A French writer living in Bucharest shares her take on Romania in recently-released book

French writer Christine Colonna-Cesari has made Romania her home. A long-held interest in the country's culture and history brought her here many times before she decided to move to Bucharest. Now, she shares her insights in her new book, Ils sont fous ces Roumains! L'Eldorado roumain, exploring various stories of local creativity, bits of history and known or lesser-known places, among many others.

Christine Colonna-Cesari says she has a long story with the country where she decided to relocate in 2018. "There is a very long love story between me and Romania. When I was in France, just at the moment of the [1989] Revolution I felt strong connections with this culture. […] I had a lot of Romanian friends in France. And also, myself, I studied deeply all the aspects of this country - literature, history, culture, folklore, music, and so on. It was a spiritual meeting, as if I had lived in this country in a past life and been again connected with it," she explains.