The Paris Key Quotes

“The rosé was dry and crisp and perfect. The baguette was ambrosia: crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. What was it about bread in France? Like the French version of butter, it seemed to bear little relation to the item of the same name back home. Genevieve sliced a wedge of pâté, topped it with a cornichon, and made a little sandwich. Another glass of wine, a bit of cheese: P’tit Basque, tangy Roquefort, a stinky and delicious washed-rind Brie. Even the pear seemed better than the ones she was used to: the perfect combination of tangy and sweet, the juice running down her arm as she ate. Sated,”
― Juliet Blackwell, The Paris Key

“perhaps having her mother die so early had damaged her irreparably.”
― Juliet Blackwell, The Paris Key

“How long would it take for the wonder to wear off? For buying aspirin in such a place to begin to feel normal, even ho-hum? Did a person ever stop seeing (feeling) the beauty, the history of Paris? Did stone walls begin to feel cold and depressing, to the point where she would ever yearn for the plastic, standardized façades of an Applebee’s or an Olive Garden? There”
― Juliet Blackwell, The Paris Key

“Like most readers, she felt nervous without a stack of novels at her disposal. In fact, she sometimes wondered: What did people do if they couldn’t read? On the other hand, maybe without those hours lost to novels she would have become a championship knitter, or a rock climber. Luckily,”
― Juliet Blackwell, The Paris Key

“The small double bed was neatly made, covered (as always) in a wedding-ring quilt made by Pasquale’s mother and aunts and given to the young couple as a present upon their marriage.”
― Juliet Blackwell, The Paris Key

“La Maréchalerie means “blacksmith shop” in French, and the building was decorated with horseshoes and the head of a horse emerging from a shield. Genevieve had been confused by these as a teenager: What did horses have to do with bread? She remembered rushing back to the house and looking up the name in her travel dictionary but was still just as confused until Catharine told her it was merely an old building made into a boulangerie. “They don’t take things down here, or change things,” said Catharine, clearly disdainful of her cousin’s interest. “They just leave the name, and the horse decorations, and make their bread.”
― Juliet Blackwell, The Paris Key

“The gargoyles were worth the climb: Some seemed so real they could easily have been demons turned to stone. One appeared to be biting the head off of some much smaller creature—a tiny man?—clutched in his claws. Another was contemplative, his monkeylike face resting in the palms of his oversized hands, as he observed his domain. Others stuck out their tongues, bared their teeth, made faces. Their expressions were so elastic and whimsical it was hard to believe they were carved of stone.”
― Juliet Blackwell, The Paris Key

“There was nothing quite so useful as travel, she decided, to illustrate Einstein’s theory that time could shrink or lengthen relative to one’s situation.”
― Juliet Blackwell, The Paris Key

“Still, Genevieve hadn’t anticipated the effects of lack of sleep and the overwhelming, awkward strangeness of arriving, alone and unable to speak the language, in a foreign city.”
― Juliet Blackwell, The Paris Key

“I don’t blame you,” Genevieve said. “Sunnyvale isn’t exactly Paris.”
― Juliet Blackwell, The Paris Key