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Ransacking Paris: A Year with Montaigne and Friends
An exquisite memoir of a year spent daydreaming in Paris by award-winner Patti Miller.
It must mean something, a dream that can propel you to the other side of the world. Couldn’t it be the heart wanting something it needs, this longing for elsewhere? After all, we are all strangers wandering around this planet, apparently lost most of the time, looking for something or someone – or some place.
What does it mean to fulfil a dream long after it seems possible? When Patti Miller arrives to write in Paris for a year, the world glows ‘as if the light that comes after the sun has gone down has spilled gold on everything’.
But wasn’t that just romantic illusion? Miller grew up on Wiradjuri land in country Australia where her heart and soul belonged. Mother of grown-up boys with lives of their own, what did she think she would find in Paris that she couldn’t find at home?
She turns to French writers, Montaigne, Rousseau, de Beauvoir and other memoirists, each one intent on knowing the self through gazing into the ‘looking glass’ of the great world. They accompany her as she wanders the streets of Paris – they even have coffee together – and they talk about love, suffering, desire, motherhood, truth-telling, memory, the writing journey, how to know who we are in the family and in the cultures that shape us.
This story, of a year spent writing and reading in Paris, explores truth and illusion, self-knowledge and identity – and evokes the beauty, the contradictions and the daily life of contemporary Paris.
It must mean something, a dream that can propel you to the other side of the world. Couldn’t it be the heart wanting something it needs, this longing for elsewhere? After all, we are all strangers wandering around this planet, apparently lost most of the time, looking for something or someone – or some place.
What does it mean to fulfil a dream long after it seems possible? When Patti Miller arrives to write in Paris for a year, the world glows ‘as if the light that comes after the sun has gone down has spilled gold on everything’.
But wasn’t that just romantic illusion? Miller grew up on Wiradjuri land in country Australia where her heart and soul belonged. Mother of grown-up boys with lives of their own, what did she think she would find in Paris that she couldn’t find at home?
She turns to French writers, Montaigne, Rousseau, de Beauvoir and other memoirists, each one intent on knowing the self through gazing into the ‘looking glass’ of the great world. They accompany her as she wanders the streets of Paris – they even have coffee together – and they talk about love, suffering, desire, motherhood, truth-telling, memory, the writing journey, how to know who we are in the family and in the cultures that shape us.
This story, of a year spent writing and reading in Paris, explores truth and illusion, self-knowledge and identity – and evokes the beauty, the contradictions and the daily life of contemporary Paris.
288 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2015
3 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 31, 2015
Having been in Paris with Patti Miller and knowing her fondness for bees, I wasn't prepared for any surprises in this book. I was mistaken. Patti transported me not only across Paris but also to places where she had lived in Australia. The way she wove her memories across years and continents was endearing - she is sentimental without being maudlin. I was very moved by the intimate details of her relationships and felt I knew her more deeply and fondly than before. The only aspect of the book which annoyed me was invoking Montaigne and other writers to enter her present world. I don't believe this artifice works and am sure the book would not suffer from its omission. Nonetheless, this is a delightful read from a skilled memoirist.
December 22, 2025
I rarely read memoirs but made an exception for this book because it is about Paris! I wanted to find out about Patti Miller’s year in Paris and she has written about this beautifully and with honesty. What I wasn’t expecting was how much she brings in stories of her life growing up in a country town in Central Western New South Wales. Although she is only a few years older than me, what a completely different childhood she had.
When the memoir begins, I got the impression that the year in Paris was only a recent event in her life but by the end of Ransacking Paris and her year in that fascinating city, it appears that ten years has passed. I’m sorry but I really need facts. I need to know the year that she was there. I think we need to know such things. We can be hazy in fiction but not in memoir. If we know the year we can compare it to our year. Her life as compared to mine. Isn’t that what we do when we read the story of another person’s life?
I also found it a little disconcerting that I couldn’t work out what happened to the book about the death of her friend that she is working on during that stay. From what I can tell it was never published or if it was, it has altered considerably from the manuscript in Ransacking Paris.
That said, what I did love was how we, as the reader, really feel that we are in Paris. Here’s the opening paragraph:
“The studio in the rue des Trois Freres on the slopes of Montmartre looked out onto a shadowy courtyard, just a couple of strides across. On the other side of the courtyard was a small theatre, Theatre du Tremplin, which my dictionary revealed meant ‘springboard’ or ‘stepping stone’ theatre.
There are some marvellous passages in this book:
“To gain a dream long after it seemed possible made the world glow as if the light that comes after the sun has set had spilled gold on everything.”
Here’s another:
“...After all, we are all strangers wandering around this planet, apparently lost most of the time, looking for something or someone – or some place. And then, when we arrive there, we await revelation, or we impatiently turn things over, demanding answers.”
