Splitting her time between the Loire Valley and Paris this daughter of New Jersey has learned to enjoy la belle vie en France. The author of The Wine and Food Guide to the Loire and a regular contributor the New York Times has been enjoying the fruit of the vine and the earth to give us a heads-up on being savvy wine shoppers.

TG: When did you first go to Paris?

JF: I first went to Paris when I was a college student but I had been wanting to come since I was about five ­ for no apparent reason.

TG: When and why did you go back?

JF: I couldn’t stay away-It was always my destination of choice.

TG: Where do you live in Paris?

JF:  In the north of the ninth, right off the rue des Martyrs.

TG: Why?

JF: I was looking for a neighborhood with bon rapport qualité/prix; I wanted good food shopping, good local transport, good neighborhood ambiance with squares and cafes. This neighborhood has all of that in spades. Now it¹s becoming trendy.

TG: What was the attraction to the Loire?

JF:  The wines. I was completely bowled over by the wines I tasted when visiting some small producers of Chinon and Vouvray in ¹88. They were totally unknown in the United States in the 80s the ones we saw were hardly ambassadors, though importers like Kermit Lynch were exceptions.

TG: What’s your favorite Parisian café?

JF: Le Reve in the 18th, for the sense of Paris history and the relaxed, happy feel of a good hangout.

TG: How did a self-described middle-class girl from South Orange, New Jersey where soft drinks and fruit juice were the wines of choice, become so expert on wine that she could write The Wines of France: The Essential Guide for Savvy Shoppers ?

JF:  I hated the suburbs. Some of my best friends were

German refugees. When I’d have dinner at their house we’d have wine and it always seemed so civilized. Wine was an integral part of the texture of life. As I tasted more wine I became completely smitten. A clerk in a local wine shop started a small tasting group; and through various contacts I got invited to tastings. I worked for a wine school and attended all the classes at least once and ended up teaching one of them. Like any wine geek, I started visiting wine regions. Then I started writing about wine and me voila.

TG: What have been the most significant changes in the wine industry since you began to write about it?

It would take a book to answer this question.

TG: One might describe your book as the anti-Parker- no emphasis on

vintages, no numerical ratings. Discuss the evolution of your approach to wine.

JF: I don’t see myself as the anti-Parker. I like and respect Bob Parker.

Numerical ratings don't correspond to the way I think or feel about wine. I also love words. I think it¹s a great privilege to be able to sit with a glass of good wine and try to find words to communicate its fleeting aromas and flavors.

TG: When kicking back at home what is your house wine?

JF: It really depends on my mood. Most of the time it’s a good grower Champagne or a terroir-driven red from Burgundy, the northern Rhone or the Languedoc-Roussillon. If the mood is rowdy, it’ll be a red like Henry Marionnet’s Cepages Oublies or Vinifera.

TG: When a big celebration is called for what might you retrieve from your cave?

JF: One of them will probably be a Coteaux du Layon from ‘89 or ‘90.

TG: What’s your favorite starred restaurant?

JF:  Chez Michel. It doesn’t have a star but it should.

TG: What’s your favorite bistro du coin?

JF: Sole, on the Avenue Trudaine. It’s Italian but it’s really part of the neighborhood. And it has good coffee.

TG: What’s your favorite market?

JF:  It’s the main market in Lyon. In Paris, it’s hard to do much better than the rue des Martyrs.

TG: What’s your favorite park or garden?

JF: In Paris la Place Dauphine and my backyard in the country.

TG: What’s your favorite time of the year?

JF:  Spring and fall. Can’t choose between them.

TG: How or do you stay connected to America?

JF:  TV, the Sunday New York Times e-mail, internet and visits from friends.

TG: How do you celebrate Thanksgiving?

JF:  I cook Thanksgiving dinner every year ­either in the country or in Paris.

TG: How has Paris affected your work?

JF:  It made it possible for me to write this book. I go to a lot of wine tastings and 90% of them are French. I went to the same amount of tastings in NYC but the wines were from everywhere ­France, Italy, Spain, Napa, Sonoma, Washington State, Greece, etc. Andmany of the tastings I go to here are put on by small groups of producers who have the same philosophy. So I get to taste a lot of cutting edge wines.

Also, you get a different view of the wine world. In NY, all the

Journalists were American. Here, I’d say about half the people I see all the time are French; the rest of us come from all over the world, with Japan and China very well represented.

TG: How has Paris affected your life?

JF: I would say that living in France has affected my life more than living in Paris. The first seven years I was here I was living in a farming village. That experience was radically different from living in New York. So when I moved up to Paris it was like going backto the city. There are huge differences between American and French culture. One of the reasons I live here is that there’s such a different relationship to eating and drinking. It’s much more natural and much more part of a life well lived ­ by everyone, not just we happy few. Of course this has changed and continues to change, alas, not for the better (though the wines are better than they ever have been).