Saturday, August 16, 2008

A Proust Blog from Laura-Les-Crayons

Lately, not only has my reading of Proust been sort of la-di-dah, but the interesting Proust blogs have dried up for the summer.

Today, I found a singular one, on the topic (mostly) of a Proust lecture. The blogger is a young lady who lives in Paris. I had just been reading the Paris September Gourmet, and recalling our trip of a year and a half ago, or was it two? Anyway, everything converged in delightful serendipity.

http://laura-les-crayons.blogspot.com/

Love the name. Have to confess mega-envy over young women living in Paris. Sigh. Ah well, I can cook something French and get out the French linens and some vin rouge and pretend our deck overlooking the slough is a balcon en Paris. Nice, n'est pas? The chickadees and blackbirds can become pigeons and the slough can be the Seine.

Odette

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Madam Verdurin

A blogger with a take on one of Proust's great characters, Mme. Verdurin.

http://bestofnow.blogspot.com/

And another blogger must be reading about the same party that I am. Pages and pages. Show don't tell. Well, maybe sometimes telling would not be a totally bad thing.

http://delta-november.livejournal.com/91240.html


Didn't take Proust to Chicago. Too tired to read most nights, due to overly large dinners with overly much wine and spirits. Lovely, just not conducive to a long read before bedtime.

Odette

Friday, August 01, 2008

Les Vacances

Your faithful Odette is off to Chicago for a week. Alas, it's not Balbec and certainly not Nantucket or Easthampton or any of the stylish places.

Puzzle for you: If Proust lived here today, where would he take his holidays? Perhaps the Riviera, not on the beach but high above the coast approached by a steep corniche, where the view in marvelous and the food equally fine. Art galleries and patrons nearby. A bit of shopping, but not too much. Girls in bikinis with sportscars, not bicycles. How it all has changed.

It would be nice to be in Nice. Instead, the windy city on the hottest week of the year.

Ah well,

Odette