UPCOMING EVENTS

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• LS051 Murder, They Read: "The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra", by Vaseem Khan

  • When
    05 Sep 2025
  •  
    3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
  • Location
    La Grande Colette, 10 Rue Saint-Martin, 75004
  • Spaces left
    0

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  On his last day before forced retirement, Mumbai police inspector Ashwin Chopra faces two surprises: the suspicious death of a young man dismissed as accidental, and the arrival of an unusual gift—a baby elephant named Ganesha from an uncle he barely knew. Unwilling to let the drowning case go, Chopra begins an unofficial investigation, venturing from Mumbai’s wealthy enclaves to its poorest slums. Along the way, he navigates corruption, political intimidation, and domestic tensions, with his spirited wife Poppy questioning his secrecy.

  Ganesha, more perceptive than expected, becomes a quietly indispensable ally—sometimes in ways that baffle Chopra himself. Together, man and elephant untangle the truth behind the boy’s death, confronting the city’s underbelly while offering flashes of humor and warmth. The novel blends classic mystery with vivid evocation of Mumbai life, launching a detective duo whose bond is as unusual as it is endearing.

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  Two spaces are reserved for new WICE members. If no new WICE members have registered before 01 September, those two spaces will become available to the general WICE membership.

  The book group meets in the backroom of La Grande Colette café, 10 rue Saint-Martin, 75004.

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• BS183 Exploring French History through Novels

  • When
    18 Sep 2025
  •  
    2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
  • Location
    Le Nelson's Café, 16 rue de Coquillière, 75001 Paris

  Register

  
  

  Free for WICE members! Come with us on a captivating journey where literature and history intertwine to offer a uniquely vivid perspective on France's past. You’ll plunge into a vibrant tapestry of pivotal events, cultural shifts, and influential figures…while falling under the spell of some of France’s best historical novelists.  And then the discussion begins!

  Our meetings take place in French so you'll enhance your understanding of the past while simultaneously improving your French reading, comprehension, and speaking skills in a friendly convivial group.

  Group facilitator: Claudia Oudet, French teacher, editor, and translator, will offer linguistic help and literary/historical insights.

  We'll meet in person at Le Nelson's Café,

  16 rue Coquillière, 75001 Paris

  Métro : Lignes 1/4/7/11/14 RER A/B/D Châtelet Les Halles 
  Bus : 74 – 85 : Louvre – Etienne Marcel / Bourse du commerce

  
  

  Préparez-vous à discuter:

  “Les Rois maudits, tome 3: Les Poisons de la Couronne”

  Les Poisons de la Couronne ressuscite presque jour par jour, les intrigues, les haines et les crimes du règne de Louis X le Hutin, qui ne dura que dix-huit mois, mais dont les conséquences devaient être capitales pour la monarchie française. 

  Lorsqu'il meurt empoisonné, en juin 1316, c'est la première fois depuis plus de trois siècles qu'un roi de France décède sans laisser un héritier mâle.

  Come prepared to discuss:

  “Les Rois maudits, tome 3: Les Poisons de la Couronne” is the third volume in Maurice Druon's historical series, retracing the events of 14th-century France. It recreates almost day by day, the intrigues, hatreds and crimes of the short reign of Louis X le Hutin, which lasted just eighteen months, but whose consequences were to be momentous for the French monarchy.

  When he died of poisoning in June 1316, it was the first time in over three centuries that a French king had died without leaving a male heir.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

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• LS261 Café Littéraire: Madame Bovary, by Gustav Flaubert

  • When
    26 Sep 2025
  •  
    3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
  • Location
    To be announced
  • Spaces left
    8

  Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is a landmark novel of 19th-century French literature that explores the tensions between romantic ideals and mundane reality. It follows Emma Bovary, a provincial doctor’s wife who yearns for passion, luxury, and a life of excitement beyond the confines of her dull marriage and small-town life. Influenced by romantic novels and disillusioned with domesticity, Emma engages in affairs and spends recklessly in pursuit of beauty and meaning. But her attempts to escape lead only to emotional turmoil and financial ruin. Flaubert’s style—precise, ironic, and emotionally restrained—offers a penetrating portrait of a woman’s desires clashing with societal expectations. The novel was controversial at the time of its publication in 1857, leading to an obscenity trial, but has since become a foundational work in literary realism. Madame Bovary remains a powerful study of disillusionment, longing, and the tragic costs of self-deception.
  

  

  Two spaces are reserved for new WICE members. If no new WICE members have registered before 19 September, those two spaces will become available to the general WICE membership.

  
  

  The book group meets at the organizer's apartment. The directions, door code, telephone number, etc., are sent in the 7-day and 1-day reminder emails, following registration.

  Registration for the September meeting opens on 01 September 2025.

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• LO131 Tea and Tattered Pages: Adventures in Poetry

  • When
    11 Oct 2025
  •  
    3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
  • Location
    To be announced
  • Spaces left
    8

  Tea and Tattered Pages: Adventures in Poetry

   “A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.” -W. H. Auden

  Program Description:

  Tea and Tattered Pages is a multi-faceted program designed to bring poetry closer to the fore in our lives, and perhaps create a small community around it. Our activities include reading, writing, discussing, reciting, and trying to live poetry.

