10 Books with Summer Adventures
Summer is a season for adventures, and this book list includes stories of children, teenagers, young adults, and senior citizens choosing their own or being accidentally caught up in them.
Normandy American Cemetery
Visiting the sites of the D-Day landings in Normandy is a somber and moving experience, as is visiting The American Cemetery there. The rows of white marble crosses are distinctive and familiar even to first-time visitors, each one representing a life given to liberate France and the rest of Europe from Nazi control.
Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial
Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial is located just outside of Paris and is a beautiful and moving place to visit. Over 1,500 Americans who served in World War I rest on the green hillside of Mont-Valérien as well as 23 unknown dead from World War II.
Robin Hood’s Bay
Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Yorkshire Coast is a small fishing village with a large sandy beach, winding cobblestoned streets, and clifftop views that can’t be beat on a sunny day.
The Devil’s Arrows
Just on the outskirts of Boroughbridge in North Yorkshire are three standing stones known as the Devil’s Arrows. Two stand in the middle of a field where wheat and barley grow in alternating years, while one stands across the road leading to Roecliffe in a small enclosure. The stones are thought to have been erected around 2700 B.C., which absolutely boggles the mind.
10 Books Set in Paris
There are so many different books you could read in preparation for a trip to Paris. I was a little surprised that most of my recent favorites are memoir/biography and non-fiction, but this list also has four novels set in the City of Lights.
Cherry Blossoms at Parc de Sceaux
If you take the RER B just south of Paris in the month of April, you’ll discover the most amazing grove of cherry trees in Parc de Sceaux, planted in perfectly-formed French straight lines.
15 Books about Books
People who love reading usually also love a good book about books—stories about libraries, bookshops, or my favorite, inspired-by-a-classic-reads. Here are a few I’ve read in recent years.
Hay-on-Wye, The Town of Books
With somewhere around 20 bookstores within its tiny, very walkable circumference, you can happily spend two or three days browsing the endless shelves for treasures.
Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet at Versailles
Beyond the elegant Château de Versailles and the formal gardens you’ll find the Estate of Trianon with its two smaller palaces and a hamlet constructed at the wish of Marie Antoinette to resemble a rural French village.
The Petit Trianon’s English and French Gardens at Versailles
This week I’m taking you on a little journey to some of the farthest corners of the nearly 2,000 acre estate of Versailles. If it’s your first visit, then of course you want to explore the palace and the gardens along the grand canal first, but if it’s your second visit or you have more time and good walking shoes, I highly recommend heading for the Trianon Estate, which consists of two smaller palaces, English and French gardens, and the Hamlet of Marie Antoinette complete with farm animals.
9 Books with Themes of Death and Resurrection
With the approaching of Easter weekend in mind, here are a few books that explore death and resurrection:
Storks in Holland
At the time I read The Wheel on the School I had no idea I’d ever have the chance to visit Holland, but reading it tripled my enjoyment of that day, and I derived so much pleasure seeing the storks and the their babies in the nest and the welcome the Dutch still gave to them as seen by the intentionality of having wheel-shaped tripods near their houses. Now I always think back to this experience when I think of the power of stories to connect us to their settings, especially when we have the opportunity to travel and see the landscapes for ourselves.
Corrie Ten Boom house
Corrie’s memoir of life in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation is both inspiring and harrowing; the faith and hope shared by Corrie, her sister Betsie, and her father Casper, permeate the pages and touch even the tragedies with triumph.
St. Herbert’s Island in the Derwentwater, the landscape of Beatrix Potter
This week I read a collection of 22 Beatrix Potter stories, and while the Lake District is easily recognizable in Miss Potter’s charming illustrations, I was completely surprised to be able to find among my own pictures of Derwentwater the very Owl Island that the squirrels in The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin sail out to on their rafts to gather nuts for winter.
Hill Top, Home of Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter learned to love the Lake District after spending a summer at Wray Castle as a child and bought Hill Top as an adult in 1905. It’s a beautiful 17th-century farmhouse kept in the exact condition she left it.
Blenheim Palace
I first visited with my husband in 2011 while planning a visit to Oxford, because I learned that it was the birthplace of famed Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. Located just 10 miles outside of Oxford the palace and grounds are well worth a visit while you’re visiting “the city of dreaming spires.”
A Book of Poetry for Lent
The poems themselves are beautiful and leave me with at least one line I find particularly meaningful. In addition to each day’s poetry, Guite writes about each poem, explaining why he included it in a collection focused on Christ’s 40 days in the wilderness and the Christian’s life seen as pilgrimage.
Five Places from A Tale of Two Cities
Since places are always enhanced by stories, here are five places that have a starring role in A Tale of Two Cities.
Books to Welcome Spring
The metaphorical calendar page is about to turn over to March, and the signs of early spring are visible in France: the first daffodils are up, the Japanese cherry blossoms have opened on their spindly branches, and the sun has been shining almost all week. It really lifts the spirits after the grey and rainy winter, and I started thinking about books that remind me of spring.