Things we learned in France.
Paris is beautiful.
The city is gorgeous. We had a chance to walk around a little, have breakfast in a little quiet cafe, have dinner in a restaurant away from touristy places, and watch people.
French people are very nice.
Everyone we met was very nice to us. We opened with “Bonjour” followed by “Parlez vous anglais?” and most of the time people spoke English. For some weird reason, probably because of Gordon, people kept assuming we were British and when we told them we were from Texas, we got big, surprised eyes.
French taxi drivers are insane.
If you ever want to have your life flash before your eyes, take a taxi that goes through the round-about at Arc de Triomphe. It’s an eight lane round-about. There are no lanes. I repeat, there are no lanes. It was like riding in a bumper car, because everyone slams on their breaks, cars go perpendicular to each other, and bikers and scooter riders completely ignore the fact that they are a vehicle and zip between the cars with fractions of inches to spare.
Also we saw taxi drivers and hotel staff almost come to blows over some sort of dispute regarding taking payment by credit cards. It was hilarious.
The unrest is real.
A lot of store windows around Arc de Triomphe were smashed. Security was everywhere and all the bags had to be inspected. We asked one grim looking security guard about the windows.
Gordon: What happened?
Guard: Revolution.
Gordon: Again?
Guard: Yes. Every Saturday.
French fashion is different.
Their casual is our formal. There was a lot less kin – although it was pretty cold. If you are a woman and you want to look like a local in Paris, put on dark jeans or pants, preferably ankle length, a business casual blouse, a jacket or a cardigan, and a scarf. Seriously, 50% of the women wear some variation of this.
Food.
You haven’t had a croissant until you had it in France. Seriously. I don’t know what they put in them, but they are insanely good and I don’t even like croissants.
French Readers are amazing.
They are. So many people came out to see us. Some many people told us in fluent English how terrible their English was and how much they loved our books. Hundreds of readers came by to see us and when the signings were finally done, we were left with a small mountain of chocolate and sweets presented to us. Thank you to everyone. You guys were amazing.
We also met Luisa Pressler, who created Kinsmen art, and her partner, Klaus Scherwinski. We had some productive business discussions and we might be bringing something new to you in Kate Daniels’ world.
So what’s next for us? We are diving into the edit of the Sweep of the Blade. We are hoping to have it available to you in early summer.
Home again home again jiggity jig!
You sound refreshed & enchanted that what you hoped would be wonderful, outdid itself. Now …
back to the grist & on to the grill … naw … but really maud maud maud maud maud
when & as you’re ready
Welcome home, I ‘m glad the journey was enjoyable
I loved the descriptions of France. I also heard Late Daniels. Woowheee! Thank you thank you. Y’all are awesome!
So glad you enjoyed Paris. I’ve been there once, only for a day. I want to go back and spend a week. Welcome home!
So glad you guys had a good time in Paris.
The fashion thing is real. Even though I already dressed up a little to fit in, I felt quite the country bumpkin in Paris.
Looking forward to SotB!!
Welcome home!I’m super jelly!I’ve always wanted to go but looks like California is where I’ll be going for vacay this yr…Btw…why where they surprised yall where from texas?And wasn’t it nice to come home to this beautiful 75 degree weather!!!
Glad you had fun, and hope you’re feeling better. Editing Sweep of the Blade is good news – I will pre-order as soon as it’s possible.
Something new in Kate’s world is great news! Although I am working on the assumption that it’s the second book in the series about Hugh. Love what you’re doing to him!
✈️????
Glad you had a good time in Paris. So glad everyone was friendly to you. Hope you’re feeling refreshed and have recovered from being sick. Excited for anything from ya’ll! Love to hear/see the words “Kate Daniels”. lol Thanks for all your hard work and efforts that bring so much enjoyment to so many people, all over the world! Welcome home!
I’m really happy you enjoyed my country ?
The magic of the croissant is love and a lot of butter.
Hope you will visit again.bises.
Welcome back. Love your description of Paris and the food. Hope you are rested and well.
Sounds like you had a really nice time. I’m happy for you. And it sounds like the readers were really sweet and welcoming. That’s great! Bet it feels good to know how much your work is appreciated. You deserved any and all kudos received. And something new in the Kate Daniels universe? Excellent! Whatever it is, I’ll be first in line to preorder. And I’m definitely looking forward to Sweep of the Blade. I didn’t read the chapters as they came out so my anticipation has been simmering for some time. Will be so happy when this meal is served, lol. Thanks for sharing a taste of your trip!
