When my friend Dee and I heard about the passing of Robert Redford, we immediately watched him again in Out of Africa. We love the film and the memoir by Karen Blixen on which it is based. Living in Africa stretched her and made her a better storyteller. She left forever changed. So did we. After Dee lived in Kenya and I lived in Morocco, we wrote memoirs and other publications about our experiences. Of the 58 countries we’ve explored between us, nowhere has transformed us more as writers and women. Seeing Karen Blixen’s farm and doing a safari in Kenya topped my Bucket List, so when Dee suggested a writing retreat there in 2026, I was on board! We’re taking only 8 explorers with us, so read on and sign up soon!
Full Disclosure: Robert Redford (Denys in Out of Africa) won’t be your pilot, but we’ll fly over Kenya to Tsavo for an authentic safari experience. We’ll be inspired by epic beauty and adventure for creative inspiration and future writing material.
Robert/Denys won’t be there to wash our hair, either, but we’ll read travel literature from master writers to improve our craft. We’ll relax and recharge with kindred spirits … refreshing.
Kenya will give you a love story. You’ll fall in love with your life.
If you’re a writer not writing … an explorer not exploring … or someone who longs to try both…
If you long to wake up in a new world full of wonder and possibility…
If you’re tired of being tired, restless, or overwhelmed…
Listen to the whisper: There’s more to life. It’s the Call to Adventure that Joseph Campbell described in The Hero’s Journey. Taking the first step to changing your narrative is the hardest for some because it means choosing YOU.
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined. — Henry David Thoreau
Write what should not be forgotten. —Isabel Allende
Download the Brochure or See Below Information on the Writing Workshop, Testimonials, Retreat Leader Bios, Package Costs, How to Register, and Deadlines. Share the brochure and this blog post with novice or pro writing friends!
To hold your spot, contact Cindy McCain at cindylmccain1@gmail.com for registration forms and payment information. Completed Registration Forms and Fee Due DECEMBER 15, 2025.
Contact Cindy at cindylmccain1@gmail.com with questions about the writing workshop. Contact Dee at deeflower@mac.com with questions about Kenya. Download .PDF below.
Take a Peek into Cindy’s Morocco Writing Retreat to Know What to Expect
Join Novice and Pro Writers As We Gather Around the Table
Artist dates in Africa inspired us with beauty, rest, and adventure. At the Morocco Writing Retreat, we enjoyed lunch, playing in multiple pools, and riding camels at the iconic Jnane Tamsna.
The Kenya Writing Retreat includes:
Inspiration (see link to Origins itinerary description above)
Workshop sessions for crafting a compelling, poignant travel tale (personal essay/blog post/memoir chapter) in one week
Prompts for journaling your journey in Kenya for writing material
A supportive writing community
Practices for sustaining a creative life in 2026 and beyond
*You’ll have access to workshop materialsonline before, during, and after the retreat.
Please see the Bios of hosts Cindy McCain and Dee Flower in the brochure above.
Cindy McCain (Southern Girl Gone Global)
I’m a university writing and literature instructor, writer, editor, and photographer. Living in Marrakesh inspired my memoir, travel articles, personal essays, and podcast. Nothing makes me happier than exploring the world and empowering writers to tell their best stories. I’ve been leading Travel Tales workshops/writing retreats in the US and Morocco since 2018.
Cindy McCain (Southern Girl Gone Global)
More About Dee Flower and a Preview of the 2026 Kenya Retreat
(Photos Below from Dee Flower’s Exhibitions, Publications, and Life in Kenya)
I’ve never known anyone with more energy, love for travel, and a way of making anywhere an adventure than author/retired park ranger/safari guide trainer, Dee Flower. See her photography from six continents on her website. See more of her INCREDIBLE author bio on Amazon, where you can also get her memoir on living in Kenya, Where the Wind Wills (available on Kindle, Audible, and Spotify free with a Premium Spotify account). She’ll share her writing process, publication journey, and vast understanding of Kenya as our Resident Master Guide.
Here are a few of my favorite things that make life even sweeter … Inspiring memoirs by incredibly talented women who overcame challenges to do what they love. Stories that remind us of the power of human connection. Books that make us laugh. Sweeping sagas that celebrate courage and freedom. Stage and screen moments that make us feel alive. Conversations about what matters most. Travel that connects us to people we love. Practical products that make our children and grandchildren happier. Here’s to more peace, love, and joy in 2025!
This post contains some affiliate links.
Favorite Things: Books
Since 2018, I’ve switched from Kindle and paperbacks to audiobooks. They make commuting enjoyable, are easy on the eyes, and who doesn’t love being told a great bedtime story? Audible, owned by Amazon, has a standard membership of $14.95 per month, which gets you one book each month and access to their library of free selections, such as classics. With a monthly Spotify Premium membership of $11.99, you get ad-free music, podcasts, and 15 hours of audiobook listening.
My favorite genre is memoir. When Ina Garten released Be Ready When the Luck Happens read by the author herself, I binged her story in two days. I’ve loved watching her Cooking for Jeffrey since The Barefoot Contessa. She’s been my go-to cook for delicious recipes that never fail and entertaining ideas for twenty years. Her voice is as soothing as her comfort food — but what I loved learning is how tough she is.
Her television/cookbook empire was built by skills in the kitchen, prolific creativity, and her casual, classy style, but there’s more to the story. The book reveals the scope of her smarts, her tenacity in overcoming obstacles, and her wisdom in choosing an amazing partner. She has an MBA from George Washington University School of Business and wrote nuclear energy policy for Presidents Ford and Carter. While she had class/financial advantages growing up the daughter of a charismatic surgeon and shrewd businesswoman who pushed her academically, her parents’ dark sides were traumatizing obstacles to overcome. Her childhood was controlled and miserable by an emotionally cold mother and physically abusive father. If she completed five of six tasks perfectly her father gave her, there was “hell to pay.”
Her life changed at 17 when the stars aligned and she met Jeffrey who has stellar military and business accomplishments of his own. She credits her success and happiness to his telling her to do what she loves and always treating her with respect and kindness. They survived and thrived despite separating briefly and living on opposite ends of the world. She says they’ve always been able to talk, and Jeffrey was right. They could stay connected and both pursue their dreams.
