'First Tuesdays', SOAF's Monthly Encounter, Starts 1st May

After a visit this week to L’Ogre à Plumes we decided to set up ‘First Tuesdays’ at this delightful café-theatre in the historic Onzième Arrondissement of Paris. All SOAF members are warmly invited to come along, the First Tuesday of every month to taste the good drinks, have a meal if they like, mix with some of the best English-speaking authors in France, meet journalists, agents and people in the media -- and generally have a good time. This monthly event starts on May Day, 1st May, 6.30-8.30 pm, a good time as any to celebrate with a drink. Send me an email, gregor.dallas@wanadoo.fr , if you are coming so that we can plan on numbers.

Alison Culliford, author of The Fun Seeker’s Paris, has sent us the following report.

SOAF Chairman.

First Tuesdays at L’Ogre à Plumes

It was a search for lardons late at night that led me to be walking down rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, to spot the Ogre à Plumes with its candlelit tables and cosy armchairs, and to have the eureka moment: “A perfect place for the ‘happy hour’ Gregor was talking about!”

This literary café is the real thing, better than the ‘Best Literary Cafés’ I recommend in my book! It’s run by three young actors who had worked together doing book readings for a publisher. Yves, Sophie and Viginie dreamed of having their own café-library where they could organise such events and the dream has come true. They formed an association, took over the former Pravda bar, made it look like a bookworm’s den with music stands, chessboards, prams hanging from the ceiling and books and photographs all over the walls and also kitted out the downstairs “lair” with antiques cinema seats – it now serves as a theatre and for readings. Decent (and often interesting) wine by the glass starts at €2.80, a Leffe costs €3 and there are tartines, assiettes and a plat du jour on offer (though no pressure to eat). What I personally love about it is that the owners’ own books are in the bookcases, making it more like a shared flat than a bar.

After testing it out and being equally seduced by its charms, Gregor Dallas, Lennox Morrison, Jim Pollard and I got together to set the date for the inaugural FIRST TUESDAY: 1st May is the date when SOAF members are invited to come and have a drink together 6.30-8.30pm at the Ogre à Plumes, 49-51 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, (we’ll be in the Left Hand side of the building), Paris 11th. , tel 01.48.06.64.39, www.logreaplumes.com, Mº Parmentier or Goncourt.

Please let Gregor (gregor.dallas@wanadoo.fr) know if you are planning to come to the 1st May drink so we can give the café some idea of numbers. AC

AngloINFO and SOAF

I have received the following posting from Karen Dys, Director of AngloINFO Paris. This information will be of interest to all SOAF members in the process of publishing a book and wanting to promote it in France. The English reading public in France is vast and growing. There are probably now over a million British residents in the country and around 300,000 English speakers in the Paris region alone. No serious British author living in France should ignore this market. AngloINFO strikes me as providing authors with a very useful means of gaining access to it.

SOAF Chairman


AngloINFO

AngloINFO Paris is a franchise of AngloINFO, the world’s largest internet-based source of information for Anglophone expatriates. More information regarding AngloINFO can be found on http://www.angloinfo.net/ and on http://www.angloinfo.com/ . Page view statistics can be found on http://paris.angloinfo.com/sales/ .

AngloINFO is owned and run by Karen Dys and her husband, Geoffrey; they are aided by a sales team and an editorial assistant. All the information on AngloINFO Paris is available for free to our users and we attempt to ensure that the information is correct and accurate.

AngloINFO Paris sells advertising to businesses/associations/individuals interested in reaching the Anglophone population of Paris and the Île de France. AngloINFO Paris is involved in many different ways within the Anglophone community. We are members of the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce and Industry, we support the English Language Schools Association and we are involved in the promotion of parent support groups, sporting and cultural organisations

World Radio Paris

This is not to be confused with Paris Live Radio. World Radio Paris is a community radio station in partnership with the BBC and NPR, and is based at the American University, Paris. Anglophones of every type are welcome to contact the Programme Director to record broadcast content.

David Blanc is the Programme Director. See website www.worldradioparis.org

Ways in which authors can promote themselves among users of AngloINFO Paris

Several advertising options exist. Contact Karen Dys for more information. We undertake to feed SOAF information regarding events in and around Paris that could be of interest to English-speaking authors residing in France.

Karen Dys
Director, AngloINFO Paris
http://www.angloinfo.com
Tel: +33 (0) 3 44 74 97 87
Fax: +33 (0) 3 44 57 80 89