Paris sounds wonderful! No one seems to have a better sense of style than the French . . . I felt like a total bumpkin too.
Looking forward to picking up a copy of Sweep of the Blade! 🙂
Ah the Arc de Triomphe roundabout. How’s this for insanely stupid. When my sister and I were in Paris (many, many years ago), we attempted to *cross* it on foot! We couldn’t figure out how to get to the other side otherwise. We saw signs that said “subway”, but since we are from NYC, we thought it meant an underground train system, so we didn’t think it was what it really is–an underground passageway for pedestrians to bypass crossing streets. D’oh!
Oh wow. There’s a crash every three minutes there and people die quite frequently. Please tell me you didn’t manage to step out onto the road?
No, we wisely decided not to attempt it. I think we walked back the way we came until we found somewhere we could cross safely, albeit on the other side of the road we wanted.
Lovely!! Thanks for the mini trip!! Glad you guys had a great time!!
And what happened to the small mountain of chocolates and sweets?
Thanks so much for the update! We are going to Paris for the first time at the end of May and we are wondering about all of the info you wrote about! Can’t wait for the next book?
Welcome home, Paris sounds enchanting, I’ve never had the opportunity. Take it easy for a few days, what with jet lag and all!
Welcome back! Glad you had a great time. My eyebrows rose when I read the part that the people you talked with in Paris thought you and Gordon were British instead of Texan. I’ve had Texans assume that I am a native Texan. When I tell people I’m not originally from Texas, I get the surprised look. ☺
Sweep of the Blade and a possible Kate Daniels Universe????? Oh wow and thank you! On top of Diamond Fire…..just give yourselves permission to rest.
+1!
Welcome back. Glad you met so many welcoming fans/people.
I believe the secret ingredient in French food is butter. Real butter made with milk from cows.
I’ve been using it in my own cooking and on toast and such. Never going back to margarine or “spreads”.
Yep!! And the best butter is from Holland or New Zealand. It is so sweet. I don’t know what grasses they feed those cows, but we need the equivalent here. I do love our local butter (yea, butter!!), but really, there’s no comparison.
Not just any butter. Cultured butter ?
I had to read your description of the
Arc de Triomphe roundabout to my husband because in 1992, we drove to Paris from (Deutschland) Germany and got stuck. Around and around the Arc de Triomphe we drove, our camping van’s blinker politely asking to please let us over but the answer was no.
Around and around the Arc de Triomphe (for about 15 minutes!! ) until my husband got hot, just cut in front of other drivers, and decided we would not stop if we evah got out.
So we left Paris, I’d like to go back, but not with the revolution going on.
That little jar of jam next to Gordon. We have that and it’s delicious! Bonne Maman. We like the raspberry preserves. Product of France. A friend who is gluten intolerant says the flours used for baking in France are different so she has no problems eating breads and pastries and the croissants in Paris. Maybe it’s because no additives or chemicals are used during milling or processing. Also the boulangeries (bakeries) bake small batches and so the baked goods are fresh.
So incredibly excited to hear you say that about the flours used!!! Have had to live a GF life for 7 years now & long to have pastries again!
Soery to tell you that but, flour is not gluten Free in France. If you are alergic dont eat that….
Sorry for you , but you will have to resort to other flours ( like corn , coconut or else).
If you’ re just intolerent… Well, depends how intolerent you are…
Sara Joy, you might want to try The How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook: Revolutionary Techniques. Groundbreaking Recipes. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IPPIETG/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title)
The American Test Kitchen/Cook’s Illustrated people take a scientific approach to developing their recipes, making them robust as well as delicious. I have a bumch of their cookbooks, and got this one so I could bake for an elderly relative who had developed whomhad developed sensitivity to gluten.
Sounds more like your friend is intolerant to some chemical in the growing/processing of wheat or maybe even the fact that most of our wheat has a modification that makes it tolerant to pesticides and herbicides. European wheat doesn’t have those mods and they also tend to have a lot more organic production of grains, too, skipping the nasty chemicals. Gluten is a name given to encompass several different very similar grain proteins that are found in all varieties of wheat (gliadin), barley (hordein), rye (secalin) and oats (avenin). So if you truly have celiac disease, you need to avoid the grains listed above.
