Download Our Summer Menu Collection

Since summer entertaining should be a breeze, this collection, designed with simplicity in mind, features 20 easy-to-follow recipes and a few menu suggestions. Download this PDF, which includes recipes for starters, main courses, side dishes, and desserts.

 Jemma Hélène

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Jemma was born and raised in the US Midwest. A banker by trade, she slogged away at a Swiss investment bank in the UK and South Africa before moving – for decent spaces of time, anyway – to the South of France. At a similar stage, she also moved to the right side of her brain as a writer. She has published articles in Maclean’s, SuperYacht World, and various travel and university presses.

At this point Jemma lives mostly in Canada, but she spends the whole of every summer in the Côte d’Azur town of Antibes. From this seaside town of ramparts, situated midway between Nice and Cannes, she has penned her blog French Lessons since 2007. Each post captures a snapshot of the remarkable, real life of the French Riviera. “Consider these pages my summertime gift to you,” she tells her readers.

When not engrossed in things French, Jemma is - not in any particular order - writing a book, making music, performing motherly duties, expanding sustainable education in places that have less of it, promoting Canadian writing, and travelling off-the-beaten-track: over 90 countries, and counting.

You can reach Jemma through her blog site at French Lessons.

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Jemma - French Lessons · Restaurant Recommendations · Taste

Chez Mirazur French Gastronomie Well-Deserved 3-Stars

November 4, 2020
Philippe and I knew how to pace ourselves.  We had dined at Mirzaur in 2015 when the restaurant had “only” two Michelin stars.  We’d received the celebratory email in 2019 when the owners shared, with émotion immense, news of their elevation.  Five months later the restaurant was voted the best restaurant in the world in Restaurant’s Top 50.  Mirazur had …
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Inspire · Jemma - French Lessons · Shopping & Gifts

Shopping for Staples in Antibes

November 14, 2019
By Jemma I recently ordered a music stand from Amazon for delivery in Antibes. Perhaps it was the shape of the box, but dispatch to the usual Amazon Locker being impossible, I scanned the available pick-up options. Geoffreys British Supermarket Geoffreys of London. My heart did an elaborate flip. What better excuse?  I would be obliged …
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Expat Living and Real Estate · Jemma - French Lessons · Living in Provence

The not so Glamorous Côte d’Azur Life of Home Upkeep

October 19, 2018
Contributor blog post by Jemma: I couldn’t write this post until things had been resolved – or mostly resolved, as the case would be. Even then, I didn’t know if I should bother. It’s France. Everyone expects home maintenance problems. And how can anything be a problem, really, if we’re talking about summer in the shimmering Côte …
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Expat Living and Real Estate · Jemma - French Lessons · Living in Provence

Living on the French Riviera our Summertime Vignettes

October 16, 2018
Contributor blog post by Jemma: French Lessons has survived a summer that one local friend dubbed “un agenda de ministre.” Even for us non-government ministers, the French expression seemed an appropriate way to characterize our schedule in a country where public spending(as a % of GDP) continues, shall we say, to outperform. Our summer months were simply …
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