Patricia Sands

Author

The Good Life France

Gifts for everyone!

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

Félicitations! Kimberly V, you are the winner 41J9slR82iL._AA160_of a copy of Margo Lestz’s new release French Holidays and Traditions (Curious Histories Book 1).

There’s so much information in the book about how the French celebrate all year round, I know you will love it! Margo will be in touch with you to confirm the details.

Visitors won’t spend much time here on my page today. Instead, I’m giving you some super links that will keep you entertained for as long as you like.

First, I’m proposing you slip on over to my very favourite THE GOOD LIFE FRANCE where you can begin your reading pleasure with CHRISTMAS IN PARIS FROM YOUR ARMCHAIR! A nice pot of tea, a double expresso, or a glass of your favourite wine might be just the thing to go with this. Turn up some festive tunes, make yourself comfortable, put your feet up and let yourself be transported. Of course, as we know with TGLF, there’s no end to the enticing articles and photographs. I like to think of it as the gift that keeps on giving!

To set the mood, here are a couple of photos a friend sent me from Paris at Christmas two years ago.

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Next, you won’t want to miss this clever French Food Alphabet Advent Calendar series 15.IMG_9116Jacqueline Brown has going on The French Village Diaries.

For each day of Advent she is posting about different aspects of French regional specialities or her own favourites, including some great recipes.

Jacqui includes all sorts of interesting details and … you may be hearing it first right here, right now … I predict a book will come out of these posts! I sure hope so!

Last but not least,  a terrific new website about all things provençal can be found by clicking over to Perfectly Provence. They have some wonderful articles about Christmas in Provence. Don’t miss the excerpt from Taking Root in Provence, a wonderful book I often speak about here, written by Ann-Marie Simons.

Now this has nothing to do with the holidays but, also on Perfectly Provence … ta daaaa … they’ve posted an article about some of my experiences in France and how my love affair with Provence began! I hope you don’t mind me sharing it with you. There are all sorts of other good articles and I’ve already made Ginger & Nutmeg’s website a favourite of mine!

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Are you getting caught up in the spirit of the season? My warmest wishes to those who are celebrating Hanukkah this week.

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Let me introduce you …

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It it’s Friday, it must be France …

Bonjour! Another Friday and another opportunity to wax on about  reasons I love to spend time in France. Thanks for stopping by!

Two weeks ago I posted about finally getting to meet the fabulous writer/reviewer Claire McAlpine, while I was in Aix-en-Provence in June.  Her Word By Word blog is one I highly recommend.

Speaking of Aix, here’s one of my favourite window shots, snapped while strolling one day last month with our women’s tour. There’s something about the mix of ancient stonework, fading paint, and that curtain caught in the window … was it closed in a hurry? Why? Who lives there? Hmmm, there just might be a story to write!

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Making my stay in Nice even more fun this year, I also had the opportunity to meet and spend time with another talented writer/blogger, the also fabulous Margo Lestz. 9dbe8910f06cf943a2e8dad887f59d36When Ida Young-Bondi (more about Ida in another post!) organized a special writerly soirée for me one evening in Nice, Margo brought her husband and some friends along and it was a pleasure to meet all of them.

Although she is lucky enough to live in Nice, Margo also travels extensively and often studies as she goes. Talk about a life-long learner! Fortunately for us, she shares her experiences and wealth of information on her blog, The Curious Rambler … another one on my all-time favourite list. Be sure to pop over when you have some time to enjoy her posts!

Along with her always entertaining blog, Margo writes for The Good Life France website, among other venues, and is working on a non-fiction book about Nice. I can’t wait to read that one and will keep you posted when it is published!

Ahhhh … Nice …

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Vieux Port, Nice

Now let’s travel a little west of the Côte d’Azur, to the Var region which is located more or less between the towns of Saint-Raphael and Bandol.  I’ve been a fan of the French Word-A-Day website for years as I constantly attempt to keep building my grasp of the language. Yet again, meet another talented writer/blogger … and photographer … Kristin Espinasse!

UnknownKristin and I have not met in person as of yet, but that rendezvous is high on my list for our next visit to France in 2015. One way or another, we will make it work!

If our timing is right, we might make it to one of their special wine-tasting events at their ‘new-old’ vineyard, Mas de Brun.

We began to correspond after I read her most recent, delightful book of essays and photographs, First French Essais. I’m a big fan of all of her books and you can check them out right here.Unknown-1

If you haven’t dropped by her site, I know you will be glad you did. Say bonjour to her from me!

Kristin shares vignettes of her extraordinary life in France, raising her family as an American ex-pat married to a French vigneron. Learn about the trials and tribulations of this challenging lifestyle!

At the same time, she educates us on the nuances of the French language as it applies to daily life.

We share a passion for photography and I envy her the unlimited source of images from her splendid surroundings.

Oh ye dedicated Francophiles, we can never have our fill of photos from that part of the world. N’est-ce pas?

One town my husband and I love to visit in the Var is Sanary-sur-Mer, pictured below, not far from Bandol. We explored much of that departement during two different home exchanges a few years ago. Put it on your list!

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It’s such a pleasure to actually spend real time with people you have known online, whether it is through travel or attending conferences or just good planning! Has this happened to you lately?

WRITING UPDATE … COVER REVEAL FOR “PROMISES TO KEEP” COMING SOON! 

We’re getting there … thanks to a lot of help! Yes, Barb Drozdowich … I mean you! Merci beaucoup!!! As we progress setting up all of my information on this new site, I soon will have links to Claire, Margo, Kristin, Ida, The Good Life France and other favourite France-related websites in the column on the right. Stay tuned and bon weekend tout le monde!

Bonjour, Nice! So good to see you again!

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

And I am thrilled to say that it IS Friday and this IS coming to you directly from beautiful Nice. We arrived here on Sunday after our fabulous two weeks in the Swiss Alps and, as much as we would have been happy to stay in that peaceful setting longer, we are thrilled to be back here in Nice La Belle. It feels like home.

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It’s been a busy week and we have just returned from a little soirée for people to chat with me about writing and publishing, organized by Ida Young-Bondi of E-French Café.  It was so nice to meet everyone, have a great chat and enjoy that spectacular setting on the Med. In particular, it was great fun to meet blogger extraordinaire, Margo Lestz, in person, after getting to know each other online as we both contribute to The Good Life France website. I love that part of belonging to the writing community where we connect and meet with others from all over the planet, online and in person.

I’ve switched my “office” high up in the Alps for one overlooking the Med, and I’m finding it equally inspiring!IMG_2331

Tomorrow my DH and I are going to hop on the train for 20 minutes and go to Antibes (be still my heart) where I will stop by to visit with my friend, Heidi Lee, at her Antibes Book Shop.

There’s never a moment in this part of the world where we have to stop and figure out what to do … the list goes on and on.

A truly delightful surprise this year is spending time in the new park, La Coulée Verte or Promenade du Paillon, which runs from the Promenade des Anglais in the centre of town through Place Massena to  Vieux Nice near Place Garibaldi. The last two years we have been here, an enormous area was under construction and we missed the grand opening by a week last fall. It was worth waiting for!

There’s much to compliment about the people-friendly design of the space and the water feature is outstanding. Each stage of the pattern lasts for too long a time for me to make a video, but I think you will get the picture from these shots. Watching people of all ages delight in this area was so much fun. I can see we’ll be visiting there often when we go for daily walks.

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Doesn’t that look like good fun? Whatever your plans are for the weekend, I wish you a fine one!

Bon weekend, tout le monde!

Hurray for December!

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It’s here! I do love December!

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My friend Anneli Purchase surprised me by posting our chat about Christmas on her blog yesterday . It’s always fun to blog hop and it was a great kick-off for me for this season I love so much!(Even if it was still November.)

The spirit of giving is what December is all about … right? So let’s get started!

I’ve never done this before. Mark your calendars for December 4 and 5!

As a December special, The Promise of Provence ebook will be a FREE DOWNLOAD at this link. If you already have your copy, download some to give to your friends! How’s that for a gift? Please feel free to pass the news on to one and all. The more, the merrier!

Next, I’m happy to announce that the winner of the santon giveaway from my newsletter  is Amy Chouinard! Many, many thanks to all the newsletter readers who entered the contest by  leaving comments about their favourite Christmas traditions. It was a treat to read them all! Amy, congratulations! I will be in touch for postal information.

As I wrote in the newsletter, santons are an important part of Christmas in France. Those and other traditions in France are a focus of the first part of my next novel.  You can read all about santons here.  When I was in Nice in September/October, I purchased one for the contest.

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In case you haven’t subscribed to my newsletter, there’s a link here to the right of this post.  Join the hundreds who have already signed up! It will be great to see you on the list!

Next, congratulations to Moira Martin who won a copy of The Promise of Provence in the contest Anna Fill held in The Riviera Woman last month. Thanks to Anna for featuring the giveaway and to everyone who joined in.

Here’s a December gift I am passing on to all of you. It’s actually a present from the talented Janine Marsh, the editor (Redacteur en Chef) of the fabulous The Good Life France website. This is a spectacular book about Christmas in France and IT IS FREE to everyone. Click right here to go the website and download it.

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I’m sure you will enjoy this book with its beautiful photography and excellent articles! I am in awe of the time, effort and love that must have gone into putting it together. Take a minute to let Janine know what a fine gift she’s given us! 

What special plans do you have now that the 12th month is here?

DECEMBER, YOU ARE OFF TO A GREAT START!canstockphoto0162164