Tomorrow, we head to Eugene to show her the University of Oregon, then it’s on up to Portland to stay the night with friends so the early morning trip to the airport the following day isn’t so tiresome. It’s been fantastique, our time together. I found a wonderful American friend for Elise, too. When you’re a young girl exploring cultures, this is a dream come true! I love being a match-maker! Now, I just wait for the time when I get to visit her in France.

I told Elise about the time when I was around her age and had the opportunity to be an au pair for a family in Besançon, a city in the northeast of France at the foothills of the Jura Mountains and near the Swiss border. I shortly thereafter met my future husband and cancelled the job and the opportunity of a lifetime, which is unknown to a young girl at the time who just worries about whether he’ll be there when she gets back. I’m so proud of her, and perhaps a bit envious, for getting out there and doing what is not so simple and unfettered a thing to do once you’re married and have children. Oh, I’m so happy I stayed back and married my husband, and someday I will have another opportunity. However, I generally counsel the youth I work with or come in contact with to just go. Really, if that boy truly loves you, he’ll still be there.

I have a French Bible which I’d love to give Elise, and I’m wondering about that. It’s a little book I’ve had for at least 20 years, and once in a while I’ll read it to practice my French. I’ve so far avoided direct discussion of my faith and her lack of faith. I’ve prayed, wondered, and haven’t sensed the time is right. During Elise’s previous visit, we spoke often on issues of God and Christianity, and she’s mentioned just once this visit, during a discussion of her boyfriend, about her disbelief in God. I didn’t press. Just prayed. Perhaps I’ll tuck it in her bag with a note, would she consider God?

La cuisine beckons, so je suis aller!

Recipe for île flottante

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1 cup water, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract, divided
1 1/2 cups (5 ounces) sliced almonds
8 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Creme Anglaise, recipe follows

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the caramel, heat 1 1/2 cups of the sugar and 1/2 cup water in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Cook over medium heat until the syrup turns a warm caramel color. Don’t stir, just swirl it in the pan. Off the heat, add 1/2 cup water and 1/2 teaspoon of the vanilla; be careful, the syrup will bubble violently. Stir and cook over high heat until the caramel reaches 230 degrees F (thread stage) on a candy thermometer. Set aside.

For the praline, combine the almonds with 1/4 cup of the caramel and spread them on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the almonds are lightly browned. Allow to cool at room temperature and then break up in pieces.

Lower the oven to 250 degrees F. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.

For the meringues, beat the egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment on medium speed until frothy. Turn the mixer on high speed and add the remaining 1 cup of sugar. Beat until the egg whites are very stiff and glossy. Whisk in the remaining teaspoon of vanilla. With dessert spoons place 12 mounds of meringue on the parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

For serving, pour creme anglaise on the bottom of individual plates. Place a meringue on top of each serving, drizzle with caramel sauce, sprinkle with praline, and serve.

To make a day or two ahead, leave the caramel and praline at room temperature and refrigerate the creme anglaise. Bake the meringues before guests arrive and assemble the desserts just before serving.

Creme Anglaise:

4 extra-large egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 3/4 cups scalded milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons Cognac

Seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean, optional

Beat the egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed for 3 minutes, or until very thick. Reduce to low speed, and add the cornstarch.

With the mixer still on low, slowly pour the hot milk into the eggs. Pour the custard mixture into a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until thickened. The custard will coat the spoon like heavy cream. Don’t cook it above 180 degrees For the eggs will scramble!

Pour the sauce through a fine strainer, add the vanilla extract, Cognac, and vanilla seeds, if using, and chill.

Yield: 2 cups

Technorati Tags: French cooking, ile flottante, family life, France

The first time around, four years ago when Elise was fourteen, I worried about having her room just so, I squawked about in French trying to improve my language skills real quick like, I fretted over the menu, I positively wrecked myself over itinerary. I’ve since learned, after hosting several foreign students, and especially with Elise, that:

1) my home is a grotesque mansion, our cars are monstrosities, they are used to small and simple in the villages–do not worry about the room;

2) I needn’t worry about my French, their English is better than my French and they want to speak English, that’s why they’re here;

3) they will cook for you and show off their amazing culinary skills, nearly always, if it’s a girl in a home with a smart French mother, so do not worry about the menu and bring on the île flottante;

4) just living with an American family in la vie quotidienne is all they really want–everyday life. Special trips to the beach, museum, or the deepest lake in your state (and the whole U.S. for that matter) are just bonus. They may even want to work during their stay with you to earn some extra cash, and my experience with Europeans so far has been that they are quite industrious and hardworking.

And then there’s this. How to handle politics and religion? She is liberal atheist, I am conservative Christian. Our differences made for some interesting discussions last time. I love her so, and I love her country, and want for her to intimately know the love of God and the miracle of salvation in Christ, and surely the Lord’s merciful hand is upon her return here.

I will speak only as the Holy Spirit leads, and love a lot. I’m not backing down to avoid a conflict, I think I’ve just learned a lot about the French postmodern culture since she first came, and I need to be deeply prayerful about, and educate myself about, how to represent Jesus Christ to the postmodern.

The French hand towels Elise brought as a gift on that first visit are still used daily in my kitchen, and I pray as I dry my hands and a dish, Lord, how can she know objective truth? How to present one crucified and risen Savior, when the very thought of only one and utterly necessary is offensive?

And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:3-6

I’ll be driving to the airport in Portland a week from now, and would you pray for me if it comes to mind? And for Elise? We’ll all have so much fun, she’ll teach us new songs and folk dances and read French fairy tales to the children again, I’m sure. I’ll correct her English because she asks me to, and play chef in the kitchen with her and instruct her about American measures, and she’ll have many questions. And the things of eternity will swirl around, and oh that I will be always full of grace and seasoned with salt, knowing how to answer.

Technorati Tags: education, family life, France, God, hosting foreign exchange student, postmodern culture

I really was like a kid at Christmas yesterday! My friend Anita Mathias, a writer and blogger from Oxford, sent me the movie Être et Avoir, an award-winning French film that we’d discussed, and it being difficult to procure here in the states, she generously mailed me her very own copy.

It was with huge surprise that I opened the mailbox yesterday, expecting some bills and ads perhaps, but not a package from England! I knew Anita was sending me the movie, but so quickly? She’s a professional!

The movie intrigued me first of all because it’s a French film, a genre I love, and more importantly, because it’s on the subject of education – in particular a one-room schoolhouse in rural France in modern times, not some century-old school. I honestly didn’t know this institution existed in France, but apparently there are quite a number of such little village schools.

Être et Avoir (2002) is a documentary by the celebrated French film-maker Nicolas Philibert that chronicles one full school year in the life of teacher Monsieur Lopez and his 12 students aged four to eleven in a French village in the Auvergne. It’s been called a movie that every teacher and parent should see, and it’s been said that M. Lopez has an extraordinary talent for teaching. For those of you (like me) who are engaged in multi-age teaching of small groups, I think Être et Avoir will be incredibly enlightening. My review will follow shortly.

And Anita intrigues me just as much. Her background is colorful and varied–born and raised in India, she tells a fascinating story of her conversion and her work with Mother Teresa in Calcutta. Anita goes on to live in America for a season, teaching at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, and writing two books, Wandering Between Two Worlds and The Church That Had Too Much. She is happily now back in Oxford, raising two girls and a garden with her husband and business partner, Roy, oh, and running a publishing company. My kind of woman!

You can visit Anita at her blog, Dreaming Beneath the Spires, where you will be inspired and educated at every turn. And maybe you’ll end up with a free movie, too, someday.

{I’m saving my Royal Mail stamp, Anita.}

Technorati Tags: Etre et Avoir, education, France, French films, Anita Mathias, multi-age teaching

By the numbers:

160,000 Allied troops, supported by more than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft, landed along a 50-mile stretch of French coastline. While the Allies sustained major casualties–9,000 killed or wounded–more than 100,000 troops would go on to march across the Continent to defeat Hitler.

Their finest hour, as Churchill said on June 18, 1940.

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”

Remembering Normandy.

So, I will repost the article I wrote last year on the subject of the French Resistance. You may have noticed that I am fascinated with France, I am gripped by the Holocaust, and captivated by WWII heroes. Thus, the subject of the French Resistance is of great intrigue to me, especially the women who gave their lives in this effort.

