A Normandy Tapestry: About the Book
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A Normandy Tapestry: About the Book |
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Site map Home page Travel France Holidays Info about France French artists Our books Order books |
| A Normandy Tapestry is 14 chapters of pure pleasure. Describing the move of the Biggins family (Alan, Ann and children Alice and David) to Normandy, in France, and what they found there...... | "Informative and immensely enjoyable. Essential reading for the visitor to rural France - armchair or otherwise." Living France - who went on to serialize the book. |
 The move was prompted by Alan's studies of French.
The job of selling French property that he found to pay for
his studies has taken him behind the scenes of rural France as few
other outsiders have ever been. His stories are of a land rich
in wildlife and country hospitality. The settings vary from remote farmhouses and sunken
lanes to the stunning splendour of Mont St Michel.
The book, which has sixteen illustrations, is rich in humorous incidents. These include bartering a bidet for a bottle of Calvados, being tutored in the ways of philosophy and septic tanks and a meeting with the Six Potato Man.
In a trade such as estate agency it goes without saying that there are some dodgy characters: and some cautionary tales for potential buyers!
The book is about a family too. Their experiences in settling in was a process that began with a series of comical (if only in hindsight) disasters. Alan and Ann Biggins' children, David and Alice, were four and six years old when they moved, and so began their schooling in a French village school, having to come to terms with the vagaries of the French language and customs from day one. They discovered a rural and unspoilt world, where the prizes at the school fete were ducks, chickens, pigs and insulators for electric fences. For Alan and Ann, it was no less of a challenge. Here are their trials and triumphs told with wit and verve.
The links are very real; and they are older, deeper and broader than modern national boundaries. From Druids to D-Day, the story of Normandy is a spell-binding epic that has shaped and moulded British, European, American - and world - history. This story is told in the book with an immediacy and pace that shows the author's great gifts as a storyteller and his ability to include history as an intrinsic part of his narrative.....
Whether visiting France, simply looking for a good read, or on the look out for a potential holiday destination, this book will afford you both pleasure and profit. To see some reviews of A Normandy Tapestry, click here. To read a sample chapter, click here. To read about Selling French Dreams, the sequel to A Normandy Tapestry, click here |
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And
there is a wider family. Every English visitor remarks that Normandy is 'Like England when
I was a child'.