This is my latest favorite book on France.
Gopnik, a celebrated writer for the New Yorker was offered a
plushy assignment as the writer of "Paris Journals" for that magazine from 1995
to 2000.
He is a superlative writer, and expounds on many of the
things that make Paris its dazzling and frustrating self: neighborhood
brasseries, the café lifestyle, endless administrative hoops to jump through,
insane politics, and the gently worn manège in the Luxembourg Gardens.
His subtle style is totally different than that of someone
like Peter Mayle, and it's a nice contrast to read both Gopnik's and Mayle's
accounts of expatriate life in France.
A YEAR IN PROVENCE
By Peter Mayle
This book, now a classic, describes Peter Mayle's
life-changing move from Britain to the South of France. It celebrates the
glories of rural France with a finely attuned British sense of humour.
Mayle is at his laugh-out-loud best when describing the
eccentric, quaint, colorful, or downright bizarre people and incidences that he
experiences as he settles down to enjoy the good life in Provence.
This book gives a hilarious glimpse at what makes rural
village life all over France, not just in the South, so endlessly charming.
ENCORE PROVENCE
By Peter Mayle
This is the sequel to Peter Mayle's blockbuster "A Year in
Provence" and further depicts Mayle's adventures in Provence.
PARIS TO THE MOON
A YEAR IN PROVENCE
ENCORE PROVENCE