2 comments about Garden of Paris Sketchbook.

1. This book is by far one of the very best art sketch books, like the other sketch books from Editions Didier Millet, it is printed on watercolor paper, the colors are bright and vivid. The drawings have just the right detail, and the text exciting to read. I learned about Paris, about drawing, and adding colors to my own works of art after seeing this book. This book is a must for a traveler, or just the person who wants insight to travel destinations. The pictures are so skillfully drawn and painted by Fabrice Moireau, they will fill your imagination with dreams of being in each scene. This book is a real treasure and keepsake. I think it would make a wonderful and impressive gift as well.



2. A lovely collection of art on the gardens around Paris, printed on high quality paper. The book displays your favourite gardens but does introduce you to a series off gardens that would otherwise go unnoticed by the casual tourist. Highly recommended for the quality of the art work and the informal conversational tone of the writing

4 comments about Hidden Gardens of Spain.

1. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   There are so many beautiful places in the world, sites to see, pilgrimages to make. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could visit all of them? In reality, one is probably fortunate to travel to just one of the scenic spots on his or her wish list. After leafing through "Hidden Gardens of Spain," that country rose to the top of my hope-to-travel-to areas.
   
   Writer/photographer Eduardo Mencos has trained both his eye and camera lens on some of the most breathtakingly lovely scenes in Spain. His vision is unerring. Stunning photos in this folio size volume are accompanied by perceptive descriptions that are intelligent, informative, and dynamic. Mr. Mencos may well have come by his appreciation of gardens naturally as his grandmother, the Marchioness of Casa Valdez, was a pioneer of contemporary gardening in Spain.
   
   With 250 color photographs the author escorts us from Galician to Granada, Barcelona to the Balearics, Catalonia and the Canaries, Madrid and Mallorca. Many of the gardens are drenched in that country's history, reflecting the influences of the Romans, Moors, and Europeans. Other gardens were created and are tended by their current owners, still others came to life through the talents of respected garden designers, such as Luis Gonzales-Camino and Arabella Lennox-Boyd. Mr. Mencos was allowed unprecedented access to private gardens, and his views of the Alhambra are spectacular.
   
   In his Introduction Mr. Mencos writes, "Exploring the hidden gardens of Spain has been an enthralling journey for me. Each of the owners would welcome me into their own little Eden and we would share an enchanted moment there."
   
   We are in debt to Mr. Mencos for sharing these enchanted moments with us.
   
   - Gail Cooke



2. Spain. What are your first thoughts, food, flamenco, bullfighting, sun, sand, and Hemingway? Be honest, images of beautiful homes surrounded by cool, luxurious, patios, pools and gardens didn't immediately pop into your head. Gazing at a copy of Hidden Gardens of Spain will utterly change your conception of Spain, the Spanish lifestyle and the people who create these intimate spaces.
   
   Thirty-one gardens are profiled reflecting the diverse regions of Spain. Many are classical gardens, located in exotic hispano-moorish settings such as villas, castles, monasteries, and palaces. Several modern homes and gardens are included and they re-interpret classical features.
   
   Exceptional lush photographs explore the beauty and style of Spanish gardens. Each garden profile is accompanied by a passionate personal reflection of the owner. One owner says, " The garden is a dream and with skill and patience you can bring it to fruition no matter where you are." Many of the gardeners discuss the natural challenges they faced creating their personal spaces. Others discuss the history of their properties and gardens. Several Grande dames discuss loss of spouses and their eventual personal healing through involvement in their gardens.
   
   You may not have a volcano as a backdrop or a 1000-year-old olive tree but Hidden Gardens of Spain is full of wonderful executable ideas that would compliment a wide variety of American homes. Spanish gardens have similar features, which are practical and easily interpreted. A short list of essentials includes: patio, pool or other water feature, an emphasis on cool green foliage, strong vertical elements, and formal geometric plantings. Secret spaces, gardens within gardens that manipulate the view so only part of the garden are revealed at one time. Spanish gardens generally have a minimum of flowering plants; there are always a few varieties, for example a huge bed of agapanthus as a center point of color. Box hedges, stately cedars, and cypress are also very common.
   