“Two For the Road” was my favorite chapter. After reading Arthur Frommer’s Europe on $5 a Day they did just that. With a pup tent and gas stove, they camped across Europe May – August in 1972. A bonus of the book are photos of that time and other special memories. Ina fell in love with French cooking when a woman in Normandy showed her how to make Coq au Vin. In 2000, Ina bought a Parisian apartment where she still cooks for friends.
Her interest in French cooking renewed mine. Inspired, I cooked Coq au Riesling again. I also read the memoir below and continue reading wistfully my friend’s blog on France. I’d love a return visit!
Ina was the first guest on Oprah’s new podcast that just launched. I love her secrets to success.
After Ina’s book, I made a bee-line for Julia’s memoir. I loved the movie Julia & Julia and vaguely remembered the lady my grandmother watched cook with a voice the pitch of a turkey gobbling.
The book’s descriptions of France and French food are luscious. She, too, was a tenacious woman. She wanted to do her part in WWII. When turned away from the women’s navy and army cores because she was 6 feet 2 inches, she worked instead typing secret files for what became the CIA. Like Jeffrey Garten, Child’s husband was in the military and the couple made France a second home. She was the only woman in her class at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. She published her first cookbook at age 49. It took her nine years to complete it.
She became an award-winning public television host and author. In the 1960s, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, had a radical mastectomy, and lived to be 91.
After discussing the memoirs by Child and Garten with my friend, Sally, she loaned me Stanley Tucci’s Taste: My Life Through Food. The award-winning writer/director/actor/tv host played Julia Child’s husband in Julia & Julia and appeared in Ina Garten’s new series, Be My Guest.
I’m enjoying this book because I’m a Barbra Streisand fan and appreciate her dedication to authenticity and details in covering what seems to be every detail of her life. At 48+ hours, this is more an autobiography than a memoir. I confess to skipping some of the showbiz minutiae but appreciate her warm, conversational voice, eccentricities that make her Barbra, and vulnerability. Unlike Garten and Child, she lived in near poverty after her father died. Her mother was emotionally unavailable, and her stepfather was verbally abusive. She was an old soul and a “little adult” from an early age — from taking herself to the dentist as a child to leaving home at 16 to make it in the arts.
Nonfiction Essays
ANYTHING by Dave Barry makes me laugh. A lot. He was a columnist for the Miami Herald from 1983-2005 and has won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary and The Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism. Because his books read like standup comedy, I’ve just included the links to audio versions below of my favorites.
Best.State.Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland
Set in Flannery O’Connor’s small hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia near the end of the iconic southern writer’s life, the novel is a compelling tale of rural life, human connection, and heartbreaking loss. This is literary fiction and beautiful writing at its best.
My friend Sara gave me this book three years ago and confidently said, “You’ll like it.” I’m glad I finally read it because it introduced me to William and Lucy, a divorced couple who reconnect as both deal with loss in the present and ghosts from the past. The book description reads: “Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read.” Strout is a Pulitzer Prize winner and darling of Oprah, NPR, and the New York Times. Needing to know more about Lucy and her world, read the two books that followed…
The pandemic drives ex-couple William and Lucy to flee Manhattan and shelter in a cabin on the coast of Maine. In a small town they navigate big feelings. As the sea churns around them, the world stands still. What’s next?
Audiobook Included with Premium Membership on Spotify
Lucy, still living with William in Crosby, Maine meets Olive Kitteridge, the prickly heroine of Strout’s Publitzer-Prize-winning book, and forms a deeper friendship with Bob Burgess from Lucy by the Sea as the town tries to solve a murder.
A photographer whose career is slipping moves from NYC to a cabin in upstate New York where she finds inspiration and love. It’s not as Hallmark as it sounds — more Virgin River.
From the book description because nobody tells a story like Dave…
Jesse Braddock is trapped in a tiny cabin deep in the Everglades with her infant daughter and her ex-boyfriend, a wannabe reality TV star who turned out to be a lot prettier on the outside than on the inside. Broke and desperate for a way out, Jesse stumbles across a long-lost treasure, which could solve all her problems—if she can figure out how to keep it. The problem is some very bad men are also looking for the treasure, and they know Jesse has it.
Meanwhile, Ken Bortle of Bortle Brothers Bait and Beer has hatched a scheme to lure tourists to his failing store by making viral videos of the “Everglades Melon Monster.” The Monster is, in fact, an unemployed alcoholic newspaperman named Phil wearing a Dora the Explorer costume head. Incredibly, this plan actually works, inspiring a horde of TikTokers to swarm into the swamp in search of the Monster at the same time villains are on the hunt for Jesse’s treasure. Amid this mayhem, a presidential hopeful arrives in the Everglades to start his campaign. Needless to say, it does not go as planned. In fact, nothing in this story goes as planned. This is, after all, Florida.
I LOVE this podcast where the wise-cracking actress gets “schooled” by women she admires. My favorite episodes so far are interviews with Jane Fonda, Anne Lamott, Jane Goodall, Ina Garten, Isabel Allende, and Carol Burnett.
In my queue: Sally Field, Amy Tan, Bonnie Raitt, Ina Garten, Gloria Steinhem, Rita Moreno, Nancy Pelosi, and Julie Andrews.
Though recorded in 2019, Maria’s topics are timeless. Interesting episodes I’ve enjoyed so far are with Rob Lowe, Martha Beck, Kathie Lee Gifford, and Chelsea Handler. In my queue: Brene Brown, Hoda Kotb, Jon and Dorothea Bon Jovi.
I also follow Maria’s Sunday Paper where she just posted Jane Fonda’s inteverview on CBS Morning on rethinking aging:
I’ve been waiting to see this movie since I saw it being filmed when I was in Morocco. It was a great sequel to Gladiator, and I’ll never forget sharks — yeah, sharks — in the Colosseum.
Great portrayal of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. Her “Diamonds and Rust” was inspired by their relationship, and though Johnny and June Cash are known for “It Ain’t Me Babe,” I get now why it better fits Dylan, the songwriter.
