{"id":66722,"date":"2026-07-07T09:12:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T01:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=66722"},"modified":"2026-07-07T09:12:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T01:12:00","slug":"rich-and-fascinating-a-new-literary-festival-in-france-has-a-hong-kong-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=66722","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Rich and fascinating\u2019: a new literary festival in France has a Hong Kong connection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The first time Michelle Garnaut visited Nanteuil-en-Vallee in southwestern France was in 1990.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The previous year, she had opened M at the Fringe in Hong Kong, a restaurant that set such a high standard for fine dining that it had already attracted a devoted clientele. Some of these patrons invited her to Nanteuil, a village of historic charm \u2013 an 8th century abbey, a medieval church \u2013 listed as one of France\u2019s \u201csmall towns of character\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">On that initial trip, Garnaut, who is Australian, remembers passing through a nearby hamlet called Chez Garnaud. You might say that her name was \u2013 almost \u2013 written on the landscape from the start.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">In 1999, <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">M on the Bund<\/span> opened in Shanghai; in 2009, Capital M opened in Beijing. Garnaut launched literary festivals in both cities, as well as additional artistic events and charitable projects.<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1qeofuq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Michelle Garnaut will launch the M Festival of Books, Music and Ideas in Nanteuil, France, on July 25, 2026. Photo: Xiaomei Chen\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/07\/02\/bf76dc96-1670-4ec2-b17f-6eab47ee6a96_798e21ed.jpg\" title=\"Michelle Garnaut will launch the M Festival of Books, Music and Ideas in Nanteuil, France, on July 25, 2026. Photo: Xiaomei Chen\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">Michelle Garnaut will launch the M Festival of Books, Music and Ideas in Nanteuil, France, on July 25, 2026. Photo: Xiaomei Chen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">She has a beautiful flat in Mid-Levels, Hong Kong, which she considers home, and where, as adviser to the <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Hong Kong International Literary Festival<\/span>, she hosts an annual cocktail party. Still, she continued to visit Nanteuil and, in the autumn of 2019, she finally bought a small village house for around the cost of a New Territories parking space.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/travel-leisure\/article\/3359098\/rich-and-fascinating-new-literary-festival-france-has-hong-kong-connection?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first time Michelle Garnaut visited Nanteuil-en-Vallee in southwestern France was in 1990. The previous year, she had opened M at the Fringe in Hong&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2619,2638,1901,7159,3569,5231,11540,4434],"class_list":["post-66722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-connection","tag-fascinating","tag-festival","tag-france","tag-hong","tag-kong","tag-literary","tag-rich","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/66723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}