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Evolving Revolver - Paris
Evolving Revolver is the story of Juliet Pennay; a writer and artist currently living the dream in Paris, The City of Lights.
Although the blog starts way back in April 2007, for me it all starts getting interesting in September 2008 when Juliet moves to France.
As she says herself, on that day… “Soon, this will actually feel like my life.”
From there we follow her transformation through trials and tribulations, some of which are funny, some less so.
Along the way we learn about Things to do in bed (I really must study that one in detail) and Juliet’s Productivity Hat and No Sex Socks (I wonder if those socks reduce the number of things to do in bed?)
At some points I must admit to feeling quite worried for Juliet; especially when I read posts such as In Which I Get Caught in my Panties at the Palais de Tokyo – oh dear Juliet, you’ll never meet a nice young man if you keep doing things like that!
No wonder we’re reading Notes from the Sick Bed!
And, just to prove me wrong, Juliet does meet a nice young man; a boy she calls Sweetlips and who in What a Sweet Bunny whisks her of to Dieppe in a rented blue Peugeot (now, if it had been a rented blue 2CV I’d be getting my big hat out of the closet!)
And then in It’s Time I Must Admit she decides to rename Sweetlips to The Boy.
But enough of Juliet’s lovelife….
There’s far more to this blog; such as Photos of a Sunday (now, how Paris is that! And what a fantastic owl!) and Shade of Blue and Red (and what a lovely Triumph in the last photo!)
Whilst exploring Paris we learn that Johnny Depp lives here (does that mean Vanessa Paradis lives there as well? Yum, yum! You couldn’t send me the address could you Juliet?)
Now, I realise that I haven’t mentioned Boo and that is remiss of me.
Boo, of course, is the real star of this blog.
Boo is Juliet’s cat and he even has his own about page on the blog!
I bet Boo would never go out drinking with strangers and end up getting locked out! Or, if he did, he probably wouldn’t say Yes, This is my Bizarre Life!
This is a very brave blog. Nothing is hidden; Juliet lets us into her life, warts and all. I’m not sure that I’d be as honest as she has been but it is important to remember that moving to France doesn’t solve all known problems – it does provide better scenery though? How about this lovely old Italian man who “wants me to marry his grandson and always invites me up for a coke.”
And, if Juliet had stayed back in Austin, Texas she wouldn’t be able to say… “This is Paris. And it’s My City. And the light of the Eiffel Tower circles in the sky above the Musee d’Orsay reflecting on the Seine and my heart flutters and tickles. I live a life that many people dream about – one that I once dreamed about – And I’ve fallen head over heels in love with it.”
And there’s joy in this blog (because you can mix joy and honesty, you know) – take a look at Lovely Day or Fun Filled Day to see what I mean.
Which is probably a good place to say Au Revoir to Evolving Revolver - I’ll be coming back often – just to find out what happens to Sweetlips (sorry “The Boy”) – how about you?
And me? Well, I’m going to sink my teeth into some veal’s kidneys, perhaps With Some Fava Beans and a Nice Chianti (Pft Pft Pft Pft Pft!)
All the best
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 The French Kitchen
A delightful book in which Joanne shares with us ‘her family recipes, passed down through the generations. The French |
 Cholcolat
Joanna Harris creates a rich and vibrant description of a rural French village with all its petty rivalries and traditional, narrow-minded boundaries on thought and behavior. |
 Five Quarters of the Orange
Five quarters of the orange’ is a story of a childhood tragedy in wartime France, and the shadows it casts across the later life of the heroine Framboise Dartigen. |
 Blackberry Wine
Everyday magic, he called it, the transformation of base matter into the stuff of dreams – Layman’s alchemy. |
 The French Market
Following the success of The French Kitchen, Joanne Harris and Fran Warde have collaborated once more to write a French cookbook with a difference. This time they have taken their inspiration from the rural markets of Gascony. |
 Coastliners
Passionate, stubborn Mado, whose “head is full of rocks” tries to save the livelihoods of the villagers of Les Salants by urging them to work together to save the beach from erosion, both natural and man-made. |
 Five Quarters of the Orange
Three sublime audiobooks from the bestselling author, now available together in a specially priced pack. Includes BLACKBERRY WINE, FIVE QUARTERS OF THE ORANGE and the huge bestseller CHOCOLAT. With a gentle touch and an eye for human frailty and strength, these mouth-watering audiobooks will draw you into her enchanting worlds. |
 French Lessons
Failed rock legend, pickled onion manufacturer, air hostess and euro-entrepreneur George East takes us through another eventful year of his doomed attempts to make a living out of living in rural France. |
 French Flea Bites
The character of France and the French people has been captured in words beautifully and the hilarious exploits of George his wife Donella, their neighbours and Cato the cat. |
 French LettersThis is not so much a book as a continuation of the serial story of George and Donella as they carry on with their almost idyllic life in Normandy. It’s at least as funny as the others, but the hanky had to come out again several times. More information |
 French Cricket
Once upon a time, former night club bouncer, seamstress and professional bedtester George East and his wife Donella fled to Normandy to escape their creditors and try to live off their wits in a foreign land. |
 Home and Dry in France
Buying property in France is fraught with mishaps and misunderstandings. George East’s book brings humour and fun to what happens when people venture forth to a foreign land with more hope than money and humour than language skills. |
 French Kisses
Those poor people who don’t like George East’s books often dismiss them as fiction. Not so, everything is at least based on real people and real happenings. George admits to a degree of embellishment and often combines several mishaps to produce a spectacular disaster. Such is the nature of his works. |
 Rene and MeTold in the inimitable style which has alrea dy won the author an army of followers, Rene & Me is a somet imes hilarious, sometimes moving and always captivating cele bration of human nature, people and, above all, life and living. ‘ More information |
 A Year in the Merde
This very funny book sounds a lot more like the France that I know. Read it and you’ll still want to come here, you’ll just be a lot better prepared for the surprises that France has to offer. |
 Merde Happens
Paul West is in deep financial merde. His only way out of debt is to accept a decidedly dodgy job that involves him touring America in a Mini, while pretending to be typically British. Also in the car is Paul’s French girlfriend, Alexa, and his American poet friend, Jake, whose main aim in life is to sleep with a woman from every country in the world. |
 Merde Actually
A year after arriving in France, Englishman Paul West is still struggling with some fundamental questions: What is the best way to scare a gendarme? Why are there no health warnings on French nudist beaches? And is it really polite to sleep with your boss’ mistress? |
 Dial M for Merde
In this book, you’ll get Paul, Elodie, her dad and some new French girls. All of them are of course hot and all of them adore Paul. Didn’t see that one coming… |
 Talk to the Snail
The only book you’ll need to understand what the French really think, how to get on with them and, and most importantly, how to get the best out of them. With useful sections on: Making sure you get served in a café, Harassing French estate agents, Living with bacteria, Pronouncing French swear-words and much more! |
 1000 years of Annoying the French
Was the Battle of Hastings a French victory? No! William the Conqueror was Norman and hated the French. Were the Brits really responsible for the death of Joan of Arc? No! The French sentenced her to death for wearing trousers. |
 The Olive FarmThis is television actress Carol Drinkwater’s lyrical account of a new life in France; about her house, Appassionata, and the trials and tribulations of acquiring an olive farm, restoring it, farming the olives, overcoming the heartaches of taking on a “new” French family and understanding slowly the workings and lifestyle of a vivacious Provencal community. More information |
 The Olive Season
This is an extraordinary and fascinating follow-up to The Olive Farm. The reader is drawn deeply and inexorably in to the world of the author, confronted with her personal struggles and entranced by her pastiche of growth and decay in the world of nature, a metaphor for her life. |
 The Olive Harvest
Carol and Michel have again returned to Appasionata, the Olive Farm that they have restored, and Carol is eager to continue production of the olives and attain their cerificate for producing Organic Oil. |
 The Olive Tree
THE OLIVE TREE charts Carol Drinkwater’s colourful and often dangerous journey in search of the routes that olive cultivation has taken over the centuries. Set during a springtime Mediterranean that is evocative and perennial, it is above all a tale of our time. |
 The Olive RouteA tour de force from Carol Drinkwater in this, the fourth in her Olive series. The joy of this book is in the pen pictures that she creates of the unusual characters that she encounters on her journey. More information |
 The Illustrated Olive Farm
The photgraphy is wonderful and the book is a great insight in to life with the olives and all that that involves. There are wonderful pictures of the dogs, family, friends, even the dreaded wild boar. Recipes as well. |
 Petite Anglaise
Petite Anglaise is a memoir by Catherine Sanderson based on her blog of the same name. In 2004 Catherine decided to start up a blog based on her life in Paris. |
 French Kissing
Name: Sally Marshall Status: single mother Age: 32 Nationality: ten years in France, yet still English through and through I like: Living in Paris, playing with my daughter Lila (four years old), the company of good friends, the smell of baking bread. |
 Tout SweetYou cannot help but fall in love with the author’s character. She seems like a Bridget Jones let loose in the French countryside, getting into a lot of funny situations with both ex-pat English and French locals like, as she adjusts to a totally different way of life. More information |
 Serge Bastarde Ate My Baguette
John Dummer’s sharply focused descriptions of the landscape, towns and villages, and the weather of the South West of France form a animated background for a series of adventures with an array of characters from some intimidating and belligerent peasants to a sad little old man whose only companionship is a collection of antique dolls. |
 Merde!
This book is an excellent source of words and expressions, of varying degrees of vulgarity, that are used all the time by french speakers. I used it often during the first of my two years in France. |
 Almost French
“Almost French” is the story of a woman who goes to France to visit a French lawyer she has only met a couple times before and barely knows. Of course, she gets caught up in the romance of the city and stays on to live there. |
A selection of Books About Paris that might interest you
- Time Out Shortlist Paris 2007
- Ile-De-France 2010: Carte haute précision et lisibilité optimale / Tous les radars fixes / Nouvelle numérotation des routes / Inclus le plan détaillé de Paris
- GPS Guide to France and Paris
- From Paris to Peoria: How European Piano Virtuosos Brought Classical Music to the American Heartland
- Gourmet Paris 2002: What you want to eat, where, dish by dish
- Pudlo France 2008-2009 (Pudlo France)
- Berlitz Travel Guide to Paris (Berlitz Travel Guides)
- Paris (DK Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guide)
- Rick Steves' Paris
- Paris Insight Smart Guide (Insight Smart Guides)
Paris | Keith Eckstein May 2, 2010