5 comments about The Most Beautiful Villages of France (Most Beautiful Villages).

1. This is my third copy of this book. I give it as gifts to everyone I love. I live the dream with a home in Turenne (the picture on the cover) My aim is to visit every single one of these exceptional villages.
   
   The book is beautifully illustrated, and the text has the essence of each village exactly. It whets one's appetite to see The Most Beautiful Villages of France.



2. Yes, the villages in this book are beautiful, but having been to France several times, I was a bit disappointed that the photos in this book are all relatively similar. Although some of the photos and descriptions are impressive, this book could have provided more intimate or unique photos of the villages and shops as well as more interesting prose.



3. This is a thoroughly enjoyable and easy reading book. The authors take you through rural France and anyone who has visited there can identify with it. The process of social and cultural acclimmatization is both facinating and entertaining.



4. I have five of these ''Most Beautiful..." books, and have to say there is something of a problem with this particular book. Many of the images here seem to lack any real black tones in them, and consequently lack depth. It is not because they are meant to look misty and atmospheric, it is simply something missing either in the original photography or in the printing. Compared to the images in "The Most Beautiful Towns of England", for example, where the images are pin sharp and full of contrast, they are simply not as well produced.
   
   Still worth the money if you want to see some of the villages here, but there is little within quite as alluring as the cover photo, in my opinion.



5. Dominique Reperant's "village" has fewer than 1,050 inhabitants and he defines "most beautiful" as most preserved. So it's no surprise that his photographic essay that explored even the tiniest corners of France resulted in a collection of impressive shots that showcase France's roots in the medieval middle ages. And while the coffe table sized book will serve as a pleasurable souvenir of a trip into the French countryside, I was considerably underwhelmed with the quality of the photographs. They have a frustrating sameness of style and composition from photograph to photograph that failed to capture the distinctness of each town and enormous variation in the geographical settings of the towns from region to region. And, if there was a rationale to the order in which the towns were presented, it escaped me entirely.
   
   A nice memory to be sure but certainly not a book that I would categorize as so stunning that it would prompt an armchair traveller into booking a trip on the next available flight to France.
   
   Paul Weiss

No comments about Michelin the Green Guide Dordogne Berry Limousin (Michelin Green Guide: Dordogne, Berry, Limousin English Edition).

4 comments about La Belle Saison: Living Off the Land in Rural France.

1. Saussignac
   
   
   
   Row on row of purple globes
   
   fetch a golden autumn morning mist
   
   in Dordogne Valley Gageac
   
   
   
   Looking out on Bergerac
   
   semillon and muscadelle
   
   attach themselves a noble rot
   
   
   
   The ripening sun and Patricia cultivate
   
   
   
   Now she picks, presses, racks and pours
   
   into the aged oak a two year spell
   
   for when the seasons turn
   
   
   
   She writes of family neighbor friends
   
   who lent themselves instead of vinegar
   
   you may taste of honey quince and apricot.
   
   
   
   (In Celebration of Patricia Atkinson's
   
   The Ripening Sun and La Belle Saison)
   
   
   
   Greg Hobbs
   
   9/9/2006



2. La Belle Saison
   Patricia Atkinson
   
   The beautiful season! It surely is. Patricia Atkinson's second book begins with the timeless Ecclesiastes verse: A time ... A time ... A time ...
   
   "It's late August in the Dordogne as I look out over towards the valley of Bergerac from the highest point of my land."
   
   On the verge of another harvest at her vineyard in Gageac, she welcomes us. She pours and talks.
   
   You recall how in The Ripening Sun I moved to a country whose language I did not know to begin a life I was not prepared for? The first red wine harvest turned to vinegar. Our savings drained away. Our marriage foundered. He returned to England. "I threw myself into work with a vengeance."
   
   Now she's an accomplished vintner writing of seasons she shares with family, friends, neighbors, and visitors like us--of hunting wild boar, wild truffles, wild pigeons, wild cepe mushrooms; vines, geese, ducks, and oysters to cultivate.
   
   Preparing a savory meal requires devotion. "They start with Jambourra, a soup of vegetables cooked in the stock that the black pudding was boiled in." Followed by fricassee cooked slowly with onions and carrots all day with meat that "simply" melts in the mouth, then fillets and chops grillade, salad, cheese, and dessert.
   
