth has done a wonderful job at describing the sights and tastes of the moveablefeast that is Paris. (I haven’t yet tried the recipes she shares, but they seem wonderful and quite easy which is actually what most French cooking is all about.) And of course, Elizabeth meets a love, a Frenchman, and we are swept into their lives like a tourist on a fourteen-day European tour. Fortunately she provides many opportunities for us to savor their moment as well.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Art & Culture Colorado French Life Music & Dance Telluride Telluride Festivals: Art & Culture Colorado French Life Music & Dance Telluride Telluride Festivals
by maribeth
Comments Off on Silence is Golden on Telluride Film Festival’s Silver Screens
Silence is Golden on Telluride Film Festival’s Silver Screens
Buster Keaton in “The General,” a 1920s American Silent Comedy
Who said silent films are a thing of the past? “The Artist,” an ebullient silent film depicting Hollywood during the roaring Twenties, generated quite the buzz this year at both the Cannes and Telluride Film Festivals. I missed it since I was away for most of this year’s festival in T-ride but hope to catch it after its November 23 release in movie theaters (likely art houses) across America. Directed by Michel Hazanavicius and starring Cannes Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin, leave it to the French to create and produce a silent film in the year 2011.
I was, however, able to catch “From Morning to Midnight,” a German silent film from the Twenties the last night of this year’s Telluride Film Festival, a showing made memorable by the accompaniment of the Alloy Orchestra. The film itself was rather macabre (dare I say very German?). But I was highly entertained nonetheless by watching and listening to the Alloy Orchestra, a Telluride Film Festival favorite that has been gracing this world-renowned festival with their presence for about two decades. This three-man musical ensemble has played the world, bringing silent films magically to life in such distinguished cultural centers as The Louvre, Lincoln Center, The Academy of Motion Pictures, the National Gallery of Art and more. If you ever have a chance to see them, seize it! This year was my first in the eight years I’ve been attending the Telluride Film Festival and I’ve become a huge fan.
Food & Wine French Life Girl Talk Shopping: Food & Wine French Life Girl Talk Shopping
by maribeth
Comments Off on Duking It Out with the Dukan Diet and Then Opting for Octavin
Duking It Out with the Dukan Diet and Then Opting for Octavin
Octavin: My Knight in Shining Armor
For some people one of the hardest things about dieting is giving up favorite foods such as chocolate, cheese and wine. Deprivation depresses me, but I was also feeling pretty bummed out about my tight pants and an emerging muffin top this past April. It seems totally unjust that by the end of each ski season my jeans can barely make it over my thighs and my butt feels like a little trailer albeit a more solidly-built one. But still.
No, you don’t see many skinny ski instructors. We feed on a steady supply of chili, pizza, French fries, hot chocolate and après-ski beers. You need that kind of fuel when you spend extended hours out in the cold. This year though I could tell the extra poundage was creeping up faster than ever before (must be that age thing!). My ski pants were so tight by early March that I began to feel like the Michelin man.
So around the time of the royal wedding—after having heard about Kate Middleton’s dieting success and after having consumed umpteenth celebratory scones—I decided to go on a diet. I, of course, opted for the Dukan Diet since that’s the one that allowed Kate to go down a whole dress size. Plus this much-talked about regime was created by Pierre Dukan, a Frenchman. I had tried the Montignac, another diet designed by a Frenchman, years ago when I lived in France. So I figured I owed it to my all-around French experience to attempt this one as well.
French Life French Provinces Paris Podcasts: French Life French Provinces Paris Podcasts
by maribeth
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Bonjour Paris Talks with Bonjour Colorado
View from Pont Alexandre III in Paris
Ah, Paree. There’s nothing like Paris. And it’s true, the City of Light can be delightful in April.
Karen Fawcett
But where does one begin? There’s so much to see and do in the French capital. And how about gaining more insight into zee French? I lived there eleven years, have written four shopping and touring guides to Paris and the French provinces, and I’m still looking to inform myself about France and its countrymen. So where do I turn for lots of helpful information and insightful stories about Paris and the French provinces? Why, BonjourParis.com, bien sur.
I interviewed Karen Fawcett, the driving force behind Bonjour Paris, this past fall on my Travel Fun radio show. Listen to our chat below to hear how Bonjour Paris has been the definitive guide to Paris since 1995. And the range and depth of their reporting doesn’t stop with Paris. (Although every bon parisien has believed for centuries that their fair city is the center of the universe. In truth, moi aussi for a while!) Thankfully Bonjour Paris gives the rest of France its due, another reason why this informative Web site has earned a leading presence on the worldwide web for all things French.
Karen is funny and insightful, so don’t miss this opportunity to hear more about this much-loved land from someone truly in-the-know.
