October reading recommendations: three books about France in English

The French Mis-connection 

Vicki Hilton
The French Mis-connection , €15.82
ISBN: 978-1763599413

There are no mysteries here. Right from the get-go, the reader knows that Beauty and her grumpy Beast will live happily ever after. But that’s not really the point of this light confection, all sugar and sparkle. It’s pure escapism and if that’s what you want, this is the place to go.

Iris is travelling around Europe after a nasty break-up when she discovers that her perfidious ex wants money and will hold her fur baby hostage until he gets it. She then falls into the swimming pool of a bad-tempered but extremely rich French man who – wouldn’t you just know it – needs a fake engagement to ward off his matchmaking family.

Along the way to the Happy Ending, there are French landscapes, hilarious episodes, and a plentiful sprinkling of swoony smoochies. Iris and Luc try hard to control their emotions, but the physical thing keeps, er... rearing into the plot, making detachment difficult. It’s funny and if you like a bit of spice with your holiday romance, this is the novel for you.

Vicki Hilton doesn’t actually live in France, or even in Europe – she moved from the UK to Sydney, where she concocts her romance novels, including Flock and Roll, Ice to Meet You, and a series set in the fictional English town of Tottenbridge. Happy escapist reading.

The French Bed 

Wendy Gedney
PIP, €12.12
ISBN: 978-1068280207

On the eve of her 40th birthday, Lizzie realises that her lover has absolutely no intention of ever leaving his wife, and in a fury she burns her bed. She replaces it with an antique French bed which is strangely haunted: sleeping in it every night, she has strange and vivid dreams. A love affair in 1920s Paris, a murder, a newborn child... is it just her imagination running wild? Or is it real?

As fortune would have it, just at that moment she is offered a job in France, so off she goes to Paris to find out what the dreams mean. Who killed whom? Who had a baby? What happened to it? But of course the quest is utterly hopeless. How is she even supposed to know where to start looking? Except there is one more clue. Her dreams also feature a walled city that she guesses must be Carcassonne. A much smaller place. 

Perhaps it would hold a clue. So she journeys south to see if she can find the place that perhaps only exists in her dreams.

There is lots to enjoy here. A time-slip story, a mystery, loads of description of the wine-growing countryside around Carcassonne, a romance, and journeys through 1920s Paris plus a section set during the Second World War. The descriptions of winemaking are particularly detailed, and this is no surprise because Wendy Gedney moved from the UK to Occitanie in 2009 to start her own wine tourism company, and wrote The Wines of Languedoc-Roussillon.

A Pig in Provence 

Georgeanne Brennan
Chronicle Books, €14.75
ISBN: 978-0811852135

Being honest, A Pig in Provence could probably describe many people exploring French cuisine for the first time, which makes this foodie confessional all the more delicious. 

It is based on the author’s own experience of moving to Provence with her husband Donald and toddler daughter Ethel. As well as descriptions of places they explore and meals they enjoy, there are also recipes so the reader can cook along.

There is an amusing account of learning to make goats’ cheese by trial and error, there are stories about the neighbours, the markets, the other farmers in the area and recipes for all sorts of simple French dishes including stuffed vegetables and vegetable soup with garlic.

Georgeanne Brennan is originally from Orange County in the US and, once she was living in Provence, adopted a French approach to food production. She doesn’t shy away from describing her adventures raising chickens, goats and pigs on her smallholding in France, or even getting them slaughtered, so even though these passages are brief, this book isn’t perhaps for the faint-hearted. 

She now splits her time between California and Provence and has written numerous books about French cuisine.