Here's to Julia and Paul - The Long, Cool Aphrodisiac - Romantic Friday Writers Challenge No. 31

Welcome to the Romantic Friday Writers' fortnightly writing challenge, started and hosted by DeniseCovey_L_Aussie , where participants share their own 300-400-word text - story or poem - on a given theme. This week's theme for Friday,10th of February, Challenge No. 31, is 'The Long, Cool Aphrodisiac'. My text is written directly for this REW-challenge.

Here is my text :

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Here's to Julia and Paul

They were all wearing red paper hearts,
Drinking French wine, he raised his glass and said:
'You are the butter to my bread,
and the breath to my life. I love you, dear girl.'
She let her paper heart flutter in thanks.
For them, February 14th was an important day.
Theirs was a marriage between two best friends,
Equals, who also loved each other intensely.

It was Paul's work that had brought them to Paris.
He was an artist, photographer and poet,
But also a practical man, who made interiors for the Embassy's needs.

It was in Paris that Julia found her calling,
To learn to cook, and to write a book in English about French cooking
One day, she would go on television and teach cooking to millions.
But she knew nothing of this when they first arrived in France,
One cold foggy day in November 1948.

Julia was six foot two and and was looking for something to do.
She spoke no French, she could not cook.
Her much shorter husband, Paul, had lived in Paris in the twenties,
and he spoke French beautifully.
Paul wanted to show Julia his Paris, his France.
And she fell in love with it all, just as she loved him.

Paul was blind in one eye,
But still learned to paint and draw,
And took all the photos for her cookbook,
The one that was going to be world famous.

Paul loved Julia.
Julia loved Paul,
And she gladly learned both French and cooking.
And grew to love France and everything French.
And wanted never to leave.
But one day they had to go.

And after many years, and much hard work,
The cookbook was written.
And after many more years even their story,
About their time in France, was also told,
But not so long before Julia breathed her last,
And Paul had already been dead for ten years.
They both lived until they were ninety-two.

Happy Valentine's Day to Paul and Julia Child!

[Text copyright 2012 Christina Wigren]

Hooray! I won an unexpected prize for this text!






Om du bor i Norden/Sverige, har Adlibris dessa böcker.
If you live in Skandinavia/Sweden, you can order these books from Adlibris.

Yippee!
This post is refered to by Adlibris' description page about Julia Child's autobiography!

Thank you, Julia!

Word count according to WordCalc: 329; 'NCCO'; No Critique Comments Only.

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Best wishes,
Anna

P.S.
This is a sort of fictionalised book review/prose/poem. I am inspired by Julia Child's zest for life. Her story gives me hope that even I can find my special calling before it's too late.

My apologises to the relatives of Paul and Julia Child if I have misrepresented these two amazing people in any way. I am inspired by Nora Ephron's film Julia & Julie as well as Julia Child's autobiography with Paul Child's grandnephew, Alec Prud'homme, My Life in France.

Valentine's Day seems to have been a very special day for the Childs, so I would like to honour their memory on Valentine's Day. I am always looking for examples of happy marriages that bring out the best in people. Theirs seems to have been the kind of love that made them thrive, blossom and prosper.

First Commenter:

Linda Katmarian



of
Scheherazade's Journal

Or to read other texts for Romantic Friday Writers Challenge No. 30, with the theme 'The Long, Cool Aphrodisiac', please visit this site or click on the image below: