Many thanks to Adrian Leeds and the lovely enthusiastic audience upstairs at Café de la Mairie for the Après-Midi talk on 12 March 2019!
Annabel’s Après-Midi with Adrian Leeds
All posts by Annabel
Annabel’s podcast on The Earful Tower
Here you can listen to me discussing daytrips from Paris with Oliver Gee, the dynamic young man behind The Earful Tower, a useful new Paris website. (That’s not me in the photo, by the way – I prefer motorbikes!)
Annabel’s talk at the American Library in Paris
The American Library in Paris has just sent me this photo of my talk about Half An Hour From Paris on 18 December 2018 and will send me the YouTube recording when it is ready.
Thanks again to those of you who were able to be present and helped to make it such a success! I will post the YouTube recording as soon as I receive it.
Winter walks
Here are my top five recommendations for daytrips in winter. All are in An Hour From Paris except for Malmaison, which is in Half An Hour From Paris.
Château d’Ecouen
The short walk through the forest to the Musée de la Renaissance in the château is particularly magical in the snow, which doesn’t melt as quickly as it does in Paris.
Conflans Ste Honorine
La Goèlette island restaurant at Andrésy is reached by speedboat. Optional short riverside walk to the station at Conflans Ste Honorine.
Villeneuve Triage
Watch or join the dancers at the Guinguette Auvergnate riverside restaurant. Optional short riverside walk to the station at Choisy-le-Roi.
Poissy
Visit the Villa Savoye built by Le Corbusier in 1929. Optional short riverside walk to the station at Villennes sur Seine.
Malmaison
Visit the home of Napoleon and Josephine, perhaps followed by lunch at the nearby Brasserie du Château.
France is half an hour from Paris!
‘Evenings with an Author’ at the American Library in Paris
Tuesday 18 December 7.30-9 pm at the American Library in Paris, 10 rue du Général Camou, 75007 Paris, métro Alma-Marceau
Annabel Simms’s talk, “How to briefly escape from Paris to France,” will outline her criteria for selecting daytrips in her original guidebook, An Hour From Paris, and its recent sequel, Half An Hour From Paris. She will explain why the Ile de France is one of the most accessible and rewarding regions in the country, still little-explored by many Parisians, let alone foreign visitors. She will illustrate her talk with a detailed look at one of the destinations in Half An Hour From Paris, including some of the experiences that went into writing it. Finally, she will try to assess the future development of the Ile de France, now that it is being rebranded as Le Grand Paris.
https://americanlibraryinparis.org/event/evenings-with-an-author-annabel-simms/
London launch of Half An Hour From Paris
Many thanks to John and Paddy at Word on the Water, Alexander Fyjis-Walker and Anais Métais at Pallas Athene and to my lovely family, friends and readers for making this launch such an enjoyable happy occasion!
London launch of Half An Hour From Paris on 10 May 2018
Readers, friends and visitors are cordially invited to the launch of
at Word on the Water, the floating bookshop behind St Pancras International station, London
on Thursday 10 May from 6.30-8.30 pm
Annabel will give a short presentation at 7 pm before signing copies.
Word on the Water, Regent’s Canal towpath, London N1C 4LW
Go past The Lighterman pub to Granary Square and continue down the ramp to the waterside https://goo.gl/maps/Le5wn2i1UXy
Half An Hour From Paris will be out in April 2018
Download 10 New Trips An Hour From Paris
Over the last few years I’ve been refining my selection of 20 new trips for the sequel to An Hour From Paris. Hard work, but very enjoyable. Ten of the shorter new trips will be published in October 2017 as Half An Hour From Paris. The other ten, some with longer optional walks and all taking around an hour from Paris by train, are available as separate PDFs, downloadable from this website for 3€ each or the full set for 13€.
Each trip follows the same format as An Hour From Paris but includes two colour photos and a hand-drawn colour map. You can download them to your smartphone or print out just the walk and map to take with you.