   Pictured on the cover is Palacio de las Dueñas, located in Seville and owned by the Duchess of Alba. Building began in the fourteenth century and the garden is still a work in progress. Seville is incredibly hot in summer and the tinkling of the water and the refreshing coolness of the green space can be appreciated even in the photo. This portion of the garden illustrates several of the common elements, strong verticals, in this case the palm trees, low geometric box hedges outlining greenery, and a central fountain. This garden has more flowers than most. The enclosed courtyard extends the living space and blurs the boundaries between inside and outside. The courtyard also makes a secret or hidden space, revealing only this section and the remainder of the garden remains hidden from view.
   
   A modern garden, La Mirada, the author's own, uses classic Spanish elements but his choices of materials are unique. For example, he used a mixture of live and dead trees from the surrounding area to create strong verticals. In a reflective moment he admits to ripping up all the trees in order to control the landscape. A mistake for sure, because he didn't realize how hard it was to grow a tree in pure chalk soil! Geometrical elements throughout the garden are made from tinted cement and salvaged automobile glass represents "a pool". A large reflecting pool near the house serves as a true water feature and it is accented with a few water lilies. Green ivy covers the façade of the modern organic shaped house, providing a green cooling respite.
   
   Gardeners, landscape designers and those who are crazy about all things Spanish will appreciate this intimate look at rarely photographed gardens. Many of the gardens are open to the public so those planning a trip to Spain can put some of these beautiful locations on their itinerary.



3. I had expected more court-yard gardens (being in Spain) and more historical gardens. What we are presented are more modern gardens (mostly) at villas and mansions in the country. And they didn't always live upp to my expectations. If you compare to France, gardens in Spain doesn't seem to have that high standard in design. I thought there would have been enough for a book this size to rival the French but no. Although some photos are stunning, this will not be a favourit in my humble collection.



4. A delightful coffee-table book which attacks the senses, giving a glimpse into the gardens of large Spanish estates which we mere mortals will never see.
   
   The photography is fabulous and picks out the essence (and often quirkiness) of gardens in each region. The accompanying text provides good insight into the motivations and character of the gardens' owners.
   
   It is not a book for instruction on garden design or practice - rather it is a good read for a gardener on a winters day. A high quality publication, worth its price.

2 comments about The Gardens and Parks at Hampton Court Palace.

1. 
   Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, Gardens Adviser to Hampton Court Palace and Vice Chairman of the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust, and photographer Vivian Russell have combined their considerable talents to offer readers, most especially garden enthusiasts, a stunning journal of the gardens and parks at Hampton Court Palace.
   
   Not only is Hampton Court an historic landscape covering 2,000 acres, bounded on its south and east sides by the River Thames, it is also a site of great antiquity indicating that there were settlements in the site dating back to the Bronze Age. However the estate began to form very much as it is seen today in 1086. It was in 1514 that Hampton Court was leased by Cardinal Wolsey, until he became persona non grata at court and was forced to leave by Henry VIII.
   
   As soon as the estate was under his care Henry began a 20 year building, the like of which had not been seen. Since that time various royals have left their marks upon the estate as it has been used as a guest house. Queen Victoria declared that the palace "should be thrown open to all her subjects without restriction, and without fee or gratuity of any kind.." While this order was not deemed wise by many, the palace did become a popular vacation resort.
   
   The gardens were neglected during World War I, but by 1919 improvements were being overseen by a committee of horticultural and landscape garden experts. Since the early 1990s major restoration work has taken place within the palace which has been coordinated with landscape improvements. Today, the estate stands as a "great emblem and monument of English history," and attracts over a million visitors every year.
   
   Thanks to Longstaffe-Gowan and Russell for making it also available to armchair travelers.
   
   - Gail Cooke



2. A well organised and attractively produced book giving a scholarly account of the history of these magnificent and much loved Gardens. Hampton Court Palace is the finest of English Renaissance gardens and of great importance to any student of horticulture and garden or landscape history.
   The avenues and the venerable ancient trees of the parks along with the even older pruned and pleached trees of the formal gardens are among the treasures of the gardens. Along with the newly restored privy garden, the statuary and the architecture these are well illustrated with photos and drawings ancient and modern

4 comments about Loire Valley Sketchbook.

1. we were in the Loire valley May-2005, we took a lot of pictures, but the drawing in this book are even more close to the images left in mind.



2. thank you very much!!!!!not only the book arrived in a reasonably short time, but it was in perfect conditions, really as new!I'll buy again from this seller.



3. I purchased this book because I had seen other books with paintings by Fabrice Maireau, and really liked them. I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this even more than I thought I would, before I purchased. I hadn't realized the area has been classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and the sketchbook helps provide an insite to the area.