The chapters are broken up by the months of the year. We see the seasons change, friends and family visit. Patti joins a choir and conversation classes to improve her French. I did enjoy her “imagined conversations” with her favourite authors who she quotes and writes about regularly: Montaigne, Rousseau, Madame de Sevigne, Stendhal, Simone de Beauvoir and Annie Erneaux.
I particularly enjoyed Patti and her family’s visit to La Liviniere “along a winding road through the vineyards, its milk-coffee stone buildings and orange slate roofs looking like a perfected French village.” Also, a stay at a friend’s farmhouse in the French countryside. “I do remember my first sight of Lacapelle-Biron as we drove down the hill towards it, a medieval village tucked into the landscape as if it had been there forever. It feels as if my mind took a picture of the village, as if I knew I’d find a connection to this place.” An enjoyable read. Four and a half stars.
When the memoir begins, I got the impression that the year in Paris was only a recent event in her life but by the end of Ransacking Paris and her year in that fascinating city, it appears that ten years has passed. I’m sorry but I really need facts. I need to know the year that she was there. I think we need to know such things. We can be hazy in fiction but not in memoir. If we know the year we can compare it to our year. Her life as compared to mine. Isn’t that what we do when we read the story of another person’s life?
I also found it a little disconcerting that I couldn’t work out what happened to the book about the death of her friend that she is working on during that stay. From what I can tell it was never published or if it was, it has altered considerably from the manuscript in Ransacking Paris.
That said, what I did love was how we, as the reader, really feel that we are in Paris. Here’s the opening paragraph:
“The studio in the rue des Trois Freres on the slopes of Montmartre looked out onto a shadowy courtyard, just a couple of strides across. On the other side of the courtyard was a small theatre, Theatre du Tremplin, which my dictionary revealed meant ‘springboard’ or ‘stepping stone’ theatre.
There are some marvellous passages in this book:
“To gain a dream long after it seemed possible made the world glow as if the light that comes after the sun has set had spilled gold on everything.”
Here’s another:
“...After all, we are all strangers wandering around this planet, apparently lost most of the time, looking for something or someone – or some place. And then, when we arrive there, we await revelation, or we impatiently turn things over, demanding answers.”
The chapters are broken up by the months of the year. We see the seasons change, friends and family visit. Patti joins a choir and conversation classes to improve her French. I did enjoy her “imagined conversations” with her favourite authors who she quotes and writes about regularly: Montaigne, Rousseau, Madame de Sevigne, Stendhal, Simone de Beauvoir and Annie Erneaux.
I particularly enjoyed Patti and her family’s visit to La Liviniere “along a winding road through the vineyards, its milk-coffee stone buildings and orange slate roofs looking like a perfected French village.” Also, a stay at a friend’s farmhouse in the French countryside. “I do remember my first sight of Lacapelle-Biron as we drove down the hill towards it, a medieval village tucked into the landscape as if it had been there forever. It feels as if my mind took a picture of the village, as if I knew I’d find a connection to this place.” An enjoyable read. Four and a half stars.
April 14, 2015
I admit, I'm a Patti Miller fan, so I was expecting to like this book. On the other hand, I'm not a fan of Paris, so I was also expecting to have my teeth slightly set on edge while she was describing the wonders of that city. Didn't happen. Instead of a simple 'my year in Paris' story, Ransacking Paris is a meditation on identity and belonging, on the influence of the lived landscape versus the influence of the mental landscape, on the need for unflinching honesty - a self-regard which is not ego-driven but possess of a steely gaze and a strong flensing knife.
Ransacking Paris is populated with French alive and dead - neighbours and fellow choristers, but also Montaigne, Madame de Sevigny, Simone de Beauvoir and Rousseau. This is a book about thought and how it shapes us, and about how the persistence, the glory and the uncertainty of the flesh and the physical world also shapes us.
Miller, like the master she is, plays with time and memory as one might expect in a memoir, but adds to that an adept juggling with ideas, history and philosophy. I'm not sure memoir is the right word for this book; it is certainly a memoir but, like Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, or Thoreau's Walden Pond, it is more than that. Both of those books are about place and what it means to be human within a place, a context. And so is Ransacking Paris.
Ransacking Paris is populated with French alive and dead - neighbours and fellow choristers, but also Montaigne, Madame de Sevigny, Simone de Beauvoir and Rousseau. This is a book about thought and how it shapes us, and about how the persistence, the glory and the uncertainty of the flesh and the physical world also shapes us.
Miller, like the master she is, plays with time and memory as one might expect in a memoir, but adds to that an adept juggling with ideas, history and philosophy. I'm not sure memoir is the right word for this book; it is certainly a memoir but, like Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, or Thoreau's Walden Pond, it is more than that. Both of those books are about place and what it means to be human within a place, a context. And so is Ransacking Paris.
