Home :: Books :: Audio CDs  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs

Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
French Lessons : Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew

French Lessons : Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew

List Price: $31.95
Your Price: $20.13
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: La bonne vie de manger de français
Review: In another installation on Peter Mayle's fanciful and intriguing adventures in France, he takes us on a journey throughout this remarkable country to experience the best gastronomic ventures (or adventures in some cases). Whatever your preference (snails, frog legs, or nude lunching), this book is sure to delight and comes with a reference section for those wishing to have their own experiences in true French cuisine.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Mayle's golden formula
Review: It seems that Peter Mayle has found the golden formula: write about food with humor and detail, and add funny anecdotes about the French - these eccentric foreigners whom we regard with a combination of suspicion and admiration. Yes, there are many people who fall for this kind of literature and I admit to be one of them. I just love to read about food. I even liked to read different versions of Red Riding Hood as a child only due to the nice anticipation of what would the heroine have in her basket this time... Peter Mayle seems to satisfy this whim. After winning great success with his previous books and most notably the famous "A Year in Provence" he continues to write about this favorite subject. In this book he makes an effort to give us a kind of serious research of the French obsession with food, while searching one French food festival after the other, the more bizarre the better. Mayle jumps between a snail festival to a wine festival and to a frog legs festival and then ends his adventures in a glorious spa where one looses weight eating great food.
I admit the book is funny, although most of its jokes center on the cultural difference between the British author and the eccentric French and their dedication to good food. However, you cannot escape the feeling that somehow Peter Mayle had a too much of a good time writing this book. He traveled around France and then did some fact checking at home. He even fills a chapter with his failed attempts to reach a blood sausage fair (my favorite chapter is the one describing the work of the mysterious Michelin critics). To call this a serious job and on our expense? This is something so different to a serious way of life ... its almost heresy.
But seriously. The book has several very entertaining and interesting parts, but can also get quite tedious at times. This is not a book to read in one sitting. A good book to read while planning a trip to France some time in advance (so that reader can allow enough time to make all necessary reservations) or for lovers of food and France, who enjoy reading food descriptions. In no way is this a "must" book. This is indeed a luxury book.



Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Mayle Eats His Way Across France
Review: It's an assignment that would make even the most jaded writer pick up his pen: Travel around France and report back about the oddest, most unusual ways that it celebrates its cuisine. Frog legs, snails, truffles, poultry, and, of course, its wine. Sheer heaven!

Peter Mayle accepted the challenge and here's the perfect book for curling up on the porch alongside a glass of cool refreshment. "French Lessons" charts a year in Mayle's life as he travels across France, describing with a combination of droll wit and wine-soaked facts (many times, he couldn't read his notes the day after some festival) how a country blessed with not only a variety of climates and cuisines, but also a people willing to spend large amounts of money on their enjoyment thereof.

I am a longtime fan of Mayle's writing, back when he was writing about pastis and other subjects for "European Travel & Life" magazine, but I hope not an uncritical one. I was disappointed in his account of his return to France in "Encore Provence," and "Hotel Pastis" did not engage me at all. Sometimes, I wonder if, with skills learned in the advertising trade, where he was an executive, he doesn't succeed in giving the French a gloss it doesn't otherwise deserve. Certainly, when discussing chickens from Bresse, the only poultry to have its own label (called appellation contrôlée), he touches only in passing, how most chickens we eat are raised (if we may call it that) in horrible conditions. Not for nothing is it called factory farming.

But "French Lessons" went down like a lightly garlic-flavored escargot. This is a book which celebrates eating and drinking well, and is a balm to the soul as well as incentive for the appetite. Needless to say, it should only be taken in short dollops, after a good meal.

Not everything has to do with cooking. There's the Le Club 55, a restaurant in Saint-Tropez where the Beautiful and mostly undressed people meet to eat and be seen, where an expert on plastic surgery was able to tell which surgeon worked on which lift ("Cosmetic surgery has its Diors and Chanels, and when looking at a suspiciously taut and chiseled jawline or an artfully hoisted bust, the informed eye can identify who did what.")

Then there's the Marathon du Médoc, where, amid the serious runners, jog several thousand more in fancy dress amid the châteux of Bordeaux, where wine is offered at the refreshment stations, and the winner earns his weight in wine. Rounding out the book is celebration of frog's legs on the last Sunday in April in Vittel, where 30,000 people will eat five tons of the stuff. If you want to know what they taste like, Peter will inform you down to the last bite of the marrow.

And if you wish to attend these fetes, addresses and other notes are listed at the back of the book.

"French Lessons" represents a return to form for Mayle. So long as he is willing to go out and hunt up new stories to tell, he'll remain an entertaining and informative writer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Vintage Mayle
Review: Last year I was lucky enough to take a month long holiday in the south of France. Naturally, "French Lessons" is one of the books I chose to take with me.

"French Lessons" is vintage Peter Mayle. While I enjoy Mayle's fiction as a light and fun change of pace, I really think he is at the top of his form when writing non-fiction. "French Lessons," like the classic, "A Year in Provence," is simply charming. There is just no other way to describe it. The book charms and beguiles you; you lose yourself in it and time just flies. No one seems better able to describe the "real" France than Peter Mayle. And it shows. Most definitely.

Just as with Mayle's previous non-fiction books, I found I could relate to just about everything he wrote in "French Lessons." I had had similar experiences in Provence, in Paris, in the Loire, in Burgundy. One can learn about more than food in this book; Mayle also details the social customs of the areas and the idiosyncrasies of the people. I learned there are people who attend Mass to give thanks for the truffle, a festival where snails are eaten by the dozen and washed down with Gewurztraminer, and an actual "cheese hall of fame" in the town of Livarot. The person honored with the award from this particular hall of fame is expected to eat as much livarot cheese as possible. In another such festival, frogs' legs are the celebrated foodstuff. The annual celebration of the bleu footed poulet in Bourg-en-Bresse and the Marathon du Medoc made for especially hilarious reading.

Mayle takes us from region to region and from town to town...all in the name of great food. We visit festivals, restaurants, chateaux and so many town squares, I lost count. Mayle's descriptions of the festivals and his historical notes are particularly interesting, especially to anyone who is planning to visit France. After reading this book, he or she will surely come away knowing what is, and what isn't, authentic French food.

Throughout this book, Mayle writes in his characteristically charming, witty and urbane manner. His is a style that suits the subject matter of this book perfectly.

I do think that those readers who have actually traveled to the south of France at least once, will find more to love in this book than those readers who are unfamiliar with the area. But familiar or not, Mayle and this book will certainly charm. "French Lessons" is a witty, and sometimes hilarious book that is guaranteed to ensure an enjoyable afternoon in the sun.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Vintage Mayle
Review: Last year I was lucky enough to take a month long holiday in the south of France. Naturally, "French Lessons" is one of the books I chose to take with me.

"French Lessons" is vintage Peter Mayle. While I enjoy Mayle's fiction as a light and fun change of pace, I really think he is at the top of his form when writing non-fiction. "French Lessons," like the classic, "A Year in Provence," is simply charming. There is just no other way to describe it. The book charms and beguiles you; you lose yourself in it and time just flies. No one seems better able to describe the "real" France than Peter Mayle. And it shows. Most definitely.

Just as with Mayle's previous non-fiction books, I found I could relate to just about everything he wrote in "French Lessons." I had had similar experiences in Provence, in Paris, in the Loire, in Burgundy. One can learn about more than food in this book; Mayle also details the social customs of the areas and the idiosyncrasies of the people. I learned there are people who attend Mass to give thanks for the truffle, a festival where snails are eaten by the dozen and washed down with Gewurztraminer, and an actual "cheese hall of fame" in the town of Livarot. The person honored with the award from this particular hall of fame is expected to eat as much livarot cheese as possible. In another such festival, frogs' legs are the celebrated foodstuff. The annual celebration of the bleu footed poulet in Bourg-en-Bresse and the Marathon du Medoc made for especially hilarious reading.

Mayle takes us from region to region and from town to town...all in the name of great food. We visit festivals, restaurants, chateaux and so many town squares, I lost count. Mayle's descriptions of the festivals and his historical notes are particularly interesting, especially to anyone who is planning to visit France. After reading this book, he or she will surely come away knowing what is, and what isn't, authentic French food.

Throughout this book, Mayle writes in his characteristically charming, witty and urbane manner. His is a style that suits the subject matter of this book perfectly.

I do think that those readers who have actually traveled to the south of France at least once, will find more to love in this book than those readers who are unfamiliar with the area. But familiar or not, Mayle and this book will certainly charm. "French Lessons" is a witty, and sometimes hilarious book that is guaranteed to ensure an enjoyable afternoon in the sun.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another masterpiece by mayle
Review: mayle makes masterpieces, undeniable works of art. I no longer feel so confined to the knowledge of one culture.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: SAVE YOUR MONEY
Review: Mayne is completely out of gas. This collection reads exactly like back of the magazine filler in an airline throwaway that only the desperate for any text would read. Mayne had one book in him, and he is clearly down to seeds and stems at this point. His publishers and editors also deserve blame for printing, at hardcover prices, less nothing. The colorful characters, surprising and humorous adventures, and local color are totally absent from this, probably the last Mayne for a long time unless he devotes himself to a total overhaul of style, substance, and subject matter. Save your money.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Mayles books will never leave my library......
Review: OK! I love all of Peter's books. This one is a lovely skim thru his part of France. He makes us want to come visit, if only for a short while!! The natives in his neck of the woods are so colorful and each has his or her own particular venue.

I'm saving my money for a visit. His prose makes me hungry for the cooking and I'm looking forward to the wines. Thank you Peter Mayle!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Lesson learned
Review: Peter Mayle has lived and written the French culture in a way that many of us dream and so few live and enjoy. With all the tourist books, magazines, online info and uneducated travel agencys, Mayle places us in his passenger seat, tours, introduces and presents us to the French we never knew. Proud countrymen and women who want to share their lives with you.

LESSON 1: What I've learned....To become a writer and tour France like Peter.....A country so old, traditional feasts of fun remains important as this Fall harvest. Hey, why change if things are good? They take full pride in their culture, life, history and food. Good or bad! All four of which could fill volumes and take 4 generations to read and understand. The French introduce food to the world, the world embraces it, and the French in return critique, teach, nod their approval, as they should. Mayle's friends and multi-journeys through France's little-town feasts and competitions is in everyway memorable and funny. No other writer (Biritsh or American) has taken food mixed with comedy the way Mayle has. A lot more respect was earned by reading this. Much jealousy was flowing through me when Mayle was down in the cellars drinking wine older than himself in those countryside "holy places" known as Chateau du " " (you fill in the blank). I have alreay purchased his other published works and plan to finish them this summer. I highly encourage anyone who appreciates food, wine and the French countryside to purchase it. I found that reading 5 minutes here and there or while waiting for a subway or on-line at the supermaket made that moment go a lot quicker and funnier.

....

We come to a reality of enjoying life and food with friends, new and old, funny and proud. Peter Mayle has given that to us with this book.

A+++

a little departing note:

There will come a day Mr. Mayle, that I too will "wear my metal in bed!"

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An Entertaining Romp
Review: Peter Mayle has long been famous for his books on Provence, where he has lived as an expat Brit for the best part of decade. He has made it his speciality to examine the lives of the French, their customs and habits in a witty, humourous and often very personal way.

The focus of his attention here is the French obsession with food - the making and cooking of it, the ingredients, and of course the eating of it, one that he himself coincidentally shares. He intends to satisfy his curiousity by going on a wild romp through many of the strangest food events France has to offer. From a trip to a festival celebrating Frogs Legs (where he is enthroned as an honarary taster), to a church service dedicated to the venerable and hidden majesty of the truffle, to another festival honouring the other French staple the snail, and my personal favourite one involving a wine tasting marathon, each story is supremely funny and wonderfully entertaining.

This book, which is basically made up of several self-contained stories, is a delightful treat. At its length however, it is more akin to a extremely delightfully crafted appetizer, rather than a full wholesome main course. That said, it does whet ones appetite, and leaves you longing for more.






<< 1 2 3 4 5 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates