In 1965 my husband to be and I stayed two weeks in the Hotel Royal Bretagne at 11bis rue de la Gaîté in Paris. Years after I read in Simone de Beauvoir's memoirs that she'd stayed in this hotel for several months in 1937, commuting from her teaching post in Passy. She describes it as a very decent hotel and it still was in 1965 and also in 2000 when my husband was given a room there purely by chance when he attended a conference. A room then cost much more than the 17 francs we paid and was much improved. On this same visit we looked at the nearby Hotel Orfila in rue d'Assas where the Swedish author August Strindberg experienced the psychosis he described in his book Inferno. Another literary place I've actively sought out was Jane Austen's Chawton in Hampshire, on our way from Mottisfont Abbey. We arrived too late to see the inside but the outside loo was open, to our relief. The greatest disappointment was the long detour we made to Little House in the Big Woods near Pepin, Wisconsin, where we had hoped to show our children Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood home. It was a shiny new replica with hardly a tree in sight. 29 years later it looks more weathered in internet photos.

>Wild Swans by Jung Chang Diane, I was in London when I saw that in a bookstore. Despite having several books for the trip already, I knew I had to get it. Not only an incredible story of the three women, but a very readable and well researched history of the times. Another book you might like is Legacies by Bette Bao Lord (her husband was the US ambassador to China ). She has first hand stories of a great part of the same history, esp during the cultural revolution (I took a class in college about Chinese History with a professor who thought the cultural revolution was the best thing since sliced bread. I didn't know better then, but if I was a student now I would not have been able to be quiet)

LOL, yes I have spoken with my father in the past about writing about some of the funny incidents in our family. My father has only had one other animal, a dog, which was left with him when a business associate who owed him money skipped town. My father kept the dog and, like the pig, it ate very well. If you have ever seen Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm, than you have basically met my father. I was moved out and in med school by the time they got the pig. I remember coming back to visit and seeing the pig for the first time. I was shocked at how big it was. I had heard about it, but I imagined a little piglet, like in Winnie the Pooh. I do think I was allergic to it, emmarene. It lived in the garage while their european luxury cars sat out in the snow all winter. My father would go home from work at lunch in his suit to feed her and bleach out the garage. He would roll up his pants and get to work. He seemed a little obsessed with this. He would leave me messages telling me he was a little woozy from the bleach. My stepmo. has outdoor parties in the summer, with a southern belle theme (this is in alaska, remember). All these nicely dressed people, in flowery dresses and big hats, show up for a brunch or catered garden party. The pig would have a bonnet or lace collar and wander around looking for scraps. The whole situation to me was hilarious - a southern garden party in alaska with a 200 lb free ranging pig, but nobody else thought it was unusual. The women seemed enamored with this huge smelly piece of lard (forgive me jezabelle) and would call out for her to come to them. She would only respond if they had food. I frankly was a little disgusted by the pig, to be honest. The vet came once to trim the hoofs. It was a big deal and the whole family had to gather for the trimming. It was like a rodeo in the yard with my father, vet and brother trying to catch the pig and hold her down. One day I was out cycling through a neighborhood outside Los Angeles. I ran across a massive male pot bellied pig. That pig shouldnt be out here alone, I thought. I rode back up the street, hoping to find its owners. I saw a happy looking couple standing on a driveway. There's a pig down the street, I said. We know, they replied, and then, almost too hurriedly, added, do you want it? I was no fool and rode away. My advice is to stay away from cute little pot bellied pigs. They will not stay cute and they will not stay little for long.

Premise from Wiki: The series begins in 1935, when Louisa Durrell suddenly announces that she and her four children will move from Bournemouth to the Greek island of Corfu. Her husband has died some years earlier and the family is experiencing financial problems. A Homeric battle ensues as the family adapts to life on the island which, despite a lack of electricity, proves that Corfu is cheap and an earthly paradise. A degree of artistic licence is employed: in the TV series, the family move to Corfu together, whereas in real life Lawrence Durrell, the eldest child (23 years of age in 1935), had already moved to the island earlier the same year with his wife.