We’ll Always Have Paris by Jennifer Coburn
Published By: Sourcebooks (@SourceBooks)
Available Formats: Trade Paperback, E-book
Acquired Book By:
I was selected to be a tour stop on the “We’ll Always Have Paris” virtual book tour through France Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy of the book direct from the publisher Sourcebooks, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Inspired to Read:
Being a lifelong traveller who appreciated visiting different areas throughout her home state as much as the states nearby and further away, I can attest my best travels were always in companion with my family. I have travelled numerous times independently, but there was always something missing — the key component for me is the person who was not there to ‘share’ the randomness of the joy and the unexpected (oft-times humourous!) moments which knitted together to prove to be the best stories told long after I had returned! I love sharing the adventures of life but sometimes what I enjoy more is discovering someplace new with someone beside me to see their perspective and to re-define my own at the same time.
Some of my fondest memories are travelling with my Mum on a road trip which criss-crossed through the Southeast, Midwest, and Eastern starboard side of the United States. We spent nearly four years on the road and travelled over 15,000 miles in total. The stories of life on the road are some of my favourites of the recent past, but it was the way in which we spent our hours and delighted in our discoveries whilst on the road that have kept with me the most! Including all those silly moments, like trying to sort out the right number to ring a radio DJ about the crazy stunt they were attempting to pull off for the holidays or ducking into the Grand Ole Opry just to see the festive decorations!
When I originally saw this memoir become available for review, I was quite eager to see how other Mums and daughters recollect their travels together!
We'll Always Have Paris: a mother/daughter memoir
by Jennifer Coburn
Source: Publisher via France Book Tours
How her daughter and her passport taught Jennifer to live like there’s no tomorrow.
Jennifer Coburn has always been terrified of dying young. So she decides to save up and drop everything to travel with her daughter, Katie, on a whirlwind European adventure before it’s too late. Even though her husband can’t join them, even though she’s nervous about the journey, and even though she’s perfectly healthy, Jennifer is determined to jam her daughter’s mental photo album with memories—just in case.
From the cafés of Paris to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Jennifer and Katie take on Europe one city at a time, united by their desire to see the world and spend precious time together. In this heartwarming generational love story, Jennifer reveals how their adventures helped vanquish her fear of dying…for the sake of living.
Places to find the book:
Published by Sourcebooks
on 8th April, 2014
Format: Paperback
Pages: 400
There were a few observations I saw early-on in the memoir that I cannot claim the same in my own life, as I always heeded the warnings of my grandmother who was quite inclined to state ‘thoughts are things’ and it best to cast out positivity rather than anything remotely negative. I had to agree with her; not that you will never experience adversity or have bad things avoid you, but it is a curious thought to project into your mind: how do the thoughts we cast around our skulls thereby affect our physical lives and the internal clockwork of our resolve? I suppose I was a natural bourne optimist at a young age, but ever so often, I would lay a thought on my grandmother’s advice and realise she was keyed into something more grand and larger in scope than I may or may not have considered previously.
In “We’ll Always Have Paris” there is a mention of a similar life affirmation from Coburn’s mother — of which is dismissed as I think Coburn misunderstood her mother’s intentions; it was not to eradicate ill health or fatal illnesses, but rather to help see that how you set your attitude in life has a way of bolstering you against what will arrive on your path. We can choose our attitudes, we cannot always choose our circumstances or our health reports. There was another interesting bit about how travelling young embodies you to be bold and courageous to travel alone when your older. In this, I could agree with the author, as I have been travelling since I was quite young both with family and without; each time adapting to different situations, locales, and ways of living. I do find travel not only expands your adaptability but your compassion for the differences we all share. We’re all alive on this planet Earth doing the best we can to live and thrive, but sometimes whilst caught up in our own little worlds, we have the tendency to forget to look up and see someone else. To embrace a new culture, a new country, or even a new state or province — as I oft think people exchange travelling domestically for international locales to curate a more exotic adventure or a more elevated experience do not realise what is available here.
I have found such incredible joy and discovery within my own country, I am not even sure I can see the other half of it before I take my final exit (cue here: even a lifetime is not enough time to travel everywhere there is awe to be inspired by). I do agree when you have to set yourself up in a foreign country, exchange your monies, and otherwise find your path in a sea of a language that is not your native one — life affords a wicked sense of humour! You find the curious similarities to what is done there compared to here but you also start to observe people in a different light. Travel is one of the best ways to break past barriers and to enlighten not only the mind but expand the spirit.
I still say though, travelling independently is fab for most, but I will always find myself yearning to travel with someone because I’d miss those conversations over a latte or walking whilst taking pictures curious about what someone else might be thinking as I snap the shutter. Or maybe when you come from a close-knit family who loves to seek out adventures and experiences ‘together’ you find that travelling alone doesn’t nearly afford as much joy as planning a trip with a friend or relative.
Whoa! I was not expecting abrasively strong language in a memoir about a Mum & daughter’s trip to Paris! Okay, was I the only one a bit gobsmacked by seeing the word appear on page 10!? Awkward!
I was appreciating seeing how Coburn was on a path towards understanding how spontaneity in life is truly the best way to breathe and allow yourself the grace of being alive in the moment. She was such a thoroughly planned traveller, even her map had boxes by major sites of interest to check off and I felt a bit bad for her. The best memories I have on all of my travels are the times in-between where I felt I wanted to visit and the places where the times I had in those places delivered me next. It is the grace of unexpectedly arriving ‘somewhere’ you never knew you’d go that gives me the most thrilling experience whilst I’m travelling; but I had forgotten not everyone likes to cast life into the unknown and prefers the structure of organised travel.
I definitely take after my parents, especially my Mum in this regard where caution is always thrown into the wind, and where being open about what is possible is the best way to meet a new acquaintance and explore a new area! It is perhaps why I never enjoyed the structure of traditional education — too rote and too predictable. Everything lined out and arranged as if you couldn’t possibly go outside the lines of a box!
In this regard, as I read Coburn’s memoir I noticed stark differences between her life and my own, but what truly surprised me is the stark way in which her travels are written down. I missed seeing the effervescent joy of being in Paris, as most of this memoir has a tilt of a different undertone than I could ever recall from reading in other travelogues. And, being a regular traveller I had a trouble with all the paint it black musings, the irregular observations that I cannot even understand because it came off as half-negative, and I never felt an upswing of joy. This reads more like an adult woman who was in need of transitioning out of her past and re-emerging stronger and healthier for the journey. I did not tuck inside a memoir of a mother and daughter on a wicked happy jaunt through Paris to where the stories would reflect the antidotes my own Mum and I regularly share with others we meet at local cafes.
The contrast between my own experiences and the experiences within the memoir were too great to circumvent. I kept wondering to myself why is all the borderline bits being relayed and not the beauty? I felt disconnected from the moment I picked up the book — as even the opening sequence felt flat to me. I love to read travel narratives and feel uplifted and rejuvenated for the time I spent inside them. Personally I did not finish “We’ll Always Have Paris” because between the pace of the memoir itself (it shifts between Coburn in Paris with her daughter to flashbacks to her life with her parents) and the alternative way in which they brought home their memories (as in comparison to my own) — I couldn’t get a foothold to continue.
I was yearning to pick up “Seven Letters in Paris” for a prompt re-reading and remember everything I loved about that memoir instead!
About Jennifer Coburn
Jennifer Coburn is a USA Today best selling author of six novels and contributor to four literary anthologies.
Over the past two decades, Coburn has received numerous awards from the Press Club and Society for Professional Journalists for articles that appeared in Mothering,
Big Apple Baby, The Miami Herald, The San Diego Union-Tribune and dozens of national and regional publications.
She has also written for Salon.com, Creators News Syndicate and The Huffington Post. Coburn lives in San Diego with her husband, William, and their daughter, Katie. We’ll Always Have Paris is her first memoir.
As you are previously published in fiction (with a diverse array of stories which run the gambit of serious topics to light comedic story-lines), did you find sitting down to compose a memoir of non-fiction more challenging or easier from your other writerly pursuits?
Coburn responds: In many ways writing non-fiction was more difficult because I had to stick to the facts. As someone who primarily writes fiction, I was always thinking of ways to thicken the plot or create dramatic tension. I had to quickly remind myself that I couldn’t do that in a memoir. In other ways it was a lot easier to write a memoir, though. When creating fictional characters, a writer has to get to know their back-stories and what drives them. In writing this memoir, I didn’t have to create history for characters. Real life had already done it for me.
As you had mentioned in a previous interview, your original intention was not to travel without your husband, I was curious if through your adventures in France with your daughter Katie, if the two of you have continued to travel together and off-set the holidays you take as a family together, by continuing to seek out new parts of the world to explore as a mother-daughter team?
Coburn responds: We take vacations as a family and separately. Will and Katie like to hike and rock climb in Yosemite, which I gladly skip. The three of us just returned from a trip to the East Coast and enjoyed our time together immensely. Our decisions aren’t really that strategic. We just consider who’s available and who wants to go.
I love how you described a memory from your travels in Spain where you could stretch out your dining experience to run the length of the evening (if so desired) rather than to have everything rushed to the plate and table. There are lovely independent restaurants stateside who appreciate this as well, because it takes the pressure off eating and puts emphasis on enjoying the company you’re with, the surroundings of where you’re dining, and the pleasure of savoring what is being eaten. Since you’ve been home have you started to seek out places where time and pressure no longer occupy the space for dining out?
Coburn responds: Yes, and there definitely are some great restaurants that allow people to relax and enjoy the evening. We just had out traditional pre-Thanksgiving sushi dinner at a place that was so laid back, we wondered if they were ever going to bring our check. I also really enjoy eating at restaurants where there’s no goofy script that waiters are required to recite.
Did you feel daunted by trying to collect enough of your travel stories into a collection of memories which would become your memoir, or did you find it was quite easy to pick and choose what you wanted to share with the world?
Coburn responds: Over the years, I’d been telling so many travel stories that my mother suggested I write a book. The stories were there before the idea for the book. It wasn’t until our fourth trip that I knew I’d be writing about our adventures.
What has surprised you the most about publishing a memoir based on a mother-daughter duo who took flight to seek out life and treasured memories overseas?
Coburn responds: I am thrilled at how many mothers have written and said that my book gave them the push they needed to do a similar trip. I was also pleasantly surprised to receive a note from a father who said my book changed his priorities in life, and that he is now spending more time with his family. It is incredibly gratifying to get this kind of feedback.
All of your fiction stories are focused on a moment of crisis and/or re-discovery of the character’s lifepath, where does your eclectic story-telling muse come from and where do you find inspiration to create such intriguing stories?
Coburn responds: Eavesdropping.
What have you missed the most since you came ‘off the road and off the plane’ of travelling with your daughter?
Coburn responds: I’ve missed our uninterrupted time together away from all responsibility and distraction. On the road I also really enjoyed that feeling of Katie and I needing to come together to figure things out. We still spend time together, but we don’t need a game plan and a map just to buy cough syrup like we did in Paris.
This book review & author interview are courtesy of:
Regrettably I fell ill whilst my tour stop on behalf of this memoir was in-progress. I was not able to post my reflections on behalf of We’ll Always Have Paris until now. I had intended to post the interview first prior to the weekend — but unfortunately I was not able to which is why I have placed the interview at the bottom of my review. I am thankful I can finally share my thoughts on behalf of this travel memoir about Paris, France! Be sure to click the tour banner to walk through the tour and to find the thoughts of the book bloggers who participated!
The book trailer for “We’ll Always Have Paris” via Jennifer Coburn
Be sure to check out my Bookish Events pages (2014) + (2015) to see what I am hosting next via:
Similar to blog tours, when I feature a showcase for an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog.
{SOURCES: Cover art of “We’ll Always Have Paris”, book synopsis, author photograph of Jennifer Coburn, author biography, the blog tour badge were all provided by France Book Tours and used with permission. Blog Tour & Author Interview badges provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. France Book Tours badge created by Jorie in Canva. Tweets embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. The book trailer for “We’ll Always Have Paris” via Jennifer Coburn had either URL share links or coding which made it possible to embed this media portal to this post.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.
Comments via Twitter:
.@wordsandpeace Unfortunately I couldn’t tuck inside We’ll Always Have #Paris as much as I had hoped I would http://t.co/TIaL33jB3F #memoir
— Jorie Loves A Story (@JLovesAStory) December 8, 2014
.@samantha_verant #Reading this memoir http://t.co/TIaL33jB3F had me itching to re-read #SevenLettersFromParis http://t.co/YYXrhNntGI #Paris
— Jorie Loves A Story (@JLovesAStory) December 8, 2014
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- Go Indie
thanks Jorie