Emily in France 🇫🇷 Come Write with Me in Nantes!
We're bringing back the Nantes Writers' Workshop for its third edition
I wrote my first “book” when I was about six years old. It was called The Girl Who Loved Everything Red and followed the adventures of a young girl who wished for everything in the world to be her favorite color. When her wish was granted (I believe by a magic tortoise, though it’s been a while), she realized that a monochrome world was far from as enticing as one that boasted all of the hues of the rainbow, and when her wish was finally undone, she saw the error of her ways.
Let me be clear: I was no prodigy, at six. My father played a non-negligible development role in the storyline. (He also drew the outlines for the illustrations, which I carefully filled with acrylic paints.)
While I like to believe that I’m far more instrumental in my own storytelling these days, 31 years of writing fiction – and nearly 20 years of writing professionally – has taught me how much stronger we are as writers with a great editor, beta reader, and vaster writing community on our side. I’ve written countless short stories, novel manuscripts, and articles that would be a shadow of their final result without the community I’ve built over the years. Which is only part of the reason I’m so excited to announce that the Nantes Writers’ Workshop is returning for the third summer!
Over the course of the week-long program, participants spend their afternoons in a feedback-focused Iowa-style writing workshop with Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum (and my dear friend) Anna Polonyi. Mornings, meanwhile, are spent generating new words with writing exercises led by yours truly and inspired in part by the gorgeous city of Nantes. Evenings will give us time to chat about essential elements of writing, from revision to publishing to craft, in a more casual setting, and we’ll cap off our week with a reading, where participants can share some work they're particularly proud of or excited about.
The session will take place from June 16 to June 20, 2025 in Nantes, France, and applications are free and open until March 15. It’s the perfect way to hone your craft skills and build your writing community.
Cheese of the Week
Some dear friends were visiting from Amsterdam this weekend, which got me thinking about Oudwijker Fiore, a cheese from Utrecht inspired by Taleggio but that honestly reminded me a bit of a slightly stickier Saint-Nectaire. The washed-rind cheese isn't too assertive, with lovely hay and chestnut notes and an incredibly buttery pate.
To discover more of my favorite cheeses, be sure to follow me on Instagram @emily_in_france, subscribe to my YouTube channel, and tune into the Terroir Podcast, where Caroline Conner and I delve into France's cheese, wine, and more one region at a time.
What I’m Eating
I’m devastated to report that Les Inséparables is closing its doors just days after I finally paid this phenomenal, heartfelt restaurant a visit. We opted for Chef Antoine Tonon’s 64€ five-course tasting menu, which began with a delightful, crisp croquette giving major brandade vibes. Raw, sweet scallop was paired with a farandole of crisp, late winter veg and herbs, and a beautiful leek-vinaigrette was finished with a shower of pecorino cheese. A combination of eel, foie gras, and celery root was surprising and innovative, with a welcome yet balanced note of sweetness, and perfectly cooked cod got a slightly Asian spin with seaweed and mizuna. I adored the perfectly cooked Guinea fowl with truffle, and our token pescatarian wasn’t overlooked thanks to a rich, Comté-cream-coated potato tourte. For dessert, we got to sample the chocolate millefeuille with Jerusalem artichoke, but we were blown away by the rice pudding with rich, creamy salted butter caramel and nougatine. I’m so glad I got to try this restaurant – I’m just sorry to see it go!
Where I’m Going
To Madrid and San Sebastián, to eat all the food and drink all the txacoli, with my baby sister!
What I'm Writing
1. Among the better-known bistro classics, a few dishes have long eluded top billing. Blanquette de veau is just as rich and comforting as beef bourguignon, with its white gravy elevated with a touch of lemon. Veal’s brains may make some balk, but when done properly, they’re a luxurious answer to the nose-to-tail debate. Meanwhile, other classics have become so ubiquitous at ho-hum corner brasseries as to have their reputations suffer: It only takes one microwaved croque monsieur or insipid French onion soup topped with greasy cheese to turn you off—maybe for good. Luckily, Paris’s chefs know where to go, and they’ve shared their top tips with me for Frenchly.
2. That can of Coke may be a death wish, according to a new study, which assigns sugar-sweetened beverages the responsibility for about 340,000 deaths around the world every year. For Organic Authority.
3. From the archives: There may be nothing as prototypically Parisian as a croissant, with its crispy golden exterior and tender layers of buttery bliss within. But take a look in any bakery case from New York to Melbourne these days, and you'll find the croissant has been contorted into a host of portmanteau pastries from the cruffin to the Cronut. Recently, Paris has even become home to its very own: a mashup of the croissant and the all-American chocolate chip cookie called the "crookie". For the BBC.
FAQs
With the goal of bringing you the content you crave, I've solicited your help. What questions can I answer for you? Drop them into the newsletter chat, and I’ll answer as many as I can!
This week’s three-pronged question comes from Melissa, a recent guest on one of my cheese tours: What is the proper way to store cheese? How long does it last? What is the proper temperature to serve cheese?
I’ll start with the easy parts.
Store cheese in clean cheese paper. I find that my cheesemonger is typically happy to throw a few clean sheets into the bag whenever I’m stocking up. Barring cheese paper, parchment paper does the job nicely.
Serve cheese at cellar temperature, i.e. a bit cooler than room temperature. Depending on the season, I typically take my cheese out of the fridge about an hour before serving.
As for how long it lasts… it really depends on the kind of cheese!
Pressed cheeses like Comté were designed to last. Cheesemakers typically made them in spring and summer with the goal of enjoying them all year long. It should come as no surprise, then, that they’ll keep several weeks and even several months, though they will dry out with time. When mine are starting to look a bit crusty, I’ll typically grate and freeze them, so I always have excellent cheese ready to be used in one of my epic grilled cheeses.
Whole soft cheeses can keep for several weeks. If you’re planning on traveling with them, I usually ask the cheesemonger for one that’s a bit less aged, and I ask for it packaged in a sous-vide bag for ease of transport. Once cut, however, these cheeses start to turn pretty quickly, within a week or two. This doesn’t mean they're inedible, however! I’ll trim any parts with an off color before digging in, and once they've gotten a bit too powerful even for me, I usually cook with them, which tends to mellow their assertiveness.
The only exceptions are cheeses in the bloomy category, like Brie or Camembert. As these cheeses sit, they can develop a bleachy aroma that, while not dangerous, is a surefire sign they're past its prime. I try very hard not to waste cheese, but when it’s past the point of enjoyment, I do compost it.
What I'm Reading
1. The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw was the second Belize book I checked out of my local library in advance of a recent trip. I had no idea before beginning it how much I would learn about species conservation, government corruption, and, of course, Belize. Deliciously readable, this book is scattered with a phenomenal wealth of real characters, all gravitating to the charismatic, industrious Sharon Matola. Her quest to save the habitat of the Scarlet Macaw takes the author and the reader on a whirlwind across North and Central America, all the while laying out the geopolitics of this unique country. I adored this book.
2. This story ostensibly about pie and mash that actually explores the very idea behind protecting ancestral foods – specifically those once beloved by the working class. In Vittles.
3. This story about the way Denmark is shifting its agriculture to focus on plants. In Vox.
A bientôt !