By Annerin Long
Next week is spring break for area schools and many people will be taking to the air and roads for vacation. If you find yourself at home but in need of an escape, Alliance Française de Jackson members suggest a virtual trip to France to celebrate le mois de la Francophonie.
Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence is a classic for Francophiles, with the author sharing the adventures of following a dream to move to southern France. Mayle and his wife soon find that Provence is not always the sunny land they had imagined, and with understated wit, he tells of the trials of not only restoring the 200-year-old farmhouse they have purchased, but also of learning the ways of this new home they have chosen. Mayle—who died earlier this year—followed this book with others about his time in France: Toujours Provence; Encore Provence: New Adventures in the South of France; and French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew among them. He also ventured into fiction with some light mysteries set in Provence, which could make for perfect beach-time reading. For a more recent take on foreigners making France their home, chef and food blogger David Lebovitz wrote about his experience renovating his Paris apartment in l’appart.
Paris: An Inspiring Tour of the City’s Creative Heart by Janelle McCulloch takes travelers on a tour of the French capital’s arrondissements through history and a selection of the best places to visit in each of the unique neighborhoods. This book isn’t a turn-by-turn travel guide as much as a source of inspiration for a trip to Paris and is for the armchair traveler as much as for those headed to Paris, with beautiful photography that captures the spirit of the city. For those venturing further than Paris, McCulloch has also written Provence and the Côte d’Azur: Discover the Spirit of the South of France.
Photographer Nichole Robertson used color to organize her coffee-table book Paris in Color, with a different color taking over each chapter: yellow, red, pink, blue, green . . . through Robertson’s eyes, you see the many colors that bring Paris to life. In her follow-up book, Paris in Love, Robertson focused only on reds using the journey of a day, morning to evening, to take readers through the city.
Two books that celebrate strolling the streets as can only be done in Paris are The Most Beautiful Walk in the World (John Baxter) and Flâneur (Federico Castigliano). If you are familiar with the city, these books will certainly bring back memories of your own wanderings through Paris.
To continue your armchair adventures and travel plans, you might also try these:
- Markets of Provence: Food, Antiques, Crafts, and More by Marjorie R. Williams
- Forever Paris: 25 Walks in the Footsteps of Chanel, Hemingway, Picasso, and More by Christina Henry de Tessan
- Any of Hugh Palmer’s and James Bentley’s “Most Beautiful Villages of . . .” books.
And if you are fortunate enough to be planning a trip to France, be sure to check out Lemuria’s selection for practical travel guides to help your planning!
Bon voyage!
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