Our Hearts Are In France

From the history-cloaked towns of Normandy and the fragrant lavender fields in Provence to the dew-kissed vineyards of Burgundy and Aquitaine, nothing compares with the beauty and the romance of France. The latest offering from the editors of Victoria magazine, Our Hearts Are in France takes readers on a memorable journey through this majestic country, where centuries-old chateaux rise from the riverbanks and snow-dusted mountains give way to rolling hills and fertile valleys sprinkled with tiny villages, each one more enchanting than the last. We visit the eternally alluring City of Light, where Julia Child honed her culinary skills, Parisians stroll pocket gardens brimming with roses, and love blooms beneath the graceful curves of the Eiffel Tower. Our Hearts Are in France is replete with page after page of beautiful interiors, from the idyllic retreat of Marie Antoinette and a pastoral farmhouse in Provence to the quaint quarters of an American in Paris, as well as with ideas for creating personal Gallic-inspired sanctuaries. And should one's palate long for a taste of French cuisine, we offer a cache of delectable recipes that are certain to delight both sweet and savory yearnings. Equal parts travel guide, design compendium, and cookbook--and a must for any Francophile-- Our Hearts Are in France honors and celebrates this magical land that holds such a special place in our hearts.

A collection of stories, poems, and essays about the author's fifty years of visits to France and her French family

Laure Beausejour has grown up in a dormitory in Paris surrounded by prostitutes, the insane, and other forgotten women. She dreams with her best friend, Madeleine, of using her needlework skills to become a seamstress and one day marry a nobleman. But in 1669, Laure is sent across the Atlantic to New France with Madeleine as filles du roi. The girls know little of the place they are being sent to, except for stories of ferocious winters and Indians who eat the hearts of French priests. To be banished to Canada is a punishment worse than death. Bride of New France explores the challenges Laure faces coming into womanhood in a brutal time and place. From the moment she arrives in Ville-Marie (Montreal) she is expected to marry and produce children with a brutish French soldier who himself can barely survive the harsh conditions of his forest cabin. But through her clandestine relationship with Deskaheh, an allied Iroquois, Laure finds a sense of the possibilities in this New World. What happens to a woman who attempts to make her own life choices in such authoritative times?

Our Hearts Are in England offers an impassioned salute to our most cherished destinations.

The remarkable untold story of France’s courageous, clever vinters who protected and rescued the country’s most treasured commodity from German plunder during World War II. "To be a Frenchman means to fight for your country and its wine." –Claude Terrail, owner, Restaurant La Tour d’Argent In 1940, France fell to the Nazis and almost immediately the German army began a campaign of pillaging one of the assets the French hold most dear: their wine. Like others in the French Resistance, winemakers mobilized to oppose their occupiers, but the tale of their extraordinary efforts has remained largely unknown–until now. This is the thrilling and harrowing story of the French wine producers who undertook ingenious, daring measures to save their cherished crops and bottles as the Germans closed in on them. Wine and War illuminates a compelling, little-known chapter of history, and stands as a tribute to extraordinary individuals who waged a battle that, in a very real way, saved the spirit of France.

It is often said that there are two Frances—Catholic and secular. This notion dates back to the 1790s, when the revolutionary government sought to divorce Catholic Christianity from national life. While Napoleon formally reconciled his regime to France’s millions of Catholics, church-state relations have remained a source of conflict and debate throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In Catholic and French Forever Joseph Byrnes recounts the fights and reconciliations between French citizens who found Catholicism integral to their traditional French identity and those who found the continued presence of Catholicism an obstacle to both happiness and progress. He does so through stories of priests, legislators, intellectuals, and pilgrims whose experiences manifest the problem of being both Catholic and French in modern France. Byrnes finds that loyalties to the French nation and Catholicism became so incompatible in the revolutionary era that Catholic believers responded defensively across the nineteenth century, politicizing both religious pilgrimage and the languages of religious instruction. He shows that a détente emerged in the first decades of the twentieth century with the respect given to priests in arms during World War I and to the work of religious art historian Émile Mâle. This détente has lasted, precariously and with interruption, up to the present day.

A vision shared. A manifesto. This remarkable work argues that Anishinabeg need to reconnect with non-colonized modes of thinking, social organization, and decision making in order to achieve genuine sovereignty. In Our Hearts Are as One Fire, Jerry Fontaine recounts the stories of three Ota’wa, Shawnee, and Ojibway-Anishinabe leaders who challenged aggressive colonial expansion – Obwandiac, Tecumtha, and Shingwauk. He weaves Ojibwaymowin language and knowledge with conversations with elders and descendants of the three leaders. The result is a book that reframes the history of Manitou Aki, sharing a vision of how Anishinabe spiritual, cultural, legal, and political principles will support the leaders of today and tomorrow.

JIM AND VIOLA HALBERT served as missionaries for 29 years, mostly in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) of West Africa. Viola wanted to be a missionary from the time she was five years old. Jim made his commitment as a teenager. Initially they pioneered in an area previously unreached by the gospel. They saw the Senoufo tribe churches grow from one believer to over 10,000. Their experiences included Africans being delivered from evil spirits and an African boy being made a human sacrifice. Viola was active in teaching children and women as well as providing a ministry of hospitality. Jim frequently served as a speaker at missionary and African conferences and camps. He was also a leader in nationwide and continentwide inter-mission cooperative ministries. He was knighted by the Ivoirien government for eminent services rendered to Cote d'Ivoire. Ivory in Our Hearts contains photos and maps, an 18-page index, and a foreword by Dr. Clyde Cook, president of BIOLA University.