Please read this post on Berthe Fraser, a brave housewife who contributed to the salvation of her country from her simple domestic position. You will learn about what exactly the French Resistance was, as well as the trials and triumphs of such persons. The subtitle of April’s blog is “What you do matters,” and Berthe truly exemplifies this saying. You do not need to have a position of power or wealth to make a difference, you just need a willing heart of courage and valor.

History is simply the story of people, and I’m so curious about people. Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany by Marthe Cohn with Wendy Holden is an autobiographical book about a woman of the French Resistance – those mostly underground forces in France fighting Hitler and the Nazis in World War II.

I first mentioned this book on my blog last year in this post on Berthe Fraser, as part of a series I wrote on the women of the French Resistance. At the end of the post on Ms. Fraser, I recommended several books to those interested in other accounts of these brave women of the Resistance. One of these books was Behind Enemy Lines.

A few times in the life of my blog I’ve reviewed books and been contacted by the author to thank me. But nothing prepared me for receiving an email from the author of Behind Enemy Lines, Marthe Cohn, grateful that I’d included her book in my follow-up list of recommended reads. Folks, the woman is 90 years old and still living! And she knows how to send an email! Hallelujah!

We exchanged an email or two, and she agreed to do an author Q & A for me on this marvelous book of hers. Well, I’m here to tell you that I’ve not yet put that together, and shame on me for that! Which is why I simply cannot do a complete review yet on this book. However, this being Holocaust Remembrance Week, I had to bring this to the table and let you know it’s on my mind, and I’ll be following up, because as we know time is of the essence.

One question that I know I have for Marthe Cohn concerns the aftermath of the liberation. There’s a part in her book where she talks about seeing groups of ragged, skeletal, filthy, unrecognizable people with big, empty eyes roaming the streets begging for help. They were ignored. No one believed them. These were the remnant left of the Jews, hanging on by a thread, slowing making their way out of the liberated concentration camps. By this point, didn’t people know about the Holocaust? This was a gut-wrenching and scary moment for me, realizing that still, after all that, people could still turn their backs on humanity.

There will be more to come on this story, but I must sign off for now. God bless your week.

Technorati Tags: France, French Resistance, Holocaust, Behind Enemy Lines, Marthe Cohn, World War II

Suite Française portrays life in France from June, 1940 to July 1, 1941. The early German occupation of France and its impact on the daily lives of those involved is told with clarity and deep understanding of a depraved humanity and human conduct under significant pressure.

The story opens with residents realizing the Germans are at the gates of Paris. The narratives of a few people are followed as chaos ensues. The reader gets a sense of both the individual and the collective panic, with banks failing, railroads being bombed, houses being overtaken by Nazi soldiers.

The mass exodus from Paris is described in “Storm in June” with a beautiful, expressive tone, as the author relates a scene from a boulevard where families are moving with a dizzying agitation to pack up their families and belongings:

In the darkness the danger seemed to grow. You could smell the suffering in the air, in the silence. Even people who were normally calm and controlled were overwhelmed by anxiety and fear. … Panic obliterated everything that wasn’t animal instinct, involuntary physical reaction. Grab the most valuable things you own in the world and then . . . ! And, on that night, only people – the living and the breathing, the crying and the loving – were precious. Rare was the person who cared about their possessions; everyone wrapped their arms tightly round their wife or child and nothing else mattered; the rest could go up in flames.

The second novella, “Dolce,” describes a subdued and defeated French people in the village of Bussy who must live with an incoming garrison of Wehrmacht troops. We see a settling, an adapting to the new reality of an occupied country. There are collaborators and resisters, and all the characters in between.

Suite Française ends with the German regiment leaving the village of Bussy to continue their fighting in Moscow. The final scene describes the village onlookers watching the enemy pull out.

They had become accustomed to them, had looked at them indifferently, without being afraid. But now the sight of it all made them shudder. The truck, full to bursting with big loaves of black bread, freshly baked and sweet-smelling, the Red Cross vans, with no passengers – for now . . . the field kitchen, bumping along at the end of the procession like a saucepan tied to a dog’s tail. The men began singing, a grave, slow song that drifted away into the night.

About the Author:

Irène Némirovsky, a Jew from Ukraine, was born into a wealthy family that eventually fled the country during the Russian Revolution. The family ended up in Paris, and Irène quickly became a celebrated author in France.

Irène was not what one would consider an observant Jew. In fact, some have called her a self-hating Jew. Her willingness to convert to Catholicism for protection, her unsuccessful attempt to become a French citizen, her usage of anti-Semitic publishers to promote her books — all reveal a woman who was trusting in France and not Yahweh to save her.

But no matter, none of this diminishes the important place in Holocaust literature of Suite Française. You won’t find the spiritual Jewish perspective of an Anne Frank or Elie Wiesel in Irène’s writings, but this just highlights Hitler’s insanity. He didn’t care if you loved or hated being a Jew. The Nazis dealt the same hand of death to both.

Married to Jewish banker Michel Epstein, Irène had two daughters, Denise and Élisabeth. It was these two daughters we have to thank for the survival of the manuscript Suite Française.

By 1940, Jews all over Europe were deeply persecuted, and so it was with Irène’s family. She could no longer get her books published, and her husband could no longer work at the bank because of their Jewish ancestry. Despite having converted to Catholicism and being a popular literary figure in France, Irène was arrested in July 1942 as a “stateless person of Jewish descent” and sent to Auschwitz, where she died on August 17, 1942. Her husband shared the same fate a few months later in the gas chambers.

And what of the children and this book, Suite Française? Denise and Élisabeth were hidden in schools and convents until the war’s end. Their father, before he was taken away, had given them one possession to guard with their lives: a little suitcase which contained a special notebook. Can you imagine these two little orphan girls, about 13 and 5 years old, in hiding and in possession of this one family memento, too afraid to leave it, too afraid to examine its contents?

In fact, for over 50 years, the leatherbound notebook which contained Irène’s two novellas which comprise Suite Française, written in microscopic print to save precious paper, remained unopened inside of this suitcase. Irène’s daughters thought it was their mother’s journal, and knew that reading it would be too painful to bear.

Upon preparing to give her mother’s papers to a French archive in the late 1990′s, Denise finally had the courage to open the notebook. She discovered this extraordinary work, incomplete yet whole, written under the most formidable circumstances. The two novellas were intended to be the beginning of a series of five stories which would encompass the whole of the war, to its end. Irène wrote that the rest of the oeuvre was “in limbo, and what limbo! It’s really in the lap of the gods since it depends on what happens.”

Irène’s writing in Suite Française is remarkable not just for its brilliant composition but its perspective. Irène did not begin writing this book until 1941, literally as these events were unfolding before her. However, Suite Française reads not like the diary of one writing contemporaneously with the historical events, lacking a certain coherence, but it presents a viewpoint usually reserved for one who is a generation removed from the time in question who has had time to reflect.

I wonder if Irène’s placement in the timeline of human history prepared her for such a task? She had already lived as a persecuted Jew through a major war, and experienced firsthand the full circle of events. After the 1918 Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks seized her father’s bank and the Nemirovsky family had to disguise themselves as peasants and flee to Finland.

Denise reported after publication of Suite Française, “For me, the greatest joy is knowing that the book is being read. It is an extraordinary feeling to have brought my mother back to life. It shows that the Nazis did not truly succeed in killing her. It is not vengeance, but it is a victory.”

Universal Pictures has acquired screen rights to Suite Française. I think a better choice might be to make a movie about Irène Némirovsky herself, whose real life story is much more moving than the fiction she wrote.

sources:
NY Times article: As France Burned by Paul Gray
suitefrancaisefamily.com
Museum of Jewish Heritage: Woman of Letters

In other blogs:
dovegreyreader
the coffee spoon

Technorati Tags: France, Irene Nemirovsky, Nazi Germany, Suite Française, World War II

I wrote about Lafayette’s triumph in the American Revolution, and while he returned to France a hero in 1792, the embodiment of hope for France and a French Revolution, he did not live to see France become an independent republic.

Lafayette had seen what revolution could accomplish. He had witnessed the freedoms enjoyed by the new America. His legacy could be that he brought this light to France, but he ended up losing the public’s confidence and becoming an ineffective revolutionary.

