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Normandy, Paris, Planning to Travel, Travel

52 Days to France

Mona Alvarado Frazier
52 days and a wake-up (that’s prison slang for 53 days) until my France adventure.

Have you ever wanted to do something for most of your life and now that something is within reach and you kind of don’t believe it? That’s how I feel about going to France for a month.


Why France? Awe inspiring museums, bookstores, buildings, bridges, food-to name a few. I’ve been there once, for the vacationer’s  8 day fling with my sisters, mom, and daughter five years ago. We visited 7 of the top 10 sites to see in Paris, but didn’t get a chance to ‘feel’ Paris. Time constraints and people one travels with can do that to a vacation. 

After that trip, which was enjoyable, except for a very rude, bi*chy Frenchwoman at the train station (must admit we cursed each other in our own languages (French, me: Spanglish and English), I determined that I must go back to France for a longer period of time. One surly woman don’t stop no show. 

My preparation so far is to buy my airfare and find my passport. 

Musee d’orsay 
The only list I’ve made is the one in my head. It’s the sites I want to see. I missed D’Orsay last time because my mom “got lost” in the Louvre and we were there for 2 hours more than scheduled (but she enjoyed it). Besides D’Orsay:

Rodin Museum , Sorbonne, Petite Palais, Shakespeare’s & Co. Bookshop, the inside of the Paris Opera house, and probably 20  other sites. (I really should make a list).    

This is totally not me. I’m the planner with 2 or 3 guidebooks in hand, maps, itinerary, and reservations 90 days in advance, etc. I think I’m so nonchalant because I’m not organizing the trip for my family. It’s just me and my friend Amada (who lucky for me is fluent in French and has visited France 5 times). Or perhaps I’m not preparing as usual because I don’t believe I’m really going for a month. 
I’ve talked to my kids about my plan for a year. They are all young adults, 19-26, who live with me. They will cover the mortgage for the month of September, buy their own groceries, and water the plants. We’ll see how that goes. 

First place we’re going is to the Normandy region. Again, lucky for me, my friend has an international timeshare and there was an opening. We’ll rent an apartment for the 3 weeks in Paris.

I want to do that now, Amada says lets book a hotel for 4 days and then find an apartment once we’re there. That’s living on the dangerous side of the block so we compromised and will look for a place 30 days before we leave.

I hope we don’t end up in a hostel because there’s no room at the inn. 
via Tripadvisor

Now, where are those French CD’s Amada lent me a month ago? 
Books, David Perez, fiction, Fifty Shades of Gray, Heidi Durrow, Kevin Powers, Summer reads for adults, The Yellow Birds, Wow: A South Bronx Memoirito

Finding F Books

Mona Alvarado Frazier

June has been my lucky month for books. Not only did my coastal town reverse its usual June Gloom but the four o’clock winds also abated for most of the month. This all made for some great outdoor reading weather. 

I’ve also had luck with finding fascinating, funny, and fearless books for a fraction of the cost: (yes, that F thing was on purpose and I’m tired of it now too). Let’s proceed.

First the Fascinating Read: The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow

Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and an African American G.I., becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy. She does not remember much about what happened until later in the story, so I won’t spoil the ending.

As a young girl she is forced to move to a new city and largely African American community. With her light brown skin, blue eyes, and Danish upbringing she is the oddity among her peers. 

Rachel’s adjustment to the tragedy and her grief is heart-wrenching. Biracial identity, the mother daughter bond, the desire to fit in, and abandonment are major themes.    

The novel is the winner of the Bellwether Prize for best fiction as well as several other awards. Bought it for $10 and had it signed at a book reading by Heidi Durrow-she is one of the most gracious author I’ve met and gives a heck of a presentation.

The Funny: WOW! A South Bronx Memoirito of Boyhood and Catholic School by David Perez.  
  
Now this one was almost guaranteed to make me download onto my Kindle Fire. Latino in Catholic School and the South Bronx= Funny before I flipped the page. 

This is a memoir set in 1964. David Pérez is living in the Millbrook housing projects, about to be transferred to St. Luke’s Elementary School, where the Brothers of the Sacred Heart are about as scary as the baddest gangs. 

This “memoirito,” follows David trying his best to be cool in a neighborhood where being the smartest guy in school isn’t something to brag about. His trials and tribulations as he navigates through his ‘tests of manhood,’ altar boy experiences and his first date are laugh out loud funny.

Perez has a great way with detail, description, and dialogue. I was able to borrow this e-book from Amazon Lending Library, but I would have bought it for the 2.99 Kindle price if it hadn’t been available. 

The Fearless: The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

“The war tried to kill us in the spring,” begins this breathtaking account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city.”

This book is due out on 9/11/12. A 20 page excerpt was in the free Book Expo America Buzz Books of the 30 top Fall 2012 titles. I was mesmerized from the first line to the last. Powers creates a setting that is both fearful and fearless.   The narrative is clean but descriptive of setting, emotive, and insightful. 

Powers  joined the army at the age of 17, later serving a year as a machine gunner in Mosul and Tal Afar, Iraq in 2004 and 2005. He is currently a Michener Fellow in Poetry at the University of Texas at Austin, where he will receive his M.F.A. in 2012. 

I can’t say I’ve ever read a book about the Iraq War but from what I’ve read I’ll definitely be waiting for this one, which I’m sure will become a classic. 

A F not read yet: Fifty Shades of Gray  

My sister and most of the world raves about this book. She just finished the first two of the trilogy and lent the first one to a girl friend who said she couldn’t understand all the hoopla and the book was boring, so she’s getting it back and lending it to me to see what I think. 

I’m not holding my breath for the book,  it received 2,500 1 star ratings and 3,000+ 5 star ratings. 

July started out beautifully over here in coastal Southern California, but today it’s overcast, 68 degrees and humid. Forecast is the same all week. Doesn’t really matter to me, I’ll read most anywhere. I hope to fit in 4 or 5 more books this month.(Using another letter in the alphabet).

Any recommendations?