Updated: Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain

(Updated to include a favorite passage which I omitted and to give credit to the translator.)

Full disclosure, I’m in an enticing reading relationship with this French author.

I recently finished another of his — The Reader’s Room, and I enjoyed it so much I immediately checked this one out from the library.

It’s 2017 and Hubert Larnaudie invites some of his neighbors
in his apartment in Paris to share a bottle of 1954 Beaujolais. To his great astonishment, he and three others—porcelain restorer Magalie, bartender Julien, and American visitor Bob—awake the next morning in 1954 Paris.

The four encounter all the fascinations of old Paris—bistros on every corner, fruit and vegetable carts, lampposts, unfiltered cigarettes, and lots of celebrities—and it’s a delightful adventure for them all as they explore the city and their favorite places back in time.

Hubert seeks out his grandfather and learns that his story was rather different to the one told by the family, and he learns something that could be very useful in 2017.

Julien goes to the the famous Harry’s bar where he works in present day 2017 and meets the founder – Harry MacElhone. He then proceeds to impress him and his customers by creating a wonderful new cocktail.

Magalie goes to the haberdashery where she clandestinely buys some thread from the grandmother who had brought her up and who she misses terribly.

Bob explores Paris as he had always intended to do on his holiday, and he is the only one able to exchange money using his American dollars to buy the Francs used in 1954.

They all go and enjoy a visit to the original Les Halles, where handcarts with provisions were the order of the day. Les Halles would be razed to the ground just 14 years later.

It was lovely to move through the city with them, and to spot many notable figures who were in Paris in 1954. I won’t name them all — Salvador Dali Edith Piaf to name a couple — but I must share one other encounter:

Still thinking out how his new cocktail would turn out, Julien paid little attention to the couple who had come in and sat down at the bar. They were discussing the dress the woman would have to wear for the preview of a film in New York. Her elegant companion smiles, ‘Just two more fittings, Audrey, I promise.’

‘I’m counting on you, Hubert. This film is important to me and it’s also important to do justice to your creations,’ replied the young girl in delightfully accented French.

Julien turned to look, and froze. The young girl with the short hair and dark eyes smiled at him and asked, ‘What is that pretty purple drink?’

It turns out that the time-traveling bottle of wine was from a vineyard where, in 1954 a UFO sighting was reported, and the wine had been bottled that summer.

Julien went on. “When the flying saucer flew over, it changed the Saint-Antoine wine and since then whoever drinks it will go back to 1954. It’s been proven by an eminent scientist.”

After meeting this scientist who researched a connection between UFO sightings and time travel, they decided to go back to the vineyard to be there at the exact time of the sighting. While waiting they fish for their dinner in the river that flows through the quiet vineyard (using the thread Magalie had purchased from her grandmother) there is this passage:

The bucolic scene seemed far removed from the city and the world and they all felt as though they had found the essence of life: humans were not meant to sit in an office chair answering emails, or checking their bank accounts on a screen, or reading about world events on their phones. Humans had lived for millennia in nature experiencing its beauty, taming it to take from it the resources needed for survival, as other species did. Building shelter, hunting, fishing, and sewing, they had taken their place in the spherical ecosystem spinning in nothingness that we call Earth. At some point, it had all become rather complicated.

I know, Vintage 1954 requires a large suspension of disbelief, and yes, it’s far-fetched, but M. Laurain creates such fun characters and is such a gifted storyteller, that I hope you’ll forget what you believe and go along for the ride.

(And truly readers, aren’t we already having to suspend belief every day with the news out of Washington?)

I won’t give away the ending, which falls just a bit short. While Vintage 1954 is not perfect, it’s a delightful confection, and just so much darn fun!

My affair with M. Laurain continues with my next read of his, The Red Notebook.

Big shout out and my admiration for the translator, Jane Aitken, her work is seamless — one never feels as if they are reading a translated novel.

Vintage 1954 reminded me of one of my favorite films – Midnight In Paris. Suggested viewing with a glass of normal wine.