You have been invited to visit the famous French region of Provence, to experience its rural beauty and sunny splendour. Your guide is Gordon Bitney who, with his wife, has just bought a villa there.Join the Bitneys on summer adventures as they renovate their villa and travel lavender-scented backroads, visiting ancient châteaux and Roman ruins. Discover, along with them, the region’s bounty through its wines, cheeses, olives and escargots. Follow their adjustment to a different cu...

It’s almost spring, and the Bitneys have returned for another season in Provence amid the olive trees, orchards and vineyards. With the renovations of their villa almost done, there is now time to learn more about the land they want to live in...Great sights lie within easy reach: the magnificent Roman Pont du Gard; Aix-en-Provence, where myriads of fountains blow water into the air; Arles, where Van Gogh painted his greatest masterpieces; and there are even unexpected festivals al...

Many dream of living abroad but Shelley and her husband, Mike, did it. They left the security of their careers, the comfort of their home, and the familiarity of their neighborhood and moved to France. For ten months, they made their home in the village of Cotignac in southern France. From their yellow-stucco house with the green shutters perched on the hillside overlooking the village, they lived like a local and soaked up all that life had to offer.Join Shelley as she takes you t...

How often have you eaten a mushroom that you picked yourself that morning? Or sat on a boat opening and eating oysters as you lift them from the sea? Or partaken of a seven course feast of game to celebrate the success of the chasse?When Patricia Atkinson - bestselling author of The Ripening Sun - first moved to France, her intention was simply to establish a vineyard. Over the years, however, she found herself becoming integrated into a way of life that, had she ...

Italian Lessons is the true story of Joan and Roger’s move to Italy. Selling everything and leaving behind the familiar, the former public relations executive (Joan) and retired airline captain (Roger) purchased and renovated Le Vigne, a centuries-old farmhouse in the heart of Italy. Through effort, grit, money, heavy doses of humor and strong servings of Italian pazienza, the couple navigated the difficult waters of being ex-pats, learned a new language, converted their home into a vacati...

"As beguiling and delectable as France itself."*Mimi Sheraton"Ann Barry tells her tale directly and clearly, without cloying artifice or guile, so that it has the warmth, honesty, and force of a long letter from an old friend. She makes her reader a welcome house guest in her much-loved little cottage in the heart of France."*Susan Allen TothAnn Barry was a single woman, working and living in New York, when she fell in love with a charming house in Carennac ...

French Impressions: The Loire Valley "The title is very apt. Compared with other travel books, reading George's work is like coming across the brightness and brio of an Impressionist painting in a museum full of sombre art..." West Town News   Product Description French Impressions: The Loire Valley is the latest in a series of distinctive travel books by George East. George is the a...

One year and one arduous home-renovation into their marriage, Ken and Bing head to the French countryside to celebrate their long-delayed honeymoon, swearing they're getting out of the home-fixing business for good. When they fall in love with the village of La Montagne Noire, they find themselves buying a fixer-upper and starting all over again-but this time, in French!McAdams recounts their mishaps and misadventures with humor, capturing the essence of French village life, the awk...

Sam and Bud were ordinary first-time homebuyers in their early thirties. Their intention, in moving to France, was to create a simple life in a place where they could spend time with their children. The home they actually bought was a 17th century chateau in the Loire valley with over thirty rooms.Chateau Du Bonchamps had been the seat of noble families as far back as 1507. With only modest savings, Sam and Bud launched the exciting project of restoring this extraordinary building ...

When dream meets reality. . . Endless fields of flame-like poppies. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. The sweet, rhythmic chime of church bells. Months upon months of unemployment? Struggling to communicate with locals? Duvets frozen on the clothesline? Jennifer Criswell's move from New York City to Tuscany was not supposed to go like this. She had envisioned lazy mornings sipping espresso while penning a best-selling novel and jovial group dinners, just like in the...

In this collection of articles, the author paints vignettes and describes happenings from the vantage point of an American observer in what he has dubbed the Golden Triangle in France. The focus is on a fascinating group of persons and personal experiences in a corner of the beautiful Dordogne valley in the northern edge of the Lot that is still relatively unspoiled, and filled with an astounding number of significant places. The entire region throbs with the material reminders of prehisto...

'A splendid romp. Vive la France!'Peter Mayle, author of 'A Year in Provence' and many other bestsellers'Mike Buchanan is the best kind of opinionated, middle-aged, middle-class Englishman abroad: the funny kind.'Andy Heslop'If you have a sense of humour, this book will put a big smile on your face. I laughed out loud many times. A refreshing absence of political correctness.'The lovely Maureen PadleyPolitical correctness is a curse of the modern era. This book is not politically correct. ...