Customer Reviews

From Here, You Can't See Paris: Seasons of a French Village and Its Restaurant

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I loved this book. As an American who lives half time in France, a former restauranteur and ardent Francophile, it had all the things that most interest me here. A type of lifestyle very similar in many ways to the rural people who live all around me in Normandie, the story of a restaurant struggling to survive and prosper, as all small business owners do, and the experiences of an expatriate family who tried their best to assimilate into the French culture, something which is very hard for unilingual Americans to do.

My part time home is located just down the road in Lapeze.Though fearful of the crowds swarming this lovely Lot if this book is popular, Michael Sanders writes with knowledge and heart. His stories ring true and treat our wonderful locals with the respect they deserve without the sentimentality or pompousness of other books about the region. His words remind me of how lucky I am to be in this area and it has been very educational for me and will make my next visit even more wonderful.Le recreation is a supurb restaurant and its owners charming. Cest bon!!

Michael S. Sanders has beat both Peter Maysles & Frances Mayes at their own game. Too bad his book sales don't seem to reflect it!

"From Here You Can't See Paris" is written with a clear-eyed understanding of the hardships of picturesque rural life. Instead of being slightly patronizing towards the backwards locals & their quaintly amusing ways, Michael Sanders earns himself a place in the life of Les Arques by participating on an equal footing rather than as the newest deep-pocketed employer in the area. This is the France that I want to live in, an area trying desperately to retain it's ancient character while refusing to be an anachronism. The locals show great ingenuity in conceiving ways to achieve this. Michael Sanders documents their efforts, as well as informing the reader of the mechanics of such famed French food products as foie gras. The section on how foie gras is produced is fascinating, as is his description of daily life in a French restaurant.

The only reason this book rates 4 stars instead of 5 (really, it should be 4.5, but again, Amazon doesn't allow partial points) is Sanders occasional Americanism. I was taken aback when Sanders described his dismay at his 5 year old daughters increasing "Frenchness". His wishing for "playdates" & typical American media diversions such as a local multiplex were annoying to me. The descriptions of Les Arques & the local school seemed all a parent could want for a healthy, intelligent & well-adjusted child; why yearn for a sullen, over-stimulated American brat?

Those carps aside (& they are purely my own reactions to French culture) "From Here You Can't See Paris" has helped me to determine my future lies in France.

After I read chapter 3, "Monsieur le mairie," I knew that I not only liked this book, but loved it. This is a book of very warm, real portraits of French people in a small community and of vivid and pleasant images of a village and the countryside around it. The book centers on the village of Les Arques in the valley of the Lot River, which lies below the better known valley of the Dordogne, and it is loosely center around a restaurant, La Recreation, and the dedicated proprietors, Jacques and Noelle. Although I am not interested in restaurants and cooking, I found myself fascinated. Not only did I learn about the life of a small, yet dedicated restaurant, but about the farmer who lovingly came to grow produce for it. And about the many other relationships of Les Arques that spell the familial essence of being French. I learned about the trials of producing truffles, of raising ducks for foie gras, and of eking out a living in rural France. Yet it is a happy book, a joyous book, a real book, and a loving book. When the author returned to America, it was almost as difficult for me to say good-bye to Les Arques.

This is a delicately written account of a small village, its local restaurant, and its agricultural life, the village residing in the valley of the Lot river in central France. The book is also the record of encounters with a number of memorable, wise, and (mostly) kind village people and is, moreover, redolent with the aroma of truffles, foie gras, and the dark wine of Cahors. Reading it, one learns a great deal about farming in that part of the world, and about what is required to create a really first rate restaurant. I consider this admirable book to be in the splendid tradition exemplified by M.F.K. Fisher, Freda White, and Adam Gopnik.

A friend who lives in the Lot recommended this as essential reading prior to our recent trip to visit her. Although at first I feared that this book would be another cloying American-in-Europe travelogue, I happily found that Sanders presents a balanced and gracious treatment of a place that obviously captured his heart. He resists gushing encomiums and treats his subject matter with restraint and some degree of objectivity. Having said that, I should add that he also enthuses when he feels inclined to do so, and these sections generate a warm glow without excessive sugar-coating. The book hooked us, and after we arrived in the region, we undertook a two-hour drive through the backroads of the Lot to walk through the village, visit the museum, and, of course, lunch at La Recreation. It is always difficult to reconcile the experience of a place in the flesh with one's mental image from a book, but Sanders captured the magic of the place deftly. The lunch, by the way, was magnificent.

Michael Sanders spent a wonderful year in Les Arques, a small town in the Lot, a rural area in southwest France. We're lucky that his absorbing memoir takes us along. Meet Jacques and Noelle, who have rescued the restaurant housed in the empty schoolhouse; the local farmers who grow the restaurant's produce and supply its meats; the town fathers who shepherded the restaurant renovation to help rejuvenate the town; and the villagers who give Les Arques its special warmth. This book will transport you to the Lot and you will enjoy the journey immensely.

This book adroitly combines fascinating pictures of daily life in Les Arques with discussion of larger themes. Sanders offers keen insights into French rural culture and the economic and social forces that shape the fortunes of farming communities. The difficulties of running a small farming enterprise are formidable in this age of mass agriculture; Sanders' depictions of the farmers' patience, dedication and creativity in maintaining their land and bringing their wares to market are vivid and moving.

Sanders's book is also an absorbing travelogue-- you'll learn the ins and outs of touring the Lot region and benefit from the lodging, dining and travel advice contained in an appendix. And armchair gourmands will find a mouthwatering read in the meals prepared by Jacques and Noelle for their fortunate patrons.

Buy, read and enjoy-- you'll be transported to a wonderful corner of the world.

I've just finished reading From Here You Cant See Paris and think that others would enjoy it as I did. The author describes a year his family spent in the tiny town of Les Arques in the Lot region of France. He had arranged to observe the workings of the only restaurant in town, La Recreation. His relation with the chef and his wife is at the core of the account, but he developed relations with many others. The description gets under the skin of the community to show the gradual erosion of rural life. Young people move away, schools close, residents grow old, buildings and equipment deteriorate, and farms are abandoned. Only tourism and vacationers offer a hope of an economic base. But, tourists and second-home owners change the region.

Its not an all gloomy account. There are wonderful descriptions of truffle cultivation, dinner service at the restaurant, the town election and inauguration, duck farming and the preparation for foie gras, and the craggy land, farms and farmhouses.

The book is both enjoyable and educational; an uncommon mix. If you are interested in the flow of essential daily activities, the reasons for why things are as they are, and, stimulation to speculate on what the future may hold you will find the book a compelling read.

For those who like to go beyond the stereotyped French cultural image portrayed in so many romanticized books and guides, Michael Sanders gives you an accurate picture on how rural French life really is. It takes patience, skill and understanding not only to discover, but also to skillfully describe it in a book. The rewards on what Michael Sanders was able to experience in Les Arques are something many people will never have the luck of experiencing. His book will give those who don't have the luxury of spending a year in the Lot, a very satisfying sense of being there themselves.

This book is required reading if you plan to visit this region of France. Most North Americans have never really learned about the art (and science) of the production of fois gras, and the I found the chapter dedicated to that subject to be truly fascinating and educational...probably the best chapter in the book. Another excellent section is the discussion of the French obsession with the Michelin star rating system of restaurants. Both of these chapters give you a good look into the French food culture...one on the specific production techniques of one of the very most "French" of foods, and the other a look into the (macro) French psyche of food as a central part of life and culture.

This book, along with "A Castle in the Backyard" are two good narratives of life in the Dordogne/Lot region of France.