Cara Black Reminds us of How Much we Miss Paris!

 

RHYS BOWEN:  For many years Cara Black and I had a book out in the spring and we toured together, having adventures, some fun and some alarming, but always relishing each other's company. Last year Cara's book came out in the summer and alas there was no touring. There is no touring this year either, but the paperback of Cara's very successful thriller THREE HOURS IN PARIS comes out at the same time as my THE VENICE SKETCHBOOK, so of course we had to do some things together, if only virtually. And I had to have Cara back to remind us what we are missing in Paris this spring.

All yours, Cara:

CARA BLACK: Bonjour Reds, 

 Ça va? How’s everyone doing? 

 A big thank you to Rhys for inviting me back!

 I’m feeling nostalgic for Paris, wishing I was there right now. You, too? Normally, I would have been doing research and staying with my friend, Anne-Françoise, in Paris. March and it’s not quite spring. Soon, the buds in the rose garden in Jardin du Luxembourg will start to blush pink, yellow and antique white, the leaves on the trees surrounding the boat pond will begin to shimmer with silver and green. Soon, at least in a normal year, people will gather and play boules by the puppet theatre or hit the tennis courts. I’d be with Anne-Françoise, picking up her daughters after school which is across the street. We’ll get in line for a sweet crêpe before the girls ran to play under the budding trees. In that soft filtered light, we’ll be chatting on the green benches, watching the girls on the swings. 

From the window of the Ministry of Marine, overlooking the Seine.

The cafés would be open, crowded tables spilling over the sidewalks with Parisians non-stop talking, drinking and meeting friends. I would be here now leading a walking tour of places featured in my book, Three Hours in Paris, set in 1940. 

Scenes that take place here in Jardin du Luxembourg, by the Medici fountain. 

 But of course, I’m not. I’m at my desk in San Francisco, where I have been for the past year, dreaming of colour and light. But now more than ever – when we are all imagining elsewhere – we can still visit other places in the pages of a book. The old Paris, by this I mean 1940, is everywhere. Sometimes you have to dig and go literally underground which I’ve been lucky to do in my research. Underneath this grass, these gravel paths, and the tree-lined alleys lie the tunnels with shelters full of German graffiti and a rusted Nazi toilet!

 The high school, Lycée Montaigne, at the end of the garden, was the Luftwaffe barracks. Every day, with notebook and my old maps, I’d set out to discover the Paris my characters would have discovered. As writers, we must be detectives and archaeologists, always seeking to find the hidden history of the city beneath our feet, behind the walls. Layer upon layer. I’ll stop at my favourite Saint Germain florist, she’s a floral magician and pick up a spring bouquet. 

Soon I’ll cross the Seine on the oldest bridge in Paris, the Port Neuf. Below on the river, bateaux mouches glide sharing space with barges. Onto the Marais passing the ancient national archives and Bibliothéque, the remnants of a medieval wall, go down a cobbled alley. There in the smallest Chinatown in Paris, at the edge of the Marais, I’ll visit my friend Naftali, and give him flowers. During World War II, Naftali, a young Polish boy wore a yellow star and became a Résistant at 14. Now he’s 90 + years and loves driving at night - yes he still has a license! - so we pick up his girlfriend - she’s in her 80’s and they met online. 

Chanel now and in 1940

 During our night drives he points out his hideaway next door to Shakespeare & Co bookstore, his old school, the boulevard where as a young boy he watched the German soldiers march in. It’s time travelling to the 1940’s through his eyes. Naftali’s always up for finding me a ‘new murder spot and corpse locations,” for my books, too. It’s always good to do this at night, he says, so I don’t get arrested. Ah..dreams. I’ll have a ticket to the newly renovated and re-opened Victor Hugo museum, in the 17th century Place des Vosges - one of my favorites - and where Aimée Leduc hid and climbed over the rooftops in Murder in the Marais. Then I’ll walk under the arcades of the rue du Rivoli, eyeing Coco Chanel’s first boutique on rue Cambon - till there, and the Place Vendôme to the right, and across from the Tuilleries garden. Beyond the art nouveau restaurant Maxim’s and then to 17th century Hôtel de la Marine, it’s not a hotel but the Naval Ministry which has just re-opened after several years of renovations. The pictures are stunning and the museum will be amazing. The windows overlook Place de la Concorde, beyond that the Seine and Left Bank. It will look quite different from 1940 in the German Occupation when the Kriegsmarine took it over.

 In my book Three Hours in Paris, Kate Rees, dons a disguise and with a French scientist, sneaks her way in to steal German naval documents that could change the course of the war. So much of my research involved this incredible building from ten years ago when I took a tour of the basement and found German signs and artifacts from WW2. The scent of spring will fill the air and the almost palpable energy of new exhibitions, fashion shows and art openings. I’ll have a list of research to do, flics to take to dinner, archives to visit, a walking tour to lead for readers, and meeting retired homicide detectives from la Crim’ over apéro’s. 

Yet, as Simone Signoret, the iconic French actress said in her autobiography of the same name, ‘Nostalgia Isn’t What it Used to Be’. My nostalgia will fade when finally, I can return to Paris. It’s a moveable feast as Ernest Hemingway said. Or as Rick tells Ilsa in Casablanca ‘we’ll always have Paris’. N’est-ce pas?  

 à bientôt, Cara 

 PS Continuing our touring tradition Rhys and I will celebrate our book birthdays virtually at Book Passage on April 18 and Poisoned Pen on March 30.  THiP is out in paperback on March 30 Cara http://www.carablack.com http://twitter.com/#!/carablack http://www.facebook.com/cara.black1

RHYS: If you haven't read Cara's book yet, I highly recommend it. An absolute page turner that whisks the reader through Paris in 1940.