When Marie and her husband Steve moved from New Zealand in search of their dream life in France it was all much, much harder than they anticipated. In fact, although they started out managing a 15th-Century guesthouse, they ended up homeless. This autobiographical account could have been quite grim, but the author is blessed with endless enthusiasm and a good sense of humour.
This book was such a success that Annemarie Rawson ended up writing a sequel, My French Platter Replenished, which was also well-received. In the end the couple moved on to London and from there to other countries in Europe. Reading about their experiences in France, however, it is hard to feel surprised that they didn’t stay.
As a true Francophile, Annemarie concentrates on French gastronomy, describing food she bought in the markets, food she prepared, food she watched people eat and, of course, the food she ate herself. A nice touch is that she has included a selection of her favourite recipes at the end of the book.
It is truly refreshing to read an unvarnished account of how moving to France can go seriously wrong, and how the dream can turn into a nightmare. It is not a cautionary tale, however, and the book doesn’t contain any kind of anti-France rant, just one couple’s very unfortunate experience with an exploitative employer.
It is also heartwarming that friends helped them out, and generous portions of French food helped them surmount their problems.
When Ellie goes to the South of France to restore an abandoned World War Two memorial garden owned by an eccentric couple, it seems like a lucky break. But gradually she begins to feel swamped by dark secrets from the past...
The time slips back to wartime, and involves two contrasting women and their activities during the war; Iris, a junior intelligence officer in London, and a blind girl working in the lavender fields in Provence, are both drawn into the French Resistance in separate ways. The three stories don’t overlap until the end, making the novel a real page-turner.
Deborah Lawrenson is a journalist as well as a novelist, and is the author of novels including Hot Gossip, The Art of Falling, and The Lantern, which was shortlisted for Romantic Novel of the Year in 2012, by the Romantic Novelists’ Association. Her novels have been translated into twelve languages.
The Sea Garden is an easy read which will keep you guessing all the way through. It is also a fascinating insight into the many women who risked their lives working as special agents in France, having been secretly dropped into enemy territory.
The full title of this appealing cookbook is Barefoot in Paris: Easy French Food You Can Make at Home: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. And the photographer is called Mr Bacon, which is a brilliant name for a food photographer, so we’re off to a good start.
The introduction is a love letter to France, and the explanations about French food and wine really do start at the beginning. The recipe for cheese straws using bought puff pastry, is so simple that even a child could make it. There is advice about wine (“drink what tastes good to you”) and lots of luscious photos of beautiful table settings and mouth-watering dishes.
There are also recipes for loads of classic favourites, including boeuf Bourguignon, croque-monsieur and crème brûlée. Each recipe is as simple as possible, often with a twist like using courgettes in vichyssoise and orange in chocolate mousse. There is nothing over-complicated or tricky here; no special ingredients or equipment would be required to ace all these recipes. This book would make the perfect present for anyone wanting to learn to cook French food without fuss.
The book is also an introduction to Paris, the street markets, boulangeries, patisseries, and fromageries where the author buys her ingredients. With books like this flying off the shelves, it is no wonder that so many North Americans want to move to France, and to Paris in particular.