4. Another great book in the sketchbook series wandering through the Loire. High quality paper and printing, great art work and relaxed prose make for a fabulous book - highly recommended

2 comments about The French Cafe.

1. You can plan a trip accross France with this book as your only guide. Walking from "bistro" to café from Nice to Paris, Loire-valley to Nantes and Mont-Saint-Michel. Most of the places mentioned here are typically french. No stranger ever thought of pushing the doors. Eric Morin, photographer, knows well this subject. He lives in the Bastille district of Paris. He knows well the most hidden and most fashionable places. Because he spent some happy week-ends in Château du Verger in Anjou (close to Nantes), he collected great pictures from La Cigale and Trentemoult fishing harbour of Nantes. Did you ever dream of becoming a café tender in rural France? would you like to become the "manager" of a warm café where french workers will start the day drinking a Muscadet at 7 am? Marie-France Boyer, as usual, gives practical advices together with inspiring pictures. She will tell you how and where to buy cafés in France, what are "listed historic monuments" in France (some cafés are). A lot of cafés names and addresses are given at the end of this joyful and useful guide to real France. If you really love cafés, you should also buy "The cafés of Paris" asin:1566562783 and "Literary cafés of Paris".



2. Readers whose idea of a French café is (like mine was) little more than the cliché of black coffee and Le Monde at little round sidewalk tables will be very pleasantly surprised by variety revealed in this neat little book by Marie-France Boyer and photographer Eric Morin. From Paris haunts much like the stereotype, to rustic village cafes far outside the metropolis, to the retreats of artists or tradesmen, author and photographer demonstrate that the café is more than a place, but rather an intimate expression of the French lifestyle.

   The beautiful photos are by far the most engrossing part of this book. But the writing is valuable too, describing the golden age of French cafes, the rise of important establishments like Momus, Les Deux Garçons in Aix-en-Provence, or the Marly, and the influence of the cafes on French art and culture. And though the book's almost a decade old now, the Guide at the end should still be useful in tracking down many of the cafes featured in photo and text.

   In all, whether you're an experienced boulevardier, a traveler with fond memories, or just someone looking to experience French culture vicariously, "The French Café" should inspire many happy thoughts.

No comments about Michelin Map Burgundy, France (Michelin Maps).

5 comments about Extremely Pale Rose: A Very French Adventure.

1. i tell you, this book was the surprise hit of the summer for me. i picked it up as i like travel and drink and liked the premise of the challenge in the story. i thought it'd be a gentle read that i'd dip in and out of, but i found i couldn't put it down. you get really involved in the characters as they search through france on their quest. before you know it you've found out a great deal about wine, france, how comic/kind/annoying/helpful the french can be. i didn't expect it to be as amusing as it is - from beginning to end, it kept me chukling to myself. it was beautifully written and i think anyone who's ever dreamt of searching for a better and more uplifting alternative to their daily drudge should give it a go. uplifting! more please, mr ivey!



2. EXTREMELY PALE ROSE: A VERY FRENCH ADVENTURE will appeal to any who love France and French food and travel. It recounts the author's journey as he and his family travel the south of France in quest of rose wines. Rose is commonly viewed as a poor man's wine, but the paler it gets the more the Brits relish it and the more the French scoff. A translation problem sends Jamie on a quest for the palest rose in France, and their visits to wineries, rose-producing regions and local byways provide a lively, fun story of a hilarious quest.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



3. Extremely Pale Rosé is a wonderful book for anyone who loves Provence or for anyone who wants to learn more about this special part of France. I'm one of the former and reading this book made me wish I was back there right now. Jamie's writing style is easy to read and the story holds your interest. There's lots of good, accurate information and you really feel you get to know Jamie, Tanya and Peter as you go along for the ride on their quest. Once you open this book and start reading, it's easy to forget the world around you. So, pour yourself a nice chilled glass of Provencal rosé and lose yourself in this fabulous book.



4. This is a very entertaining and quick read. I learned loads about French rose wines while reading it.



5. 
   While in Provence one summer, a French lady mistook a conversation about Jamie Ivey's niece Rosie for a conversation about rosé. In a quirky way, this conversation leads James Ivey, his wife Tanya and their friend Peter to a journey to find the palest rosé in France. This is a marvelous road book with three distinctive characters visiting the main rosé-producng areas in France: Champagne, the Loire, the Jura, Bordeaux, Dordogne, the Rhône, Provence, Languedoc and Corsica.
   
   Ivey is a lapsed attorney and his first book is written in an offbeat way. The three wander through tiny bars, local bistros, wine fairs, many chateux and vineyards, and wine shops. There's an important sideline: Peter's attempts to find particularly smelly cheeses. This is charming British style travel writing from someone who clearly loves France, wine, food and people.
   
   Ivey claims that according to French lore, rosé should be the pink of a baby's skin. These two extracts will demonstrate the extremes you will encounter in these pages:
   
   "Why is pale rosé so popular", asked Tanya?
   "Because people like you don't know a good wine from a bad one."
   
   Tim: "Historically, rosé was a dreadful wine. It used to be made from re-wine leftovers. It would be put in a forgotten vat in the corner of the cave and sold for next to nothing to anyone foolish enough to buy it.
   
   "But that's not true any more. There's not a great winemaker in France who hasn't learnt his trade by producing a good rosé. It's the hardest wine to make, much more complex than red or white. France is making some fantastic rosé now, and it's real wine that can accompany food. Anyone who is still snobbish about it is wrong."
   
   ____
   
   The authors have now created an excellent blog describing their further adventures in the wine world; Google extremelypalerose . The subtitle of the blog tells the tale: "From London lawyer to Provencal wine merchant,author and now travelling salesman - the continuing story of pale pink wine and life in the south of France."
   
   The introduction to the blog carries on the appeal of the book:
   
   "Just to update those who have read Extremely Pale Rose: A Very French Adventure, Tanya and I are now running our own wine business in the south of France. We live near the village of Lourmarin and our shop front is the local markets. When we started trading in October last year one of the locals observed that we would be "living on love and cold water." They were right. We survived a long cold winter and sold practically no wine. But we made friends with the other market traders and secured our pitches in three local villages for the summer and now at last the tourists and the sun have arrived."
   
   Robert C. Ross 2007 2008

No comments about Languedoc Roussillon, 2nd (Cadogan Guides).

4 comments about Travels With Van Gogh and the Impressionists: Discovering the Connections (Lin Arison).

1. This is a treasure. Aside from being a joy to look at, it is a pleasure to read. I am definitely putting this on my Christmas list. It is a new slant on the Impressionists with personal touches, new information about them and they become living and breathing people. The photgraphs are superb as well as being inventive. The book, paper, format, offer a beautiful presentation.



2. In 2000, shaken by her husband's death, Lin Arison traveled through France with her granddaughter and discovered a new world of art with her skeptical teen relative. Thus began a personal journey and collaboration with photographer Neil Folberg to bring Impressionist works to new life, reflecting both her journey to discover the paintings and lives of the Impressionists and an effort to translate this inspiration to new young American artists. A memoir, travelogue, and art history thus blends under one cover to provide art libraries and general-interest holdings alike with a special, more modern approach to Impressionism than is usually provided.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



3. Photographer Neil Folberg has gotten into the minds of the Impressionists to ask: If they had today's color photographic processes, how would they have expressed themselves? Photography can be as much about light, color and mood as an oil painting. Folberg's images, and Lin Arison's words, present the world of Impressionists as no book ever has. There are scores of sumptuously illustrated books with reproductions of the Impressionists' work; this is most assuredly NOT another entrant in that category. Rather it's in a space by itself: a fresh take on the artists you thought you knew.
   
   It's also worth taking a look at both Folberg's and Arison's other works as well.



4. Very interesting book, it gives the reader information about the world of the impressionists in a new way. The photographs are a wonderful complement to the text. It is a pleasure reading it.

2 comments about Autonauts of the Cosmoroute.

1. Julio Cortázar (August 26, 1914 - February 12, 1984) was a Belgian-born Argentine intellectual and author of experimental novels and short stories. He was married three times, to Aurora Bernárdez, Ugné Karvelis and Carol Dunlop. On May 23, 1982, he and Dunlop left Paris on the Autoroute de Sud to Marseilles. I've driven the route in nine hours or so, but Cortázar and took a month, until June 23.
   
   The couple lived entirely on the highway. They ate, slept, wrote, and lived in the various rest stations in their camper van, at a pace of about two rest stations per day.
   