February 18, 2016
This memoir describes Miller's twelve months living in Paris in 2005. Having made several extended visits there myself, I was able to visualise the places described and tap into the emotions Miller experienced while residing in this city of lights. The structure of chapters or segments - one for each month of the year- takes the reader on Miller's journey of self-discovery and gives added impact to her search for truth, self-knowledge and identity. Having read The Mind of a Thief this account taps into Miller's appreciation of French writers who have aroused her curiosity about reality, memory and related considerations and she cleverly generates or recreates fictitious encounters over coffee with them to tease out her understanding of factors that shape identity and belonging. Interesting title and an engaging read especially if you have Francophile tendencies and a certain amount of your own life experience upon which to reflect and contemplate.
April 19, 2019
Love the parallel with my own experience, how the author describes her life in my hometown as I try and adjust my life in her home country... I really enjoyed rediscovering familiar places and authors through her eyes and thoughts.
December 26, 2022
Author Miller grew up in Australia. She and her husband have two grown sons who are in University or ready for traveling themselves and Patti and Anthony have set off to live in Paris for a year. She will write a memoir about the loss of a dear friend while her husband travels for work. While sightseeing and taking some adult education classes, she imagines she is enjoying the company of some long dead French writers such as Montaigne, Rousseau, Mmes. De Sevigne, de Beauvoir, and others and writes about her association with them, sharing coffee and learning life lessons. This story, of a year spent writing and reading in Paris, explores truth and illusion, self-knowledge and identity—and evokes the beauty, the contradictions and the daily life of contemporary Paris. Some readers find Miller’s fantasy-filled memoir lacking in interest, and though well-written and showing insightful points of view hardly worth making a book out of it, but I found it enjoyable reading especially around the holiday season as I’ve grown tired of some of the current events of these post-pandemic times that fill the news channels, and so it’s off to Dickens’s Cricket on the Hearth as an alternate to A Christmas Carol to round out this year in my own classical way.
December 24, 2022
It seems everyone who has ever visited Paris wants to write a book about their experiences. Patti Miller did write such a book. But why? Although the author is a very polished writer, her book is meandering and dull. Ms Miller wanders around a bit, joins a choir, and talks to some locals to improve her french language skills. Good for her, but none of this is very interesting and certainly doesn’t require being written and published. Her quotes from some great historical french writers are inspiring and her interpretations are insightful, but there is little that is truly Parisian here and there is most definitely no ‘ransacking’ going on. Merely going to Paris does not make a book.
December 3, 2020
This was a great read about a year spent in Paris with biographical and philosophical asides about French authors. Most enjoyable if you have spent time in Paris yourself, or inspirational if you are planning a visit.
September 17, 2022
Really enjoyed reading this memoir of a year in Paris and her reflections on life and sense of place. Her writing has a nice easy rhythm to it, and I found her observations very relatable. Makes me want to visit France again
April 2, 2025
A woman spends a year living, with her husband, in Paris. She quotes from Montaigne, de Beauvoir, Stendhal, Rousseau and Annie Ernaux. She joins a choir and makes friends with people she meets for French conversation. A bit repetitive
June 3, 2019
I didn't know much about this author picked the book up at the Salvos, I must admit it was a little surprise.
May 2, 2015
I started writing a memoir while I did Patti's life writing course at the Australian Writer's centre in Sydney. I could not wait to read her new book, as I love Paris and have been there several times. I was not disappointed! I could not put the book down and read it over a weekend. The way she interlaced her memories with the lives of the French memoirists was very interesting. I even took out a map of Paris to follow her footsteps. The book also brought back some lovely memories of my own travels to the French capital.
May 10, 2016
The first advance review of Ransacking Paris:
‘This delightful recollection of the rewarding year that writer Patti Miller spent in Paris completing a challenging manuscript is that rare object—a book for anyone who believes we don’t need any more expat memoirs. A clever writer, Miller. The combination of literary history and domestic detail sets the book above its rivals. Any Francophile should love it.’ Books+Publishing
‘This delightful recollection of the rewarding year that writer Patti Miller spent in Paris completing a challenging manuscript is that rare object—a book for anyone who believes we don’t need any more expat memoirs. A clever writer, Miller. The combination of literary history and domestic detail sets the book above its rivals. Any Francophile should love it.’ Books+Publishing
December 16, 2015
I really liked the structure of the book - month by month over the year she spent in Paris. The details about the environment she wandered were great. The part I loved the most was her pondering over the writing of other French memoir writers especially Montaigne. This is a book I will re-read.
July 14, 2015
I've been to Paris once and now I am determined to visit again and stay for months. Patti has inspired me with her book. Thank you.
August 17, 2015
Beautiful prose but I had no interest in author's memories of Paris.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews