Book Club #1
On Monday night, I met with my very first Book Club of the summer, and friends, they were such a blast! I absolutely loved meeting every single one of these ladies. I hope all my stops on my Book Club Tour this summer are as much fun as they were!
The hostess of this meeting, also named Lauren 👆🏼, reached out to me soon after The France Dance published asking if I would be able to join them for their June meeting. So on Monday evening, I headed for Plano, excited to meet a group of ladies who I’d never met but had all read The France Dance. I was nervous, but excited, and we had a wonderful time.
For any of you fashion girlies who are interested, I wore a white shorts/blazer set with white heels, a lavender blouse, and carried this DARLING lavender bucket bag from Colores Collective I bought in Round Top. It has a crossbody strap too, but I chose to carry it as a handbag on Monday night. Colores Collective bags are made in Italy with genuine leather. I absolutely love them and they come in a large variety of colors. This company is female owned right here in Texas!
Look how cute this other style bucket bag is! It’s called Le Picnic Bucket Bag, and instead of the straw basket element, it’s all leather. Plus the fact that it’s called Le Picnic pays such homage to Chapter 24 Le Pique-Nique.
The tassels, the fun lining, and the high quality all make me love this bucket bag. Plus bucket bags are kind of unexpected, like a fun pop of “fun” to your outfit. Yay bucket bags!
Okay, back to Book Club:
Look how adorable this little set up is. Lauren set out lavender sachets and lavender hand cream as party favors! She even put out a pair of pointe shoes, which I resisted the urge to try on. Confession: I dream almost every night that I try on pointe shoes and try to dance in them. I haven’t danced in pointe shoes since I was 12, that was 30 years ago. According to my dreams, I subconsciously believe I could still be graceful in pointe shoes and not break my ankle...or worse.
There was a beautiful spread of French food that each guest contributed including chocolate croissants, lemon bars with lavender—which by the way I MUST HAVE THIS RECIPE. They were fantastic! melon, charcuterie, cheeses, and even…
An Apricot Gallette! Karin made one for the group after she read about it in Chapter 31 Les Halles when Noëlle and Robin first meet in Avignon. It was incredibly delicious, another recipe that I must have! Karin, if you’re reading, please send me the recipe.
Quick shout out to Darcy who read the book in ONE DAY! It makes me feel so good to know that someone connected with my novel. What a blessing!
And this cutie told me she never reads fiction. Ever. Never ever ever! Never! Ever! But she read The France Dance in 4 days and loved it! Jenny, thank you for giving The France Dance a chance. I promise I’ll get started on the sequel soon.
It was such a wonderful night to celebrate the joy of reading, gal pals, breaking bread across the table, France, ballet, writing, and all of us being mamas. Thank you to this beautiful group of ladies for having me. I was blessed being in your home, Lauren, and blessed to share the evening with so many darling ladies. Noëlle and I both thank you.