There’s nothing quite so beautiful as Paris in the spring. When you add in the chance to learn the French way of food, in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, who can resist? Not Gabi or Kate who have come from Australia to Sylvie’s Paris Cooking School.
Still bruised from a shocking betrayal by her ex-husband, Kate is trying to find a new place for herself in life, and emotional peace, while French-Australian artist Gabi is struggling with a crippling creative block. Meanwhile, Sylvie is facing challenges of her own.
For each of the women, that extraordinary April in Paris will bring unexpected twists and transformations that will change the course of their lives.
The Paris Cooking School had me checking flights to Paris. Anyone who dreams of going to Paris will find inspiration while the covers of this book are open.
This is a really enjoyable read, filled with delectable food and mesmerising settings through Paris. After reading this novel I have dubbed Paris the City of New Beginnings.
Reviewed by Sophie Beau
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sophie Beaumont is the pen name of Sophie Masson.
Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, of French parents who are themselves of mixed ethnicity: Basque, Spanish, Portuguese and French-Canadian as well as French, Sophie Masson came to Australia at the age of five, after spending four years with her paternal grandmother in France, due to illness striking when she was a baby in Indonesia.
All her childhood, the family moved back and forth between Australia and France, unable to make up their minds as to where to live, so Sophie grew up between worlds, and between languages, an experience which has formed a lot of her work. (You can see a small glimpse of that globetrotting childhood in a short video on the Interviews and Videos page, about an epic ocean trip from Australia to France that Sophie and her family took when she was a child.)
From a young age, Sophie loved stories: told, read and written! As a child, she created comic books and short stories, wrote poetry, and started on a big ambitious fantasy novel as a teenager still at school. Her first ‘published’ book was a picture book she created as an older teenager (pic below) with her younger sister Gabrielle, Valerie Behind The Bottlebrush, which was published in a highly-limited deluxe edition of–one! Unlike her efforts from childhood, this one has survived–if a little the worse for wear–and now sits proudly in the cabinet that holds all her more traditionally-published titles!
In 2019, Sophie was awarded an AM(General Division) in the Order of Australia, announced in the Australia Day Honours list. Her citation reads: ‘For significant service to literature as an author, publisher, and through roles in industry organisations’.