   Other travelers thought they were crazy, if they noticed at all. The couple wrote short notes about the experience -- it's sometimes hard to decide who is writing -- and Dunlop took a number of pictures that appear here. Their goal:
   
   "Somehow, to prove we could carry out this trip was to prove to ourselves that we had weapons against the gloom, not just in its large manifestations ... but also in its more insidious expressions, the banality of daily commitments that mean nothing themselves but altogether distance us from the center where we hope to live our lives. ... Not to live life in its truest way is a crime, not just against oneself, but against others as well."
   
   Somehow this book captured my imagination, I wasn't sure why, until I realized this is a record of an intense love affair, with both people making the most of their time together on this odd journey. They seem to have created a personal universe, parallel with thousands of other travelers, and yet very separate and meaningful.
   
   Mark Sarvas on NPR recommended this book -- one of those scribbled notes I wrote on the steering wheel of my Ford 250 truck while picking up some building supplies: "It's unlike any other book you'll read this year -- charming, whimsical, but also poignant. ... [You] will never look at the freeway in quite the same way again."
   
   A love story, with a sad ending: both people died within two years of their arrival in Marseilles.
   
   Robert C. Ross 2007 2008



2. There are explorations that take us to new worlds, and the explorers come back ready to tell us of all the strange people and artifacts they saw. There is also the exploration of a familiar world in a new way, and that this can be just as enlightening, and entertaining, is the message of _Autonauts of the Cosmoroute_ (Archipelago Books) by husband and wife Julio Cortázar and Carol Dunlop. Cortázar was a fiction writer and Dunlop a writer, translator, and photographer, and they had planned for years to get away from the demons of Paris. The demons included various ills of modern life, like the telephone and even cutlery: "When we asked of the knives only that they cut a peach or the cheese, they arranged to bite us and, while we did acrobatics to avoid their teeth, their friends the forks came from below to jab us." It was not the South Seas that drew them away, or the Amazon, but a stretch of freeway they had traveled many times before, but no one had traveled it the way they were going to. The 465-mile Autoroute du Sud gets drivers from Paris to Marseilles in just a few hours, but they would make an expedition of it, staying on the autoroute while they stopped at every rest area along it, at the rate of two rest stops a day, a trip that would take just over a month, starting in May 1982. They wrote this book about it shortly thereafter, and it has just now been translated into English by Anne McLean. I can't say anything about the fidelity of the translation, but the words are full of whimsy and magic, and they fit the theme perfectly.
   
   Cortázar and Dunlop may have had a light and whimsical view of the outing, but they took it very seriously, which simply increases the sense of fun they report here. Provisions were planned with care, as were the re-supply caravans from friends who met them along the route. Mock-seriousness pervades the expedition, among whose rules are that the explorers will "carry out scientific and topographical studies of each rest area, taking note of all pertinent observations". Most nights are spent in their red Volkswagen minibus with a roof that expands upward, a minibus christened Fafner, and referred to as "he" throughout the book, and also regarded throughout as a protective dragon. In the rest areas they write, mostly, and plenty of the pictures here (yes, photographic documentation of the expedition) show Cortázar at his typewriter. The scientific observations have to do with slugs and insects, agreeable creatures that the explorers welcome, except for the ants. Weather was generally good, but finding shade in which to put Fafner was often a trial. Some of the rest stops were full of trees and beauty, but one is designated "sinister" and another "Hideous rest stop, especially after the last one." They are amazed by all the tourists who turn the more active stops into international cities. They listen to the news about the Falklands war, and they make themselves comfortable in their hideous lawn chairs, the "Floral Horrors". They find evidence of witches; it turns out that the construction cones are their hats. They make love while highway lights flash through Fafner's windows "like doing it in a kaleidoscope."
   
   It is fully silly and fully charming, and the book stands as a tribute to a wonderful relationship between the two intrepid explorers. It represented, as Cortázar summarizes toward the end of the book, an "advance in happiness and love from which we emerged so fulfilled that nothing, afterwards, even admirable travels and hours of perfect harmony, could surpass that month outside of time, that interior month where we knew for the first and last time what absolute happiness was." And so it is sad to come to the postscript, which Cortázar had to finish alone, for Dunlop died at age 36 only a few months after the expedition; he was to follow her only a couple of years later (their illnesses are only lightly hinted at in the book). This was to be his last book. The reader finishes it with gratitude; these were two imaginative and funny people, and it is generous of them to have had us along for the ride.