In the years leading up to 1789, Lafayette became a leader in the campaign against the monarch. But here is what I think went wrong. First, the French had been too horribly oppressed for too long. The revolutionary movement became extremely radical and vengeful, and Lafayette didn’t know how to turn this raw, bitter force into something controllable and beneficial. He went for a more moderate course, and this ended up killing his popularity and driving him into exile. I think an extraordinary person was required for this job, one who could move beyond the compromise of a constitutional monarchy into true democracy. Someone with preeminent diplomatic skills who could harness lightning like Benjamin Franklin.

Second, when Lafayette became a member of the French legislature, he wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (similar to the Declaration of Independence), and I believe he made a grave error. While the declaration stands as monumental in terms of setting forth fundamental human rights for all men, a first for France, it makes no mention of God as the source of human rights. The U.S. Declaration of Independence asserts that human rights are derived from the “Creator” and the duty of government is to protect these God-given rights.

The problem I see with not being specific about the source of human rights is that it de facto becomes the realm of the state. France struggled in emerging from the French Revolution with a democratic republic firmly in hand in part because France, while willing to completely turn its back on the Ancien Régime, the old order, it held onto bits that denied true God-given human rights. The country suffered through the bloody Reign of Terror, in which the guillotine was used for mass execution of “enemies of the revolution,” then France allowed herself to be swept under the dictatorship of Napoléon for a time, and then a constitutional monarchy under Louis Philippe (unfortunately and regretfully with the help of the Marquis de Lafayette).

The first stable republican government wouldn’t happen in France until almost a hundred years after the French Revolution began, the Third Republic, and even this was wrought with crises and controversies. France is now in the Fifth Republic.

The Marquis de Lafayette did continue to fight for democracy for France and his dying desire was for a pure republic in France. No two revolutions are the same and Lafayette is blessed among men in history to have lived through the many uprisings and changes in paradigms.

Technorati Tags: Bastille Day, France, French Revolution, Marquis de Lafayette

TRAIN.
First, here’s one of my favorite pictures from my photofiles:

A little train depot we pass nearly every day had a surprise for us one fall afternoon last season. The regular train was on vacation, and this beautiful steam powered locomotive, called the Mount Emily Shay #1, was there to greet us. Built in 1923, she worked for 30 years on a logging railroad in southern Oregon, then spent some time in West Virginia running tourists on the Cass Scenic Railroad. The “lockie” has since been retired to the Oregon Historical Society, which leases #1 to the City of Prineville Railway to occasionally pull its Crooked River Dinner Train.

There’s the facts, and for you train lovers, you will appreciate the history. My kids appreciated the power and beauty up close.

GARDEN.
I spent yesterday in the garden with the kids at my side. It was a treasured time. After moving my plants in and out of the house for weeks, and waiting for the last frost to come and go, I decided the time was perfect for their new home. Turned out it was a day late. The night before, I left the plants in the garage. There was a mouse. It ate the tops off the cucumbers. The peas were munched. The pumpkins were stubs.

I transplanted what I could into the garden, and reseeded almost everything. I may not have enough days to make it to harvest before a fall frost, but I’m taking my chances. No matter the outcome, I love working with my kids in the garden.

My husband shared my pain over those lost seedling leaves. He found a Maine Coon Cat on Craigslist. Apparently this enormous (seriously, it’s like a dog) feline mouser is the thing to have, and there’s a free one in Springfield, Oregon. To further protect against critters, he’s out right now putting boards around the bottoms of the garden, and I’ll be joining him shortly to help place rocks around the garden base.

FRANCE.
I’m so excited to be hosting another French Exchange Student. Helen comes in July. Do you remember when we hosted Elise? My kids still talk about our time with her, and it’s an enriching experience that I highly recommend for every family. So, as we prepared for Elise, we are now preparing for Helen.

Getting her room cleared out is the number one priority. It currently holds several dozen boxes of …. stuff. I love having a pressing reason to get things cleaned up! I mean it.

After having Elise as our guest, I also realized that the French have a certain expectation about food. Like, it should be prepared at home, not acquired at the drive-up window or in a frozen cardboard box. So, I need to get my menu in order.

Finally, language lessons are always fun for me, so the kids and I will spend some more time with French lessons. But that’s not a huge concern, since I already figured out with Elise that these Europeans nearly always speak English better than we will ever speak their language.

As far as activities, we just plan on living our normal life. The expectation of this particular exchange group is to just have an immersion experience with an American family as they go about their day. I will certainly show her some highlights of Central Oregon, but I have no plans beyond that.

Do you want to host a French exchange student? If you live in Central Oregon, get ahold of me right away, because there are still a few students needing to be placed here immediately.

Technorati Tags: family, France, gardening, ranch, seedlings, French exchange student, steam engines, trains

Hark, I hear a robin calling!
List, the wind is from the south!
And the orchard-bloom is falling
Sweet as kisses on the mouth.

In the dreamy vale of beeches
Fair and faint is woven mist,
And the river’s orient reaches
Are the palest amethyst.

Every limpid brook is singing
Of the lure of April days;
Every piney glen is ringing
With the maddest roundelays.

Come and let us seek together
Springtime lore of daffodils,
Giving to the golden weather
Greeting on the sun-warm hills.

-   Lucy Maud Montgomery, Spring Song

The painting above is called Le Poème de l’âme – Le Printemps (The Poem of the Soul – Spring) by Anne-François-Louise Janmot (1814-1892), and can be found at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, France.

Are you hearing robins in your part of the world? I think Montgomery’s poem pairs perfectly with this painting, don’t you? I love Lucy Maud Montgomery, and in fact, just today, my daughter watched the Anne of Green Gables movie. Anyway, spring is in the air, and I do believe I have spring fever. Mark Twain describes it best:

It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want – oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!

Berthe Fraser was among hundreds of people who rose to the treacherous task of defending France. Be they a housewife, a mother, a Catholic, a Jew, a communist, an artist, or a politician, these resistance fighters came from all layers of society, both male and female, young and old, and without their heroic acts, Hitler’s march through France may not have been halted.

The French Resistance took many forms, from groups of armed guerilla bands who escaped to the mountains, known as the Maquis, to organizers of escape networks for Jews and other targets of the Nazis, to publishers of underground newspapers, to those who carried out sabotage operations, to couriers who carried coded messages back and forth between Allied members.

Mrs. Fraser’s story begins with her birth in 1894 as Berthe Emilie Vicogne. She married an Englishman and thus became a British subject. When the rumblings of WWII hit France, Berthe Fraser was going about her domestic life in her hometown of Arras, France, all the while organizing an underground network that saved the lives of countless English agents and pilots. Her husband reported later to an English newspaper:

My wife was the head of a great movement, which worried the Germans stupid. She was the hub of this big wheel. Her first work was in 1940 when there were hundreds of British soldiers roaming around France. My wife started a movement which grew until it was a sort of underground channel. She sent dozens of British soldiers by devious means to the coast where they were smuggled to England.

Twice betrayed but never broken, Berthe Fraser was an unshakable woman for whom I have the utmost awe and respect. I can relate to where she was in life; a woman in her 40s, tending to her home. I don’t know if she had any children, but as a woman, I feel the risks of undertaking the work of the Resistance were doubly perilous.

I wish there was more information available about this woman. I know she suffered extreme torture during her second capture, and this trauma surely accounts for the lack of details. Who wants to recall the horror? I can find no record of a public interview. I discovered in the back matter of the book SOE in France by M.R.D. Foot, that Berthe Fraser died in 1956, her health never restored.

In 1941, someone betrayed Berthe, and she was arrested by the Gestapo. She spent 15 months in a Belgian prison, and was released in December 1942. Did this imprisonment deter her? No. Berthe immediately jumped back into the work of fighting Hitler’s campaign of death and terror.

No sooner had she got out than Berthe immediately contacted the officers sent into France from England, and embarked on a new phase of anti–Nazi activity, helping the Allies by supplying English agents with a complete support network of Resistance fighters. She looked after the foreigners, providing them with shelter, transport, and safe hiding places where they could engage in their clandestine missions. She arranged liaisons, transmitted vital messages, and took on the very dangerous role of courier, travelling far and wide by car, sometimes on foot, laden with documents, arms, and occasionally the dynamite required for sabotage operations.

Somehow she managed to evade discovery, collecting the supplies of weapons that were dropped by night at secret locations by British planes, hiding the vital goods in safe houses where they could only be released on presenting her signature.

