I am delighted to welcome author Jan Baynham today to talk about her latest release. I was particularly interested in this story since it is partly set in France - in beautiful Normandy, to be more precise... Over to you, Jan.
The story opens in 1943;
we meet Odile who lives with her parents helping them on the family farm to eke
out a living during the German occupation. She leads a double life as an active
member of the French Résistance, taking risks and showing bravery in the movement for which her
elder brother has already lost his life. The farmhouse where they live used to
be an old mill, hence its name Le Vieux Moulin.
In 1963, Annie travels to the same area and
eventually the same old mill and I tried to imagine what it was like to visit France
for the first time. Here are a
few experiences that were new for Annie. She was amazed by the abundance of
flowers in every town and the fact that even the smallest village that seemed to have a
square and a town hall.
In the square of Ville de Roi, she was fascinated
to watch groups of people playing a game she hadn’t seen before, the popular
French pastime of pétanque, and observed how animated they became as the game
progressed.
Studying the menu. Annie had never seen such a
choice and couldn’t decide from the images between a savoury galette filled
with ham and cheese, topped with a fried egg, or, to satisfy her sweet tooth, a
crêpe, oozing
with cooked local apples and whipped cream. Pancakes
were only ever eaten on Shrove Tuesday at home and then always with sugar and
lemon juice.
Perhaps her
favourite outing was to the famous St Mont Michel lying out in the bay opposite
Ville de Roi and linked to the mainland by a causeway. She enjoyed walking
through the narrow streets and winding her way up to the Gothic abbey perched on
top.
The view
from the very top was spectacular and worth the effort. They wandered around
the arched cloisters that edged formal gardens and then found a bench for Annie
to read the guidebook she’d bought about the abbey.
Annie would never forget her first visit to France, the landscape she
travelled through, the pretty villages, the language she heard spoken and the
warmth of the people she met. When she arrived, she could never have dreamt
that the secret she’d held for over twenty years would be resolved in the way
it did. But I can’t give away any spoilers, can I?
Thank you so much for this, Jan. Your new story sounds wonderful. I have always wanted to visit beautiful Mont Saint Michel and I hope I can one day...
*****
Buying Links for Her Nanny’s Secret:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Her-Nannys-Secret-compelling-self-discovery-ebook/dp/B09BNP3S1P/
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-nannys-secret-jan-baynham/1139955323?ean=2940162201946
Author Links:
Twitter: @JanBaynhamhttps://twitter.com/JanBaynham
Facebook: Jan Baynham
Writer https://www.facebook.com/JanBayLit
Blog: Jan’s Journey into
Writing https://janbaynham.blogspot.com
