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Diplomat's wife writes about life in Paris
A fresh view of Paris: Institut Français d'Indonesie (IFI) culture and audio-visual attaché Didier Vuillecot (left) posed with author Lona Hutapea-Tanasale (right) after a discussion on Lona's recently published book, Voilá la France, at IFI in Jakarta on Tuesday
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span class="inline inline-center">A fresh view of Paris: Institut Français d'Indonesie (IFI) culture and audio-visual attaché Didier Vuillecot (left) posed with author Lona Hutapea-Tanasale (right) after a discussion on Lona's recently published book, Voilá la France, at IFI in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Paris is not just about the Eiffel Tower or Louis Vuitton, says Indonesian author Lona Hutapea Tanasale.
During a discussion on Lona's recently published book, Voilá la France, she shared that there were many things she had learned from the daily life of Parisians.
'There are a lot of interesting things that you can learn from French culture. In my latest book, I wanted to share my views of France not from a tourist perspective, but from that of a foreigner who actually lived and raised her two children in Paris,' said Lona, from Maluku, at the Institut Français d'Indonesie (IFI) in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Lona and her two children resided in Paris for five years, accompanying her husband, Charles Hutapea, an Indonesian diplomat who was posted to France between 2009 and 2013.
Having previously lived in Japan, Lona said that she experienced culture shock when she first arrived in Paris. But later she found that the city, which is often pictured as beautiful and romantic in novels and films, actually has its own quirk that is not always pretty, yet still exciting to explore.
Lona's first book, Paris, C'est Ma Vie, published in 2012, served as a daily journal and was written while she was still living in Paris. Meanwhile, Voilá la France, which she wrote after returning to Jakarta, explores the French culture and habits that she found unique and funny from a realistic and humorous perspective.
Her interesting experiences include cycling with her family in Paris, her exposure to Claude Monet paintings, visits to literature cafes and her interactions with Parisians and their unique traditions.
Lona admits that creating the second book was far more challenging than the first.
'The process of writing it is like digging back into pieces of feelings, sensations and memories from the time I was still living in France and weaving them back into words, which is not always easy,' she said. (kes)(+)