Click to play the Bonjour Paris program
Thank you to DaliParis and Karen Fawcett for the above images.
Cycling French Life: Cycling French Life
by maribeth
Comments Off on From Girly-Girl to Tour Aficionado
From Girly-Girl to Tour Aficionado
Frenchified Tour Follower in T-ride
It’s been just over a week now that the Tour de France rolled into Paris on its final stage. If you’re at all like me, you may be feeling a bit of Tour withdrawal. Fortunately I’m in the throes of writing a book, a romantic adventure set in France (mais oui!), that also highlights the Tour de France. This way I’m on my bike and thinking about the dazzling peloton crisscrossing France most days, at least in my mind. So my Tour continues.
If you’ve read some of the recent posts in this blog, you may be wondering how such a super feminine gal became so hooked on this major sporting event. Well here’s the backstory.
I grew up with five brothers and no sisters. This meant I was destined to be either a tomboy or a priss. I became the latter. I learned French, how to tie a scarf and how to fix myself up with little visible effort put forth very early on. Eleven years of living in Paris followed. The die was cast, I had become a femme du monde of sorts, a well-traveled woman who valued the elegance and refinement a life in France has to offer.
Sports had little to do with my Parisian world; like most French women, I stayed in shape from all the walking I did in the French capital and by minimizing my portion sizes. The idea of watching any kind of a sporting event in person or on T.V. was considered by my then French husband (of noble descent) something for the masses. (Tuning into Rolland Garros, or the French Open, was acceptable, but anything else was for the most part considered plouc or hillbilly-like.)
Then I moved back to the States, discovered the thrill of road riding and met a super cyclist. I traded out my airy summer skirts and tops for an array of slick cycling jerseys and shorts, the same “silly” outfits I had seen many a Frenchmen squeezed into on Sunday rides in the French countryside.
I brought my bicycle and my American boyfriend on a trip to France and together we pedaled through the rich farmlands, the verdant valleys, the historic hilltop villages and the lush vineyards of my beloved adopted country that I had come to know so well. Yet from the seat of a bicycle I was able to embrace this glorious land in a much different way. My senses felt totally imbued with wonder and satisfaction as I crossed France’s vast fields of sunflowers, its neat rows of lavender, its bunches of grapes hanging from the vine, its Monet-esque meadows dotted with red dabbles of poppies. I readily encountered people as I passed through their villages, towns and hamlets at the tranquil pace I maintained cruising along on my bike.
Tuning into the Tour de France on T.V. seemed like a logical next step. By now I had come to know a fair amount about cycling: I understood that the sport required as much of a team effort as an individual achievement, I realized there was a certain hierarchy to be respected on each team and within the peloton and that it took great talent and lots of experience for one of those “young bucks” to become a top racer.
My American guy coached me about the sport both on and off the bike and I came to consider cycling one of the most demanding athletic feats on the planet. To me, the Tour de France, the grueling three-week bike race that takes place every July in France, seems like Wimbledon, the World Cup of Soccer and the Olympics all combined. Its international flavor also rivals the worldwide appeal of these other renowned sporting events and in the case of the Tour, the organizers put on a show that’s moved to some twenty different locales both in France and in bordering countries every day of the competition.
Enough of this jock talk. I’m a girly-girl, albeit a fairly sophisticated one. You can bet it’s the Tour’s pageantry, the awe-inspiring scenery, the beauty of the cyclists in their vibrant jerseys on their shiny, candy-colored bikes that thrill me the most. Seeing the peloton blow across vast stretches of rural France like a bright swath of Pierre Frey fabric flapping in the wind leaves me breathless. Then on the last day when they descend on Paris like a swarm of bees searching for a hive, I feel my heart quicken, my excitement mount as though I was seeing the City of Light for the first time.
All the years I lived in France, I never attended the final stage of the Tour de France on the Champs-Elysées. Ça ne se fait pas, or that’s not done, was the message that was conveyed to me by my very proper Frenchman. I never sought to explore the event on my own.
It took a move back to the States and a different perspective for that to happen. Here it’s somehow easier for me to be a fan of the Tour de France. It doesn’t mean I have to give up my girly-girl side either.
As I sit here and weave my impressions of this extraordinary event into my story, I replay the Tour’s excitement and pageantry over and over in my head. If you’re a Tour fan, I’m sure you’re doing some of that, too.
Relive Past Tours
Graham Watson, renowned photographer of the Tour de France for over thirty years, chatted with me in a Travel Fun interview. Hope you’ll take some time to listen to our conversation and/or read the story (and see some of his stunning photos)!
Art & Culture French Life French Provinces Hotels & Lodging Paris Podcasts: Art & Culture French Life French Provinces Hotels & Lodging Paris Podcasts
by maribeth
Comments Off on Oh Château Life!
Oh Château Life!
