Finding My Way Back to 1950s Paris

by Beverley Lehman West, Nancy Rekow (Editor), Cliff Vancura (Illustrator)

Ever since she was nine, Beverley had wanted to go to Paris. So finally, after college, she did. She bought a one-way ticket and lived there for three and half years. These pages tell of those days in the 50s when she lived in a garret, studied at the Sorbonne, attended tea dances at the American Club, bought francs from a black marketer named Freddie. To support herself, she wrote for UNESCO Features and a small news service, and filed top secret, but boring, documents for the US Department of Defense. For fun Bev skied in Switzerland and Austria; youth hosteled on the Riviera; dressed up for fashion shows at Schiaparelli and horse races at Auteuil. Along the way, she drank long coffees at the Dome, the Select and the Deux Magots; toured the Tabou and other dark, damp caves; and sipped onion soup at the old Les Halles at 3:00 a.m. Meanwhile she hung out with various writers and artists, and of course fell in and out of love several times. Finally, after those three and a half years, she sailed back to the U.S., landed a job as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, then for several more years lived and worked in New York, where she met and married a dashing, martini-loving, New York writer. They had two spirited sons and moved to Bainbridge Island, WA, where Beverly taught ESL. Then, at 70 and solo, with a backpack and a laptop, she began going back to Paris, again and again.

193 pages, Paperback

Published December 7, 2014