The Road to Le Tholonet: A French Garden Journey - Couverture souple

Don, Monty

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1471114589 ISBN 13 : 9781471114588

Editeur : Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2014

Synopsis

This is not a book about French Gardens. It is the story of a man travelling round France visiting a few selected French gardens on the way. Owners, intrigues, affairs, marriages, feuds, thwarted ambitions and desires, the largely unnamed ordinary gardeners, wars, plots and natural disasters run through every garden older than a generation or two and fill every corner of the grander historical ones. Families marry. Gardeners are poached. Political allegiances forged and shattered. The human trail crosses from garden to garden. They sit in their surrounding landscape, not as isolated islands but attached umbilically to it, sharing the geology, the weather, food, climate, local folklore, accent and cultural identity. Wines must be drunk and food tasted. Recipes found and compared. The perfect tarte-tartin pursued. None of these things can be ignored or separated from the shape and size of parterre, fountain, herbaceous border or pottager. So this is a book filled with stories and information, some of it about French gardens and gardening, but most of it about what makes France unlike anywhere else. From historical gardens like Versailles,Vaux le Vicomte and Courances to the kitchen gardens of the Michelin chef Alain Passard. There are grand potagers like Villandry and La Prieure D'Orsan and allotments and back gardens spotted on the way. Monty celebrates the obvious French associations of food and wine and finds gardens dedicated to vegetables, herbs and fruit. It is a book that any visitor to France, whether gardeners or not, will want to read both as a guide and an inspiration. It is a portal to get under the French cultural skin and to understand the country, in all its huge variety and disparity, a little better.

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

It s part travelogue to some of France s best and most historic gardens, part treasure trove of historical anecdotes.... Delve deeper, and you ll discover a book that s also a philosophical exploration of national identity, a partial memoir, and a meditation about the role gardens play in conveying our aspirations, our values even our memories -- The Scotsman

"Don emphasises that it is not a guide to French gardens but merely the story of a man travelling around France visiting a few gardens on the way. He offers a glimpse at some of the love affairs, feuds, thwarted ambitions and desires behind gardens such as Versailles, Vaux le Vicomte and Courances -- Daily Telegraph

"Engaging, informative and often surprisingly critical...more poignant and valuable than any mere travelogue or garden guide -- --Evening Standard

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1471114589
• ISBN 13: 9781471114588
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 304