A Perfect French Summer Scene: Colza Fields Blanketing the Château de la Motte d'Usseau Landscape
If you’ve caught any coverage of the Tour de France, you’ve seen some glorious shots of the French countryside dotted with fairy tale-looking castles and elegant manor houses. Families still live in most of these impressive dwellings, many of whom have lived there for centuries. And even better, some of these families of long lineage open up their stately residences to visitors on a nightly or even weekly basis. (Yes, you can easily rent your own château in France for your destination wedding, family reunion or other exciting event.)
Château du Fraisse, A Grand Property Near Limoges
But how do you go about connecting with these people, some of whom may be just familiarizing themselves with the Internet? Enter Diane Ohanian, French château expert par excellence. Diane created au Château some ten years ago, a company and e-newsletter that dials Americans into château life in France. In my Travel Fun interview with Diane (and through her au Château Web site and newsletter), I’ve found her to be an incredible resource on French châteaux and on French life in general. As an ardent Francophile for more than two decades, Diane has made it her mission to suss out some of the most glorious and welcoming abodes in the gallic land. Indeed au Château is a great English-language resource for travelers looking to stay in historic places.
Room with a View at Château Sallandrouze and Many Other Châteaux
Click on the play button below to hear what Diane has to say about château life in France, French hosts and what she appreciates most about life in France. Hint: it has nothing to do with traffic jams and fast food.
Three châteaux have been featured in the above images including Château de la Motte d’Usseau, Château du Fraisse and Château Sallandrouze. (For Château Sallandrouze, please check with Diane directly at inquiry@au-chateau.com for this property’s availability.) Note that au Château boasts nearly eighty members on their site, so you have a variety of experiences to chose from in every corner of France.
Diane (on the left) with One of Her Hosts
Diane on the French as Hosts
“They’re excellent hosts, warm and friendly. The nobility is nice, too. Not at all condescending. I hope it’s not a disappointment when they (travelers) find out that they (the noble families) are like everyone else.”
Book Pick
“The Paris Neighborhood Cookbook: Danyel Couet’s Guide to the City’s Ethnic Cuisines,” by Danyel Couet and David Loftus
Listen to what Diane has to say about this book in the above interview.
Food & Wine French Life Shopping Telluride: Food & Wine French Life Shopping Telluride
by maribeth
Comments Off on Holidays and Every Day: Quality Not Quantity
Holidays and Every Day: Quality Not Quantity
Telluride’s Black Gold: Telluride Truffle Chocolate Truffle Sauce
I wish I had a dollar—or even a euro—for every time someone asked me how French women stay so thin. The most obvious answer is that they eat quality, not quantity. They also walk a lot, feel a certain societal pressure to remain slim and, of course, tend to be jazzed up on caffeine and alas, in many cases, cigarettes. If you’ve ever had a less-than satisfying meal, you know that that provokes cravings of something else. You’ll have that something else. And if you’re still not satiated, you’ll seek another something else. Typically people keep on eating until they consume something that tastes really good to them. I think this is a recurring theme in America.
I—like the French—prefer to eat well from the get go.
This is a big weekend we’re in the throes of, one loaded with greasy barbecue, mayonaise-enriched salads, lots of beer, gin and tonics, chips, brownies, gooey sheet cakes, you name it. Here in Telluride, we have one of the best Fourth of July celebrations in the country. It begins with an old-fashioned parade, followed by the Fireman’s picnic and a spectacular show of fireworks at dark. I’m already thinking ahead to my special treat: a hot fudge sundae from Telluride Truffle, topped with real whipped cream.
Yes, this is the first summer that Telluride Truffle is able to serve up delectable goodies from its own stunning sweet shop located in the heart of town. Patty Denny, owner and chocolatier extraordinaire of Telluride Truffle, opened this jewel box boutique at the end of last year in the historic Nugget Building (which once housed the first bank robbed by Butch Cassidy). Visitors and locals alike have been thrilled. You can stop in here for a box of truffles, a bag of cookies, a piece of cake, or a chocolate sundae to be enjoyed at home or sur place. Good news: you only need to delight in a small amount at any given time since the quality is so fine. I love this little touch of Paree in T-ride!
You can luxuriate in most of the Telluride Truffle products in your own home by ordering from their online boutique. Type in promo code BonjourFD2015 in the Redeem Coupon Box to receive your 10% discount as a BonjourColorado.com reader. You must try the Telluride Truffle Chocolate Truffle Sauce, but remember that a little goes a long way. Promise me you’ll spoon it over superior quality ice cream.
You know where I’ll be on the 4th—I hope your holiday is sweet and sparkly as well
Click on the play button below to hear Patty talk about chocolate and Telluride Truffle.
Telluride Truffle’s Mountain-Inspired Treats
