Greetings dear readers and friends. I hope all is well in your respective corners of the world. The summer in France has been an amazing time of celebration and reflection – from the thrill of the Olympic Games to enjoying the simple joys of Provence… evening apéros watching the sun dip below the Mediterranean, backyard barbeques to celebrate Bastille Day, and attending Jazz concerts at local vineyards. Summer is when the region really shines.
Speaking of shining… I’d like to introduce you to a new novel by Mary Fleming, Civilisation Française. A thought-provoking, multilayered look at not only the nuances of French culture, but how two different generations of American expats experience life – with its trials and tribulations – in Paris, the City of Light.
Set in the early 1980s, the story enfolds of a young American woman who has ventured to the capital to attend a course on French history and culture, Civilisation française, at the Sorbonne. Although full of the whimsy which comes from embarking on an adventure abroad, it is not lost on the reader that Lily is actually quite wise beyond her years – tinged with a certain touch of sadness that is further divulged throughout the book. It’s clear that she’s seen and lived more things than her American peers at the Sorbonne – a “hybrid” history, as she describes it. Her American parents left the US to study in England and then decided to stay for the long-term, creating a multicultural landscape for Lily.
Lily comes to live with Madame, in the room of a large house on place des Vosges. Initially, Madame refuses to speak English with her. A sharp contrast develops. Madame, an American expat of a “certain age,” she has spent the better part of her life in a city which Lily has just come to call home. She has adopted the French ways. The sights, sounds, and smells of exquisite cooking and fine living à la française, envelop the home. Lilly questions what her role will be in this new, somewhat quirky, somewhat eccentric, environment.
As her eyesight is failing, Madame has begrudgingly agreed to house the young student in exchange for assistance and part-time care. We sense that both women are at turning points in their lives – one chapter beginning, another slowly, sometimes painfully, coming to an end.
Lily is both apprehensive and curious about her new surroundings. Will she enjoy this new adventure in Paris? How can she adapt to living in such a grand home? Will Madame, as pleasant as she may be, ever cease to speak to her in French?
The author chooses to cut back and forth between the experiences in Paris of the two generations. While Madame is reminiscing about her husband, François – and the heyday of their glamorous adventure together, building a life together in la capitale, Lily is hoping that she might find someone to feel the same way about her.
Is there anyone out there who can truly love her?
Along the backdrop of breathtaking Paris, Lily makes friends at the Sorbonne, attracts the attention of a certain young Frenchman, and begins to peel back the layers of her complicated childhood. We see Madame at once struggling with her past and memories of her mother, and slowly unwinding the telling of what happened to her husband.
A rich and complex novel, Civilisation Française will provoke deep thoughts in the reader on love, loss, and the binds of shared cultural understanding.
You can find the book on Amazon, and be sure to follow author Mary Fleming on her website and Instagram account: @flemingm6
Bon reading à tous!
Belle Provence Travels 