By Fredrik Siwmark Carlsson

It was the summer when the French romance took over our lives. We dressed in striped sweaters, mixed Kir Royale in chrome thermoses, and convinced ourselves that Cape Cod was the French Riviera. We read Bonjour Tristesse and listened to Édith Piaf while ash flakes drifted down from the ends of our cigarettes.

“Will you pass me the croissant, mademoiselle?”

“Of course! I mean, oui, oui!”

We named passing women Bovary and Esmeralda. All the handsome men we called Jean Valjean, and the hunched ones, Quasimodo.

We were never as happy as that summer on New England’s Côte d’Azur. But the romance wasn’t eternal—it was left behind in the sand along with the baguette crumbs as soon as school started again.

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Fredrik Siwmark Carlsson lives in Lund, Sweden. He is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in literary studies and the Swedish language. He won the short story contest Värmland skriver in 2022, and one of his short stories was recently published by Flash Phantoms. Fredrik is the founder of http://www.hundraord.se, a website for 100-word flash fiction in Swedish.