Berthe had to go to great lengths to protect her English charges. Once, entrusted with the care of the well–known English agent Wing Commander Yeo–Thomas, known as “The White Rabbit,” she arranged a funeral cortege to transport the senior officer, hidden inside the hearse. He says she was “one of the great Resistance heroines…. She worked impartially for any French or British organisation that needed her.”

From the Charlotte Gray website, an excellent Warner Bros. movie about a Scottish woman living in England, parachuted into France by the British Government (SOE) to support the French Resistance.

Berthe was betrayed again in 1944, unbelievably by one of the very English agents whose life she saved. She spent six months in solitary confinement at Loos where she was tortured every day. She was stripped and flogged in front of Nazi troops and condemned to death. Never did she betray her friends in the Resistance or the English army. How many lives she saved through her own afflictions will never be known.

When the Allies stormed the prison on September 1, 1944, Berthe Fraser was just hanging onto life, and she is reported to have said, “Thank you boys, you are just in time.”

The story of Berthe Fraser stands as just one of the many heroines of WWII. If you’re interested in further accounts of the women of the French Resistance, I highly recommend the following resources:

Sisters in Resistance, a documentary film by Independent Lens.

SISTERS IN RESISTANCE tells the story of four young women who risked their lives to fight Nazi oppression and brutality in occupied France, not because they themselves were Jewish or in danger of being arrested, but because it was the right thing to do. Within two years of the start of the Occupation, they had all been arrested by the Gestapo and were deported as political prisoners to Ravensbruck concentration camp.

The documentary follows the paths of the four women — Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, Jacqueline Pery d’Alincourt, Anise Postel-Vinay and Germaine Tillion — from before the war to the present. The women speak about what compelled them to resist, their roles in the Resistance, their arrests, deportation and liberation. They talk about the struggle to rebuild their lives after the war, their desire for children and their continued battles in the name of justice.

Charlotte Gray, a Warner Bros. film.

Set in Nazi–occupied France at the height of World War II, Charlotte Gray tells the compelling story of a young Scottish woman working with the French Resistance in the hope of rescuing her lover, a missing RAF pilot.

Based on the best–selling novel by Sebastian Faulks, the film stars Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Michael Gambon and Rupert Penry-Jones. Charlotte Gray is directed by Gillian Armstrong and produced by Sarah Curtis and Douglas Rae.

For Freedom, a novel by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. An excellent young adult book for grades 6-12.

Life for Suzanne David, a 13-year-old French schoolgirl and music apprentice, dramatically changes in May, 1940, when she and her best friend witness the brutal death of a neighbor when a bomb drops directly in front of them. Soon the Germans take over Cherbourg, and the Davids are forced from their home into poverty. Then Suzanne is given the opportunity to help the Allies. Bravely, she risks her life, family, and singing career in order to spy for the Resistance. The pace of this suspenseful novel, told in first person and based on a true story, moves swiftly into action within the first chapter, showing the young heroine as strong, courageous, and clever. Filled, but not laden, with the events of the war, and peppered with French language and the culture of music, this novel will appeal to readers who enjoy history and espionage.

Outwitting the Gestapo, a memoir by Lucie Aubrac.

A suspenseful rendering of Aubrac’s experiences as a French Resistance fighter during WWII. This memoir owes its existence to the 1983 extradition to France of Klaus Barbie, the “Butcher of Lyon.” In order to refute Barbie’s defenders and former collaborators, Aubrac told her story publicly for the first time- -and it became a bestseller in France. Focusing on a nine-month period that begins with the conception of her second child, Aubrac looks back 40 years at experiences of enduring intensity. During the war, the author, her Jewish husband Raymond, and other “resistants” published and distributed underground newspapers, found new identities and homes for fugitives, forged permits, stole guns, and blew up roads and bridges–all routine Resistance activities.

What makes this account special, however, is Aubrac’s irrepressible energy and resourcefulness, and the graceful way in which she interweaves her separate but parallel lives. As a mother and wife struggling in a wartime economy, she bartered for hard-to-find items; as a devoted schoolteacher, she applied the lessons of history to current events; as a secret member of the Resistance, she couldn’t disclose her true identity even to her most trusted colleagues, switching names and identities like a quick-change artist. Three times, she helped free her husband from prison. The last incarceration was the most harrowing: Walking into a trap, Raymond was arrested, tortured, and sentenced to die by Barbie himself. Despite her anguish, Aubrac tricked her husband’s captors into meetings and masterminded an intricate rescue. The Aubracs’ escape by airlift to London, where their baby was born, is tremendously exciting. A breathtaking account that feeds the soul as much as it satisfies the appetite for vicarious danger.

Sisters in the Resistance by Margaret Collins Weitz.

Weitz makes an important and unique contribution to the literature of the French Resistance and the history of World War II. Although countless studies have documented the heroic exploits of Resistance leaders during the course of World War II, few have focused on the pivotal role women played in the various underground organizations. Based on interviews with surviving resistants, this oral history contains the harrowing and often previously unrecorded testimony of a remarkable set of women. The author’s sensitive narrative places these riveting anecdotes and reminiscences into proper historical and sociological context as she examines and analyzes the ever expanding duties and assignments undertaken by women as France’s war-within-a-war continued to rage. An absolutely stunning and compelling chronicle of dauntless courage and unflagging patriotism.

Code Name Christiane Clouet: A Woman in the French Resistance by Claire Chevrillon.

A witness to the bleak fate of French Jewry in Nazi-dominated France, this remarkable author recounts her experiences from 1939 to 1945 in a personal though emotionally reserved way that makes her family’s tragedies particularly poignant. Her parents were upper-class, assimilated Jews; her father, Andre Chevrillon, was a member of the French Academy, a man Edith Wharton called “the first literary critic in France.” An English teacher in Paris when war broke out, Claire gives abundant details about the first days of the occupation, when France became a nation divided between the Petainists and those less willing to accommodate Hitler’s designs. In 1942, as repressive laws limited Jewish freedom (Claire’s mother was effectively imprisoned by her fear of leaving home wearing the yellow star), as her brother-in-law languished in a POW camp and her cousins were persecuted and eventually deported, Chevrillon joined the resistance, first in air operations and then in the code service, where she encoded and decoded messages between the free French government in London and de Gaulle’s Paris delegation. Chevrillon, who had contact with some of the most prominent members of the resistance, was betrayed in 1943 and spent four harrowing months in prison. The author’s goal was “to set forward the facts… not to analyze myself or my characters.” But her story, told without elaboration, is as dramatic and compelling as any fiction.

An American Heroine in the French Resistance: The Diary and Memoir of Virginia D’Albert-Lake by Virginia D’Albert-Lake.

In 1937, Virginia Roush, a strong-minded young woman from St. Petersburg, Florida, married a Frenchman, becoming Virginia d’Albert-Lake, and moved to Paris. During the war, she kept a diary, including almost larkish reports of her Resistance work. Part of an escape line that smuggled downed Allied airmen out of the country, she took them on secret sightseeing tours of Paris. In June, 1944, she was arrested by the Germans and sent to a sequence of concentration camps that included three spells in Ravensbrück. (The third time she was transferred from Ravensbrück, she weighed seventy-six pounds.) This book, comprising a diary written before her capture and a memoir written after her liberation, is an indelible portrait of extraordinary strength of character. In the diary she seems naïve and spirited; in the memoir she is sombre, reflective, and attentive to every detail.

Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany by Marthe Cohn.

This compelling memoir is testament to how extraordinary circumstances can transform a life-and how an extraordinary person reacts to difficult circumstances. Cohn was a typical French-Jewish teenager when WWII broke out, but as it did for millions of others, the war transformed her life in unimaginable ways. “There was no time to be frightened,” she and Holden, a veteran journalist, write. The first part of the book chronicles her family and friends’ response to the war. That countless other books have described the effects of the Nazi onslaught – the life-and-death consequences of the unthinkable decisions many were forced to make – makes her descriptions no less powerful and tragic. The narrative turns into a quasi thriller in its second half, depicting how the death of Cohn’s fiance led her, now a nurse, to join the Free French forces in the fight to defeat the Nazis. A blonde, fluent German speaker who never mentioned to her superiors that she was a Jew, she went on several life-threatening missions into German territory, earning France’s highest military honors. But she describes her actions without self-aggrandizement. What comes through is the importance of courageous individual action in the most dire situations. This is the amazing story of a woman who lived through one of the worst times in human history, losing family members to the Nazis but surviving with her spirit and integrity intact. Cohn now lives in California.

