The monthly English-language newspaper, The French Paper, is giving away five copies of the Naughty Paris Guide. To enter the drawing, pick up a copy of the paper from international newsstands throughout France (and at WH Smith in Paris).]]>The monthly English-language newspaper, The French Paper, is giving away five copies of the Naughty Paris Guide. To enter the drawing, pick up a copy of the paper from international newsstands throughout France (and at WH Smith in Paris).]]>Email Heather for more details: naughtyparis@gmail.com
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London is such a fabulously naughty place, a fun place for women to let their hair down and go out on the town. While waiting for the Naughty London Guide, your best bet for the insider scoop is to visit the site, Please Sir, We Want Some More! by the Erotic Dilettantes Robin & Fanny. Shopping, events, nightlife and every stripe of naughtiness to bring out your adventurous side.
And the site is just gorgeous! I may have to steal their designer. ;)
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The Happy Hours are casual soirées of mingling and networking with the ladies of the Paris Urban Adventures Meetup. And this month, since Heather is starting her research for the second edition of the Naughty Paris Guide, she's hoping you'll share your favorite Paris addresses, from intimate restaurants and fabulous spas to naughty boutiques and the newest dance venues.
Join Heather and Michelle upstairs from 6:30-9pm. There is no fee to attend, Happy Hour drinks (and food) are available from the bar.
Panfoulia (upstairs)
7 Rue Ste-Croix de la Bretonnerie, 4th
Métro St Paul or Hotel de Ville
"Naughty Paris" is the perfect gift for all the ladies in your life, and now you can get €5/$7 off all orders -- including the book, the eBook, or both! -- through January 1st, 2010. When ordering, just type in the discount code: HoHoHo.
Have a nice and naughty holiday season!
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The Naughty Paris Guide can now be found at the Musée du Louvre Bookshop, as well as the gift shop of the Musée du Quai Branly and the Musée de l'Erotisme. For more store locations look here.
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Last night I took a cocktail-making class at La Cuisine (89 boulevard St-Michel, 5th). I was actually a bartender for a year in my college town in Minnesota and then at an Irish pub in Paris, but that was over a decade ago, and cocktails have come a long way since the Long Island Iced Teas, White Russians and Kamikazes of the 1990s.
Making cocktails is more than just mixing up some ingredients in pretty glasses. First, you have to have the right ingredients. Like cooking, anything tastes better when you have the highest quality ingredients possible. In this case, don't scrimp on quality liquor and mixers. We're not students anymore! Don't you dare serve a premium vodka that costs €85/bottle with an old carton of pasteurized orange juice. Even the ice is important. "You should use mineral water to make your ice cubes," says our young instructor, Frédéric, a bartender in the trendy Montorgueil district.
There were six of us in the class, gathered by two at our stations around the spacious granite island in the second of the two working kitchens at La Cuisine. The 90-minute class would teach us how to make six cocktails, three classic (even vintage) drinks and three contemporary cocktails. To begin, Frédéric explained each of the cocktail-making tools, from the spoon and shaker to the strainer and masher. It's always a bit awkward at first handling the materials. This is what makes these classes so great: not only do you learn recipies for making yummy drinks, you get to practice your moves in advance so you don't look silly doing it in front of your friends later on.
Not that we were juggling bottles or anything fancy like that, but we did learn the proper way to hold the strainer on the shaker, how to dislodge the glass from the shaker without breaking it, and how to carmelize citrus zest without setting anything on fire. Our patient instructor also gave us plenty of tips on how to properly chill the glasses, how to get a few drops of bitters out of the bottle without getting it all over the place, and how to pour shots Japanese-style. He explained the origin and use for all the liquors we used, including the rather new St-Germain elderflower liquor. We used straws to taste everything and small sips of our drinks (so we wouldn't be too drunk to make the final drink).
