Put together the words France and "100 places" and I am ready to buy my plane ticket instantly.
Marcia DeSanctis is the New York
Times bestselling author of 100 PLACES IN FRANCE EVERY WOMAN SHOULD GO (Travelers’
Tales/Solas House). She is a former television news producer who has worked for
Barbara Walters, ABC, CBS, and NBC News. An award-winning writer, her work has appeared
in numerous publications including Vogue,
Marie Claire, Town & Country, O the Oprah Magazine, National Geographic
Traveler, More, Tin House, and The
New York Times. Her travel essays have been widely anthologized, including
four consecutive years in Best Woman’s Travel Writing, and she is the recipient
of three Lowell Thomas Awards for excellence in travel journalism, as well as a
Solas Award for best travel writing.And her book, is wonderful. I asked her if she'd write something for the blog, and I'm honored to host her here. Thank you. Marcia!
My book has the
title of a guidebook, but it’s not that, not exactly. The New York Times described it as “essays on where to go in France
and why”. That was accurate. It’s a book of essays and reported stories about
place with quite a bit of travel advice mixed in. I had to choose 100 places (or in
some cases, experiences) about which I
could do some deep writing, and hopefully, in the spirit of France, do it with
a light hand, that integrates history with lots of descriptive detail about
beautiful things.
What I chose to include had to fit
one of several criteria. First, is there a story of a great woman in history
around which I could build the piece? An example of that is the chapter on Château
de Grignan, a place that is interlocked in the history of Madame de Sevigné,
one of France’s great writers and most famous mothers, who has a pretty
remarkable story herself. Second, is it something so beautiful that it causes our
hearts to stop? The chapter on three stunning hikes in Provence is an example
of this, as is Château Vaux le Vicomte. Etretat in Normandy. The Mer de Glace
in Chamonix, which, by the way, is what inspired the climax of Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein. Third, is it a place where I have deep personal history, such as St.
Tropez, from which I can cull memories and use as a bridge across time? And is
also deeply, poetically, femininely French? Fourth, is it en experience so
iconic that it had to be included – something like sampling chocolate in the
Basque Country or celebrating Bastille Day on the Champs Elysées?
This book was an
opportunity for me to crystallize lots of profound feelings for a country I
know very well, a country that changed me. To try to express the transformative
powers of France. To put down on paper,
in effect, all that I loved in France’s geographical and historical diversity,
while trying to impart some wisdom and bon
mots about traveling there. Not just
where to shop in Paris, but why. Not just my recommendation to snorkel on
Porquerolles, but why. Not just to visit Versaille, but why. Versailles
is not merely an extraordinary excursion from Paris. Rather, it is a place to
understand why Marie Antoinette
continues to fascinate us. It has little to do with her diamonds and wigs, and
more to do with her story, on royalty and birthright. These are big, big themes
– female ones – about marriage, family, aging, selflessness and selfishness,
and we are confronted with them at Versailles.
Everything in
travel can conspire to enlighten -– the architecture of devotion, the majesty
of green spaces. I try to convey my awe wile sparing the details of how to get
there, and where to eat. I try to say,
here is the bigger story. Sure you should go to that pretty lighthouse off the
coast of Brittany. But when you’re there, try to decipher the metaphoric
possibilities of a giant structure whose purpose is to help mortals weather
storms. They are overpowering.
Most
inspiring was the country’s rich history of powerful, brilliant women, and I
enjoyed having the chance to unpack some thoughts about why we should care
about them and the places where their memories are kept vital and vibrant.
Catherine de Medicis, Joan of Arc, Colette, whose book Earthly Paradise was my
go-to inspiration while writing this book. As was Edith Wharton’s A Motor
Flight Through France. George Sand – the bored housewife turned rockstar
romantic writer and lover of Chipin. The
painter Elisabeth Vigée le Brun, poet Louise Labé, Marie Curie. These women are
giants. Eleanor of Aquitaine. There was never a woman with her stature and
power, and there probably never will be. Much to my surprise, it’s possible to
feel amazingly close to a long-departed queen when you are standing in her
castle.
I was also
motivated by the challenge of trying to create a sort of hybrid travel writing
genre. France as a subject that has been covered to smithereens, so my
challenge was to have an entirely different take. To take the country I lived
in, worked in, was married in and which I love, and try to combine memoir and
narrative with advice, and hopefully, to carry the reader along with me on this
journey. My goal was not to overemphasize the girly tropes of champagne and
perfume and fashion. I really attempted to forge some fresh language (in fact, tacked
up on my wall, I kept a running list of words and expressions I wanted to avoid.
No to “hidden gem”, “verdant”, “ooh la la” and “city of light” or “golden”). I was quite inspired by this quest: to convey
my love for France and even its inescapable clichés and to do so in a
respectful and hopefully original way.
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