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

blank

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.

blank
Jemma - French Lessons

How to Survive the French Car Pound

October 6, 2017
Contributor blog post by Jemma: French Lessons welcomes 2017’s guest contributor: Rachael, our friend and dinner party guest whose evening ended badly. She’d only bid us ‘bonsoir’ when she promptly returned to Bellevue’s gate. A call to the police confirmed that yes, indeed, her car had been towed to Antibes’ pound. Rachael drove our car home …
Continue Reading
blank
Explore · Jemma - French Lessons · Provencal History & Traditions

WWII Antibes’ 75th Tribute for HMS Unbroken

October 5, 2017
It is a time of anniversaries. World War I’s centennial commemorations have dotted the globe. Canada celebrated its 150th. Even Lolo’s summer camp in the woods of Ontario proudly handed out t-shirts with “100” on them. World War II anniversaries cannot yet claim three digits. Partly because of the war’s relative recentness, and partly because …
Continue Reading
blank
Inspire · Jemma - French Lessons

A Starbucks-Shaped Hole in the Côte d’Azur

September 11, 2017
Contributor blog post by Jemma: Last week in Cannes I stumbled on the most stunning sight: Starbucks. Right there on Rue Jean Jaurès, the street extending along Cannes’ revamped train station. The vision was stunning in its most rudimentary sense: I was stunned. True, a few Starbucks already scatter around this area – in Nice …
Continue Reading
blank
Jemma - French Lessons · Learning French

How Food Spices Up la Langue Française

August 31, 2017
Contributor blog post by Jemma: My dive into France’s linguistic obsession with food began with the summer shoe sales. This dazzling array pulled us into the shoe store – and launched an exploration into the French language. Twelve-year-old Lolo and I were meandering recently through the narrow streets of old Antibes, where the right-footed inventories …
Continue Reading
blank
Jemma - French Lessons

The Côte d’Azur: Our Ritual Return Trip

August 4, 2017
Contributor blog post by Jemma: N’inquiétez-vous pas, the young man at Nice’s Côte d’Azur airport said. He didn’t need to see Yoko’s papers. Never mind that eight people, a veterinary clinic and a Canadian federal agency had united in preparing the dog’s papers for her entry into France. Our French poodle was most welcome. …Continue …
Continue Reading