Le chien qui fume

"The smoking dog" would be a great opening to a chapter of a book. All this week I have morning classes in how to write Creative Non-Fiction. I chose this class with the intention of eventually doing something with all the journals Mick and I wrote in the USA. We are 5 in the class; Charles (host of last night's soirée and retired business man who has set up a Salon des hommes in Paris), Susan (an Australian business journalist), Jane (a Tanzanian/British professor of English at the University of Barbados), Min (a scientific writer based in Paris and Switzerland) and me (a photographer and graphic designer). 

Lessons learned today from Kevin Jackson, our teacher, are: identify your audience, how to capture your audience, thinking about structure and the importance of planning and how to test your prose through reading it aloud.

You can see why we (the 4 females) deserved lunch. In the restaurant we met Geoff (pictured), a travel writer based in Barcelona and all decided to attend his talk later in the afternoon.

Geoff told of the importance of reading around the subject you are writing about. Non-fiction writing involves extensive reading before you start.

Lights. Camera. Action.

On Sunday evening Charles and Clydette de Groot invited PWW faculty and staff to a soirée at their apartment on the Champs de Mars. A charm-filled apartment with unimpeded views of the Eiffel tower. To match the location I slipped into my dark blue cocktail dress and silver sandals and swept my hair up high.

Tom had his camera rolling as the guests walked through the door. I took a gift for Clydette - one of my photographs - and presented it to her on entering. She was thrilled and showed the photograph to the rolling camera as a close-up. I made sure to invite her and Charles to my vernissage.

It was a delightful event - a chance to drink nothing but champagne and eat wonderful food (filo-wrapped asparagus with sweet chilli dip, satay sticks with finely chopped chives, mozarella ball, basil and tomato kebabs, enormous prawns with alioli). I listened, I talked, I charmed. I elicited some new guests for the vernissage.

Clydette and I shared our lists of the good and bad books written about Paris. I discussed moose with my professor for the coming week (Kevin Jackson) who will be teaching a group of us how to produce Creative Non-Fiction. I listened with attentive ears when Charlotte Puckette mentioned her need for a photographer for her forthcoming cookery book - The Ethnic London Cookbook. I talked to Siobahn about the difficulties of initiating cultural change in an organisation. It was both fun and stimulating - a fabulous evening.

Outside in the street I slipped off my silver sandals, delved into my bag for a pair of flat ballereins and happily rode a solitary metro home.