   She writes in winter, a thousand words at a sitting. Her style is generous and reserved. When you find Patricia, you find her with granddaughters Amy and Beth; neighbors Gilles, Odile, and Juliana; and the lovely Edge who sweats out vendanges, writes zany whimsical hopeful poems, and passes along with Geoffrey, Madame Cholet, Comte de la Verrie, and Fidde.



3. Pros:
   incredibly detailed
   Cons:
   incredibly detailed
   
   The author describes daily routines in painstaking details (emphasis on the pain). On one hand I can learn all the tedious details of tending to a vineyard or going on the hunt or picking mushrooms (sic!). On the other hand, I caught myself skipping entire pages of boring details.
   In some places I could use the expression "watch paint dry".
   
   Overall, I felt sorry for Patricia - her obsession with work, her failure to hook up with Fidde (he dropped dead from the stress and never got to enjoy the fruit of his work). I was also shocked to learn that she was more concerned about the hail which destroyed her harvest than with Fidde's passing. I admire her hard work but understand why she ended up living alone. She is a rural version of career woman.
   
   I also found it annoying that the book contained hundreds of french expressions and sentences which haven't been translated, not even in an annex. I do have a french dictionary at home, but you get the point.
   
   An autobiography is always a tricky subject, especially when the most interesting event of one's life is a neighbour's dog dying of old age or having oysters for dinner with friends. Perhaps Patricia should stick with making her wine at which she says she is really good. I hope her wine is more exciting than her life!



4. I loved Patricia's first book, The Ripening Sun. It was fresh, interesting, engaging. So I could not wait to get this one. What a disappointment! Page after page of adjectives and adverbs describing hunting trips, truffling (briefly) and so on. I have spent some time in that area of France, and I was unaware of how many things are"succulent."
   
   Patricia has a compelling story, but it is absent from this book. Her first book was a real winner because it had a lot going on -- from novice to expert, from married to adrift, from stranger to neighbor. This one is static, and just plain boring. I hope Patricia will keep writing, but next time we need some sort of narrative to hang all the descriptions on.

5 comments about Paris Out of Hand: A Wayward Guide.

1. This book is a georgous book, from its looks (plush cover, ribbon bookmark, illustrations) to its content. It describes a slew of fictional places (and a few non-fictional) creating a surrealistic, dreamlike landscape. As nice as it is, this isn't a sit down and read sort of book, more of a coffee table type, wonderful to flip through and see what you find.



2. This imaginary guide to Paris is full of surreal imagination that will just make you smile. Helpfully divided up into sections on hotels, restaurants, the nightlife, sights, etc., you'll read about places and services you've never dreamed of! What a shame, they don't really exist! Peppered thoughout the text are helpful French expressions translated into English such as "Do you have a ladder so I can reach your airmail clerk suspended from the ceiling?" You can read some guest comments for the hotels which of course, are also bizarre, and learn about special services such as a kidnapping service or a food tasting service (so you don't get poisoned). The book has some quotes from real people too and the lavish artwork gives it an other worldly feel. It will transport you immediately to a wonderful alternative reality Paris.



3. Lovely useless french phrases that just beg you to use them.
   "there is a frog in my bidet". How great is that.
   
   Superb imagination. On both the behalf of the writer and the illustrator.



4. This book did not come close to the Griffin and Sabine series despite its recommendation for people who like Bantok's work. While parts are funny, other parts are too hard to follow or just too outrageous to get what the author is trying to convey.



5. As an off-beat book that sems to be about Paris this was amusing but of limited value. The book is too cheeky and cute to serve as a useful guidebook. I felt lost on some entries - as if it was necessary to already be an insider to get the references made on some places.
   
   If I already knew Paris well, I might have appreciated this book. Don't know. But it did not seem to be very useful as a travelogue that I'd carry with me next time I trek over to the City of Light.
   
   A bit too wayward, and not enough of a guide. Beautifully typeset, I might add, which means a lot to me, But not sufficient for me to keep it and pop it in the laptop's carrying case.

1 comments about Cycle Touring in France (Cicerone Guide).