The difference could be the baking methods. In the U.S. they speed them up, which may make the gluten undigestible.
Yay! Thanks so much for the link to the Kinsmen cover artist. I’ve been wanting a print from her since you posted the original sneak peek, and wasn’t sure where to order. <3 <3
Revolution! Every Saturday! ? Vive la France!? I took a photo from the top of the arch and people didn’t believe me when I told them the cars were moving, because they were going willy nilly.
Welcome home! I’m so glad the trip went well. I thought the taxi drivers in Mexico were bad-the French taxi drivers sound much worse. I just used to close my eyes until we arrived at our destination! The pictures are beautiful esp L’Arc De Triomphe. I laughed myself silly reading all the WCB days! They were the funniest ever. I think 105,000 words is reasonable, don’t you?
I’m so glad you guys enjoyed Paris! My husband and I had the wonderful opportunity to go in December of 2010. The funny thing we noticed about the fashion that year was the colder it got, the shorter the skirts were. I’m not kidding! We got snow and those beautiful women glided over frozen sidewalks with stilettos and miniskirts! We joked that the wall radiator businesses must be booming because you have to sit and defrost every time you come in from outside before you can go to the bathroom!
Glad you had a great trip and had a safe flight home. A friend from France told me that the driving and parking is crazy over there. According to her there are no bump or scratch free cars in Paris, as people will bumper car their way into a space! So by the sounds of it- definitely a place for adventures in a car if you like your adrenaline 🙂
Wel, that second picture, be still my heart. Such a gorgeous building! I laughed and laughed re the Parisian taxi drivers…it’s a sport.: ) it brought to mind a hair raising dash across Paris to the airport, at night,. Driven by our normally charming French host, who changed personalities immédiatement he was behind the wheel!! He was quite alarmingly determined we arrive and not miss our plane. I’m pretty sure I closed my eyes right at the start and only opened them, and unstuck my white knuckled hands, only when we finally pulled up in front of the doors. My husband had been trying to explain, using excellent French vocabulary with his entirely horrible accent, (I have amazingly limited vocabulary, with an excellent accent) that we had plenty of time! All the while exhorting him to watch this, and watch that, and BE CAREFUL! . Sacré bleu! Weaving in and and out, cutting off cars, etc., all ordinaire! Rather like a stock car race but, I can’t imagine how, without a lot of crashing into one another! Even if I still shudder, it made a wonderful, and rather iconic, memory.
Sounds like Formula 1 racing only in every day cars instead of race cars and sponsors. 😀
You have the picture! : )
I’m glad you had such a wonderful time! Now take a few days to relax before diving back into the workload insanity 🙂
Looking fwd to a reflection of Paris in your stories ?
Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us! Have a safe trip!
OMG – it sounds like a combination of being both very relaxing and very adventurous! I’m so glad that you had a good time. As the saying goes, “A change is as good as a cure!”
Delighted that you enjoyed Paris and the fine croissants, and that you had such enthusiastic and warm responses from your adoring French community! xoxo – A.
Welcome home – glad you had a good time.
With regard to the revolution, I don’t know if you got the whole story, but the “yellow jackets” have been demonstrating in Paris for weeks. The initial reason was against the high petrol (gas) taxes which Macron wanted to introduce, but it turned into a general protest about Macron’s government. He’s even more despised now than Trump is – and I never thought I’d say that!
I was so happy to meet you both again, and I loved being your line ambassador for part of the day 🙂 I’m also really glad that you had a good time – and I have started counting down the days until you come to London in September 🙂
Heh, my aunt lived off Redcliff Rd in London for years, and the Parisian women’s clothing sounds rather like what I saw, visiting her — perhaps it is ‘European casual’ for women?
And all this description is making me hungry for croissants with real butter (readily available up here on the Plains)! Sounds like it was a fun trip & good to hear you all are home safely!
It’s a correct assumption you’ve got here: from my US visiting experience, women in Europe tend to wear more trés chic clothes. Leggings, track pants or other gym clothes are nice when you’re at home or at gym. Not outside on the streets. And: what we in west Europe consider trés chic is nothing in comparison to east Europe☺️
Last time I was in Paris was …gosh 1988’the circle around the Arc was even then insane.my cousin worked at the embassy and they were always checking for bombs…I was not thin enough size 10, to be allowed to go window shopping at fashion according to my cousins wife…
They took us for a ride down a hooker street…really…..
