Saturday, June 5, 2010There and back again...

Sharry and I are back from France, where we attended the Imaginales conference in Epinal and signed some books in Paris and Strasbourg (and had a great time, needless to say).  Herewith, some photos.

My first signing session was at the tiny but wonderful Scylla bookstore in Paris, devoted entirely to fantasy and science fiction.  I braced myself for the mobs with pen and  beer while my editor at Denoël, Gilles Dumay, prepared to render my incoherent English into plausible French.  It was here that I met Ellen Herzfeld and Dominique Martel, tireless translators of the works of Greg Egan and great people to talk to.  Ellen spent much of her childhood in Toronto, in neighborhoods I've walked through more than once.  A bunch of us adjourned for dinner at a Spanish restaurant.

The rather wonderful French TGV and a local train took us to Epinal, where we stayed at Le Manoir, a fine if somewhat Addams Family-ish old hotel decorated with paintings, animal hides, tusks, elephants, etc.  Our room was comfortable but infested with small bibliovorous hippos (below).  The town itself was beautiful and Sharry and I took several photos of the convention and the adjoining areas.  Most of the events at Imaginales were held in tents or other temporary structures, including a couple of small octagonal structures that appeared to have been imported from a Ray Bradbury carnival story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Another highlight of Imaginales was the opportunity to rub shoulders (even briefly) with such French sf luminaries as Pierre Bordage and Jean-Claude Dunyach.  Bernard Werber, whose Empire of the Ants is available in an English translation, was also present--I loved the book but I didn't have a chance to meet the author, alas.  We enjoyed a wonderful and wide-ranging discussion over lunch with Carole Ecoffet, a physicist who wasn't afraid to speculate freely about those Big Ideas sf writers love so much.  Between panels, Sharry enjoyed some scenic river walks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Imaginales was a great experience and we made a number of new friends, not least my appointed translator Lionel Davoust (who also happens to be a talented French fantasy writer).  Lionel accompanied us on the drive from Epinal to Strasbourg on the German border.  I was in Strasbourg for a signing at the local FNAC store, and we stayed in the city center virtually across the street from the jaw-dropping Cathedral of Our Lady.  Pictures follow, including views from the window of our room at the Hotel Cathedrale.  After that we TGVed back to Paris, stayed a night at my editor's home in Chantilly, and caught a plane for Toronto.