Favorite Things: Streaming
The Chosen
The Chosen has broken records for crowd-funding, translations, streaming views, and box office. Still, I was hesitant to try it. I’ve been disappointed in Jesus’ portrayal in every other movie. Other actors/scripts made him so otherworldly, so aloof in perfection, so like the adage “too heavenly minded for earthly good.” Son of God came closer to the compassionate Jesus I know. The actor Diogo Morgado was beautiful but like the others, dramatic. Something didn’t ring true.
I finally tried the first episode of The Chosen. Compelling but dark. A few weeks later, I gave the series another try. I’ve been binging Seasons 1 – 4 since. I appreciate that the series fleshes out the people who followed Christ closest — their flaws, fears, faith, and doubt. How intimately he knew each person — choosing them for their diversity and willingness to learn rather than their accomplishments. How often their questions are my questions. Even better, Jesus was fleshed out. He was a down-to-earth teacher and engaging storyteller. He led with grace, strength, and humor. He cared about all people — not just the Jews — as seen in the clip below. Likewise, the actor is gracious, humble, and fun whether speaking with fans in interviews from Fox News to The View.
To me, this is the greatest story ever told — it makes life not just better, but best. Worth living. I’m glad the series does it the justice it deserves. In a time when so many assume the party line/position based on cultural and political definitions of “Christian” formed in echo chambers… at a time when bad things are done under that name… the series reminds me that Christ’s time on earth was fraught with those same things. Seeing a closer depiction of the One I’ve known since middle school as he baffles religious and political leaders — even disciples who are just human — gives me hope. It makes me smile and cry. It helps me remember that though there’s so much I don’t understand, ultimately and forever, Love wins.
The series is now on Prime but rotates between all the major platforms so it’s easy to find. Season 5 of the series is to return — first in theaters — in March-April 2025.
Favorite Things: Theater
Broadway’s Moulin Rouge!
The show was an early birthday gift from my sister and brother-in-law. The Grammy-nominated music — even better than in the movie with additions by Adele, Katy Perry, Sia, Rihanna, and Beyonce — had the crowd on their feet. See tour stops in 2025 here.
Favorite Things: Encore Series Worth Watching Again
Ally McBeal
Streaming on Hulu, Ally McBeal‘s back with courtroom drama, fantasy sequences, and a quirky cast. Calista Flockhart plays Ally, the lead (my Enneagram 4 Soul Sister) whose looking for love and finds it for awhile with guest stars Roberth Downey, Jr. and Jon Bon Jovi. Other guests include Barry White, Al Green, Mariah Carey, Josh Groban, Tina Turner, Sting, Elton John Farrah Fawcett, Anne Heche.
Queen Charlotte
I’ve been enthralled with the storylines, costumes, and sets of Seasons 1 -3 of Bridgerton, but the series’ prequel — the love story between Queen Charlotte and King George — slays me.
Encore Movies to Watch With Children
Mary Poppins
As much as I appreciate Ms. Rachel (an excellent educational program) and enjoy Bluey! (a brilliant Australian cartoon that’s fun for adults, too), there comes a time in every parent or grandparent’s life to slip a Disney classic into the mix. The one that has held my one-year-old grandson’s attention throughout is Mary Poppins. He’s a music fan and watching it again, I understand why it gets a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film, like the main character, t is “perfect in every way.”
Favorite Things for Babies (From My 1st Year as Nana)
Perfect for Travel: Designed for sensitive skin with innovative RashShield™ Protection, reducing irritation during long flights or car travel.
Absolutely No Chlorine: Made with ultra-soft materials that are completely removed of chlorine and harsh chemicals, ensuring gentle care for delicate skin.
Eco-Friendly Materials: Sustainable, high-quality materials let parents choose an eco-conscious option.
Your heart knows the way. Run in that Direction.–Rumi
Write what should not be forgotten. —Isabel Allende
Travel to have more you must remember. —Cindy McCain
Do you need time away to jumpstart or finish a writing project? Do you have travel tales you need to tell?
Did you vow in 2020 pandemic lockdown that you would make travel a priority? Do you need to feel alive on new adventures… meet kindred spirits… fulfill new or old dreams?
Whether you’re a novice writer or pro honing your craft, on this retreat you’ll journal your journey with proven tools, inspiration, and a creative, supportive community in an exotic land. You’ll tell your best story and leave with the ultimate souvenir (remembrance). Your personal essay or memoir chapter will transport others and you back to Morocco (or whatever place you need to write about and never forget).
Though I’ve journeyed across 27 countries, nowhere like magical Morocco provides me as much rest, adventure, creative energy, and beauty. While living there, I fell in love with diverse landscapes, rich cultural experiences, and wonderful people. For me, the time was a life reset. If you follow this blog, you know that I returned to Marrakesh during the summer of 2018 and began planning this retreat. The pandemic placed it on hold, but in 2023 it finally happened! See the video here and stay tuned for the next one!
Journaling to the sound of courtyard fountains and on outdoor terraces of a private riad. Reading your work at a literary salon by the sea.
Truly, Morocco has been a creative hub for generations of artists, each meeting his or her respective Muse there. Edith Wharton, Tennessee Williams, Paul Bowles… Josephine Baker, Jimi Hendrix, Cat Stevens … Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, George Lucas. Here, Laurence of Arabia, Indiana Jones, Gladiator, and Game of Thrones came to life. Teaching, writing, and wandering there, my life felt epic, too.
Join me in Morocco for some of my favorite local experiences from the Atlas Mountains to Marrakesh to the African coast. Choose what your soul needs.
Package Includes:
4 Workshop Sessions: Craft Study & Workshop with Feedback
Private Transportation to Essaouira, High Atlas Mountains, and Palmeraie
Mule trek and lunch in a Berber village
Luxury Resort for Lunch, Botanical Gardens, Pools, and a Camel Ride
Medina Guided Tour, Bargaining Assistance, Photo Walk, and Entrance to Bahia Palace and Ben Youssef
7 Breakfasts, 2 Lunches, 2 Dinners
Tips
*Does Not Include:
Flights
Travel Insurance (required)
3 Group Meals (order from menu): Rooftop Lunch in Medina, Dinners in a Former Pasha’s Palace and on a Rooftop by the Sea
Alcohol
Free time options and transfers (Suggestions: Amal Cooking Class, Lunch at Museum of Confluence, Hammam/Spa Day, Jardin Marjorelle, Lunch at other locations with gorgeous pools and gardens, volunteering if possible)
After the rush of the holidays, winter is a time to slow down, to get still, to sit by a fire in a quiet place where we can listen to longings and hear our hearts speak. For many of us, this requires getting away. We need a respite to reflect, recharge, reset. And if there’s been a stirring in our souls, if we’re seeking something different, a place to consider new possibilities. A place to ask, “What if?”
In mid-December, I drove into a town that had inspired the book I was reading. It looked like the set of a Hallmark Christmas movie and the community described sounded Hallmark-close and friendly, too. I couldn’t wait to meet the author who has created a one-of-a-kind experience. I did. After the weekend I drove out of town feeling rested and inspired to take on whatever the new year brings.
In a new year when we try to focus on the positive,she inspires us to see problems as possibilities, to create something for our souls and others, to remember what matters most, and to embrace our roots and spread our wings.
We met in Stanford, Kentucky where she lives on a farm with her husband, Jess. The novels of her May Hollow trilogy – Grounded, Guarded, and Granted– are based largely on life in this small town with a big heart. She and Jess are the creators of the Wilderness Road Hospitality Group that has built a stronger sense of community here. In Part 1 of the interview she explains how they went from milking goats to saving and renovating historic homes. How they built two restaurants, an Inn, and are building another. Angela talks about the importance of close community not only in Kentucky but in a Tuscan village, Montefollonico, where she and Jess have a home and are renovating rentals for retreats and vacations.
Like Annie and Jake in her trilogy, Angela and Jess have quite the love story. Their travel experiences are the stuff of fairytales, and they enjoy the best of all worlds with homes in Kentucky and Tuscany. What I love most is that while she was still a single woman who lived in Lexington with good friends and a job that provided amazing travel experiences, she felt a pull toward another life. She wanted to live on a farm. She knew that nature feeds her soul. She says she knew God was turning her in a new direction, but had no idea how she’d get there. God fulfilled the desires of her heart in ways she didn’t expect.
Lisa, our mutual friend who is also a writer and Italophile, introduced us by email because she though we had a lot in common. Angela and I both went to The University of Kentucky, lived in Lexington, and lived on farms. Our grandfathers were farmers. We grew up in small Kentucky towns. For her, it was Danville. For me, Hopkinsville. She strives to write about the “good, true, and beautiful” for a mainstream audience. No matter how much we love travel and exploring other countries, we recognize our native language — SouthernSpeak.
Angela’s books have been adapted to the stage for sold-out performances at the Pioneer Playhouse, Kentucky’s oldest outdoor theater. Their themes — navigating family, romantic love, purpose and passion, our need for community— are universal. Like Thornton Wilder’s classic, Our Town or Jan Karon’s Mitford series, her books are timeless.
We’re not super easy to get to. We’re an hour south of Lexington’s small airport but we think that’s part of the charm. When you come you’re going to pull away from everything. You can let your blood pressure drop, be fully present, and receive peace. –Angela Correll
I finished Grounded while I was on her stomping ground. Spending time with her characters felt like Old Home Week (a southern church tradition of my childhood that meant dinner on the ground or potluck in the fellowship hall). I recognized some of Annie’s grandmother in both of mine – one that fried country ham, then simmered it in water to make it tender every Christmas morning. Another who watched Billy Graham specials and tucked me in under quilts. I recognized generational struggles over the need for dishwashers, cable, and the internet. Over expressions like “You can’t expect a man to buy the cow if he is getting the milk for free.”
Her grandmother’s farmhouse with its creaking floors took me back to the homes in the country of 3 great-aunts. They, too, gathered eggs from ornery hens and didn’t lock their doors. Stripping tobacco, guns and gardens, Blue Willow China, Bluegills and the Farmers’ Almanac. “Widow Women,” “young folk,” “up North,” “down South”… all reminders of my childhood. The comfort food sent me back to Nashville on a mission to make break green beans, cook them with new potatoes, fry up some crappie, bake a chess pie, and chase it all with sweet tea.
Her reference to Genuine Risk, the 1980 Derby winner the year I married, took me back to Lexington when I lived on a horse farm. So did this description of Wildcat Mania.
The restaurant walls were covered with black and white pictures of local celebrities. Featured prominently were the University of Kentucky basketball and football coaches, and some of the players, both past and present. Even Hollywood stars like Ashley Judd, George Clooney and Johnny Depp were proudly featured Kentuckians. The fare was fine Angus steak, grass-finished and locally grown, served in an atmosphere of dark paneled walls and white table linens.
A romantic, I cried and was satisfied at the end of her first book, but I appreciate that the story didn’t stop there. She wrote a trilogy as if to ask, “What if … a fairytale ending of boy gets girl isn’t the end of the story? Aren’t relationships more complicated?”
Career struggles, abandonment issues, financial troubles, gossips, family secrets, depression… it’s all here. But there’s something about this place that is so familiar and comforting that I listen to the Audible versions as bedtime stories. Maybe because I spent a weekend in the world of the novel where people care for each other, stop and talk on the street, remembered my name. Maybe because in a world of troubles and negativity, I need to stay grateful and focused on the positive this year.
The Stanford Inn includes the cottages but in the works are additional lodging spaces including more hotel rooms (larger than the current Inn rooms) on Main Street.
If you need to finish an artistic project– book, painting, documentary–on your own or want the direction/support of a group, listen to Part 2 of the interview where Angela discusses her writing journey and options for retreats and creative community in Stanford and Italy.
