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Anne-Marie Simons

Reading suggestions for our 2017 France tour

April 15, 2017 by Patricia Sands 5 Comments

If it’s Friday, it must be France …

 

 

Our 2017 women’s tour of Provence is just weeks away! I know the time will fly by and can’t wait to greet the sixteen women when they arrive in Nice on June 6. Our beautiful Hotel Beau Rivage, is just out of this photo to the left. The vieille ville (old town) and colourful daily market are located there as well, footsteps away. So this will be our ‘neighbourhood’ for six days before we move on to Avignon for another six days of exploring the countryside of pastoral Provence. Lavender will be in bloom!

One of the great features of this tour is that we only move once. From our base hotels, we have wonderful day trips with well-trained guides and bus drivers. My friend, author Susan Sommers, and I are along to ensure that everyone is happy and organized every day. We have the best time!

I recently sent some reading suggestions to the group in advance of their arrival in France and I thought I would share the books with you too. You may well be familiar with the titles as they are favourites of mine that I frequently recommend. Enjoy!

 

Click here for Kristi’s book.

Click here for Ted’s book.

Click here for Anne-Marie’s book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you love the south of France like I do, you would enjoy reading all of these books too.

Of course, #PeterMayle is the writer who began it all … back in 1991! Click here for A Year In Provence.

Whether you are preparing to visit France or not, you will find hours of reading pleasure in these books!

 

 

Of course we’ll be visiting many of the beautiful locations written about in the Love in Provence series. Most of the women on our tours have read the stories of Katherine’s adventure in France and it’s great fun to experience their enthusiasm as we visit the special places they have discovered in the books. Antibes is a highlight!

 

 

Where have you taken vacations in books? And did you actually visit those places at another time? 

 

 

 

Joyeuses Pâques~Happy Easter~Chag Sameach~Passover Wishes ~ et bon weekend to all???

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Filed Under: Blog, France, General Travel, If it is France..., Uncategorized, Writing Tagged With: Anne-Marie Simons, books, France, Kristin Espinasse, Love In Provence, Patricia Sands, Peter Mayle, Provence, Susan Sommers, Ted Jones, travel

From a heart in France …

January 17, 2015 by Patricia Sands 7 Comments

If it’s Friday, it must be France …

From author/blogger/friend Anne-Marie Simons in Aix-en-Provence, her response to last week’s tragic events in France as reported on her excellent blog Provence Today.  Although the events of the past week have brought an end to this particular crisis, this was her emotional, poignant and informative response.

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Anne-Marie Simons in Aix-en-Provence

 

Her post begins:

If I were more computer-savvy this blog would be bordered in black today. As it is, the black borders remain virtual but the mourning does not as France is reeling from two attacks by Islamic extremists this week, leaving 17 dead and a number of wounded.

