Juste en face
a French classic thanks to an American BookCrosser!
by bilbiSeptember 28, 2005
There are some books that you can’t read as soon as you'd like to because your Mount TBR is so huge at a certain moment. And once they’re read, you wonder how you could have kept them stuck for so long.
I was attracted by The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy that was offered on BookRelay. The book cover was really nice, the writer’s name really mysterious and Cyberkedi tells in the journal entry of a "Classic swashbuckling adventure during the French revolution". What??!! A classic during the French revolution and as a French person I had not heard about it! That’s the magic of BookCrossing! I would be able to read a French classic thanks to an American BookCrosser!!!
A few weeks afterwards I found the book in my mailbox. And it was quite a surprise! The writer was a real aristocrat and the action takes place between Calais and Dover during the Terror. It was really quite surprising to read about French aristocrats trying to reach England to escape their fate during the revolution (la Mère Guillotine). Obviously enough, I had never read books dealing with the "bad revolutionary people" who were eager to put an end to aristocracy and declare “liberté, égalité, fraternité”. The story was still unfinished and I had a good feeling about it. I was already thankful to Cyberkedi for sharing this book. But my surprise was not over…
Calais! That was a chapter title and I realised that the beginning of the aristocrats’ journey was in that town, the very town I was to visit! Cornelie is my first French BookCrossing pal! I had seen her twice in two years !!! She lives at the other end of France – I’m in the Alps and she’s due north. So I can’t make the drive as often as I wish. Yes! You read it “drive !”. I’m addicted to driving and together with my sister THEMIRAMIS, I drove to Calais - I went to Paris and Lille as well to meet other BookCrossers but that’s not the point of this article ;-) . So where was I ? Oh, yes. There, at Calais, it was extraordinary: friends, food, landscape and Cap Gris-Nez (where aristocrats expected their boat to liberty i.e., Dover)!
Cornelie took us to Cap Blanc Nez and Cap Gris Nez was just there in front of me ! And as it was a sunny day I can see Douvres too.
I took pictures and left the book with Cornelie. Maybe she would release it at Cap Gris Nez but she told me about a town called Calais in the United States. Now, that would be a well-travelled book for sure…
I was attracted by The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy that was offered on BookRelay. The book cover was really nice, the writer’s name really mysterious and Cyberkedi tells in the journal entry of a "Classic swashbuckling adventure during the French revolution". What??!! A classic during the French revolution and as a French person I had not heard about it! That’s the magic of BookCrossing! I would be able to read a French classic thanks to an American BookCrosser!!!
A few weeks afterwards I found the book in my mailbox. And it was quite a surprise! The writer was a real aristocrat and the action takes place between Calais and Dover during the Terror. It was really quite surprising to read about French aristocrats trying to reach England to escape their fate during the revolution (la Mère Guillotine). Obviously enough, I had never read books dealing with the "bad revolutionary people" who were eager to put an end to aristocracy and declare “liberté, égalité, fraternité”. The story was still unfinished and I had a good feeling about it. I was already thankful to Cyberkedi for sharing this book. But my surprise was not over…
Calais! That was a chapter title and I realised that the beginning of the aristocrats’ journey was in that town, the very town I was to visit! Cornelie is my first French BookCrossing pal! I had seen her twice in two years !!! She lives at the other end of France – I’m in the Alps and she’s due north. So I can’t make the drive as often as I wish. Yes! You read it “drive !”. I’m addicted to driving and together with my sister THEMIRAMIS, I drove to Calais - I went to Paris and Lille as well to meet other BookCrossers but that’s not the point of this article ;-) . So where was I ? Oh, yes. There, at Calais, it was extraordinary: friends, food, landscape and Cap Gris-Nez (where aristocrats expected their boat to liberty i.e., Dover)!
Cornelie took us to Cap Blanc Nez and Cap Gris Nez was just there in front of me ! And as it was a sunny day I can see Douvres too.
I took pictures and left the book with Cornelie. Maybe she would release it at Cap Gris Nez but she told me about a town called Calais in the United States. Now, that would be a well-travelled book for sure…