Carve Her Name With Pride by RJ Minney. Also on film.

Carve Her Name With Pride is the inspiring story of the half-French Violette Szabo who was born in Paris in 1921 to an English motor-car dealer, and a French mother. She met and married Etienne Szabo, a Captain in the French Foreign Legion in 1940. Shortly after the birth of her daughter, Tania, her husband died at El Alamein. She became a FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) and was recruited into the SOE and underwent secret agent training. Her first trip to France was completed successfully even though she was arrested and then released by the French Police.

On June 7th, 1944, Szabo was parachuted into Limoges. Her task was to coordinate the work of the French Resistance in the area in the first days after D-Day. She was captured by the SS ‘Das Reich’ Panzer Division and handed over to the Gestapo in Paris for interrogation. From Paris, Violette Szabo was sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp where she was executed in January 1945. She was only 23 and for her courage was posthumously awarded The George Cross and the Croix de Guerre.

A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII by Sarah Helm.

Vera Atkins, a legendary figure of British wartime intelligence, died in 2000 at the age of 92, but her secrets did not die with her, thanks to the brilliant investigative reporting of Sarah Helm, a noted British journalist and editor. Her book, A Life in Secrets, combines the history of a pivotal era with the nail-biting drama of the heroic operatives who were dropped into Nazi-occupied territories to contact and help form a resistance army.

Atkins worked for the Special Operations Executive (SOE), which was formed in the dark days of 1940 after the British retreat at Dunkirk. Its mission was to wage a secret war until regular forces could be amassed to retake the continent. Her responsibilities were to recruit and train agents for SOE’s French section. Some 400 men and women were dispatched, and of these about 100 ended up “missing presumed dead.” Of special concern to Atkins were 12 female agents whom she could not account for after the war. Much of the book details her dogged pursuit of clues to their fates, leading to revelations of their incredible bravery when they were captured, sent to concentration camps and put to death.

Flames in the Field: The Story of Four SOE Agents in Occupied France by Rita Kramer.

The true story of women agents of the secret World War II Special Operations Executive, mandated by Winston Churchill to “set Europe ablaze” by organizing resistance in occupied Europe during the prelude to D Day. Intrigue and heroism, adventure and betrayal figure in this account of British-led efforts to defeat the Nazis in wartime France, based on extensive research in records, documents, letters and memoirs, and the author’s interviews with surviving agents and officials. Despite sporadic defeat and betrayal, SOE leaders managed to delay the arrival of German reinforcements to the Normandy beachhead, contributing to the eventual Allied victory. Details of the operations of SOE recounted here remained secret for decades after the war, finally revealing the human cost of the reconnaissance and sabotage efforts that helped to shorten the conflict.

Technorati Tags: Berthe Fraser, French Resistance, France, Nazi Germany, Hitler, women in history

This is a view of Mount Bachelor from Sparks Lake, from a hike we took last summer. Talk about The Perfect Day – we hiked and picnicked with dear family friends, and also our French exchange student. Of course, our French guest had to mention the Alps. Mount Bachelor is part of the Cascade Range, and is the youngest prominent volcano in the Three Sisters (three volcanic peaks) area. Apparently, none of the three sisters could win over the bachelor.

Anyway, I had to give you something pretty to look at while I make some public service announcements. Get your submissions in for the Christian Carnival by tonight, Midnight ET. Submit here, and also, Parableman has further information on the carnival. Publishing right here at Diary of 1 tomorrow.

Other blog carnivals of interest:

Make It From Scratch
Mothers and Daughters Blog Carnival
Carnival of Travel
Carnival of Homeschooling – up later today
Learning in the Great Outdoors – coming April 1
Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival

This concludes the public service announcement. You may continue to gaze at Oregon beauty.

Two homeschooling families on a log; same hike (my four kids on the right end):

Technorati Tags: blog carnival, Central Oregon, Christian Carnival, France, Mount Bachelor, Three Sisters

I fell in love with wine when my uncle decided to buy three vine parcels in Chåteauneuf-du-Pape to re-create the family vineyard, Domaine du Banneret, which originally dates back from many centuries.

This begins the story of Domaine Rouge-Bleu. Jean-Marc Espinasse, the charming man behind this Provençal vineyard, went on from that first wine making adventure to begin his very own vineyard just over a year ago. He was offered 25 acres of old vines, and with his lovely American wife Kristin and their children, began the amazing task of creating Rouge-Bleu, along with renovating a nearly 400 year old Provençal farmhouse. I was immediately drawn into this story because of that endearing quality of a man living out his dream.

I stumbled upon Jean-Marc’s blog recently, and was excited when I saw that he and his wife were doing a west coast tour! But, I read his blog a few days too late, as he had already passed through Portland, just hours from me. I left a comment on his blog anyway, mentioning our dream of a vineyard on our property someday. I was so surprised to see an email several days ago titled Vineyard in the desert, from Jean-Marc! He asked the telling question:

Do you have underground water at around 5-10 yards deep in the soil?

I knew immediately I was in trouble. I responded that it was quite doubtful, since we had to drill through over 60 feet of solid rock, plus another 200 feet, to hit water when we installed our well. Monsieur Espinasse is a gracious but straightforward Frenchman, and gave me no-nonense advice:

I am afraid but I don’t think that vine is the kind of plant that would behave well where you live. I am also “deeply” convinced that irrigation is the worst thing you can give to a vine since they have natural genes to get rooted deep to find the water. I am sure you can find another farm crop to do there. Making wine is great but farming in general is always rewarding. Cheers.

Ah, well, let’s talk about Rouge-Bleu! Their “Dentelle” Cuvée is scheduled to be bottled in just over a week, and I imagine everyone is very excited. Organic and ancestral practices at Rouge-Bleu call for some interesting viticultural procedures. Jean-Marc’s latest post involves egg whites — don’t worry, they won’t end up in your bottle. Evidently, the albumin contained in egg whites aids in the clarifying process, and using them allows Jean-Marc to avoid too much filtration, which kills the natural sediments so vital to their natural wines.

What are the benefits of organic grape farming? Jean-Marc says that the combination of natural cultivation and harvesting at low yields allows the vines to produce their very best. The result will be good levels of alcohol, high levels of acidity, the right balance of sugar, and a promising aging.

Another term you’ll hear around Rouge-Bleu is biodynamic viticulture. It’s hard to define, as each grower will modify his practices to suit his needs, but it seems to go beyond organic farming. Biodynamic farming will also take into account timing, and, for example, apply certain soil applications according to traditional seasonal markers. A biodynamic approach to a vine disease, for instance, would be not to focus on how to kill the disease, but to ask why the plant is sick in the first place. There is something depleted in the soil, let’s fix the soil, instead of, there’s just something wrong with the vine. This makes sense, but biodynamic philosophy can also lead into mysticism, at which point I would depart.

Here’s a nice sampling of how Jean-Marc practically applies his farming philosophy:

Our Carignan grapes are very weak towards Oidium [fungus]. Using our tractor that pulls the sulfateuse would damage some vine shoots and would not permit to spray straight on the grapes. Since the surface we have is small, I decided to use the traditional manual sulfateuse last week which allowed me to be much more precise while spraying the grapes.

Due to all the rain we had, our baby vines have been completely surrounded with “weeds.” Leaving them would damage our vines because those herbs would drink all the water in the soil. But since we don’t use chemical weed killers and since our décavailloneuse can’t recognize a baby vine and would kill them, we have to remove those herbs by hand.

Provence is an ideal location for wine making, as Jean-Marc is discovering. The Mistral, which is the strong, cold northwesterly wind that blows through southern France and into the Mediterranean, can be deadly; however, the dry Mistral winds minimize vine disease and can return health to the vineyard. The stony ground and soil rich in calcium carbonate is quite amenable to vines and little else. The Mediterranean climate is famously favorable to the vines.

If you have any questions about Rouge-Bleu, be sure to check in at Jean-Marc’s website. I think I’ll be asking how to get my hands on some bottles of the upcoming Dentelle Cuvée and also the Mistral, which is scheduled to be released later this year. If you live in Houston, Texas, you’re in luck — French Country Wines imports the Domaine Rouge-Bleu wines.

photo credits: Rouge-Bleu

Technorati Tags: bottling wine, Provence, organic farming, biodynamic viticulture, Rouge-Bleu, vineyard, winery

There’s the round of carnivals, including last week’s Carnival of Homeschooling and this week’s; a collection of insane blog posts, family-themed blogs, and Christian blogs, just to name a few.

As I was putting together my list of French books last week, I couldn’t help but spend a bit of time in France, bien sur, and came across a few très bon resources that you may enjoy. I was intrigued by an organic old-vine winery in Provence; I’d like a Postcard from Provence (a daily painting blog); some help with your French (the wife of the wine blog I mentioned); a family living the “aixtreme life” in Aix-en-Provence.

On the way back to this side, I stopped in the U.K. at a bend in the road. I discovered a new blog, just one month old, the fascinating faith journey of a boomer in the pew; some blogs which are new to me, but give great inspiration and charming art mixed with thoughtful words.

Have a terrific Tuesday!!

Technorati Tags: blogging, blog carnival

My love affair with France began when I was a little boy, not even old enough to read, and I listened to my elderly great-aunts tell tales of serving as Red Cross nurses in Dijon during the Great War. Aunt Hilda was seized by a Frenchman on the Champs-Elysees when the armistice was announced, and he kissed her madly. She pretended to be scandalized 60 years later. I thought it was amazing. Just think! The old ladies sat me on their leather couch in their cabin and showed me their photo album from France in the war, and I was in heaven.

I will not read all these books in 2008, I just know it. This is an ambitious list for a busy mom like myself, with so many other things to keep up on, but this is the Year of French for me, and my book list for the year is comprised entirely of books about France, the French, set in France, by a French author, or anything a Francophile would love. Without further adieu ado, here is my list of great French books – in English- (well, I hope they’ll be great…I’ll review them as I go), an eclectic mix of serious, light, and historical books. But for the acclaimed French classics, like Madame Bovary or The Count of Monte Cristo, go here.

1. Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky. This is the one book on my list that I’ve read already. I just finished it last week, and will review it shortly. Wow. Here is a piece of the review from The Washington Post’s Book World:

This extraordinary work of fiction about the German occupation of France is embedded in a real story as gripping and complex as the invented one. Composed in 1941-42 by an accomplished writer who had published several well-received novels, Suite Française, her last work, was written under the tremendous pressure of a constant danger that was to catch up with her and kill her before she had finished.

Irène Némirovsky was a Jewish, Russian immigrant from a wealthy family who had fled the Bolsheviks as a teenager. She spent her adult life in France, wrote in French but preserved the detachment and cool distance of the outsider. She and her husband were deported to Auschwitz in 1942, where he was gassed upon arrival and she died in the infirmary at the age of 39. Her manuscript, in minuscule and barely readable handwriting, was preserved by her daughters, who, ignorant of the fact that these notebooks contained a full-fledged masterpiece, left it unread until 60 years later. Once published, with an appendix that illuminates the circumstances of its origin and the author’s plan for its completion, it quickly became a bestseller in France. It is hard to imagine a reader who will not be wholly engrossed and moved by this book.

2. A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle. There are many books in this genre of American/Brit type of adventurous person who leaves it all behind to live in France, renovate a house, or open a restaurant. This is the beginning of the explosion of the genre, and from what I hear, a fabulous read. From Amazon.com:

Who hasn’t dreamed, on a mundane Monday or frowzy Friday, of chucking it all in and packing off to the south of France? Provençal cookbooks and guidebooks entice with provocatively fresh salads and azure skies, but is it really all Côtes-du-Rhône and fleur-de-lis? Author Peter Mayle answers that question with wit, warmth, and wicked candor in A Year in Provence, the chronicle of his own foray into Provençal domesticity.

3. Fields of Glory by Jean Rouaud. Set in the Loire Valley, this book has been beautifully translated from French; it’s the story of three generations and the memory of the battlefields of WWI. From Library Journal:

This book represents a dialog between two generations seemingly far apart: three elderly veterans of the post-World War I era from the French lower Loire Valley and their grandchildren. Set in the 1950s, the novel is mainly a journey through the memories of grandfather, grandmother, and Aunt Marie, which reach as far back as battlefields near Ypres and Verdun–the “fields of glory.” The memories are narrated from the perspectives of the grandchildren, whose initial boredom and impatience with the nostalgic stories from another era progressively become affection and understanding for the psychological urge to remember and be remembered. Rouaud was unknown even in France until he won the Prix Goncourt 1990, France’s highest fiction honor, for this novel.

4. The Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos. First published in 1937, this is the story of a young Catholic priest in an isolated French village, and his diaries of his faith and failures. From Amazon.com:

In this classic Catholic novel, Bernanos movingly recounts the life of a young French country priest who grows to understand his provincial parish while learning spiritual humility himself. Awarded the Grand Prix for Literature by the Academie Francaise, The Diary of a Country Priest was adapted into an acclaimed film by Robert Bresson. “A book of the utmost sensitiveness and compassion…it is a work of deep, subtle and singularly encompassing art.”

5. Blame it on Paris by Laura Florand. This is pure fun, ladies! American girl goes to Paris for study abroad, meets French boyfriend, ends up staying in France. Who doesn’t like a little French fairy tale? From Booklist:

Southern belle Laura is perfectly happy to spend her time as a graduate student in Paris gorging on chocolate, complaining about rude locals, and eschewing any sort of romance. Enter Sebastien, a cute waiter-aspiring graphic artist. What starts as a crush turns into a full-fledged relationship, and soon Laura is contemplating staying in Paris, and maybe even marrying. What follows is a sometimes hilarious and sometimes ridiculous adventure involving four weddings, two in rural Georgia and two in France. Florand’s romance relies heavily on cultural stereotypes and misunderstandings to set up humorous situations. Ultimately, it’s how well Laura and Sebastien’s families take to each other, and to helping the newlyweds, that generates the sweet surprise. This is a fun, frothy tale for anyone who has ever conjured up a dashing foreigner to sweep her off her feet.

6. God Still Loves the French by Marc Mailloux. Written by an American missionary with a deep passion for the French and a desire to share God’s love with them. From Stevan Horning, Reviewer:

Although Mailloux paints a bleak picture of France’s modern soul, he cherishes the hope that God’s power and grace continues to create beautiful souls in the spiritual desert that is France today. Proof of God’s effective love emerges mainly in the cameo portraits Mailloux gives of people he has seen convert from darkness to light. He writes with consistent humor, sprinkling each page with witty observations. No doubt he cultivates a light-hearted hope in order better to endure the exasperations of a twenty-year effort in that resistant mission field. He now broadcasts, teaches, and preaches to French-speaking Haitians, Quebecois, and Caribbean Islanders. An easy but thought-provoking read, full of truth. I have never seen another book on this subject.

7. Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World by René Girard. What I really wanted to read by René Girard was a book published fairly recently in Italian, Verità o fede debole. Dialogo su cristianesimo e relativismo (Truth or Weak Faith: Dialogue on Christianity and Relativism). It’s about what Girard believes is a coming Christian Renaissance. But I can’t find the book in English. So I’m going to read this one instead. Girard presents the idea that human culture is based on a sacrifice as a way out of the mimetic, or imitative, violence between rivals. Here’s a quick review of Things Hidden. You can read an excellent interview with René Girard here.

Girard is a French anthropologist and has been called one of the most influential intellectuals of our time. For a man with outspoken Christian views, it’s amazing to me that he’s held in such high regard in French intellectual circles, and has even been named to the Académie française.

8. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. Time-travel to Paris in the 1920s – great art, beautiful women, literary icons. From Amazon.com:

In the preface to A Moveable Feast, Hemingway remarks casually that “if the reader prefers, this book may be regarded as fiction”–and, indeed, fact or fiction, it doesn’t matter, for his slim memoir of Paris in the 1920s is as enchanting as anything made up and has become the stuff of legend. Paris in the ’20s! Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, lived happily on $5 a day and still had money for drinks at the Closerie des Lilas, skiing in the Alps, and fishing trips to Spain. On every corner and at every café table, there were the most extraordinary people living wonderful lives and telling fantastic stories.

9. French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano. We all know the French paradox, and this book will enlighten us all, I’m sure! From Amazon.com:

Author Mireille Guiliano is CEO of Veuve Clicquot, and French Women Don’t Get Fat offers a concept of sensible pleasures: If you have a chocolate croissant for breakfast, have a vegetable-based lunch–or take an extra walk and pass on the bread basket at dinner. Guiliano’s insistence on simple measures slowly creating substantial improvements are reassuring, and her suggestion to ignore the scale and learn to live by the “zipper test” could work wonders for those who get wrapped up in tiny details of diet. She sympathizes that deprivation can lead straight to overindulgence when it comes to favorite foods, but then, in a most French manner, treats them as a pleasure that needs to be sated, rather than a battle to be fought.

10. My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme. From Publishers Weekly:

With Julia Child’s death in 2004 at age 91, her grandnephew Prud’homme (The Cell Game) completed this playful memoir of the famous chef’s first, formative sojourn in France with her new husband, Paul Child, in 1949. The couple met during WWII in Ceylon, working for the OSS, and soon after moved to Paris, where Paul worked for the U.S. Information Service. Child describes herself as a “rather loud and unserious Californian,” 36, six-foot-two and without a word of French, while Paul was 10 years older, an urbane, well-traveled Bostonian. Startled to find the French amenable and the food delicious, Child enrolled at the Cordon Bleu and toiled with increasing zeal under the rigorous tutelage of éminence grise Chef Bugnard. “Jackdaw Julie,” as Paul called her, collected every manner of culinary tool and perfected the recipes in her little kitchen on rue de l’Université (“Roo de Loo”). She went on to start an informal school with sister gourmandes Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, who were already at work on a French cookbook for American readers, although it took Child’s know-how to transform the tome—after nine years, many title changes and three publishers—into the bestselling Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). This is a valuable record of gorgeous meals in bygone Parisian restaurants, and the secret arts of a culinary genius.

11. Wine & War: The French, The Nazis, and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure by Donald Kladstrup. The Nazis’ looting of treasures went far beyond the works of art most of us are familiar with. From Library Journal:

Husband-and-wife journalists and contributors to Wine Spectator, the Kladstrups recount the dangerous and daring exploits of those who fought to keep France’s greatest treasure out of the hands of the Nazis. Whether they were fobbing off inferior wines on the Germans, hiding precious vintages behind hastily constructed walls, sabotaging shipments being sent out of France, or even sneaking people out of the country in wine barrels, the French proved to be remarkably versatile when it came to protecting their beloved wine. The authors craft a compelling read that shifts back and forth between individual tales of bravery, including those of five prominent wine-making families, and the bigger story of how World War II affected the French wine industry.

12. The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. by Sandra Gulland. The French Revolution comes to life, with Josephine Bonaparte center stage. From Amazon.com:

Since completing high school history, few of us have managed to keep straight the details of the French Revolution. Beyond suggestions of eating cake and the effectiveness of the guillotine, this sordid time period has remained–for many–somewhat obscure. Now, through the novel The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., not only do we learn of the many differences between Robespierre and Rousseau, but we gain insight into the marriage of one of history’s greatest political couples: Napoleon and Josephine.

Standing beside the charismatic Napoleon, Josephine’s own importance and fascinating history have often been overshadowed. In a fictionalized account of Josephine’s diaries and her correspondence, author Sandra Gulland has shed light on Josephine’s pre-Napoleon life. This, the first of three books about Josephine, covers her childhood in Martinique, her first marriage, the birth of her children, her life during the revolution, and her marriage to Napoleon.

13. Murder in the Marais by Cara Black. A little French mystery to top off my list! This is the first book in the series starring detective Aimée Leduc, set in modern day Paris. From Publisher’s Weekly:

The initial installment of a projected series of mysteries set in Paris, this standout first novel introduces dauntless private investigator Aimée Leduc. The French-American, whose specialty is computer forensics, is confronted with a seemingly mundane task: to decipher an encrypted photograph from the ’40s and deliver it to an old woman in the Marais (the historic Jewish quarter of Paris). When Aimée arrives at the home of Lili Stein to present the photo, however, she finds the woman dead, a swastika carved into her forehead. Thus begins a thrilling, quick-paced chase involving neo-Nazis, corrupt government officials and fierce anti-Semitism. With the help of her partner, René, a computer hacking expert, Aimée uncovers tantalizing clues relating to German war veteran Hartmuth Griffe, the Jewish girl he saved from Auschwitz, a French trade minister and other enigmatic figures. But the data Aimée and René come up with only takes them so far. In order to understand the true motive behind the killing, Aimée must delve into history, confronting older residents of the quarter who’d prefer she leave the past alone. The suspense is high as she fraternizes dangerously with the enemy, even becoming briefly involved with an Aryan supremacist. Black knows Paris well, and in her first-rate debut she deftly combines fascinating anecdotes from the city’s war years with classic images of the City of Lights.

Are there any other Francophiles/bibliophiles out there who’d like to join me in reading any of the books listed here? I’d love some company along the way – we could have a cyber book club of sorts.

For more Thursday Thirteen lists, go here.

Technorati Tags: book list, France, French books, Thursday Thirteen

I immediately assured Elise that homeschooling was, in fact, legal in France. Not so in Germany, but France, yes. Elise would not back down. She insisted over and over that it was illegal, that her teachers had told her so. I’ll try not to go on a rant about that kind of propaganda, but the source of her information infuriated me. It wasn’t until I sat her down at the computer and showed her Les Enfants d’Abord that she relented. I wanted her to see, in her own language, the truth of the matter. Homeschool Legal Defense Association is also a good source of information on the legality of homeschooling across the world, but for Elise, she needed French intelligence.

I asked Elise why she thought her teachers would have told her homeschooling was illegal. She could barely stand to admit that she was wrong about this. “I think because it’s not normal,” was her reply. Of course, she doesn’t actually know any homeschoolers. That’s propaganda for you, mes amis.

Let me take a moment to highlight a family successfully homeschooling in France, the Hoffmeisters. This family of five up and moved to France about four years ago! They set aside their homeschooling way of life initially, opting for the French schools to help the kids with the language immersion. After a few years of great difficulty for one of the children in particular, the Hoffmeisters resumed homeschooling in France. Despite what many consider to be heavy regulation on homeschooling in France, such as annual inspections and certain mandated educational outcomes, they are doing it!

By the way, the Hoffmeister Family has started a wonderful home business to help with the costs associated with homeschooling, such as the fact that one of the parents is most likely to be without an income. Since we have a family business as well, I just love supporting other families in this endeavor whenever I can.

Their business is called A Present From France. Since my children have been learning French for the past several years, I’m always on the lookout for creative ways of teaching. The variety of items included in this “care package” are sure to please all. I will most definitely be adding A Present From France to my repertoire!

Here’s what it is, as explained on the website:

Imagine, every two months receiving a ‘present’ from your new penfriend Juliette who lives in France. In your present you will receive lots of lovely gifts to help you learn French; toys, games, worksheets, CD’s with stories and songs, posters, bookmarks and lots more. It’s a fantastic way for your child to learn French and have fun at the same time. I’ll bet they can’t wait for the next box!!

And from the About Us section of their website:

‘A present from France’ is produced by The ‘Hoffmeisters’, a home educating family who live in a little village called Moncontour in Brittany, north west France. Being lucky enough to have a recording studio installed into their 17th century home, they have been able to write and produce their own music and story tapes, an integral part of the ‘presents’. With the help of French teachers, French speech specialists and friendly natives to advise, proof-read and perform on the audio CDs, ‘A present from France’ has come into existence. 


For Americans, you need to email for pricing. info@apresentfromfrance.com.

If you are a homeschooling family in France, I’d love to hear from you!! Bonne chance pour tout.

I wrote earlier about some perceptions this French teenager has of America. I don’t entirely understand her view of American religious life, but here’s what I observed.

We pulled into the parking lot of the church I chose for her to experience. “It’s so modern!” Her country’s churches, as you can probably guess, look more like the Notre Dame of her famous city. “It’s so big!” Yes, I did take her to one of the largest churches in this small town, but by no means is it what Americans would consider a megachurch.
Then we escorted the children to their respective Sunday School classes. She was surprised at the gaiety of the rooms, colorfully decorated and with plentiful activities. As we walked the halls, we passed a large rack filled with bread and other food items, part of the church’s Food Pantry Ministry for the poor or homeless. She was shocked to see food displayed inside a church. Some sort of violation of these sacred halls, maybe?