Please click on this link to read the remainder of the post. Merci mille fois …

~~~~~

Thanks for joining me today. If you like today’s post, please use the share buttons below. It all helps!

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Filed Under: Blog, France, If it is France..., News, Social issues, Writing Tagged With: Aix-En-Provence, Anne-Marie Simons, blog, Charlie Hebdo, France, Je suis Charlie

Truffle season begins!

November 14, 2014 by Patricia Sands 12 Comments

If it’s Friday, it must be France …

In France, for certain enthusiasts, the celebration this week will be all about musky-smelling, subterranean fungi … truffles.

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On November 15, the historic walled town of Richerenches, will open its famous market for black truffles, the largest in France, with the proclamation of le Ban des Truffes. This official opening of the market by members of the Brotherhood of Black Diamond and Gastronomy, begins the truffle season which lasts until at least March. Foodies around the world rejoice!

Photo credit - Richerenches, Bureau de Tourisme
Photo credit – Richerenches, Bureau de Tourisme

Truffle sellers often work out of the back of their cars and vans around the corner from the regular market with sellers and buyers from restaurants and other agents, negotiating prices and making deals. If you know your truffles (often referred to as black diamonds), you are welcome to join in!

book-cover-small-1My friend, author and journalist Anne-Marie Simons, has an excellent chapter on the subject in her book Taking Root in Provence.

I wrote about Anne-Marie and her husband, Oscar, in a blog post a while ago. Great examples of being possibilitarians (my favourite word, as you know), wait until you read what Oscar does now! They retired to Aix-en-Provence in 1998 and began a fabulous new chapter in their lives. If you haven’t read Taking Root In Provence, I highly recommend it!

Click here for the link! It’s also available in paperback.

A while ago I was delighted to hear from the owners of Les Pastras.0_0_0_0_230_346_csupload_49165624

Johann and Lisa Pepin, are a Franco-American couple who left their corporate careers in Chicago to take over the Pepin family vineyard in the south of France in 2003. They wrote me about living their dream and I was instantly intrigued. Here’s a bit of information from their website and I think you will want to know more too.  At this time of year, truffle-hunting forays are the highlights.

“Our 11 hectares produce grapes, olives, apricots, cherries, plums, apples, pears, pomegranates, figs, almonds, hazelnuts and black winter truffles. We offer truffle-hunting tours of the property when in season. Tours include a sampling of fresh truffle hors d’oeuvres, Champagne and a taste of our organic Les Pastras olive and truffle oil.

Fine food enthusiasts can adopt a tree at Les Pastras and receive a yearly shipment of olive oil or truffles. The perfect gift! Visitors can even choose their own tree during their truffle-hunting tour.

And for every tree adopted, Les Pastras buys a fruit tree for the One Family orphanage in Haiti.”

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How cool is that? With the gift-giving holidays just around the corner, how about an olive tree for the person on your list who has everything? My late father-in-law gave us this as a gift a few years ago and it was so much fun to receive our delivery of oil, we kept adopting for several years!

There is an excellent article about Johann and Lisa in The Good Life France along with all their important links. Go on over there and read it, you’ll be glad you did!

How do you feel about truffles? Have you ever tasted them? Are you a fan? Would you adopt an olive tree or give one as a gift?

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Filed Under: Blog, France, General Travel, If it is France..., Writing Tagged With: Anne-Marie Simons, Les Pastras, Patricia Sands, Richerenches, Taking Root In Provence, truffles

Taking Root in Provence

August 23, 2014 by Patricia Sands 15 Comments

If it’s Friday, it must be France …

9.window Aix-en-Provence

Just over a year ago, Anne-Marie Simons and her husband, Oscar, were featured on my blog.  Hop on over there to learn more about this charming couple and read an excerpt from Taking Root in Provence.

Anne-Marie is, among other things writerly, the author

book-cover-small of Taking Root in Provence, a delightful non-fiction book about life in France. If you haven’t read it and you love France as much as I do, you will enjoy the vignettes. They are charming, informative and often hilarious! True snapshots of Provençal culture acquired since Anne-Marie and Oscar settled in Aix-en-Provence in 1998.

Anne-Marie is also a journalist and her blog, Provence Today, keeps readers up to date on the latest news in France with her keen, unbiased observations.

Since I returned from France in July, I’ve shared a few posts about other writers in France you might like to follow. You can click right here to go to links to Claire McAlpine, Margo Lestz and Kristin Espinasse.

One of the aspects of travel that I love is the opportunity to meet people in person after knowing them only online. After our plans to meet in 2013 didn’t work out, Anne-Marie and I finally had a chance to sit down together at Le Grillon in Aix-en-Provence on June 30 this year. It was great fun and just too short a time! Hopefully we’ll be able to do it again next summer!

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Summer is flying by! What are your special plans? Meeting up with friends? Take some time and just do it …

Come and join me on Facebook on Monday, August 25th for the COVER REVEAL  of my new novel, Promises To Keep. Just click right here. Release day is coming up too on August 29th! More on that next week. 

In case you haven’t heard, The Promise of Provence is specially priced at $.99 this week. Really! Click right here today. We want to make sure everyone has a chance to read it before Promises To Keep is published. Kat’s adventure in the south of France continues!

Bon weekend, tout le monde! 

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Filed Under: Blog, France, General Travel, If it is France..., Writing Tagged With: Aix-En-Provence, Anne-Marie Simons, cover reveal, Patricia Sands, Promises To Keep, Taking Root In Provence

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