Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

While considerable thought goes into packing clothing for an overseas vacation, especially when visiting multiple countries with differing climates, I give equally as much thought into what I will read on the trip. My Kindle is always fully loaded and downloaded and ready to go.

For my recent trip to Ireland and France, I had in mind that I would read books set in those two countries. For Ireland, I read My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes (see review). For France, I had saved a much anticipated new book by Ruth Reichl, she of Gourmet and NYT Food fame.

I’ve read many of Reichl’s nonfiction memoirs, where she writes so masterfully about food. Her first novel, Delicious!, had the protagonist digging into old letters written to the famous chef James Beard during WWII. This book, her second novel, has a similar thread, where the protagonist is digging into the history of the female model in a famous painting. The history tied with the present day story is a winner for me. I love the curiosity behind such a search and the perseverance required when one meets one dead end after another.

However, the real winner in a Reichl literary work is her knowledge and love of food. She writes about food in such a way that I can actually smell and taste the dishes being prepared and/or consumed. Chopping leeks and rinsing the sand away? Yes, please, something I am quite familiar with. An underrated but essential vegetable from the onion family. Gingerbread (from a recipe in the original Silver Palate cookbook, which my own stained copy attests to my love thereof) tinged with the finest Kashmiri saffron? Yes, please, on my list of things to try someday, with whatever saffron I can find and afford in my DC suburb.

Reading a Reichl novel set in Paris is not like reading a novel by someone in Wisconsin who has never been to Paris. It is like reading a history book, a travel guide, and a memoir from a true Parisienne, someone who has lived Paris, loved Paris, and is almost more Paris than anything else.

Reichl includes in this novel a glance into what must be her other passions, art and fashion. The Paris Novel ties a storyline involving the House of Dior into a storyline involving a Manet painting. The main setting (which begins in NYC, but quickly shifts to Paris) is the famous bookstore Shakespeare and Company. I adored this part of the book, even though a bit more bohemian than I think I could myself partake in. What bibliophile wouldn’t love to actually live in a bookstore? Growing up in a very small town in southeast Louisiana I practically lived in my local public library. If I had been offered the chance to even spend one night there, I might have cried with joy.

Animal rights activists and vegetarians may be offended by Reichl’s adoration of foie gras, but as with anything, take what you like and leave the rest. For a visit to Paris from your armchair, weaving in and out of small streets, learning the arrondissements, the churches, the libraries, the landmarks, well, let’s say it was a wonderful way to whet my appetite for my visit to France this summer!