1. Cycling in France is a fabulous, if sometimes exasperating, experience. The country has an abundance of different landscapes, most of them startingly beautiful. This book provides a handy resource for those cycle tourists ready to sample France's delights. While the maps are very basic, the route descriptions are valuable, providing both a sense of the terrain, and the historical and natural wonders of different communities. Besides, you can easily supplement the book with local maps. One note for cyclists: The book is small but heavy, thanks to rich, quality paper, and you might want to think about either tearing out the appropriate sheets for your area (yikes!) or photocopying those pages. If you're chugging up some alp or pedaling through the Central Massif, you'll want to be as free of unnecessary weight as possible. But the rewards of cycling in France - formidable!

No comments about Living in Provence (Living In . . .).

1 comments about Corsica 4 (Regional Guide).

1. I was traveling in Corsica summer 2001. I had bought this guide and the Insight guide about Corsica. Together they was a very good match.

   LP's book have a good diving and walking section. The walking section covers the famous GR20 route in particular. The diving section contains a lot about the diving possibilities and where the best dives are.

   There are a lot of small villages in Corsica. Many of them is not mentioned in LP. So don't forget to explore.

No comments about Wallpaper City Guide: Marseille (Wallpaper City Guides) (Wallpaper City Guides (Phaidon Press)).

5 comments about The Olive Farm: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Olive Oil in the South of France.

1. Initially, this book caught my eye because the story takes place in the French town where I was born and raised.
   While I found interesting and informative to re-discover my hometown through the eyes of the writer, I was totally captured by the many sides to this book: the story about a foreigner adapting to a different culture (which I can relate to, having made my home in the USA...), a international love story between a French man and an English woman (I am French and my husband American), the author learning to become a stepmother, the huge task of nursing back to life a beautiful property which had been abandoned by its previous owners....
   There are lots of stories within the main story... All so well written, I lost track of time a lot while reading this book...
   I also, through her descriptions, recognized some of the characters!! (small town... VERY small town!!)
   It was a true feast and I am ordering the sequel as soon as I am finished writing this review!!
   Get this book, it will literally absorb you into its own world... Getting a glimpse of the South of France without leaving your armchair should be enticing enough... I could smell the lavender in the breeze, hear the ciccadas, and almost taste the local foods I so miss here in the US...
   I recommend it to you all without any reservation!



2. Ms Drinkwater writes a uncomplicated and enjoyable tale of her adventures in old houses,the French, olive oil and love. She brings the same pleasantness to the written word that she did to the small screen in All Creatures Great and Small.



3. The Olive Farm is a well-executed memoir in the fashion of Under the Tuscan Sun and A Year in Provence. In it, actress Carol Drinkwater and her fiance, Michel, a film producer, impetuously purchase a rundown olive farm in the south of France and begin the process of restoring it to comfort and fecundity.
   
   This memoir will not disappoint-- Carol and her fiance face the difficulties of limited finances, needed repairs well in excess of initial estimates, and frustrations with the local workforce. All of these, of course, are transcended by the satisfactions of nursing the olive trees into production and the triumphs of beginning to restore the farmhouse to its previous grandeur.
   
   This ground has been trodden before, but Carol Drinkwater tells her tale engagingly, drawing likable portraits of her family, friends and neighbors in Cannes. Sit back, relax and enjoy the journey to Drinkwater's Cannes.



4. This is a wonderful book. If you have ever dreamed of running off and creating a brand new life filled with love, laughter and more than a few bumps along the way then this is a book that you'll love. In fact, I recommend all her books-they are that good.



5. The other night I was listening to an audio commentary which featured Robert Hardy and Carol Drinkwater. During the commentary Carol mentioned she had authored a series of books about she and her husbands experience rennovating/operating an olive farm in the south of France. Intriged by what Carol had said I checked the first book "The Olive Farm" out from the public library and began to read. First of all I must say the book is a delightful read. Carol has the ability to communicate on paper in the form of easy conversation, as two friends would have over a cup of tea. You will laugh and cry along with Carol as you read her story of restoring "Appassionata" to its former glory. I would love to see the BBC make a television series out of her books, they are a total delight!

No comments about Michelin Green Guide Wine Regions of France.