des bérets, s'il vous plaît

With a space-time continuum challenge each month, I look forward to the meeting recap.  GBC Carole (Not the Singer) had a great summary of this month's meet, and with her permission I wanted to include it for you.  [A few names and two sentences have been omitted for the privacy of the attendees.]

What a chummy, cozy evening we had on Tuesday! Book club is always such a warm, welcoming place, but even more so when it’s so chilly outside. Thank you, Nancy and Susan S., for a repast worthy of that ultimate Francophile, Julia C.  We filled our bellies with creamy cheeses and fresh radishes, an elegant salad, crusty bread, to-die-for boeuf bourguignon. The wine was free-flowing (much of it French, thanks to Marcia’s suggestion) and there was plenty of book discussion (leading to many a tangent… a parallel perhaps to Ernest and Hadley’s peripatetic lifestyle?)

Dessert was tempting in triplicate. Why have just one when you could indulge in a fruit tart piled high with a kaleidoscope of colorful berries, a flourless (but decadent nonetheless) chocolate cake and a lemony tart, too!

Bill arrived wearing a beret (but, of course!) and Marcia reported that many of cafes, clubs and hotels mentioned in The Paris Wife were still standing, still operating today.

Love Hemingway or not, he always makes for great discussion. There’s Hemingway the author. Hemingway the not-so-great husband. Hemingway the legend. The Paris Wife did not disappoint, except maybe the cover art. Hadley may not have been the most stylish woman on the left bank but she definitely did not wear shoulder pads in the early twenties. (And the Germantown “Ain’t We Got Fun” Book Club knows its 20’s!)

Oh, and several members did indeed dance with the green fairy at the after-party. The Absinthe After-Party. (See what happens when you put your coat on and skedaddle on home too early?) ’m not sure there were any hallucinations going on, but as a completely sober bystander I saw things even Toulouse-Lautrec couldn’t dream up. Or get out of my head. (OMG, the faces!) Anyway, Hem said it was good.

Those that couldn’t make it… we missed you! Hope to see you in the flesh next month at my house. Now bundle up with a good book, mes amies/copains and stay warm!