Synopses & Reviews
Meg Parker, an American travel-book writer, lives in the Lorraine countryside with her two small children and a neglectful husband. Domestic life is beginning to take its toll until Meg is offered her dream assignment: to write a guidebook about French history. Unfortunately, there is a catch. Jean-Jacques, a scruffy and imperious photographer, has been assigned to the project. As the dueling pair visits each region in search of the past, what they find is the colorful, food-filled present—the festive bullfights in the Camargue, the sacred gypsy pilgrimage at Stes-Maries-de-la-Mer, the pictographs and lightning storms of Mount Bégo. And over the course of mouthwatering meals—of lamb daube, paella and rosé, bull steak and anchioade, Brebis and strawberries—their antagonistic collaboration turns into a fiery love affair.
Meg's notions about history—about what we preserve and how we accept the new—evolve, and in the end, she must reconcile her two lives and decide what to hold on to, and what to let go.
Review
"Gorgeous and utterly romantic. Meg's journey through the French countryside—and to what ultimately will complete her as a woman—kept me enthralled to the very last page. . . . Bravo to Nancy Coons for spinning such an honest, hopeful, not to mention sensual, tale!" —Marsha Mehran, author of the international bestseller Pomegranate Soup
Review
"Prepare yourself for a delectable romp through the French countryside in this wonderful novel. You'll enjoy all the glorious tastes and pleasures that France has to offer as well as taking an enticing journey into the affairs of the heart. This book made me homesick for France."
—Katharine Davis, author of Capturing Paris
Synopsis
Meg Parker's life is thrown off course when she travels on assignment with the imperious photographer Jean-Jacques Chabrol. As the dueling pair search for France's past, what they find is the colorful festive present. As they devour the mouthwatering delicacies of each region along the way, their passion for food unexpectedly stirs up other desires. But, all feasting aside, Meg must reconcile her own past—the family she's left behind—with the relationship that has finally awakened all her senses.
About the Author
Nancy Coons is the author of Escape to Provence, Escape to the Riviera, Fodors Provence and the Cote dAzur, andFodors Switzerland and a contributor to guides on France, Italy, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Her commentaries on French life have aired on NPRs All Things Considered, and she has contributed to Saveur, the International Herald Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. She lives in a three-hundred-year-old farmhouse in the Lorraine region of France with her husband and two daughters.