La Vie: A year in rural France

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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 Farm I believe this to be one of John's best yet. Really enjoyed the whole read. Absolutely lovely writing (as usual) and a real sense of place, lifestyle , culture and self sufficiency. I will dip in and out of this for that feel good factor for times to come I think. 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.

John Lewis-Stempel - Penguin Books UK John Lewis-Stempel - Penguin Books UK

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. I found this book not only pleasingly escapist but also nostalgic... the writing is vivid, lyrical and seductive... There's a romance to shepherding that is entirely absent from pig and poultry farming. The TimesHe wanted to be self-sufficient, to make his own wine and learn the secrets of truffle farming. Buying an old honey-coloured limestone house with bright blue shutters, the Lewis-Stempels began their new life. Over that first year, John falls in love with the French countryside and living the good life – or as the French say, La Vie. A clear-eyed and unsentimental, yet utterly beguiling immersion in La France Profonde, keenly observed and beautifully told. Felicity Cloake, author of One More Croissant for the Road

La Vie: A year in rural France by John Lewis-Stempel

An utterly beguiling immersion in La France Profonde, keenly observed and beautifully told’ Felicity Cloake, author of One More Croissant for the Road

Lewis-Stempel’s best book in an age; my favourite, certainly, since Meadowland. I’m featuring it in a summer post because, like Peter Mayle’s Provence series, it’s ideal for armchair travelling. Especially with the heat waves that have swept Europe this summer, I’m much happier reading about France or Italy than being there. The author has written much about his Herefordshire haunts, but he’s now relocated permanently to southwest France (La Roche, in the Charente). He proudly calls himself a peasant farmer, growing what he can and bartering for much of the rest. La Vie chronicles a year in his quest to become self-sufficient. It opens one January and continues through the December, an occasional diary with recipes. A charming account of how a farmer swapped Herefordshire for a life in rural France... Readers of his many books and his Times nature columns will know how easily Lewis-Stempel's writing marries the lyrical with the descriptive... And his capacity for wonder never flags. The Times For many years a farmer in England, John Lewis-Stempel yearned to live in a rural landscape as he did in childhood. I'd really been looking forward to reading this and it saddens me to have to give it such a low rating.