A hilarious and heartfelt memoir of embracing life in rural France, from the bestselling author of I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do) and (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living.At 47, Mark Greenside, a glass-is-half-empty native New Yorker living in California, unwillingly went to Brittany, and to his great amazement and surprise fell in love with the place and its people. Then, be...

It was the best of the worst of times, the worst of the best of times, the beginning of the end of the beginning. That’s how this story begins. It’s late 70’s, early 80’s, New York City, and nothing works. No place is safe. Porn is everywhere. The streets are filthy, and the subways are worse. Trust is committing suicide—love is abused, and institutions and individuals are corrupt, corrupted, or corruptible. The City and country are disintegrating. Enter two of the unlikeliest characters y...

WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLEREvery year upon arriving in Plobien, the small Breton town where he spends his summers, American writer Mark Greenside picks back up where he left off with his faux-pas–filled Francophile life. Mellowed and humbled, but not daunted (OK, slightly daunted), he faces imminent concerns: What does he cook for a French person? Who has the right-of-way when entering or exiting a roundabout? Where does he pay for a parking ti...

From the author of I Am Finally, Finally French, this charming memoir, full of gorgeous descriptions of Brittany and at times hysterical encounters with the locals, Mark Greenside describes his initially reluctant journey to establish a life in France in this “heartwarming story” (San Francisco Chronicle).When Mark Greenside—a native New Yorker living in California, political lefty, writer, and lifelong skeptic—is dragged by his girlfriend to a ti...

Every year upon arriving in Plobien, the small Breton town where he spends his summers, American writer Mark Greenside picks back up where he left off with his faux-pas–filled Francophile life. Mellowed and humbled, but not daunted (OK, slightly daunted), he faces imminent concerns: What does he cook for a French person? Who has the right-of-way when entering or exiting a roundabout? Where does he pay for a parking ticket? And most dauntingly of all, when can he touch the tomatoes...

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...

It seemed like a good idea at the time. I had seen all those TV programmes. The dream of living in France was only a ferry ride away.But months later, my life was a nightmare. I didn't fit in with either the expats or the French, my husband had taken refuge in Star Trek and I had adopted a crazy dog that ate anything he could find, including my slippers.Faced with loneliness and very homesick for my family in the UK, I began to write a journal of my life.This is a war...

"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 ...

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...

The second book in the best-selling Mill of the Flea series, continuing the often farcical and always entertaining adventures of the author and his wife as they attempt to make a new life in rural France. Totally unlike any other book in travel literature.Following on from Home & Dry in France, René & Me sees the author and his wife moving across the Channel to try and live off the land and their wits in an isolated corner of Normandy. They arrive at the ruined Mil...

This hilarious collection of cautionary tales and anecdotes,discusses all the delights and drawbacks of finding,buying and restoring French property. Significantly subtitled A Year in Purgatory,Home & Dry in France follows the initial adventures of our innocents abroad en route to their 18th-century water mill.

France, the ever popular dream target. To live, to visit, long holidays, weekend breaks, France and especially the south eastern area with it's fantastic and varying countryside; everything from mountains to plains, huge rivers and the glorious Mediterranean sea. The pull is there. This book goes from one Scotsman's long time dream, encouraged by his teenage daughter, though the search to fulfillment encompassed in vivid descriptions of the wheres and the hows of wandering about this entic...