I tried to speak some French,they answered in English…..
I loved Muse Dorsey…sp?
My husband and I enjoyed very long walks….
I return to Europe in 2004 to ride Andalusian horses in Spain……loved Tortilla Espanjole…the end……
So glad you enjoyed yourselves! I loved Paris the one time I was there. I would go back in a heartbeat, but only if I could stay at least a week. And the Arc de Triomphe roundabout is even more exciting when you’re trying to drive it in a manual transmission rental car with your parents white knuckle clutching anything they can hold onto. Oh, and trying to find your correct turn with nothing marked except way up on the side of a building! We’d been driving through France and enjoying the car trip up until then. Fortunately we didn’t have to drive again until we left for the airport. It might be easier now that we have google maps.
Looking forward to Maud, thanks!!
Thank you, Ilona Andrews for the post. I am glad you enjoyed France.
The answer your question is the French use real butter from real live cows. No not Texas cows but French cows. Smile. Personally I prefer butter from Brown Swiss cows as cream fat ratio is much higher than Holstein cows but lower than Jerseys. Bakes better too.
Eagerly awaiting SOTB and Hugh 2. Already on list for Sapphire Flames. But whatever you write we will enjoy your hard work. Sounds like you two had a great trip. Welcome back. Brandi was informative and helpful.
I take it the gilet jaunes protests haven’t been reported stateside. The French have been rioting in Paris initially against fuel prices but it then grew into wider dissatisfaction with the Government. They were actually rather successful in that they got several reforms out of it, but they had a good go at destroying tourist areas. But no, it really was every Saturday. Don’t get me started with the Eurostar protests… The french have a reputation for a reason.
Glad you had a nice time, Paris can be lovely and you can’t knock a patisserie. (Worth the flight over 😉 ).
regarding the croissants; it is the butter. my sisters were there a few years back and they said europe has the best butter
I know why croissants are better in France. They use real butter when making them, not a blend of butter and crisco. And they have MUCH BETTER BUTTER!!!
Glad you had a good time. The pictures were great. Take a rest from your travels. I’m always so excited to travel but when I start to return I get just as excited to be home. I totally get how some people say they need a vacation after they just went on a vacation.
Glad you had a good time. Love the photos.
So glad you had a lovely time. I hope your cold went away or was mostly gone. Take a few days to relax before jumping into SOTB.
Daaarn it, I didn’t know you were in Paris ! I completely missed that opportunity to meet you, duh, maybe next time. I’m glad you enjoyed Paris though, and that French people weren’t rude haha
Take care ! (Croissants are amazing isn’t it)
Glad to hear that you had fun.
My coworker rhapsodizes about the croissants she had in France. Welcome back to Americaland!
So glad you enjoyed Paris. I had a friend who was a medieval scholar and she went to Paris every year. And she lived on croissants , cafe au laid and cigarettes. And said it was the butter that made the difference .
And brought home the ugliest gargoyles from Norte Dame. They resided on top of her china cabinet. With her Limoges tea cups.
Glad you got some rest and great photos. And chocolates
Looking forward to Sapphire Flames. And Sweep of the blade andIron and Magic 2 .
it’s all about the butter, and since croissants are made of 99.99999% butter it makes all the difference. buy some quality french butter and take it home.
I’m so happy that you enjoyed Paris, come back and go see other towns in France, you’ll like it ?
I’m sad that I couldn’t go and see you, but I’m so glad you enjoyed yourself ~~~
The secret to French croissants is the flower they use is not the crap flour that most bakeries use here, plus they likely use what in English is called double butter, bakeries here likely are using the equivalent of land o lakes butter you get in a supermarket,and they are fresh,too,the French wouldn’t tolerate what most bakeries and cafe’s serve here,likely w preservatives to keep them multiple days. Glad you enjoyed Paris, my dad always said one of his fondest memories was a 72 hour pass he had in Paris just after it was liberated in WWII, said he walked the city and didn’t sleep the 3 days.
Sounds like you have a great time! On a totally different note – my mother sent me this: http://www.ladylifehacks.com/beautiful-knit-scarf-free-pattern/ I’m not a knitter but darn it! this is sooo pretty. Makes me want to struggle just to make one. I’d post the picture but I don’t know if that’s allowed or not.