Back from Vacation and new fiction book about Arthur Rimbaud

I was gone all last week on a family vacation to Cape May, New Jersey.  I had every intention of doing some blogging while I was there, but ended up not having internet access.  We were paying tons of money for a great beach front hotel, and they wanted to charge us $10 a day for wifi.  WTF?????  So basically blogging did not happen.  It was gorgeous (and HOT!) in NJ and I was sad to leave it behind, but I'm also really glad to be back home with adorable chocolate lab.  Plus, when I returned home and we picked up our mail from the post office, this was waiting for me:

It is a fictionalized account of part of the life of French author Arthur Rimbaud, based of course on real life events.  It came out last week.  I preordered it in like January.  When I went on one of my Arthur Rimbaud binges.  Because if you've read this blog for a while now, you should know that I have a very unhealthy obsession with Rimbaud and his poetry.  I discovered this book in January when I was up til all hours of the morning rereading Rimbaud's poetry for the gazillionth time, and then decided to google him to see what other juicy stuff I could find.  This is the same time I discovered that Bob Dylan has a song where he mentions Rimbaud (and Verlaine.  The song is called "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go", if you're interested), and also the same night I discovered Leo Ferre and his amazingly awesome record of Rimbaud and Verlaine poems put to music.  You might say I have a problem.  And you would be correct.  Anyway, I'm super excited to read this book.  I know a lot of it is going to be fiction, but at least it will hold me over next time I get into one of my Rimbaud binges.  At least until I buy that really nice French biography of his life..

I'm slowly catching up on all of the blogs I follow too :) 

Paris in July!

I am super excited to announce that I will be participating in this year's Paris in July blogging event, hosted by Thyme for Tea and Bookbath!  (Thank you for hosting!  You are awesome!)  Paris in July runs from July 1st through the 31st and during July I will be posting numerous things about Paris and France.  I've already got a lot of fun things planned, including reviews of French books, reviews of books that take place in Paris, posts about French food and music, and so much more.  I am beyond excited, if you can't already tell. 

Tamara at Thyme for Tea has asked participants to post some recommendations  before Paris in July officially begins in July.  So I've decided to post about a wonderful French singer who I've just recently discovered, named Leo Ferre.

I discovered him quite by accident (or not totally by accident because I was googling French poet Arthur Rimbaud who I'm a bit obsessed with) and discovered that this French singer from around the 1960s put a bunch of Rimbaud's poetry to music.  I needed it.  Itunes has plenty of Leo Ferre, but not what I was looking for.  So I checked ebay and found the 2 volumes of the record and finally have them at home with my new turntable and was finally able to take a listen! 

Leo's voice is gorgeous, and mixed with Rimbaud's beautiful poetry, it's enough to make me melt.  For real.  The album I have is extremely hard to come by, at least in the USA.  Perhaps it's more readily available in France?  Anyway, Ferre's music is so beautifully and typically French that I'm a bit obsessed and am on the lookout for more of his records.  You can find him on itunes (just not the Rimbaud/Verlaine stuff like I said).  Here's a youtube video I found of Ferre doing a song to the words of Baudelaire's "Albatros", one of my favorite poems ever.  It kinda shows his style, but my album is a bit more "jazzy".

I can't wait to share more fun French stuff with you all once july comes around!

Literary Blog Hop: Favorite Poem (In which I rave of Arthur Rimbaud)

Oh admit it.  You all knew it was coming.  This week's question is "What is your favorite poem and why?"  Seeing as my blog's name is Kelly's FRANCE Blog, you must have guessed it would be a French poem.  By none other that Arthur Rimbaud, by literary love and obsession and crush.  I seriously get teary-eyed sometimes when I read about him and how he really was taken from us too soon :(

Anyway, a little introduction here.  The Literary Blog Hop is a wonderful new hop started by the lovely ladies over at The Blue Bookcase.  If you consider your blog to be "literary", stop by their site and start hopping too! 

My favorite poem by Rimbaud is a poem called "Ma Bohème" ("My Bohemia" in English).  I'll post it first in French and then in English :)

Ma Bohème
(Fantaisie)

Je m'en allais, les poings dans mes poches crevées;
Mon paletot aussi devenait idéal;
J'allais sous le ciel, Muse! et j'étais ton féal;
Oh! là là! que d'amours splendides j'ai rêvées!

Mon unique culotte avait un large trou.
-Petit-Poucet rêveur, j'égrenais dans ma course
Des rimes.  Mon auberge était à la Grande-Ourse,
-Mes étoiles au ciel avaient un doux frou-frou

Et je les écoutais, assis au bord des routes,
Ces bons soirs de septembre où je sentais des gouttes
De rosée à mon front, comme un vin de vigueur;

Où, rimant au milieu des ombres fantastiques,
Comme des lyres, je tirais les élastiques
De mes souliers blessés, un pied près de mon coeur!

My Bohemia
(Fantasy)

I went off, my fists in my town pockets;
My overcoat too, became ideal;
I walked beneath the sky, Muse! and I was your liege;
Oh ho! what splendid love affairs I dreamed of!

My only pair of trousers had a wide hole.
-A daydreaming Hop o' My Thumb, I strung out rhymes
As I went along.  My inn was on the Big Dipper.
-My stars in the sky had a sweet rustling

And I listened to them, as I sat by the roadsides,
Those good September evenings when I felt drops
Of dew on my forehead like a heady wine;

When, rhyming amid the fantastic shadows,
Like lyres I pulled the elastic bands
Of my wounded shoes, a foot close to my heart!

Not the greatest translation out there, but it'll have to do.  This poem has so much meaning, especially if you've studied his life.  Rimbaud spent time living the "Bohemian" life on the road, with poet Paul Verlaine, his lover.  It was a great time in Rimbaud's life, but also not really..Verlaine had a lot of outbursts and tried shooting Rimbaud once (Verlaine went to prison).  This poem captures the beauty and happiness of being outdoors and living the Bohemian lifestyle.  And I heart it. 

Other poems that I could have mentioned include Le Bateau Ivre (The Drunken Boat) by Rimbaud, and a poem I memorized when I had my French Honors Society Ceremony thing and had to read it aloud: L'Automne by Lamartine.  But Ma Bohème always strikes a chord within me, so I chose to talk about that one :)  The translation of it really won't ever do it justice because in my opinion, if you're reading Rimbaud in English, you're just not getting the full meaning of his words.  But that's just my two cents ;)

And now a photo of him.  I feel weird saying this because I'm now 21, and he was probably 15 or 16 when this photo was taken, but how adorable is that face?!

I'm so happy to be back on the Literary Blog Hop!  I havent' had time to participate the last few weeks, and I really wanted to.  There were some great discussion questions :)