Like travel memoirs - under the Tuscan Sun started it for me and now I just love them. This one too started out very well. Four friends doing an overland trip through France, slowly and casually - not rushing things and seeing small places, villages, meandering off the beaten track. It was not all highways for them but just sometimes going away from the itinerary. How many people long to do that but somehow for whatever reason it does not happen.
Four people of disparate temperaments, spending three weeks in one car can end up disastrously. The fact that it didn't meant that there was a lot of give and take, compromise call it what you will so that things were always amicable, even though at times one was biting one's tongue not to retort or let fly at a companion!
Towns covered were the major ones of interest on a tourist route - Chartres and Bayeaux, cathedrals and tapestries but there were hidden churches and cafes, fabulous food, open air markets, views of the countryside both forest and cultivated which were beautifully and detailed in their description. I felt I was there looking at the mazes and labyrinths, listening to the chanting of nuns (this I must research a bit more as it got my interest piqued), and looking at the great cathedrals with their architecture and stonework, stained glass and relics.
I really enjoyed this book. This was a download from Netgalley courtesy of Troubador Publishing Ltd.
Having spent time in France not so long ago, I think I would enjoy this book. Thank you for this wonderful review.
ReplyDeleteI love a bit of armchair travelling, this one sounds like a lot of fun :)
ReplyDeleteI'd like the hourney through France, not sure about the friends!
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