france

Alain Claret

Alain Claret, Fontainebleau

Alain Claret was born in Grenoble, France, in 1956. He is the author of 9 published novels, scripts of numerous tv series, films and plays. He lives in Paris. His ideal things as told by himself:

IDEAL THINGS

3 alcools :

  • Chablis 1er Cru Montée du Tonnerre, pour la conversation.
  • Pommard Hospices de Dijon, pour les nuits d’amour plutôt que les dîners.
  • Single Malt Dailuaine 16 years old, quand plus personne ne peut plus rien pour vous.

3 plats :

  • Bar de ligne entier, épinards en branche. Remplacez le beurre par l’huile d’olive, ail, citron.
  • Tournedos de chevreuil accompagné de Cèpes, figues fraiches confites à l’huile d’olive et poivre.
  • Fromage de chèvre, olives, tomate du jardin.

3 auteurs :

  • Shakespeare
  • Faulkner
  • Proust 

10 livres

Le marché aux voleurs

A full novel by the master, Alain Claret.

The Ever Relevant Moral: History Repeats Itself

One wrong, not righted, leads to the same mistake again. History repeats itself, and from my studies in the course, The Holocaust in France through Film and Literature, and the trip I took to further explore the issues we dealt with in class, I see more vividly how this saying is true.

“When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt." (Leviticus 19:33-34)(1) This ancient Israelite commandment was applicable in Mesopotamia, in ancient Greece, in Medieval Europe, in Mid-Twentieth Century Germany, and in France today. History has always had group of the “other,” but in no way, has the creation of a group the “others,” lead to anything but conflict.

Que savez-vous des morts?

Review of Alain Claret's novel.
Einar Moos

Alain Claret's protagonists reappear. They grow and change through time; in his novels their evolution is part of time inadvertidly ticking despite themselves. They never drop their edge, their absolute conviction that the world in which we live is a dangerous and violent place to be in.

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The hero of his latest novel is a former special service officer who has seen and lived the brutality of action against drug dealers, terrorists and deranged gangsters. He's been in prison for revolt against the system and for his own violence against his wife, mother of his two children, when he discovers that she's had an affair with a mystery man called Polder. Polder already appears in his first novel, Clichy Section, published by Flammarion in 1991.

Polder is now a shady lawyer and manipulator who inexplicably helps him out of prison and in exchange hires him to kidnap a young woman protected by the Russian mafia.

From the first page on you plunge into some kind of surreality that doesn't let up until the last page.

Jim Haynes

Jim Haynes

If anyone should be named cultural ambassador in Paris, it would be Jim Haynes - without any doubt. But Jim's place in the 14th arrondissement, in a courtyard of 1930s style brick,metal beam and glass artists studios, on 83 rue de la Tombe-Issoire, is more than just an embassy, it is a gallery, a publishing “kitchen”, a meeting place of many nationalities not only limited to American expatriates, but open to people of nationalities from the east, west, north and south. Here liaisons and unions are made, ideas developed, news exchanged, and on his special Sunday evening dinners, plenty of meals cooked by his friends (with his ever helping hand stacking pots and pants and getting the stove ready on time) are consumed in the company of dozens of world citizen accompanied by wine, fruit juices, tea or coffee, from 8 till 11.

Jean Marie Gremillet and his Lafitte Foie Gras de Canard

Einar Moos

 

jean_marie

 

"The best of the best" is Jean Marie's marketing mantra, and he's got the product to back up this ostentation. Be it on the avenue Wilson market on Wednesdays and Saturdays, or on boulevard Raspail on Fridays and place Monge on Sundays - when you meet Jean Marie you'll get an education in good eating.

Jean Marie Gremillet is selling a tinned specialty of France that easily challenges any caviar. His Lafitte Foie Gras de Canard is the best of the best, and there just isn't one that can stand up to that.

For those who fear that ducks or geese are tortured in order to produce this delicacy, let us say that it has been traditionally produced for over 2000 years and modern feeding is strictly regulated by laws. Geese or duck are treated better than millions of turkey and chicken for regular consumption. It is not only an ancient tradition, it is an art to raise Foie Gras fowl. 

Basile Saint Germain's Solen 2000

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Basil Saint Germain

Juan, owner of La dernière goute, has presented a taste of excellence in French wine making through his now mythic Saturday wine tastings for years.

You can taste those wines you necessarily don't wish to drink, or that are above your means, but keep in mind that when you find a bottle that has the sign of excellence you will return, and buy it. At the same time Juan and his friendly crew offers an unequaled opportunity to learn about wine.

For thousands of years the Languedoc region of the south of France has been known to produce hearty wines since the Romans settled there, making it an ideal wine country.

Basil Saint Germain, trained at the Bordeaux institute of oenology, bought with a partner 8 ha of mostly gravel sand on terraces issued of the "Villafranchien" (while mammoths were still stomping around), in 1994.

Crossing reality

We met for the first time at a young woman's birthday party in a Saint Michel loft, in the 1980s. Traverser la réalité - crossing through reality - was his goal, Alain Claret said. And it took a couple of decades for him to come through.

The online thriller Le marché aux voleurs published on parisiana.com in 2001 was Alain's watershed. Si le diable m'étreint in 2002, and L'ange au visage sale, both published by Robert Laffont, are his literary figureheads in a coming fleet of novels. Tout Terriblement is out in 2005 and POCKET is publishing Si le diable m'etreint in September.

Jim Harrison

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Authors of a certain age you don't want to bother.

Jim Harrison is an exception - for his age he runs on half the rocket plus. He hasn't changed since I met him in LA. Why were you in LA? he asks.

The movies and the blockbusting good feeling of LA before the storm of Bushism and the rest. Well, Jim does it very well, he signs hundreds of French editions of his latest French edition at L'arbre à  Lettres on the foot of rue Mouffetard; and it is a beautiful day.

Christian Bourgois, his former editor, is the loyal angel seated by his side at the table; a white-haired cavalier of the French intelligentsia, he should be recognized as bringing great world writers, mainly from the US, to a French post WWII reading public. Jim must be grateful for the attention and success his books grab here.

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