Books On Living in France
 

My wife and I love traveling to France, and I personally have read about forty books written by people who have purchased homes there, and told their stories. Curious if there are others here who have also went this route, and would like to share titles.

Will get my trip report up by Monday....

I guess this book qualifies..."Almost French: Love and a New Life In Paris" by Sarah Turnbull. It tells the story of the author's challenges and adventures in settling into her new life with a new man in Paris. It's quite entertaining, and she talks more about living there than the romance part of it.

French Dirt
At Home in France
On Rue Tatin

Edmund White's <i>Our Paris</i>. (Not about purchasing homes, but about living there).

One I recently finished and was recommended on this board is From Here You Can't See Paris by Michael Sanders. It's not about buying and restoring a house; I'm a bit sick of those. It's a slice of rural French life about a village and a restaurant. I highly recommend it.

The French Life-Vicki Archer.
The olive Farm-Carol Drinkwater.
I assume you have read Peter Mayle's
A Year in provence that brought this type of story alive again but it was Lady Fortescue who started it in the 30s
with her book, Perfume in Provence.

Sorry, the title is Perfume FROM Provence. I gave my copy away long ago but I believe, it took place in Opio.

These are a what I have read....

Books of France



A White House in Gascony, by Rex Grizell
A Walk Across France, by Miles Morland
A House in the Sunflowers, by Ruth Silvestre
A Village in the Vaucluse, by Laurence Wylie
A Pig in Provence, by Georgeanne Brennan
A Piano in the Pyrenees, by Tony Hawks
A Bright Sun & Long Shadows, by Val Littman
A Place in Normandy, by Nicholas Kilmer
A Farmhouse in Provence, by Mary Roblee Henry
A Harvest of Sunflowers, by Ruth Silvestre
A Summer in Gascony, by Martin Calder
A Perfect Circle, by Susie Kelly
A Walk in the Vineyards, by Thomas Mathews
A Month of Sundays, by Ira & Barbara Spectror
A Chateau of One’s Own, by Sam Juneau
At Home in France, by Ann Barry
Bananas in Bordeaux, by Louise Franklin Castanet
Best Foot Forward, by Susie Kelly
Bon Courage, by Richard Wiles
Bon Chance, by Richard Wiles
Butterflies on Mimosa, by Eleanor Francis
C’est La Folie, by Michael Wright
Cast Off, by Jan Murra
Deep France, by Celia Brayfield
Deep France, by William Glover
Dordogne Adventures, by Eric Line
Floating Through France, by Barbara Euser
From Here You Can’t See Paris, by Michael Sanders
Home & Dry in Normandy, by George East
I’ll Never Be French, by Mark Greenside
Lilac & Roses, by Peggy Anderson
Maison Therapy, by Alastair Simpson
Mourjou, by Peter Graham
Ou’ est le Ping? By Grace McKee
Reflections of Sunflowers, by Ruth Silvestre
The Olive Farm, by Carol Drinkwater
The Ripening Sun, by Patricia Atkinson
The French Way, by Ross Steele
The Duck With a Dirty Laugh, by Ann Loader
The Bells of St. Paradis, by Ann Loader

Okay....I am crazy!

Are you only looking for books about people who buy houses and moved to France or just books set in France.

Honestly, pretty much anything that has to do with living there, and dealing with life as it is there.

Mine are all packed away because it looks like "the move" to France is actually happening. However, you might like Kristin Espinasse's "A Day in a French Life" and I second the recommendation for "On Rue Tatin." Stephen Clarke's "A Year in the Merde" is amusing.

We have all the "how to books (retiring, building a home, living and working, etc." by David Hampshire and others. They are somewhat repetitive, primarily geared to UK movers and they go out of date very, very fast. We picked up as much info from expat web sites and official government sites.

Am saving your list--wow.

I always thought the classic in this area to be "French or Foe", by the late Polly Platt:

http://www.pollyplatt.com/

Taking to heart her rules for interacting with the French changed our experience of France.

Larry

The only ones that I know of that you've missed are Draine and Hinden's A CASTLE IN MY BACKYARD and Greene's FRENCH SPIRITS. Both great. And what about Peter Mayle's many wonderful books?

The only ones that I know of that you've missed are Draine and Hinden's A CASTLE IN MY BACKYARD and Greene's FRENCH SPIRITS. Both great. And what about Peter Mayle's many wonderful books?

I have read them all, and just haven't update my list.

I also have about ten more titles to add to this list. Indulge me with all this. My wife and I love traveling to the country, and wish we could spend months, if not years there. This is our way of doing that without the money we will never have....

Peter Gethers' <i>A Cat Abroad</i> (the sequel to <i>The Cat Who Went to Paris</i>).

Buying a piece of Paris- A memior Elle Nielsen
The Magic of provence- Yvonne Lenard
Instructions for Visitors- Helen Stevenson

One very moving one is Windows on Provence by Bo Niles
I'm like you Barnum that's why I subscribe to Cotè Sud
and Maison Mediterraneè

French Dirt by Richard Goodman
The Magic of Provence by Yvone Lenard

Cigale, I'd forgotten about Window on Provence; it was quite touching.

COMING DOWN THE SEINE Gibbings
THREE RIVERS IN FRANCE Freda White
THE FLANEUR Edmund White
PARIS TO THE MOON Gopnik
C'EST LA VIE Gershman

I don't think anyone has mentioned these two:
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank--Thad Carhart
My Life in France--Julia Child
Me Talk Pretty One Day (Part Deux)--david Sedaris

and how about A Moveable Feast?

