Emily in France 🇫🇷 Home of My Heart
The home of my heart is a town of 300 people.
I'm a very resolute planner, in most of my life. In high school, I used to arrange color-coded post-its on my desk, telling me where I needed to be when; what assignment was due on what day, to what teacher. I've since graduated to managing my entire life in my Gmail inbox, with a very complex color-coded star situation that has created a slightly worrisome Pavlovian response to deleting emails that I think I should probably be discussing with a professional.
But despite this love of all things planned, most of the very best things that ever happened to me were a total accident... including my discovery of the home of my heart.
If you've been reading this newsletter this summer, you've gotten a glimpse at the unabridged version of my France story. To refresh your memories, while I did move to Paris in 2007, I first came to France at 14 years old, when I was part of an exchange program that afforded me the opportunity to complete a semester of my 9th grade year in a French middle school in the North of France. This experience was crucial to... basically everything that came next.
While during my stay in the North, I learned to speak French – learned the cadence and the slang and the aural comprehension I would need down the line – my written French left something to be desired. When I returned to my American school, I was immediately placed in honors French and began receiving terrible grades on all of my tests. My mother, who up until this point had been resolutely anti-tutor, decided to hire a French woman who lived a few blocks away from us to help my written French catch up. I went to maybe six sessions, finished out the year, and went to boarding school.
But years later, that woman would help me find the home of my heart: Paziols. This little village nestled in the Corbières is its own kind of south, distinct from the Côte d'Azur or the Southwest or nearby Catalonia. I've been coming here nearly every summer since I first visited in 2007: right after I'd spent the semester in Cannes and decided to relocate to France permanently. Paziols is where I feel most like myself. And it's here that I decided to come to finish edits on my novel, which takes place in the region.
With that done and dusted, I've granted myself a mini-vacation: hiking through the countryside, gathering fresh blackberries and figs, climbing to the top of the local Cathar castles, and sunning myself by the riverbank.
I'll be back in Paris soon, friends. But for now, I'm in Heaven.
Where I'm Eating
OK, so this pic is a few months old, but I still wanted to share Le Bon, La Butte in Montmartre with you all. A friend and I visited earlier in the summer, and it's one of the few places in Paris that has remained open throughout the entire month of August. It boasts slightly modern plays on classic French bistro fare in one of the most picturesque neighborhoods in the city.
As always, you can find my list of my favorite Parisian restaurants here.
Where I'm Going
1. The night market in Tautavel, home to a cave where some of the oldest prehistoric human remains in Europe were found.
2. The L'Avide jardin festival in Muttersholtz, Alsace (for a super exciting upcoming story).
3. Back to Paris!
What I'm Writing
1. Every year, experts designate the best baguette in the city. I got the opportunity to chat with three previous first-place winners for the BBC.
2. I explored the murky world of detox diets for Eat This, Not That.
3. Paris is home to some of the most beautiful cinemas. I explored some of my favorites for Fodor's.
What I'm Reading
1. Night trains are making a comeback in Europe as part of the effort to fight climate change. Read all about it in OZY.
2. This exploration of racism within the American healthcare system from the New York Times.
3. This quiz on the most effective ways to curb climate change from CNN.
A bientôt !
Emily in France