When my husband and I moved from Washington to Arizona in 2014, we had to do a lot of downsizing. As I rummaged through old boxes, sorting “keep” piles and “give away” piles, I stumbled across my copy of Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) from my stay in France, in 1980. My heart lurched as I picked up the well-used book, turned to the first page and discovered an inscription — long forgotten — from “Michel,” one of my love interests in my sequel, French Illusions, From Tours to Paris.
To the right is the poetic translation: “We only truly see with our heart, what really matters cannot be seen with your eyes. My dear Linda, I am still the path that your heart is pointing at.”
It was my professor at the Institut d’Études Françaises who recommended I purchase this beloved French book, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, to improve my writing skills. An ambitious project, it took three months to translate the story.
I’ve included a sample (left) from inside the book, so you can see the notes I made along the bottom of pages. Whenever I discovered a word I didn’t understand, I looked it up in my English-French dictionary and penciled the English translation on the page.
Have you read The Little Prince? It’s a delightful story, well worth sharing with your children or grandchildren.
If you would like to read more about my experiences in France, you can purchase my eBook or paperback at Amazon by clicking on this link, French Illusions, My Story as an American Au Pair in the Loire Valley The audiobook version is also available at Audible.com.
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