May Hollow Trilogy by Angela Correll in her Soaps and Such Store, Main Street, Stanford, KentuckyEsther’s WellhouseAmy at Esther’s Wellhouse gave me a great massage. See her in video. She drives an hour from Lexington to work because she loves it here.I grew up on Rutland’s Barbecue in Hopkinsville, KY. My dad brought it home from work. I’ve been partial to Western Kentucky Barbecue but this at the Bluebird Restaurant was AMAZING. Sara, House Manager of Bluebird, who made me feel at home every time I dropped in.Savannah was my sweet server at Bluebird. She lives in Pulaski County but drives to Stanford. Since the renovations of the Wilderness Road Group, the town has changed. She said there wasn’t much here when she was a kid, but now “everything is in Stanford.” Sarah with Hot Cider at Kentucky Soaps and SuchThe store was full of people of all ages gift shopping and catching up.Many books by Kentucky authors (and many selections from Italy)The weekend lives on… loved my coffee cup from this collection and the soaps at Kentucky Soaps and SuchAngela tends to every detail to make a stay perfect for families, romantic getaways, artist retreats. Solo travelers, writers, and other artists find this to be a perfect place to work . I wrapped these soaps from Kentucky Soaps and Such and used them as decorations/gifts on my Christmas table. Inside each, I placed a question the recipient asked the other family members and answered. We all learned new things about each other.
Thank you Angela and Wilderness Road for incredible hospitality. As always, opinions on this blog are my own.
Deshaies view in Guadeloupe, a region of six islands in the French Caribbean Photo Credit: Rachel Heller
Disclosure: SouthernGirlGoneGlobal has an affiliate relationship with Amazon. If you make a purchase from Amazon from one of the links in this post, I will receive a small commission which does not affect your cost. Amazon is my first go-to for videos and books, whether shipped with Prime or downloaded for Kindle or Audible, but I have included links to Netflix and other sources as well. More on what’s available on Prime Reading–including what’s free–here.
So we’re on global lockdown. Whether you’re in the trenches working even longer hours in healthcare facilities; at home all day with restless children; one of my English students bored that campus is closed, and/or anxious about when or how this will all end… cue “Come and Run Away with Me” by my Nashville singer/songwriter friend, Carole Earls and check out the list below.
These works are by authors and screenwriters who are the best escape artists I know. Books, movies, and television series have the power to transport us now to dream locations and inspire us to go there for real one day. Helping me with this list are pro travel bloggers who were moved…literally…to explore a place abroad they’d experienced on the page or screen. Some of us were supposed to be in Catania, Sicily at the Travel Bloggers Exchange last week. Though grounded, we’re finding ways to make the best of staying home. Here’s hoping these suggestions take you away for awhile from stress and cabin fever. Please add to the list in comments below. Whether mysteries, memoirs, romances, comedies, or classics…what books, films, or tv series sweep you beyond borders to a happy place? (The US travel book, movie, and television list is coming soon…stay tuned.)
The BBC series Death in Paradise is a murder mystery set on a tropical island, filmed in Guadeloupe. Watching it, I was so mesmerized by the setting that I often stopped even following the story, just enjoying the view. That’s why I chose to go to Guadeloupe a few years ago: to visit this stunning place, which, it turns out, really is as beautiful as on the show!–Rachel of Rachel’s Ruminations
I’ve been harboring a secret desire to walk the Camino de Santiago (the Way of Saint James) which starts in the Pyrenees of southern France and then traverses northwestern Spain before reaching the cathedral of Santiago de Compostella in the Spanish province of Galicia. The cathedral is a shrine said to be the burial place of St. James, the patron saint of Spain. I’m worried Mr. Excitement might notice that it’s a mere 476.8 miles longer than the Milford Track —- and we’re 14 years older. To subtly introduce the idea, I cajoled invited him to join me in watching the film, The Way –Suzanne Fluhr of Boomeresque.
Two friends on a trip to Spain fall in love with the same painter (no wonder, it was Javier Bardem). LOVED the entire cast of this film, which includes Penelope Cruz, and the city that inspired Woody Allen to direct it. The year it came out my friend, Kim, and I did a girls’ getaway in Barcelona.
Oh how I love the wit of British Comedians Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan as they banter (on this trip they are Don Quixote and Sancho Panza) taking us on a journey through beautiful landscapes, hotels, and food.
This was the first movie that made me fall in love with Venice and want to live an expat life. I love the main character and her desire for something different–simpler, sweeter. She inspired me to wander, so full of questions about my future, too. Here are the secrets Venice shared. Currently it’s available on Youtube movies in Italian with English subtitles.
Memoir of a London journalist who flees heartache and career woes to write a memoir while living a year in Florence. Her story of finding a better way to live and love is entertaining and endearing.
I am such a fan of chef, journalist, and lyrical memoirist Marlena de Blasi. I just ordered The Umbrian Thursday Night Supper Club. I’ll let you know how it is.
My friend, Sara, is not a fan of this book because after reading it, I spent our trip to Italy almost twenty years ago dragging her about in hopes of finding a love interest of my own. Laura Fraser is one of my favorite writers (see the other work of hers recommended below). She coached me on the first chapter of my Morocco memoir and attending her publishing retreat in the artist colony of San Miguel de Allende is top of my Bucket List though the writing retreat in Tuscany would be amazing, too.
Frances Mayes is another one of my all-time favorites. See another book of hers I recommend below. Finding out she is a southern girl and reading about her childhood was an unexpected surprise. More on that book and other southern favorites coming soon…
1900s period comedy of manners/classic in the vein of Jane Austen depicts a young woman torn between her upbringing in Edwardian England and her heart’s home in Italy.
Johnny Depp plays a math teacher/bumbling tourist who meets a mysterious fashionista (Angelina Jolie), in this romance- action film. The even bigger star here is Venice providing escapism at its finest.
Before anyone used the terms “girl’s getaway” or “journey of self-discovery,” Elizabeth von Arnim wrote a best-selling 1922 novel about frustrated English housewives who travel to Portofino, Italy. The film adaptation, a period film about rejuvenation and reinvention, is timeless.
This adaptation of Frances Mayes’ memoir with Diane Lane has launched many-a-divorced woman on an expat life abroad. My first night after moving to Marrakesh solo, I unpacked my DVD and watched it under a Moroccan moon.
20. Only You— A romantic comedy with Robert Downey, Jr., Marisa Tomei, and Bonnie Hunt that will make you fall in love with Rome, Tuscany, Venice. The shots of Positano on the Amalfi Coast in this movie and Under the Tuscan Sun make the city Top of my Bucket List.
