Chez Panisse - Fanny in France

ma famille franaise

VIKING

Penguin Young Readers Group

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

375 Hudson Street

New York, New York 10014

First published in the United States of America by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2016

Text copyright 2016 by Alice Waters

Illustrations copyright 2016 by Ann Arnold

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

eBook ISBN: 9780698141247

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Waters, Alice, author. | Carrau, Bob, author. | Arnold, Ann, dateillustrator.

Title: Fanny in France : Travel Adventures of a Chefs Daughter, with Recipes by Alice Waters with Bob Carrau ; illustrated by Ann Arnold.

Description: New York : VIKING, published by Penguin Group, [2016] | Audience: Ages 10+. | Audience: Grades 7 to 8.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016011994 | ISBN 9780670016662 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: Singer, Fanny, dateTravelFranceJuvenile literature. | Chez PanisseJuvenile literature. | Cooking, FrenchJuvenile literature.

Classification: LCC TX652.5 .W3594 2016 | DDC 641.5944dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016011994.

Version_1

Contents

Fannys French Adventures

B onjour. Je mappelle Fanny et jai neuf ans. That means, Hi. Im Fanny and Im nine years old, in French. I know how to speak French because, even though I live in California, I go to a school where everyone speaks French most of the day. At first it was horrible! On the first day of school I didnt know any French words, and all the teachers talked to us only in French!

Bienvenue, les enfants! Avez-vous pass un bon t?

I didnt know what they were saying or what they wanted us to do! It was like being on another planet.

Sil vous plat, asseyez-vous! Ouvrez vos cahiers et prenez vos crayons!

Some of the kids could already speak French, so they knew what was going onbut not me. Even if we just wanted a little graham cracker at snack time we had to ask for it in French or we wouldnt get one. I had to ask my friends how to say Sil vous plat, madame, est-ce que je peux avoir un biscuit? Or I just went hungry. Which is funny, because I grew up at a restaurant and I know lots of things about cooking and food.

Luckily, every day my mom packed me a really good lunch. There were always special things like little containers filled with salad leaves, with pansy and marigold petals mixed in. And a separate container for the vinaigrette so the salad wouldnt get soggy. Sometimes there were strawberries sliced in orange juice. And, of course, garlic toast! The other kidsand even some of the teacherscouldnt help but notice. We started sharing and trading things from each others lunch boxes. It was really fun. And that was how I started to learn Frenchby asking other kids around the table what was in their lunch boxes and giving them a little bite of what was in mine.

Now I can speak French better than either of my parents! And I can talk to all the cooks at Chez Panisse who come from France to cook. Sometimes I even help my mom find the perfect French word for a menu shes writing.

Chez Panisse is the name of the restaurant run by my mom and a bunch of her friends. It feels like another home to me. Maybe thats because before it became a restaurant, it actually was a house! Lots of times I go there after school to play or try to help out or just wait for my mom to take me home. Theres a huge poster on the upstairs caf wall that has a big picture of a pretty girl on it and my name. When people ask me about it, I tell them, Thats the original Fannythe one my mom named me after.

Its true! That poster is from an old French movie that my mom loves. The movie is called Fanny and its about a girl much older than me who lived in France almost a hundred years ago. The French Fanny lived in a city by the sea thats still there, called Marseille. She sold fish down by the harbor and fell in love with her handsome next-door neighbor, whose name was Marius. But Marius went on a long voyage and was gone for so long that Fanny thought he would never return. So, after crying a lot, Fanny decided to marry another man who also loved her. That man, who had a store that sold sails for ships and sailboats, was named Panisse. So my mom named her restaurant Chez Panisse to remind her of the man who loved and took care of Fanny.

My mom loves old French moviesespecially if theyre in black and white. And especially if theyre made by Marcel Pagnol, a famous French film director. I always want to watch something else, but my mom is always saying, Oh, Fanny, lets watch Harvest! Or, We havent seen Csar in a while. I think Im the only kid in Berkeley whos seen The Bakers Wife more times than The Little Mermaid.

She always laughs and cries when she watches these movies. I dont really know why. But, no matter what, after shes done, she starts cooking. She puts on some French music and asks me to help her peel garlic or pick some lettuce out back in the garden. Sometimes she gets on the phone and calls one of her friends in France, like Martine or Lulu, because those movies have reminded her of them so much. And, if were really lucky, my mom starts to plan a trip.

Im always so happy when she does this, because I know my dad and I get to go with her. Weve been to France lots of timeseven when I was a babyand every time we go, I have great adventures and see lots of friends and make lots of new ones.

Sometimes when we go, I pretend were going on an old sailing ship, just like the one Marius sailed away on when he left Fanny in the harbor of Marseille. I pack my suitcase like its a big trunk, and when were on the plane, I pretend its a big floating boat traveling through the sky. And all I think about is who were going to see when we get there, what were going to do, and where were going to go. I pretend all our friends will be waiting at a dock, cheering,