  There will be no fixed agenda for events; rather, forthcoming events will usually be decided by vote as we move through the year, and published as things are decided. You can get a sense of what sorts of activities we will be doing on the program's web page:

  Tea and Tattered Pages

  In general, registration for  each activity will open the day after the previous activity finishes. Registration for the October meeting will open on Sunday, 14 September.

  If you have any questions, please contact literature@wice-paris.org

  Our Poet-in-Residence: Heather Hartley

  

  Heather Hartley’s poetry collections include Adult Swim and Knock Knock, both published by Carnegie Mellon University Press. She was Paris Editor for Tin House magazine for over fifteen years.

  Her short fiction, poems, essays and interviews have appeared in or on PBS Newshour, The Guardian, The Literary Review and other venues. She teaches creative writing at the University of Kent’s (UK) Paris School of Arts and Culture and has also taught at the American University of Paris and the University of Texas El Paso MFA program.

  www.heatherhartleyink.com

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• LO241 Café Littéraire: Total Chaos ("Total Khëops"), by Jean-Claude Izzo

  • When
    24 Oct 2025
  •  
    3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
  • Location
    To be announced
  • Spaces left
    10

  Total Chaos is the first novel in Jean-Claude Izzo’s gritty Marseilles Trilogy, a landmark of French noir that blends crime fiction with social critique and Mediterranean lyricism. The story follows Fabio Montale, an ex-cop drawn back into a violent underworld when two childhood friends are brutally murdered. Set in the sun-drenched, volatile streets of Marseilles, the novel explores themes of loyalty, lost ideals, racism, corruption, and the personal cost of justice. As Fabio investigates, he’s forced to confront not only the criminal forces at work but also his own past and complicity in the chaos around him. Izzo’s Marseilles is not just a backdrop but a living, breathing character—multicultural, decaying, and deeply human. With its blend of poetic language, political edge, and emotional depth, Total Chaos transcends the crime genre, offering a mournful, passionate portrait of a man—and a city—struggling to hold onto a sense of meaning amid collapse.
  

  

  
  

  The book group meets at the organizer's apartment. The directions, door code, telephone number, etc., are sent in the 7-day and 1-day reminder emails, following registration.

  Registration for the October meeting opens on Saturday, 27 September 2025.

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• LN241 Café Littéraire: “Fresh Water for Flowers” (“Changer l’eau des fleurs”), Valerie Perrin

  • When
    28 Nov 2025
  •  
    3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
  • Location
    To be announced
  • Spaces left
    10

  

  Fresh Water for Flowers, by Valérie Perrin, is a tender, quietly powerful novel about grief, resilience, and the hidden lives of ordinary people. The story centers on Violette Toussaint, a cemetery caretaker in a small French town, whose calm exterior hides a past marked by deep sorrow and unexpected joy. As mourners come and go, Violette tends not just to graves but to the emotional weight others carry—and, in doing so, slowly reveals her own story: a complicated marriage, an unimaginable loss, and the unlikely friendships that help her endure. When a police officer arrives with questions about his mother’s final wishes, it sets in motion a series of revelations that reshape Violette’s understanding of her own life. Poetic, humane, and laced with humor, Fresh Water for Flowers explores how love and loss intertwine, and how healing often comes from the most surprising places.
  

  

  Two spaces are reserved for new WICE members. If no new WICE members have registered before 17 November, those two spaces will become available to the general WICE membership.

  
  

  The book group meets at the organizer's apartment. The directions, door code, telephone number, etc., are sent in the 7-day and 1-day reminder emails, following registration.

  Registration for the November meeting opens on Saturday, 25 October 2025.

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• LD191 Café Littéraire: The Great Meaulnes (“Le Grand Meaulnes”), Alain Fournier

  • When
    19 Dec 2025
  •  
    3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
  • Location
    To be announced
  • Spaces left
    10

  

  The Great Meaulnes, by Alain-Fournier, is a haunting coming-of-age novel that blends youthful idealism with nostalgia and loss. Narrated by François Seurel, the story follows the enigmatic Augustin Meaulnes, a charismatic student who stumbles upon a mysterious, dreamlike estate and falls in love with the elusive Yvonne de Galais. Meaulnes becomes obsessed with finding the estate and reclaiming that fleeting moment of enchantment. Set in the French countryside at the turn of the 20th century, the novel explores themes of lost innocence, romantic yearning, and the disillusionment that often follows the pursuit of idealized dreams. Alain-Fournier, who died in World War I shortly after the novel’s publication, infused his only work with a sense of tragic beauty and emotional depth that continues to resonate with readers today.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  

  Two spaces are reserved for new WICE members. If no new WICE members have registered before 17 December, those two spaces will become available to the general WICE membership.

  
  

  The book group meets at the organizer's apartment. The directions, door code, telephone number, etc., are sent in the 7-day and 1-day reminder emails, following registration.

  Registration for the December meeting opens on 25 November 2025.

  Show details