A sociopath (Matt Damon) charms his way into the life of an heir (Jude Law). Though a dark thriller, performances by actors, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Blanchett, are as stunning as the scenes of Italy.
One of my favorite films, the story of a forbidden love in northern Africa unfolds in the ruins of an Italian monastery in Tuscany during World War II. I was thrilled to visit the set on a girls’ getaway to Italy.
Tuscan Monastery where The English Patient Was Filmed
France
My favourite Netflix show and books transport me to the place I can’t stop traveling to: France. They provide some of the best stories about the culture, food, and sights of this beautiful country.– Janice Chung of Francetraveltips
I asked my Canadian friend, Janice Chung, who is. guru of all things France for her list. She has been to her heart’s home 34 times. She said the film that made her want to travel to and through Paris for the first time was Two for the Road.
In this collection of personal essays, the one for which the book is titled is a must-read for anyone who has struggled in a language class. Sedaris’s description of moving to Paris and taking a course in French is hilarious. My university students who have struggled with learning foreign languages as I have enjoy this.
Though his novels are more popular (my Moroccan students enjoyed The Sun Also Rises set in Paris and Spain, and my Dominican Republic students loved For Whom the Bell Tolls about the Spanish Civil War), this memoir, A Moveable Feast, is my favorite Hemingway work. It’s a sensual portrait of 1920s Paris that inspired a successful journalist risking everything to write his first novel to fulfill that dream.
A comparison of cultural differences between American and French women, the book begins with this:
It’s not the shoes, the scarves, or the lipstick that gives French women their allure. It’s this: French women don’t give a damn. They don’t expect men to understand them. They don’t care about being liked or being like everyone else. They generally reject notions of packaged beauty. They accept the passage of time, celebrate the immediacy of pleasure, like to break rules, embrace ambiguity and imperfection; and prefer having a life to making a living. They are, in other works, completely unlike us.
With magical realism Harris paints a French village of colorful characters who become chosen family thanks to pirates and a single mom with a gypsy soul. My interview with the author who is as fascinating as her works is here.
I mention here a binge-worthy trilogy about cross-cultural romance starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy because the 2nd film, Before Sunset, which is set in Paris, is my favorite. The first film, Before Sunrise, was filmed in 1995 when the young couple met in Vienna the night before she must return home to Paris and he to the US. The third film, Before Midnight, was released in 2013 and set in Greece. All are character-driven– smart dialogue against backdrops of some of the most beautiful places on earth. The soundtracks are cool, too.
Writer Owen Wilson time-travels to 1920s Expat Paris where he meets Woody Allen’s take on Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dali, Picasso, and the rest of the Lost Generation.
A Wall Street Wonder (Russell Crowe) inherits his uncle’s vineyard in a French village where he visited as a child. There he meets a beautiful local woman (Marion Cotillard).
A Romantic comedy about American sisters navigating love in Paris, starring Naomi Watts and Kate Hudson.
39. French Kiss–Ok, I can’t find this anywhere. If someone does, please let me know. It’s an all-time favorite. Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline star in this romantic comedy set in Nice, Paris, and the vineyards of France.
Based on naturalist Gerald Durrell’s novels, a financially strapped English widow takes her children to live on a Greek island in the 1930s. Seasons 1-3 are available with Amazon Prime. Season 4 or the entire season is available through PBS Masterpiece.
When a stubborn chef has to take custody of her defiant niece, the Italian sous-chef she hires becomes a buffer. The romantic comedy is in German with English subtitles.
Oscar-winning film set on a Kenyan coffee plantation where Meryl Streep is an aristocrat who moved to Africa with an unfaithful husband. There she falls in love with an adventurer played by Robert Redford. This film is a favorite of my friend, Sally, a nurse and jewelry designer who lived in Africa over 20 years.
A master of describing place, Paul Bowles lived many years in Morocco and writes about them here. These essays also include time spent in Paris, Thailand, and Kenya.
The story of Gertrude Bell, explorer of the deserts that would become The Middle East. Filming was done in Morocco in Marrakesh, Erfoud, and Ouarzazate.
Based on the memoir of 23-year-old Ernesto Guevara, who would become revolutionary Che Guevara, and his 1952 trek across South America with his friend Alberto Granado, the film is a coming-of-age story that shaped his future politics and the world.
On a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, to celebrate her fortieth birthday, Laura meets The Professor (from An Italian Affair) and realizes she’s ready for a home and family. In her gut-honest memoir travel journalist Laura Fraser seeks answers across Argentina, Peru, Naples, Paris, and the South Pacific.
She describes the art, architecture, history, and culinary delights of Spain, Portugal, France, the British Isles, and to the Mediterranean world of Turkey, Greece, the South of Italy, and North Africa as only a now-retired university professor and lifelong student of other cultures can be.
One of my Top 10 of All Time movies–a love story filmed in Africa, Thailand, and Canada of an American expat living in England and a Doctor Beyond Borders.
The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life… The world of literature has everything in it, and it refuses to leave anything out. I have read like a man on fire my whole life because the genius of English teachers touched me with the dazzling beauty of language. Because of them I rode with Don Quixote and danced with Anna Karenina at a ball in St. Petersburg and lassoed a steer in Lonesome Dove and had nightmares about slavery in Beloved and walked the streets of Dublin in Ulysses and made up a hundred stories in The Arabian Nights… —nPat Conroy, author and former teacher
Robert Frost, Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, J. K. Rowling, William Golding…writers who were also teachers. The latter based his classic, Lord of the Flies, on his classroom experience. The Harry Potter creator began her saga as an English teacher in my now-neighboring country, Portugal. (So almost did a legendary songwriter from my home in Nashville, Kris Kristofferson, who after studying literature at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, took an English position at West Point. Though he resigned to move to Music City it’s a fun fact for me to remember that he and Conray have Southern accents, too. I first worried about having the only drawl on staff until some of my new coworkers told me they like it.)
