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Marie-Thérèse’s France 2: Paris

The second in a series of posts about the settings in Vanessa Couchman’s recently-released historical novel, Overture. This time, c’est Paris!

Vanessa in France's avatarVanessa Couchman

View of Montmarte. My photo.

This is the second part of a series of posts looking at some
of the settings that Marie-Thérèse, my main character in Overture, would
have known. How do you cover Paris in one blog post? I’m not even going to try.
Instead, I’ll focus on a few of the places that are mentioned in the book.

Although I have invented some of the villages in Aveyron,
where the story partly takes place, I have used only real places in Paris. You
don’t mess with Parisian street names!


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Overture is Released Today!

We’re excited to announce that Ocelot author Vanessa Couchman’s Overture, Book 1 in L’Alouette Trilogy, is released today in Kindle ebook format. A paperback version is available, too.

To celebrate publication, the Kindle price of Overture will remain at £0.99 (or equivalent in other currencies) for a few days, so hurry to get your copy at this special price before it increases. In all Amazon stores.

What if you had a unique talent, but everything conspired against your dreams?

France, 1897. Born to a modest farming family, Marie-Thérèse has a remarkable singing voice and wants to become a professional singer. But too many obstacles, including her parents’ opposition, stand in her way. And, through no fault of her own, she makes a dangerous enemy of the local landlord.

When the family circumstances change suddenly, Marie-Thérèse and her mother must move to Paris to work in her aunt’s restaurant. Her ambitions rekindle, but the road to success is paved with setbacks until a chance meeting gives her a precious opportunity.

She is close to achieving all her dreams, but the ghosts of the past come back to haunt her and threaten Marie-Thérèse’s life as well as her career.

Overture is the first in a trilogy set in France, starting in 1897 and finishing at the end of World War II.  

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Marie-Thérèse’s France 1: Rural Aveyron

Ocelot Press author Vanessa Couchman shares with us some of the lovely settings in Southwest France in her latest release, Overture, to be published on 28th May.

Vanessa in France's avatarVanessa Couchman

Today, I want to take you to some of the settings that
Marie-Thérèse, my main character in Overture,
would have known. In this first post, I’ll focus on Aveyron, which is one of
the most rural départements (counties)
of France. I live just over the border in an adjoining département, but I’m very attached to the landscapes and villages
of Aveyron, which is named after the river that flows through it.

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‘Overture’ is Available Now in Paperback

We’re pleased to announce that Overture, Book 1 in Ocelot Press author Vanessa Couchman’s L’Alouette Trilogy, is now available in paperback! The ebook version is on pre-order on Amazon at a special pre-order price of only 99p, or equivalent, and will be released on 28th May.

What if you had a unique talent, but everything conspired against your dreams?

France, 1897. Born to a modest farming family, Marie-Thérèse has a remarkable singing voice and wants to become a professional singer. But too many obstacles, including her parents’ opposition, stand in her way. And, through no fault of her own, she makes a dangerous enemy of the local landlord.

When the family circumstances change suddenly, Marie-Thérèse and her mother must move to Paris to work in her aunt’s restaurant. Her ambitions rekindle, but the road to success is paved with setbacks until a chance meeting gives her a precious opportunity.

She is close to achieving all her dreams, but the ghosts of the past come back to haunt her and threaten Marie-Thérèse’s life as well as her career.

Overture is the first in a trilogy set in France, starting in 1897 and finishing at the end of World War II.  

Read more about the historical background to Overture and the series on Vanessa’s website.

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From Rural France to Paris: Les Bougnats

In a series of posts about the historical background to Overture, to be published on 28th May, Vanessa Couchman looks at the exodus from rural SW France to Paris in the late 19th century.

Vanessa in France's avatarVanessa Couchman

Les Monts du Cantal in France’s Massif Central. A region noted for its beauty, but not for agricultural prosperity

The odd-sounding combination of coal merchant and bistro
owner was quite common in Paris during the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. These establishments were usually the métier of immigrants from the Auvergne and northern Aveyron, where
the poor soil made farming a thankless task.

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