Paris Mon Amour

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The first time I caused terrible harm to the people I love it was an accident. The second is the reason I'm here. Paris Mon Amour is a love story. It's a story about being human and the things that befall us human beings both bad and good. How we respond to those things is what drives this story. A candid and seductive debut from a writer with plenty more to give based on this emotional but ultimately uplifting tale. Valérie Pécresse, President of the Paris Region, said: "The Paris Region, the world's leading tourist destination with more than 50 million tourists in 2019, has been hit hard in this sector which represents 500,000 jobs. The Paris Region has been the victim of a triple punishment: strict confinements, a deficit of French tourists during the summer and business tourism reduced to zero. The Region has therefore mobilised a great deal of support for professionals in the sector by mobilising numerous aids (rebound loan, resilience fund, rental aid, digital cheque). More than anything, we feel for Alexandra – her marriage has lost its sparkle and passion and whilst that doesn’t justify her actions we can see why this may have influenced her decision to cheat on her husband.

I was initially drawn to this by the cover and when I then read the blurb, it sounded an intriguing read that raised a lot of questions. What was the accident in Alexandra’s past? What caused Philippe to have an affair and more specifically what was it about Jean-Luc that induced such powerful attraction. Well now I know the answers, and with regards to Alexandra’s affair, I didn’t feel the lure of the all encompassing passion that I expected. I felt that rather than Alexandra and Jean-Luc being drawn into an all consuming passion they were actually escaping their own damaged pasts. Would Alexandra have been so susceptible if she hadn’t discovered that her husband was having an affair of his own, would Jean-Luc have been so attracted if Alexandra wasn’t so wrong on so many levels. For me, I feel the answer was no and I just didn’t feel the ‘passion’ which I will admit influenced my view of the affair Alexandra is headed to a therapist she has never met at the beginning of the book. As the book unfolds, Ms Costello periodically reminds us that Alexandra is relating her experience to the therapist. She tells it with an urgency and desperation that pulls us into her life immediately. She is an exPat married to a frenchman, Philippe; her American mother lives in California and visits when necessary; her British father left the family when Alexandra was 10 years old and moved to Brazil. The Why is a trauma that has changed each member of the family and is only told in full towards the end of the book. Alexandra is an English woman, living in Paris with her husband Philippe. They have a busy, fairly glamorous life and when Alexandra's waspish Mother slyly implies that Philippe is having an affair, Alexandra reacts in an unusual way. Life's lessons mould people and Alexandra's life is not untouched by tragedy and sadness. However, I think this story is more about about the two men in her life, her husband Phillippe and the gorgeous, but incorrigible Jean-Luc. I didn’t love Paris Mon Amour. I found that the story was too slow paced for me. However, I did appreciate it for what it is – a story about the dysfunctional lives of people; about how people act and behave on impulse often to detrimental consequences.I don’t mind admitting that the ending of Paris Mon Amour did take me by surprise. I’ll even confess to shedding a tear or two along the way. I don’t often cry at books, but this is a very emotional book, and I loved Isabel Costello’s sensuous style of writing. I really hope that there will be a second novel from her before too long! Beautifully told through the boulevards and arrondissements of the City of Light, Paris Mon Amour is a sensual novel about inescapable desire and devastating betrayals. It is the story of one woman and two men, and what happens when there is no way out. It talks about love. About solitude. About relationships we have with our mothers. About choices we make, and how they influence us even if we avoid them as much as we can. About life. Just when I was about to write this post, I found out about Christina Grimmie, a 22-year old singer who I happened to listen to, and was amazed with her beautiful edgy voice. She was killed yesterday by a guy few years her senior. Why? We won't fond out since he shot himself shortly afterwards. That incredibly sad story shades yet another light onto the book I wholeheartedly recommend reading. Despite that little niggle I honestly couldn’t recommend this book enough. It is a very honest look at infidelity and how it’s effects on all the parties involved. This is a magnificent story.

Sometimes you come across a book that you start to read and realise that it's nothing like you had expected it to be. This book was a breath of fresh air really as it went beyond the usual women's fiction path and took us more on an emotional, very grown-up journey of an adulterous affair and the rippling effect it has on all those involved. Paris Mon Amour is a story of love, lies and deceit. We meet Alexandra, a British American living in Paris who is married to Philippe. When Alexandra's mum tells her she knows Phillippe is having an affair, Alexandra embarks on an affair of her own with Jean-Luc. Jean-Luc is a sexy 23 year old and just happens to be the is son of Philippe’s best friend. Revenge is sweet or is it?. With every increasingly passionate liaison, Alexandra is pulled deeper into a situation that threatens everyone she holds dear. I enjoyed the way in which the author immerses the reader into the story and makes the developing situation seem very realistic without being too emotional or demonstrative. Time and place is created very well and France, and perhaps more importantly, Paris, really comes alive in the reader's imagination. There is much to take in and parts of it get emotional but the ending when it comes is entirely appropriate and well thought out. Today, I spent most of my day reading. This hardly ever happens these days; let's just say combination of My Little Pony, Bubble Guppies, and the the Paw Patrol contributed largely.

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We welcome the initiative of the Galeries Lafayette group to contribute to the revival of tourist activity in the capital, which is essential if we do not want a second summer without tourists. You can count on our support and our concrete support, as with the cancellation of the Covid debt for some 2,000 VSEs and SMEs in the tourism sector.

Je flâne et j'erre sans but précis, je noie mes chagrins ou célèbre mes amours dans des verres de vin au bistrot du coin ou au Café Beaubourg Alexandra is a 40 year old woman who has suffered tragedies in her past which continue to impact her present. When her visiting mother suggests her husband Phillippe is having an affair, it is a niggling thought which begins to preoccupy her. Bowled over by the appearance of Jean-Luc, a troubled and beautiful young man, Alexandra is soon embroiled in her own passionate affair. It was my love of Paris that made me request Paris Mon Amour. As a self-confessed Francophile, I love France – Paris, in particular – and therefore make the rather foolish assumption that I will love anything to do with France. That isn’t always the case. A French maxim I adopted without question was that a woman needs to preserve a sense of mystery. But it’s a short hop from mystery to secrets and an even shorter one from there to betrayal.

Isabel Costello's writing is stylish and accomplished. Paris Mon Amour is not just the story of an affair, it is a detailed examination of complicated and tense family relationships, all set against a wonderfully imagined Paris. I especially enjoyed the examination of the female relationships; Alexandra and her mother, and then later in the novel between her and her stepdaughter Vanessa. I think the only problem I had with this book was the unrealistic nature of some aspects, a married forty-something woman was betraying her husband in the worst way possible, amidst feelings of certainty that he was doing very much the same thing to her. I understand that these feelings did materialise as a cause for concern as she had seen his texts. I suppose I'd rather that she spoke to him about her justified paranoia. It wasn't the wisest decision to run into another man's arms. I know it didn't quite happen that way, but it did seem awfully convenient. In very much the same way, I felt that she wasn't thinking. Initially, she seemed to be an intelligently, mature woman so I expected her to use her head instead she allowed her libido to take over. I felt for her husband, even if he was cheating, he was a kind man that I felt that her reasons for cheating could only have been that he was cheating. But in spite of her mistakes and foolish judgment, from the start of the book to the end- she had definitely come a long way. When Alexandra discovers that her husband Philippe is having an affair, she can’t believe he’d risk losing the love that has transformed both their lives. Everyone is seen thru Alexandra's eyes and she fleshes out the humanity in each of them. Alexandra has known deep pain and she is sensitive to it in those around her. We race with her as she makes one decision after another often contradicting the one before. The reader is not in the grandstands rooting for anyone, we are totally caught up in Alexandra's heart and head as she tries to navigate her way through her own and everyone else's feelings. Paris Mon Amour is beautifully written. It is effortless in absorbing you onto the streets of Paris and into the Parisian lifestyle. I think even if you haven’t been to the city before, you will feel as if you have been transported there through the detailed descriptions, not just of the city itself but of the emotions that being there evokes in the writer.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started to read Paris Mon Amour. Initially, I was sold on the idea that it was going to be a Mrs Robinsonesque scenario, that is, older woman attracted to a younger man who takes revenge in the sweetest sort of way. But overall, it was a more exacting look at the pitfalls that life throws at us, and that by being drawn into situations which are beyond our control, we can very soon lose sight of what's important.We also meet Vanessa, who is Phillipe's teenage daughter. She comes to live with him after being thrown out by her mum. She is difficult and comes across as not a nice person but as the story developes we learn she just needs a bit of love and attention. Alexandra trys hard to give her that. Disclosure: I was sent a review copy of ‘Paris Mon Amour‘ by Isabel Costello, but the opinions in this post are my own and unbiased.