Visit France

Early summer or late summer?

Don’t want to be there during the Tour de France. Maybe in August, when everyone disappears?

I’m a Francophile, but not in a pretending-I’m-French kind of way. Ever since I was a little girl – 8 or so – France and its language and its culture have seemed very natural to me. I picked up the language very quickly. I learned its geography. When I was in 9th grade I discovered French fashion and lifestyle magazines (and the concept of “French style”, which to me is the cleanest, simplest, most stylish style of all, the template upon which); when I was in later high school I discovered Judith Krantz and her depictions of Paris and the French countryside in novels like Princess Daisy and Mistral’s Daughter; in college I worked at a French bakery where it was required to be able to converse in French (both for the Francophiles who came in and for Gerard, the pastry chef) and when I was in my early thirties I discovered Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

I have since discovered other minutiae about France and its people, its gardens, and its history that made me realize I need to go see it. My parents couldn’t afford to send me there in high school (for a week – tough times in the 80s) and I dropped it as a minor in college. I’ve never been.

So now I am allowing myself to talk about going in summer 2008. The money is the object, so it’d only be for 9 days, but I’m going. Possible traveling companions include a good friend who just moved far away and my mother-in-law. I’m daring to dream and even… plan.