La Vie: A year in rural France

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Everyone who is British living in France profonde utters, as axiomatic, ‘France is like the Britain of our childhood’, by which they mean, depending on their certain age, the 1950s or the 1970s or 1990s.

Is it possible to move to another country to escape unhappiness and defeat? The protagonist, Rose Zadeh, is a people pleaser. Rose puts the demands of her family, job, and anyone who asks for anything before her own needs. “NO” is not in her vocabulary, and when she is disappointed and not rewarded for her efforts and help, Rose decides to use her three-week vacation to go to Paris to find her dreams. I first heard of Lewis-Stempel through my subscription to The Times newspaper. He writes some of the nature watch pieces.

Ever since I bought a house in rural France I have been attracted to this sort of guidepost book; my ignorance of France is not quite total, but there are innumerable blanks to fill. Sometimes a knowledgeable foreigner is best-placed to describe and explain the cultural differences in his adopted country. I feel enriched, bit by bit, by descriptions of food, custom, terroir, language and manners as interpreted by a sensitive and observant insider/outsider. For many years a farmer in England, John Lewis-Stempel yearned once again to live in a landscape where turtle doves purr and nightingales sing, as they did almost everywhere in his childhood. He wanted to be self-sufficient, to make his own wine and learn the secrets of truffle farming. And so, buying an old honey-coloured limestone house with bright blue shutters, the Lewis-Stempels began their new life as peasant farmers. This book is good. I do feel like the first half is very dense and in some points, it becomes a little repetitive. I think the book could’ve been shorter and at the same time I felt like there were some parts of the book that were incomplete. The second half was really good. The “mystery” was interesting, and I wish it was mentioned or talked about more.

That being said, I wish we saw more of Marco and Rose from the beginning. I just love a good uptight, reserved MMC. Bonus points because he’s an art history professor. There wasn’t much chemistry nor tension between the two of them, but if the plot were indeed changed so that their relationship was a centric narrative, there would’ve been plenty. He has moved with his family, dogs, and various animals. The aim is to reconnect with nature, to farm for the person rather than for money, and to become at least 50% self-sufficient by the end of the year. British nature writer John Lewis-Stempel is a man who takes birdsong seriously. In the Preface to this book, he highlights the song of nightingales as a reason to relocate to rural France. As a sort of Afterward, he compiles a list of all of the birds see on his own patch at La Roche in the Charente region. Throughout the novel, he notes which birds are singing; and just occasionally, those brief times in the annual calendar when there is seemingly no birdsong at all. Don’t get me started on her sisters, especially Lily. Actually, let me rephrase that. Don’t get me started on her Mom. Goodness gracious, they were all unbearable and Rose definitely should’ve cut all ties. It’s an unhealthy dynamic all around that clearly is serving nobody. It reminded me all over again of why I threw up everything for the magic of La Belle France' Carol Drinkwater, author of The Olive FarmIn this book, he describes a year on his farm, the birdsong, the wildlife, the crops, the villagers and some of the nuances of French culture, all in his beguiling, poetic style.