I have to remind myself that despite the demands of teaching, there is no excuse not to keep up with blog posts. As Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat told me in an interview when I asked how she managed to teach and write: “The way anyone finds time to do what they most want to do. The time is there. It’s just a matter of priority.” By the way, she taught at the school of one of two of my brilliant new English department colleagues, who, like the rest of the faculty, work really hard daily and care deeply about our students. One of the many firsts this new school year is being the only female and non-Brit of the department.
I’ve been teaching as long as I’ve been writing. After elementary school each day, I’d run from the bus to play teacher to my sole pupil, Granddaddy Ladd. My grandmother, Mama Lou, had taught in a one-room schoolhouse before she married, at a home for special needs children after my grandfather died, and in an elementary school until she was eighty. She gave me my father’s book, The Arabian Nights, from which I’ll teach a story this year alongside The Alchemist, a book that inspired my move to Marrakesh. Although I’ve been at this teaching-thing more than thirty years, the first day of inservice I felt like a kid again. Like a first grader, I had little idea of what to expect, and not since a ninth grader had I boarded a bus for school. Most of the teachers live in the same complex and ride the bus into work daily. Our stop is just around the corner. Since our school doesn’t have a cafeteria, teachers who don’t pack lunches pop into the hanuts to grab fresh baked bread or snacks for the day on the walk to the bus stop. I either take leftovers or, more often, though I’ve never been much of a bread eater I find myself stuffing a loaf into my backpack and pinching off pieces throughout the day; that, a Fanta, and a 1.5 liter bottle of water are plenty for me in summer heat.
I feel like it’s my first day of school — ever.
My thirty-minute commute has rendered many firsts — passing a neighborhood mosque, posses of pigeons in parks, donkey-drawn carts of chickens, weary workers gathered around tea in an alley before work (we leave for school at 7:15 AM–an American school schedule that lasts till 4:30–atypical of Morocco where families eat dinner/sleep/open shops later). Terra cotta apartments topped with satellite saucers give way to suburban living– villas and turnoffs into spas and luxury hotels along a boulevard lined with bushes trimmed into poodle tails, palm trees, olive groves, and walls laden with cascading bougainvillea. As we turn off the now-country highway, the guards swing open the huge wooden gates. Our bus driver parks, we gather briefcases and bags and walk through the school’s orchard. After two weeks I still marvel at the beautiful building and massive grounds– the arched doorways, long stone hallways, private alcoves, scrolled iron balconies, and olive trees on the playground tempting children to pelt each other with olives.
Our headmaster reminds us we’re one of only five schools in Morocco recognized by the US State Department. We discuss the Mission Statement which begins, “The American School of Marrakesh is a multicultural community of learners.” True. My colleagues from Morocco, France, England, Scotland, Singapore, the Philippines, Russia, India, Canada, and many US states and assorted countries do work and life together, whether interpreting for the French and Arab teachers at faculty meetings; discussing curriculum on the bus or movies or vacations together at our Friday night rooftop gatherings; cheering on a colleague’s son who rides his bike without training wheels for the first time in our complex courtyard; or taking a coworker’s daughter home so Daddy can play Friday afternoon soccer after school with the faculty and staff. Like many 21st-century schools, ASM strives to “foster excellence through critical thinking and creativity; build resilience and character; promote responsible, global citizenship, and encourage lifelong learning.” But unlike most international schools, students are expected to not only master English and their native language but also become fluent in French and classical Arab (different from Darija, the local language).
Lunch areas at ASM
Basketball/soccer court and rose bushes outside my room at ASM
View from my room at ASM
Roses in the desert at ASM outside my room
We meet off the courtyard for in-service where most of the children eat lunch. Our headmaster reminds us we’re one of only five schools in Morocco recognized by the US State Department. We discuss the Mission Statement which begins, “The American School of Marrakesh is a multicultural community of learners.” True. My colleagues from Morocco, France, England, Scotland, Singapore, the Philippines, Russia, India, Canada, and many US states and assorted countries do work and life together, whether interpreting for the French and Arab teachers at faculty meetings; discussing curriculum on the bus or movies or vacations together at our Friday night rooftop gatherings; cheering on a colleague’s son who rides his bike without training wheels for the first time in our complex courtyard; or taking a coworker’s daughter home so Daddy can play Friday afternoon soccer after school with the faculty and staff. Like many 21st-century schools, ASM strives to “foster excellence through critical thinking and creativity; build resilience and character; promote responsible, global citizenship, and encourage lifelong learning.” But unlike most international schools, students are expected to not only master English and their native language but also become fluent in French and classical Arab (different from Darija, the local language). My room, which I now affectionately call “the annex” has its own private entrance. It’s beside the basketball court and has its own rose garden!
Last summer I made posters for “windows to the world” using my travel pictures to entice students to read world literature and embrace global citizenship. They want to know where I’ll take them and when, and I’ve assured them class trips are being discussed. My students are high energy–most movers and shakers (kinesthetic learners and/or highly motivated), social and warm–and they all greet me each period with a “Good Morning/Afternoon/Hello, Miss!” and bid adieu with a, “Thank you and have a nice day, Miss!” I really like them. I have 15 in my 9th Grade Advanced, and a dozen in my 10th Grade Standard, 11th Grade AP, 12th Grade Standard. I also teach an elective, Journalism.
Windows to the world that look in and out at ASM
Old friends from home and the ASM library
I love this.
ASM Library
President Obama’s photo in ASM library
Morning break at ASM
The library is full of classics and other interesting reads. Teachers check out books regularly for pleasure. During inservice we were treated to hot mint tea, pancakes, and pastries, and catered lunches of traditonal Berber tagines served on china. Yesterday we celebrated our first week of teaching with a high tea–mint tea, chilled strawberry and avocado drinks, pastries, and assorted almonds and other local nuts.
Mint tea and pastries for Morning Break
My desk
And though my first couple of days the temperature was 108 degrees and I wondered how we’d ever manage without AC, the weather has dropped to the mid-90s and become bearable. In fact, the mornings have been 70 degrees and I love preparing for my day, windows open to nothing-but-green– soccer field in the front, flowers in the back– as my daily visitors, wee birds, fly in, land on the floor, and say hello. It also helps in a new place to be surrounded by not only new friends…but old ones, like Bronte and the crew, as well.