John Merriman's <i>The Stones of Balazuc; A French Village in Time</i>

Jane Webster's <i>At My French Table; Food, Family and joie de vivre in a corner of Normandy</i>

Mort Rosenblum's <i>Secret Life of the Seine</i> and
<i>A Goose in Toulouse; And Other Culinary Adventures in France</i>

Michael Sanders' <i>Families of the Vine; Seasons Among the Winemakers of Southwest France</i>

Elaine Lewis's <i>Left Bank Waltz; The Australian Bookshop in Paris</i>

I just read Harriet Welty Rochefort's "French Toast." It was kind of fun.

I'm printing out this thread and heading over to half.com.

Great suggestions.

I enjoyed Caro's "Road to the Past" which I had never heard of before Fodorites recommended. It's more history than buy and renovate a house, but interesting.

All of you have just made my day---and my summer as a matter of fact. I've only read a few of these and I am constantly searching out books that take place in France, our favorite place to travel.

Merci,Merci!

Polly Platt's books - though i do not agree with many of her observations about Paris and French culture you may get a laugh or two.

My goodness, barnum, you have done a lot of reading! I`d like to order a couple from your list. Any 2 or 3 that you would recommend as being the most interesting? I can`t order your whole list! Thanks.

He didn't live there, he just spent three weeks cycling the route of the Tour de France, but Tim Moore's French revolutions is one of the funniest books I've read for ages. Most of the humour is at his own expense rather than snide anti-French comments.
Jeremy
www.jeremytaylor.eu

I heartily recommend Jean-Benoît Nadeau's "Les Français Aussi ont un Accent", subtitled, "Mésadventures Anthropologiques d'un Québécois en Vielle-France". He and his wife Julie Barlow spent two years in France looking at the French, as he says, "with the same approach of anthropologists towards the Yanomani in the interior Amazon" It's very witty and perceptive.

If you don't read French, they also wrote an account in English of their experience, "60 Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong". It's not a translation, but is also quite good. (In fact, it was later translated for the French market as "Pas si fous, ces Français!")

It's hard to add to any of this, given the extensive nature of the lists. There is one sequel to On Rue Tatin- Tarte Tatin; one to The Pioensing Sun- La Belle Saison; one to One step Forwards:- Two Steps Backward and two to the Olive Farm:- the Olive Season and the Olive Harvest. I would strongly recommend 60 Million Frenchmen- it taught we more about France than anything else has.

I have, however, also read "The Luberon Garden" by Alex Dingwall Main; "The Man Who Married a Mountain"- which is not like the others at all, but is a wonderful book about the Pyrenees which I would recommend to anyone.

A number of people have mentioned Michael Sanders' excellent "From Here, You Can't See Paris". I found it a refreshing change from the "Year in Provence" genre of books in that it was about the people living around him, not about himself.

His subsequent book, "Families of the Vine: Seasons Among the Winemakers of Southwest France" is about a number of winemakers in the area of Cahors.

I have thoroughly enjoyed and learned much from both books.

This is an awesome list... I've read a few but there are so many more to discover! I'm going to check to see what my local library has.

The Secret Life of the Seine (Mort Rosenblum). About living on a barge on the Seine, but also history and geography too.

since this drifted from People who have home there, I
can add a few.
Provence A-Z...peter Mayle.
Out to Lunch in Provence...Mike Aalders,
A corner of the Marais...Alex Karnel,
Pagnol's Provence...Julian Moore,
Time was soft there...Jeremy Mercer
(a Canadian who goes to work and live at Shakespeare&Co.),
A Goose In Toulouse...Mort Rosenblum,
We'll Always have paris...Harvy Lenenstein
(about American tourists since 1930),
Three Rivers Of France...Freda white,
provence...Ford Maddox Ford,
Memories of Childhood...Marcel Pagnol,
most books by MFK Fisher,
YoYo in provence..douglas Duncan( the true story of his dog
kidnapped by gypsies. He also wrote Picasso&Lump, Lump was Picasso's dog. Duncan is a famous journalist/photographer and was a friend pof Picasso, whom he's written about),
Kiki's Paris...Klover&Martin,(famous model and mistress of Man Ray and others),
Pariss 1900...borse&Godoli (anout the architecture),
fiction:perfume...Patrick susskind.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog,
Across Paris...Marcel Aimee
and reference:
Undiscovered France,
Undiscovered Paris, Secrets of Provence

typo:That smily should be a P as in Perfume

Aha, cigale,

You tried to write:

&nbsp; fiction: Perfume

But, probably due to a typo, you left off the space after the colon, so you wrote:

&nbsp; fiction:Perfume

But Fodor's saw the :P part, and automatically expanded it into the smiley :P

<i>et voilà</i>.

(See the Fodor's page on smileys at:

http://www.fodors.com/community/smileys/

That one is in the second row from the bottom.)

- Larry

Six more that I didn't have on my list...

Hot Sun...Cool Shadow by Angela Murrills
Life in a Postcard....by Rosemary Bailey
Mourjou....by Peter Graham
A Summer in Gascony by Martin Calder
Bight Sun & Long Shadows, by Val Littman
Seeking Provence by Nicholas Woodsworth