Category: Books on France

Enter the world of Olivier and Madison Malin, the glittering inhabitants of Paris’s most exclusive neighbourhood, the Left Bank. The Malins’ life together with their daughter is the stuff of dreams – and carefully-selected celebrity magazines. Madison is an American film star: her beauty, talent and perfect accent hiding her Texan roots, and the fact she’s just turned forty (although that actually happened several years ago). Her husband, Olivier, is the darling of the sophisticated Left Bank: philosopher, gourmand and media personality, he craves adoration (and is a little too willing to return it). Everything seems perfect – if a touch pretentious – right up until the moment a new English nanny, Anna, appears at the imposing doors of their Rue du Bac apartment. Gamine and artless, Anna unwittingly sets in motion a chain of events that will gravely endanger the Malins’ daughter, and their charmed lives – in ways no-one could have foreseen…

 This book is for anyone contemplating a serious relationship, with… France. Essential reading if planning to live or work in that country, it is the most up-to-date source of practical information available about everyday life there. Guaranteed to hasten your introduction to la vie française, and most importantly, to save you time, trouble and money.

To buy the book from Survival Books 

 

What makes fashionistas willing to pay a small fortune for a particular designer accessory? Why does a special occasion only become really special when a champagne cork pops? Why are diamonds the status symbol gemstone, instantly signifying wealth, power, and even emotional commitment? Writing with élan, one of the foremost authorities on 17th-century French culture provides the answer to these and other fascinating questions in her account of how, at one glittering moment in history, the French under Louis XIV set the standards of sophistication, style and glamour that still rule our lives today. Joan DeJean takes us back to the birth of haute cuisine, the first appearance of celebrity hairdressers, chic cafés, nightlife, and fashion in elegant dress that extended well beyond the limited confines of court circles.

Essential reading for anyone who imagines themselves living “the good life” following the footsteps of Peter Mayle out to the  French countryside. This book gives a realistic view of the pleasure and pain of actually attempting  it while providing  comprehensive practical advice on everything from buying property, to keeping livestock to meeting the neighbors. True to the publishers name the book is chocked full of practical information on all things French including the country’s legendary administration. You won’t want to leave home without it. To buy the book from Survival Books 

Stephen Clarke keeps the punch lines coming in this sequel to his best-seller, “A Year in the Merde.” The adventures of British expat Paul West pick up where they left off, exposing with no little hilarity the agony and the ecstasy of living among the French. Clarke has a keen eye and a keener ear for their quirks, foibles and irrationalities, and although the story could  be tighter and the jokes funnier, the characters never disappoint. As pleasant a way to while away an afternoon as its predecessor!

 

In this intelligently-written and supremely entertaining new history, Colin Jones sets out to give a sense of the city of Paris as it has been lived in and experienced, from one period to the next. The focal point of generation upon generation of admirers and detractors, a source of attraction or repulsion, even for those who have never been there, this town has witnessed more extraordinary events than any other. No spot on earth has been more walked around, written about, discussed, painted and photographed. With an eye for revealing, startling and (sometimes) horrible details, Colin Jones takes the reader from Roman Paris to the present, recreating the ups and downs of this capital and its inhabitants, in an entertaining historical perspective. Attentive at once to the urban environment and to the experiences of those who have lived within it, at different stages of its evolution, “Paris: Biography of a City” will be hugely enjoyed by habitual “Paris dream”  obsessives, by first-time visitors, and by those who know its landmarks only by repute.

 

 

Paris legendary village on the hilltop is revisited through a juxtapositon of contemporary photographs and postcards produced a century ago, at a time when it was home to such Bohemian artists as Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir and Degas. Historian Pierre Passot, a life-long resident of the Butte, makes Montmartre’s streets come alive with tales from its poetic past.  by Pierre Passot with photos by Jean Villain (Edition Artena) BR

First praised in Peter Mayle’s best-selling book A Year in Provence, Chez Auzet bakery became a must-see destination for food tourists visiting the village of Cavaillon in the south of France. In Confessions of a French baker, his tenth book, Peter Mayle joins forces with Gerard Auzet, Chez Auzet’s award winning boulanger and allows readers an inside look into the world of bread making.  Part-memoir part recipe book, Mayle weaves the Auzet family’s history and savoir-faire with recipes for classics such as the baguette, boule or bâtard as well as flavored breads (olive, thyme, saffron and even bouillabaisse). Confessions of French baker is more a step-by-step guide filled with Auzet’s tips and industry secrets than the scandalous tell-all promised by the title but it is Mayle’s talent as a raconteur of Provence life that makes it such an enjoyable read. The last chapter on pairing breads with wine is a fun extra. by Peter Mayle and G. Auzet (TimeWarner) Reviewed by Alice Quillet

In his Beat-like jaunt through the Parisian and European jazz scene, Mike Zwerin is not unlike Jack Kerouac, Mezz Mezzrow, or Hunter S. Thompson – writers to whom, for different reasons, he owes some allegiance. What makes him special is his devotion to the troubled musicians he idolizes, and a passion for music that is blessedly contagious. Many jazz fans will be familiar with Zwerin’s witty, irreverent and undeniably hip music reviews and articles published in the International Herald Tribune that have entertained us for decades. Based in Paris, or, rather, “stuck” there, as he likes to say, Mike Zwerin who’s been a music critic for the Trib since 1979, also had a distinguished career as a trombonist. When he was just 18 years old, he was invited by Miles Davis to play alongside Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, and Max Roach in the band that was immortalized as “The Birth of the Cool.” “The Parisian Jazz Chronicles” constitute an engaging personal account of the jazz scene in Paris in the 1980s and 1990s. Zwerin writes lovingly but unsparingly about figures he knew and interviewed – such as Dexter Gordon, Freddy Heineken, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Chet Baker, Wayne Shorter, and Melvin Van Peebles. Against this background, he speaks of further allegiances (split between journalism and music, America and France…), while recounting his own life peopled by personal battles (a solitary struggle for sobriety, a failing marriage, and fatherhood…). 

 

In her beautiful new novel, “The Radiant City,” Canadian writer Lauren B. Davis evokes a Paris that is decidedly on the edge, a city in which everyone has come from somewhere else and is trying desperately to lose themselves. Continue reading “Lauren B. Davis’ “Radiant City””

In “Into A Paris Quartier,” Diane Johnson explores St-Germain-des-Prés, that most touristic of Paris neighborhoods, and tries to do it justice. Part of National Geographic’s Literaty Travel series, which challenges authors to write guidebooks to the areas that inspire their fiction, Continue reading “Into A Paris Quartier”