“Is there a concert today?” she asked, as we entered the sanctuary with worship in session. She saw a stage set up with a band and several singers, and the quality of the music was so outstanding, she thought it must be a performance. Kudos to the worship band at this church, it was amazing.

Elise nudged me again. “Where is the Christ on the Cross?” she wanted to know. I pointed to the large wooden cross on the wall. “But the Christ?” I’m so used to being in Protestant churches it took me a moment to understand what she was saying. I told her that Jesus rose from the grave after three days, so He was no longer on the cross.

Then came the laughter. The preacher was telling jokes, and the entire congregation was laughing out loud. This totally shocked her. I had to explain to her why it was funny, and in my opinion completely appropriate, for the pastor to joke about an old, unmarried lady at a conference, who, upon being asked her life verse, gave the scripture about “If any man would come after Me, let him.”

“This does not seem religious,” she stated firmly. I just can’t believe this is religious – over and over again this was the confusion in her head. Exactly!! It’s not religious, it’s faith, relationship, fellowship…

Why in the world would a young French girl who considers herself an atheist even care about any of these things? Every one of her comments or observations thus far had come from a critical place – not against church, really, but the fact that this church was different from what she knew in France. I concluded several things. First, it’s human nature to be critical of anything new, unknown, or different. It’s funny, because even with her incredibly limited church experience, she still knew enough from her culture and society to know that this American church was strange and unfamiliar.

I also concluded something about her unbelief in God. Having not given me an exact reason for why she doesn’t believe, I assumed a few motives. France has a very high rate of folks who report they are either atheist, agnostic, or simply don’t believe in God. Somewhere between 47% and 54%, depending on what study you examine. Compare that to an unbelief rate of just 3% to 9% in the U.S.A. Thanks in huge part to the French Revolution and the following rise to power of the Jacobins. There followed the Reign of Terror, in which more aggressive atheists sought to de-Christianize France. Religion was replaced with reason, and much of this influence remains today.

Elise is very in tune with French culture and society, and probably just accepts atheism as a normal way of thinking. She says her father is an atheist, but her mother believes in God. Her family does not practice any religion and does not encourage her to do so. “They wish me to choose what I want,” she explained. She doesn’t have any Christian friends, except her best friend’s mother. And this woman, from what Elise described to me, is involved in the occult. Moving glasses around the table, calling up spirits…this is the only person (other than her mother) Elise could tell me about that she knew and considered to be a Christian. I begged Elise to steer clear of that activity.

Some French paradoxes emerged as I continued discussions with Elise. She does not believe in God, but does believe in angels (“Just one person could not have created the world, but perhaps many angels”). She does not believe in biblical prophesy, but does believe that some guy on a French radio talk show can tell people’s future. She does not believe that it’s healthy for children to be taught that there is a God, but she wants children to believe in the tradition of Santa Claus.

So, this French atheist wants the crucifix displayed in church, maybe because that is her norm. She has been enculturated with being “normal,” which makes sense for a socialist, secular country.

Oh, but she was really, really impressed with the free buffet of snacks and drinks available to all after the church service. “I might go to church in France if it was like this,” she announced in between bites of delicious cake, and I half think that would be the case. And you know what? I’m certain the Holy Spirit was/is at work, drawing her to Himself. The following morning, my radio happened to be on, tuned into the local Christian station. “Everyday” (It’s You I’ll live for) from Hillsong Australia came on, which we had just sung in church. Elise recognized the song, and later told me she liked the song, and wondered where she might find it. Hmmm, interesting. As the pastor said at the end of the service, “It is no coincidence you are here today.” Perhaps concerts and free food will convert the French.

Waffles are not for breakfast and are especially not served with butter and syrup. Perhaps plain for lunch or with other various toppings at dinner. Bacon and eggs are also not for breakfast. Just bread and coffee, please. But the Ile Flottant dessert Elise prepared for us last night was made with 6 eggs and over a quart of milk.

Our roads are too big, our cars are too big, our stomachs are too big. We Americans are gluttonous, McDonald’s eating, environment killing, religious freaks. Yes, these are some of Elise’s many perceptions of this big country. I hope to put some to rest, but others will never be removed. Some for good reasons, others for deep-seated cultural differences.

This really is fun. As much as Elise has some serious French issues with America, she loves our T.V. shows, our music, our movies, our stars (as in Hollywood). We about choked when she said she listens to Snoop Dog. And so do all of her French friends. If that is her view of American music, God help us.

My husband let her borrow his iPod (filled with worship music), and upon returning it, she said, the music is nice, but it’s all religious. She has very strong barriers up to religion. As we passed a Catholic church in town, I said, “Est-tu Catholique?” “Non, rien.” She is nothing. Irreligious. Like most of France, other than the burgeoning Muslim population. I’m fervently praying for this very sweet girl, but rarely have I sensed such fierce opposition to God. Ah, there is a reason she is a guest in my home.

The Shriners are a sect which would not be allowed in France because they are dangerous. This observation came from Elise as we watched the 4th of July parade yesterday. Personal fireworks are very rare; most of the French enjoy Bastille Day (France’s Independence) with the city fireworks only. She was delighted with our little firework celebration at home.

Daily we discover ways in which we are not like the French. Sometimes it’s really funny (what, you don’t eat rabbit?), other times it’s troubling.

Elise is fifteen years old, and lives in a small village outside Paris. She speaks German, some English, some Danish, and of course, French. I tell you, those Europeans and their languages – we Americans have a few things to learn. The letter she sent to introduce herself was adorable. (Voici le courrier d’Elise destiné à ce présenter…) I wondered what she must think of America and Americans…”I like pets, but I’m little anxious when they are big and wild.” “I eat everything, but I don’t like dry fruits.” “I’m not a good climber, so if we go to hill walking, I’m not very stirring.”

I stumbled across this fun opportunity through my dear friend, Catherine. Catherine is from France, and is hosting her nephew this summer. The nephew is only ten years old, and understandably his mother wanted a travel partner for him. Elise is a family friend, and given her love of travel and foreign languages, she was the perfect fit. Catherine just couldn’t stuff another person in her home, and when she asked me, I jumped at the chance. Catherine doesn’t live far from me, so we’ll all get to spend a lot of time together.

So, I’m preparing. The language, of course, was the first thing on my mind. Although French was one of my college majors, my skills are pitiful, in my opinion. I completed my undergraduate work fifteen years ago (is that possible?), and in the years since, have done little language work. I did start teaching my kids French about a year and a half ago, and that has actually been quite helpful – the teacher must know the subject ahead of the kids and I was forced to get myself back in shape. We’ve also been meeting with Catherine and her kids once a week for French conversation and games – this is invaluable! Better than any of the French children’s curriculum or books or videos – we’ve used Le Francais Facile, Muzzy, The Learnables and love them all- but if you’re trying to learn a foreign language or get a refresher, there’s nothing better than a native (except moving to the country in question)! Also very helpful for adult learners is the free website learner.org by Annenberg Media. Their French in Action video instructional series is something I used in college, and have been revisiting lately as well (I feel like Mireille and Robert are my friends).

I have to insert here the funny story of how I met Catherine. I was standing in the checkout line of Fred Meyer, our local grocery/merchandise store, and I heard from the customer ahead of me an accent! I could be mistaken, I thought, but that English sounds very French. I, who am constantly embarrassing my husband by talking to strangers, immediately pounced on her. Are you French? She was. I begged her to call me, and gave her my phone number. She must be the only French person in this entire little Central Oregon town, and I’m not about to let her get away. Much to my surprise and delight, she didn’t think I was a raving lunatic, and she called me several weeks later, and the rest is history…I now count her among my dearest friends.

Back to preparations. She must have a room. The room I’m sitting in right now, typing away, will transform from my office and storage room to Elise’s room. This means several trips to Goodwill to get rid of stuff that I store and haul from house to house…why do we do these things? Get rid of it. I have a lovely picture of the French countryside (posted there to the right) that I’m moving from my living room to this room, to keep her company. Oh, and I still need a bed.

I have some recreation and travel plans for our family while she’s here, including trips to the Oregon coast, the zoo, OMSI, a local museum, Smith Rock (but nothing too “stirring”), and just hanging out. I don’t want to overwhelm her, but I want to bless her socks off with a good time! What do you think? What is a French girl’s expectation of spending a month in Oregon, USA?

photo credits for Eiffel Tower: http://www.offrench.net/photos/gallery-5.php