We turned on some fun music and commenced our mixing, munching on some nibbles and comparing techniques on getting an eggwhite with the least mess. The atmosphere is fun and easy, there are no tests at the end -- aside from the taste tests. We finished with a good buzz and an arsenal of tips and tricks for our next house party. ;)
The next Cocktails & Mixologie Class is December 19, 5-6:30pm, with the bilingual Frédéric at the helm. The cost is €45/person, and you'll learn to make six cocktails: Le Martinez (1860), Whisky Sour (1860), Moscow Mule (1941), and new drinks Le Tommy's Margarita, Gin Basil Smash and the Elderflower Martini. Sign up online at La Cuisine, or check out their other cooking and baking classes, in English and French.
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I just finished reading Moonlight in Odessa, the first novel by American-born Paris expat Janet Skeslien Charles.
Most Anglophone writers in Paris know Janet from the famous Shakespeare & Company bookstore, where she has taught a writing workshop for several years. As one of her former students I was thrilled to hear about her published book. And like a new baby or Beaujolais Nouveau, everyone celebrates the arrival, and it isn't important whether it's any good.
But of course Moonlight in Odessa is not just good, it's hard to put down! Here is the back cover description:
"After months pf searching, twenty-three-year-old Daria, armed with perfect English and an engineering degree, finds a job at a big foreign company in Odessa. Unfortunately, her boss makes it clear that sleeping with him is the first item on her to-do list.
Daria evades his advances by setting him up with her neighbor, the slippery Olga. But soon Olga sets her sights on Daria's job, and Daria finds herself moonlighting as an interpreter at Soviet Unions, a matchmaking agency. As she bridges the language gaps between desperate Odessa women and lonely foreign men, Daria finds herself tempted by the American Dream, and faces the choice between her beloved city and the West, between a sexy, irresponsible mobster and a gentle teacher.
Exploring the booming business of email-order brides, an industry where love and marriage collise with sex and money, Moonlight in Odesssa is a darkly humorous debut about the choices and sacrifices we make in pursuit of love and stability, and the lengths we will go to for a happy ending."
Of course, there is a twist. More than one! But without giving too much of the story away I can say that what impressed me the most was how the characters acted illogically at towns. Some critics say that you can't create a smart, independent woman and then have her act in a silly, irresponsible way. Au contraire!
How many times have you, a savvy and intelligent adult, done something that is so completely idiotic that you can only sheepishly shrug your shoulders later when you've come back to your senses? And of course most of the things we do that we wish we didn't involve the opposite sex. The same is true for Daria, as well as her would-be suitors, who each in turn act in ways that are sometimes honorable but usually awful, simply because they want Daria to love them.
Of course the protagonist has to face the consequences of her bad choices, but she eventually figures out who she is and -- most important -- who she is not. It's always heartening to see someone, real or fictional, who learns something from their mistakes and makes the decision to move on with life. This is a great book for all women who need a bit of a kick in the derrière when it comes to their love life.
And kudos to an author who has enough sense to make the ending just a bit ambiguous. I chalk that up to her decade of living in France, a country that has mastered the art of subtlety. No one needs to be smacked over the head with the Hollywood ending.
Finally, the novel is a great introduction to the city of Odessa (Janet even has a guided photo tour of the city on her website so you can see the places that are mentioned in the book), and the way of life in post-communist Ukraine, including a look on the other side of the mail-order bride industry.
I highly recommend Moonlight in Odessa, which you can find in paperback in Europe (UK launch in February) and in hardback in the US/Canada.
If you're in Paris, Janet will be reading and signing books at two events:
November 12 at the American Library (10, rue du Général Camou, 75007 Paris 01 53 59 12 60)
Talk: A discussion of how to take a subject that fascinates you as a writer and transform it into a subject that will interest your reader. We will also talk about the process of writing and research.
February 15 at 7 pm at Shakespeare & Co (37, rue de la Bûcherie, 75005 Paris 01 43 25 40 93).
Janet and me at the book launch party in October 2009.