La Vie Creative

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Alecia McKenzie is a Jamaican writer based in France.

Her first collection of short stories, Satellite City, and her novel Sweetheart have both won Commonwealth literary prizes. Sweetheart has been translated into French (Trésor) and was awarded the Prix Carbet des lycéens in 2017.

Other books include Stories From Yard (first published in Italian translation as Racconti giamaicani), Doctor’s Orders and When the Rain Stopped in Natland. Her most recent novel is A Million Aunties.

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Her work has also appeared in a range of literary magazines and in anthologies such as Stories from Blue Latitudes, The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories, Bridges, Global Tales, Girls Night In, and To Exist is to Resist.

She was longlisted for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award in 2019.

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A little about me…I first moved to Paris in Fall 2012 for a semester abroad program. At the time, I had absolutely no idea how I would fall completely head-over-heels in love with the city. I returned the following summer for another study abroad program. It was during that time that I first imagined myself living in Paris full time.

Life happened, but I never let go of my dream of living in Paris. Five years later, the stars aligned for me and I moved from Dallas, Texas to Paris. My daily routine in here is full of new challenges, adventures, and excitement. It’s pushed me outside of my comfort zone and allowed me to truly connect with myself and pursue my passions and dreams. Not every day is extraordinary, but I’m lucky to live in a city with as much energy and history as Paris.

My goal is to show you “my” Paris – my discoveries, favorites, and some of the lessons I learn. Even on the most mundane or average day I find inspiration in being here.

While it didn’t happen overnight, I’m lucky that for work I get to do what I love. I’m freelance writer, photographer, marketing consultant, and bespoke travel planner.

Be sure to visit La Porte Bonheur, an online shop filled with French antiques, photography prints, and phone cases that ship worldwide. When used together, porte-bonheur means lucky charm. Everything that you find on La Porte Bonheur was chosen specifically to be a porte (gateway or door) to bonheur (happiness, joy, pleasure, bliss, and delight). I believe that these French antiques, photos, and phone cases have the ability to bring happiness and joy through your doors and into your lives.

I’ll always be a Texan at heart, but for now, I couldn’t be happier about the French life that I’m building.

blog is here: https://landenkerr.com/ 

travel planning services are here:https://landenkerr.com/bespoke-travel-planning/ 

Print shop are here: https://laportebonheur.com/ 

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FRANCES BIO:

Frances is a Latina powerhouse creative with over 30 years of experience in the arts and entertainment industry spanning theater, cinema, and video games. She has a passion for creating rich and dynamic story worlds that conjure curiosity and inspire play. She is co-founder and CEO of Eat the Cake Studio, a women-run immersive entertainment studio dedicated to redefining the experience of storytelling and audience engagement. Frances is also passionate about history and thrives in showcasing fascinating women from history at the heart of her projects. Performing artist, scriptwriter, businesswoman, and even mixologist... Her unconventional path through life has made her versatile, curious, and always ready for a challenge!

PROJECT BLURB:

Eat the Cake Studio’s signature universe is Versailles Imagined, an immersive universe around Versailles and one of its most iconic residents, Marie Antoinette.  In 2019, Eat the Cake Studio began production on LET THEM EAT CAKE -  THE SHOW, an intimate immersive show set around Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution. With the pandemic, the company had to put the live production on hold and pivoted to creating immersive, interactive online content with their show cast, including BEAUTY AND GOSSIP FROM THE 18TH CENTURY - an Airbnb Online experience; LADIES OF VERSAILLES, an online encounter with Marie Antoinette and her favorites (also available in person!), and SCANDAL AT VERSAILLES: IN THE SHADOW OF THE GUILLOTINE: a create-your-own-adventure multimedia online experience based on the scandal that rocked the court: The Affair of the Necklace (currently in development.) They plan to launch a Western-based universe shortly and they hope to restart production on their live show soon!

If you are in Paris and you would like to spend a couple of hours living like royalty with the Queen or one of her favorites, then look no further! Eat the Cake Studio will make those wishes come true!

PROJECT LINKS:

www.letthemeatcaketheshow.com

www.versaillesimagined.com

www.airbnb.com/experiences/2515977 

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

Instagram: Versailles_Imagined 

Facebook: Let Them Eat Cake_The Show

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eat-the-cake-studio - https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesvierasblanc/

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Rosa Jackson never looked back after tasting her first coffee éclair at the age of four, when her family came to live in Paris for a year.  After working as a food writer for a daily newspaper in Canada, she moved to France in 1995 and founded Paris Market Tours (now Edible Paris), which was the first company to offer tours of the city’s food markets.

Rosa long dreamed of combining market tours with cooking classes, and chose Nice for its vibrant food market and unique culinary traditions influenced by Italy and other Mediterranean cultures. After more than ten years of teaching, her greatest satisfaction comes from knowing that her students from all over the world are now preparing local specialties such as pissaladière (caramelized onion tart), socca (chickpea pancake) and of course petits farcis, the famous stuffed vegetables after which Rosa named her Nice cooking studio.

Always preferring quality over quantity, Rosa has slowly expanded her business to include collaborators who are equally passionate about the local cuisine and culture.

During her parallel career as a France-based food writer, Rosa has edited several editions of the Time Out Paris Eating and Drinking guide and contributed to publications such as Food & Wine, Eating Well, The Financial Times, Australian Gourmet Traveller, and has been a columnist for France Magazine.

In the past few years Rosa has developed a passion for nutrition and she recently obtained a Certificate in Dietary Counselling at the Institute of Health Sciences in Dublin. Her classes are peppered with advice on how select the healthiest ingredients and prepare them in ways that preserve their nutrients and minimize intolerances.

Rosa has published three cookbooks in French with Marabout, a division of Hachette. Her Gourmet Paris guide won the 2007 Gourmet World Cookbook award for best travel guidebook.

She continues to offer custom guided tours of Paris and, from her studio in the heart of Old Nice, a range of French cooking classes for lovers of French cuisine.

Edible Paris - customized food tours in Paris

Les Petits Farcis - cooking classes and food tours in Nice

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Nice cooking classes, Paris food itineraries, food blog, Facebook page and Instagram (petitsfarcis_edibleparis).

Les Petits Farcis is also on Google+. 

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CC Aoustin is a native New Yorker, growing up in a melting pot of cultures in and out of her home. She has a BA from Queens College, in psychology and Fine Arts. She attended New York University’s Masters in Art Therapy Program, where she practiced for 13 years until moving to France. She reconnected with art through photography, by creating her own backdrops.  Caroline has exhibited her art in NYC & Paris. And now happily living the French dream, she didn’t even know she had!

PARTOUT - A collective of Anglophone women artists, based in Paris. Having found each other via Facebook during the pandemic, where culture seems to be cancelled, we converged to find a means to exhibit together. We stepped out of our solitary artistic shells, to unite, collaborate and support our creative endeavors individually and as a whole.

Art Website: cc.aoustin.us

Photography: www.studioaoustin.com

Instagram : @ccaoustin

Facebook : @ccaoustin

For the collective:

Instagram: @partout_paris_

Facebook: @partout_paris_

Website: https://partoutcollective.com/

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🎨 Join my 2026 Tour of Christmas in France 

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