ASM Soccer field and olive grove
As students and teachers we get two new starts each year–one in January, the other now. Then again, we all can learn something new everyday for the rest of our lives. From the land of oranges, pomegranates, and figs, here’s to a fruitful year.
He went to the church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and for, and patted the children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of homes, and up to the windows, and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed of any walk, that anything, could give him so much happiness.
I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. —A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
A highlight of celebrating this Yuletide Season was Franklin’s “Dickens of a Christmas.” Until last week, my sister, brother-in-law, and I had not done the annual event since first moving to Nashville. Walking Main Street took me back to many-an-afternoon on Hoptown sidewalks spent window-shopping with Mama Lou–a time before Internet Wish Lists and a place when it was ok to spend a day “just looking.” We’d stop in to see Mama Sargeant, Bookkeeper at J. C. Penney, have a banana split at the soda counter, and then head home to launch other adventures by way of Christmas classics.
Both grandmothers loved books, so I met Mr. Dickens early in life. I loved Mama Lou’s Christmas Ideals (the book and her lifelong wonder found in simple things). Brimming like a stuffed stocking, its pictures fed my imagination with conversations between Santa and Mrs. Claus; carolers in velvet, hooded capes; and children and dogs dallying in the snow.
On December 15, as cold as the Decembers of our childhoods, Penny, Jeff, and I met Kim and Andy, Franklin residents and newlyweds, in the Franklin Square. On our Sunday stroll I felt fully alive, proven by our breath misting in the streets. Inside stores twinkled with lights and all-things-pretty–cozy bedding and tulle gowns worthy of wearing by the Sugar Plum Fairy and waiting for Santa himself. Though we bought only kettle corn and sugared pecans, we savored sweet Christmas past and present. I don’t know what Christmas Future holds, but I am confident in the One who holds it. All is calm, all is bright because as Dickens said:
“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.” —A Christmas Carol
Last weekend was full. Saturday at lunch I caught up with Andrew, a former student who graduated almost a decade ago and wants me to read Replay by Ken Grimwood. That night I danced with friends at Jonathan and Pablo’s, the guys who invited Kim and me into the salsa world in March of 2008. Sunday night I ended the weekend with the usual suspects at Las Cazuela’s. But that was after I rekindled an old love…
In 2000 and again in 2004 I fell in lust with Italy–the food, the beauty, the romance and history of Venice, Rome, Pompeii. But when I taught English in the summer of 2005 to adults from Torino and Milan, I fell in love with people who would become life long friends. At Le Due Cascine I was taught the meaning of La Dolce Vita by Italian pals. I’ve sustained it not only in their homes on return visits but also in Italian classes and events in Nashville, often thanks to Patti Franklin Nelson of Italian for Fun. Last Sunday was such an event.
My friend April invited me to Nashville’s first Italian Lights Festival where we listened to live music, checked out the bocce court, and found jewelry that spoke to and from my heart. Apparently designer Shelbi Lavendar shares my determination to “Live, Laugh, Love…and never forget what made you smile.” And then there was a new adventure… Ernesto, former owner of the The Italian Market, insisted I enter the grape-stomping contest. I did. As I stepped into the tub I romantically remembered the wine-making scene from A Walk in the Clouds though I’ll admit fellow Examiner Kathryn Darden was closer to the truth when she wrote: “In a scene straight out of “I Love Lucy,” there was also a grape stomping competition with fresh grapes and bare feet..”
Not to sound all teacherly, but as a girl who has literally put her money where her mouth is with Classic Coup I believe in promoting the classics. Great books should be read again when we are adults and have life experiences to bring to the reading table. Like gourmet chocolate, a Chanel suit, fine food, or vintage wine, top-shelf classics are the crème de la crème of book fashion. They are evergreen…never out of style because they are all about substance. They provide high protein rather than empty carbs for our inner nerd. They move our heads and hearts. Lit is life because classics are about issues we all face…like what to do with family, friends, career, freedom, injustice. They move us to critical thinking and compassionate living. Lit is Life.
Light beach reads are great, but finally reading or revisiting a book like To Kill a Mockingbird, a national treasure, can be fun in the sun…and more rewarding. Whether you attend Davis Kidd’s celebration of the novel’s 50th birthday July 11 and hear writers read their favorite passages from Harper Lee’s masterpiece…or climb solo into Maycomb, Alabama from your hammock or couch, you’ll be glad you did.
So why do I love TKMB? Rather than count the ways, here’s just one reason published on my Classic Coup blog…
I find the excerpt below link from Maria Puentes’ article encouraging considering that I, too, must write, then store, vignettes and interviews for a book I’m working on . And how inspiring that Lee’s gift to the world began as a gift from her friends:
Although it may read as if it just spooled out of the storyteller, Lee actually struggled with the novel for years in the 1950s while working at menial jobs (airline reservation clerk) in New York. Then some Alabama friends in town gave her a Christmas gift of enough money to quit her job and work full time on the book for a year. A skilled editor helped her turn a series of stories and vignettes into a seamless whole.
Whatever classic you choose, enjoy. And if you put off TKMB for another day, at least watch the Gregory Peck movie. Just sayin’.
Across the Universe of time and place…TKMB isn’t just a Southern thing or meant for people “of a certain age.” On right above is my son, Cole. Below is friend and Public Defender, Greg.
It’s Father’s Day and dads love bargains. Whether Pop secretly yearns for the James Bond DVD collection, the Complete History of WWII or The Best of Three Dog Night–on vinyl no less–take him on a shopping spree to McKay Bookstore. They are open Monday-Thursday 9-9, Friday-Saturday 9-10, and on Sundays 11-7. http://mckaybooks.com
My friend, former-student-then-English- teacher Sara, got hooked on McKay when living in Knoxville. We met at the Nashville store recently where I bought three books from my son’s school’s required reading list and four more for me…travel memoirs of course…for the total price of $7. Many of their books are like new, and those slightly used can cost as little as twenty-five cents. They also buy books, even college texts, DVDs, CDs and videos. Whether you beat a path there today or not, Ms. McCain assigns McKay as a way to beat the heat and catch up on your summer reading.
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