The joys of June
Amuse Bouche is published + D-Day commemorations + Where to hide from the Olympics + an extra helping of the book
It’s been an exciting couple of weeks since the publication of Amuse Bouche: How to Eat Your Way Around France, that came with signings and celebrations in Cheltenham, The Cotswolds and London. It’s been rewarding to hear how readers are enjoying it after all the hard work. It was a thrill, especially, to see podcaster Gilly Smith use her copy to guide her and her husband around the Hauts-de-France region, after which she wrote this fabulous Substack about the adventure. A newsletter that, I bet, is the reason I’ve gained many new subscribers (bonjour and welcome!). We’re recording an episode of her podcast Cooking The Books this week, so I can’t wait to chat to her about how Amuse Bouche took shape.
It has also been rewarding to sign copies in some of my favourite bookshops, including Rossiter Books, Hatchards and Waterstones in Cheltenham, as well as Hatchards at St Pancras, which is just a few steps from the Eurostar terminal, and Jaffe & Neale in Chipping Norton (another of my favourite bookshops). There are events coming up at The Grape Escape in Cheltenham and The Malvern Book Coop in Malvern, and hopefully more to come.
For those in France looking to get hold of it, I believe it’s now available via Shakespeare & Company, Smith and Son, and The Red Wheelbarrow Bookshop. In North America, I’ve been told the best thing is to ask your local bookstore to order it. And I’m told there is a shipment en route to Australia, so I can’t wait for my friends living there to get their copies.
For paid subscribers, I’ll be including some outtakes from the book (I got carried away and wrote too many sections in some regions, oops) in this and future newsletters, so see below for ‘Encore des Amuses Bouches’.
If you’ve already got a copy of Amuse Bouche and are using it for a trip to France soon, please do send me a photo of you with it in situ - I’d love to see it being used!
D-Day memorials
If the recent commemorations for the 80th anniversary of D-Day have inspired you to visit Normandy then I assure you it is a journey worth making. It wasn’t until I explored all the memorials and museums for a Times article in advance of the 75th anniversary that I really understood the story of the full Operation Overlord. One of the best museums is the Mémorial Pegasus, which has exhibits that focus on the earlier stage of the operation when six Horsa gliders silently took infantry into the landing zone to seize two bridges and clear the way for the Allied troops to move east. On the morning of 6th June this year, BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme broadcast testimonies and memories of listeners and one in particular struck me, moving me to tears. The listener had said that his father had only ever spoken of his D-Day experience once to him; he said - on a visit to a memorial - that he’d been one of those soldiers in a Horsa gliders, but never spoke of it again. This and all the other testimonies shared over those few days were truly humbling.
Extra reading
It’s been great to see some of my freelance articles appear online recently. My Notes from an Author article from National Geographic Traveller is now on their website with some stunning photos (the magazine version is illustrated, pictured). If you’re looking to go to Corsica, this feature on its foods also from National Geographic Traveller Food, should be useful. Meanwhile, last weekend my article on foodie mini-breaks for The Times came out in the paper and online.
Where to hide from the Olympics
My feelings about the Olympics are mixed: part of me is very excited to be part of this historic event, taking place 100 years after the first Paris Olympics; to see Paris at its most proud and to support our British athletes. Meanwhile part of me is a bit miffed not to be rich enough to afford tickets to the opening ceremony and another part of me is panicking about still not having accommodation for one of the nights we’re there. And part of me wants to run away to the quietest place in France, away from the crowds and heat of the city. If you’re in the latter camp, then here are some suggestions on where to run to...
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