my friend blain and his wife nicole know me so well! they got me "French Milk" by lucy knisley for christmas.
the author is a cartoonist/artist who is just about my age. her book is lovely and is a drawn journal of 6 weeks she spent in paris. i devoured it in one day (true, it's heavy on the pictures, but still!) her depiction of life is so vivid and pure and relatable. i was pretty much high afterward, just on my own memories, revived by her adventures. i highly recommend it to anyone who loves france and art and food and drawings and cool things.
it was encouraging, as it always is to see other artists, because i really want to go to art school, preferably in france. seeing someone who is so much like me have such vision and success really excites me to put all the stuff in my head onto paper. of course, she's immensely talented and astute and funny, too, which i'm sure helps!
her livejournal is fantastic as well (the pic below is from there. i love vespas, too. hehe). i'm happy to add it to my regular blog-reading rotation!
also, i've been searching for apartments in paris, and became frustrated because no one ever mentions pets in the ads. so i asked on yahoo answers about pet deposits, etc. in france. according to one source, whose source is french law, it is illegal for a landlord to refuse you just because you have a dog. AMAZING!
dog-friendly is an understatement!
A few titles i'm digging into lately and that so far I find good enough to recommend:
