This hilarious collection of cautionary tales and anecdotes,discusses all the delights and drawbacks of finding,buying and restoring French property. Significantly subtitled A Year in Purgatory,Home & Dry in France follows the initial adventures of our innocents abroad en route to their 18th-century water mill.
Ten years ago, Janine Marsh decided to leave her corporate life behind to fix up a run-down barn in northern France. This is the true story of her rollercoaster ride.
The brilliantly entertaining true story of how one couple set out with a dream of moving to France - and got far more than they ever bargained for. HOME & DRY IN NORMANDY is the first of two books following the adventures of George and Donella East as they try to realise their dream of living the good life in rural France. After months of property-hunting, the couple arrive at The Mill of the Flea, a dilapidated and long-abandoned eighteenth-century water mill set in ten acres of fields, woods, streams and mud in the heart of the magical Cotentin peninsula of Normandy. There, the Easts set about renovating the farmhouse and tiny mill cottage on a shoestring budget. As they struggle to adapt to a very different life and culture, the Easts find themselves with an unofficial estate manager as René Ribet moves on to their land in his ancient caravan. René will, he says, help them learn the ways of the countryside while returning the mill to its former glory. To the innocents abroad he appears a godsend. To the locals in the nearby village of Néhou, however, René Ribet is known as The Fox of Cotentin, notorious for his wily money-making schemes. Financial success eludes the couple but they gradually find their place amongst the characterful locals and develop an unlikely and enduring friendship with René. As the seasons pass, the couple finally realise that the real treasure has been around them all the time...
From a general list of false preconceptions about the French, to George East's take on why the French think that being born in France automatically imbues every French person with a great sense of style and taste and the ability to cook like an angel and make love like Casanova, Love Letters to France is the first in our new series of French Collections.George East's love of France began when visiting with his school back in the 1950's and of course his obsession with a poster of Brigitte Bardot. After writing for French Property News for a quarter of a century, George has picked some of his most poignant scribbling and put them together with some very personal and favourite photos of his travels around France for your delight.George's sense of fun and his love of France and (most) things French tells in his humorous tales and encounters. He is considered to be one of the top funny guys of travel literature and has written a number of books on his chosen subject of France.Over the years, George has travelled the equivalent of the distance to the moon and back in France. He has lived or visited every one of the thirteen regions and ninety-six mainland departments in France. While about his business (and having a fabulous time) he has written more than a million words about the country, its people and their sometimes Funny Little Ways. This collection of his essays, articles and blogs is evidence of his deep and abiding love for France, and of his unique talent for finding precisely the mot juste when describing the people and country we sometimes find so hard to understand...
In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, only twenty-eight, set sail for Egypt with 335 ships, 40,000 soldiers, and a collection of scholars, artists, and scientists to establish an eastern empire. He saw himself as a liberator, freeing the Egyptians from oppression. But Napoleon wasn’t the first—nor the last—who tragically misunderstood Muslim culture. Marching across seemingly endless deserts in the shadow of the pyramids, pushed to the limits of human endurance, his men would be plagued by mirages, suicides, and the constant threat of ambush. A crusade begun in honor would degenerate into chaos. And yet his grand failure also yielded a treasure trove of knowledge that paved the way for modern Egyptology—and it tempered the complex leader who believed himself destined to conquer the world.
MAURICE DE SAXE was the brilliant adornment of a brilliant age, one of the most renowned and admired men in the Europe of his day. It is not surprising that the writing of the biography of this vivid, talented and entertaining figure should have provided the author with a genial and absorbing task. He came of extraordinary stock; the circumstances of his birth were remarkable; he was the lover of many celebrated women; he won the lifelong friendship of men of the stature of Voltaire; he aspired to a crown, and nearly became the Czar of Russia; his activities spanned a whole continent, from Paris to Dresden, from Dresden to Warsaw, from Warsaw to Moscow. Yet he was more, much more, than an energetic and flamboyant adventurer: he was acknowledged to be the outstanding general of his era, a military genius who linked the epoch of Marlborough with the epoch of Frederick the Great. He led great armies and won great victories. It is part of the purpose of this book to restore him to the pre-eminent place in social and military history to which his achievements entitle him. The study of his campaigns has proved no dutiful or dreary labour, for he was among the wittiest and most elegant military practitioners who have ever lived. There was a touch of diablerie about the manner in which he gained his spectacular triumphs that set him apart from the other great captains of his era.
WOULD YOU THINK YOURSELF ABLE TO PILOT A JUMBO JET BECAUSE YOU HAVE TRAVELLED BY AIR A LOT? Or perform brain surgery because you like to watch medical soaps on TV? Of course not. So why do people think they can write a book just because they've read some? It is a mystery which has puzzled best-selling author GEORGE EAST for many years, and one which he addresses in this amusing, entertaining and, most importantly, very informative guide.
Today, many fortified wines are flourishing again, revived by discerning drinkers and modern mixologists all over the world. Once popularly savored before or after dinner, fortified wines—vermouth, sherry, port, madeira, and the like—had fallen out of favor until recent times. But now, in pubs and wine bars, high-end restaurants and homes, these wines are finding their way into innovative cocktails, and they are being appreciated anew for their fine qualities and strong, complex tastes. Strong, Sweet and Dry is the ultimate guide to these freshly rediscovered palate pleasers. In lively style, Becky Sue Epstein explores the latest fortified wine innovations and trends, along with their colorful history, including the merchants, warriors, and kings who helped bring these beverages into being. Featuring a plethora of enticing images, along with anecdotes, facts, and recipes, this is a superb tour through the long history of fortified wines and their global resurgence today.