The book begins by the North Sea. It is a late summer's afternoon, and a bright sun has dispersed the greyness of the day. Two Englishmen are enjoying a swim off the Essex coast when all at once both have the feeling that they are back at the French seaside. They find themselves starting to tell each other of their youthful experiences of living in France. The adventures they narrate follow one after another like waves rolling onto the shore.
Clive, coming from London, had found himself spending a year deep in the French countryside within sight of the western Pyrenees; John, hailing from Devon, had ended up living for a while in the City of Light within sight of the Folies Bergere. Outsiders though they were, they momentarily became part of French society, their adventures fuelled by the culinary delights of their adopted land.
They tell their tales with humour and relish as they recall their initiation into the French way of life of decades ago - and how it shaped their own.
Recenzijas
"I predict this slim volume will become a quiet best seller. It has all the quirky fun of an authentic adventure, a trove of fascinating real-life tales - whilst it reveals the real France in all its remarkable differentness." -- Anne Garvey, Cambridge Critique; "The incidents and experiences [ the authors] relate are very sympathetic to me, and induce a measure of nostalgia." -- Sir Quentin Blake; "Humorous and full of adventure, two Englishmen reminisce about their youth in the French countryside. A beautiful portrayal of the country from an outsider's perspective." -- Hatchards Bookshop, Piccadilly, London
Frontispiece; Prologue;
1. An Englishman in the ninth district;
2.
Clive's voyage into the unknown;
3. Rene;
4. Clive the grape-picker;
5.
John's stroll through Paris;
6. Clive arrives at Salies-de-Bearn;
7. John
finds a job in the big city;
8. Clive settles in Salies-de-Bearn;
9. John's
apprenticeship at a Paris bank;
10. Sad news for Clive from London;
11.
Cinema verite: on location in Paris;
12. Clive back in the vineyard;
13. New
waves for John;
14. Clive on a Mobylette to the Basque Country;
15. John and
the elusive film world;
16. Bearnaise sauce;
17. John, the gourmet banker;
18. Clive rolls up his sleeves in the provinces;
19. John and the newly-weds;
20. Clive tries his hand at rough shooting;
21. John moves house;
22. Clive
and Marianne;
23. John settles in on the rue Sainte-Anastase;
24. Provincial
doctor to Clive's rescue;
25. John meets Luisa;
26. Clive learns his lesson
skiing at Cauterets;
27. John's friends find connubial bliss;
28. Crossing
the border into Spain;
29. John meets Chuchi;
30. Clive heads for the
metropolis;
31. John joins the Paris rag trade; 32 Live pop music a la
francaise;
33. John and the Marais copper-engraver;
34. Clive answers the
call of the south;
35. The need to feed the inner man;
36. Clive enjoys good
company in the cafe at Carresse;
37. John uses his Metro ticket;
38. Summer
festivals - and Clive takes the mike;
39. John and the Irishman;
40.
Small-town wedding;
41. John afloat in Paris;
42. Clive goes under at
Saint-Jean-de-Luz;
43. John working with the Galerie Genot;
44. Clive on
horseback in the Camargue;
45. John the balloon man;
46. Clive wields his
knife and fork at Les Baux-de-Provence;
47. John's private view; Epilogue;
Acknowledgements; Tailpiece
John Adamson, born at Poltimore, Devon, studied at the universities of Edinburgh and Geneva. He worked for several short periods in the translation department of the Banque Francaise du Commerce Exterieur in Paris and for eight months at the Berlitz School of Languages in London, before embarking on a career in publishing, starting as a graduate trainee at Cambridge University Press. There he became European sales representative, later publicity manager and lastly export sales director, afterwards joining the National Portrait Gallery in London as head of publications and retailing. Since the early nineties he has been an independent publisher of books in the fine and decorative arts as well as a writer and translator. He was awarded a fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries in 2019.
Clive Jackson grew up in Colchester, Essex, where he attended Colchester Royal Grammar School. After working for a year in the overseas business department of a City of London insurance company, he studied for a University of London degree in French and Spanish. Deciding on a career as a modern language teacher, he lived abroad for a number of years teaching French in Canada and English in the south of France. Long resident in Cambridge, he worked in adult education as a Spanish tutor, completing his career as head of Spanish at the Perse School.
