Really Rural: Authentic French Country Interiors (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Boyer (The French Cafe, Thames & Hudson, 1994) visits homes from Brittany to Provence to show examples of authentic country living from which the popular stylized country decorating takes its inspiration. She has captured a lifestyle that is soon to disappear, as France moves away from its agrarian base. Through photographs and text, she gives a detailed, intimate look at the lifestyle of the inhabitants of a few rural homes and shows how the home is decorated, highlighting an item such as a cherished mantel cloth or cooking utensils. She concludes with a list of museums that display regional items as well as a list of sources for purchasing such items. Recommended where there is an interest in country life and the country style.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

At the end of the twentieth century, the sophisticated are turning from steel, plastic, and nylon to old rustic pans and pottery, furniture and textiles, tastefully displayed in urban apartment or second home in the country. There remain areas in France, far from the big cities and the tourist trails, where the realities of the old rural way of life can still be found, though it is fast disappearing. Marie-France Boyer, with her sensitivity for the extraordinary in the everyday, has traveled widely to seek out these interiors of genuine French country working life. She presents them, and the people who live in them, in a series of wonderful photographs--most taken especially for this book--of kitchens and stove corners, living rooms and bedrooms, odd souvenirs and family mementoes. The country people who follow the old traditions are now in their seventies and older. They use the bowls, baskets, and smoke-blackened pots that their parents and their grandparents used before them--they still call these objects by old local names, now forgotten by those who left the land. Their homes are working interiors, functional and mostly very frugal. Ancient family tables and wardrobes jostle with refrigerators and televisions, and plastic lace and fifties-style wallpaper are as popular as the traditional striped mattresses and flowery eiderdowns. Next to the family clock, candlesticks stand with oil lamps, both replaced by electric light in the 1940s. A fascinating record of old rural French ways of living, the book also provides information on places to buy the traditional furniture and objects, and on the regional museums that commemorate this disappearing lifestyle.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 108 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson; illustrated edition edition (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500017999
• ISBN-13: 978-0500017999
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 8.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #590,050 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshingly Real, January 6, 2001

By	Willow Coyote "coyotehome2" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews

It is a sorrow that the reader from McLean, Virginia, was disappointed with this book. I found it to be a valuable connection to the past and a welcome reality check for the future. While we benefit from select technology, this book reinforced to me that not all modern "conveniences" have necessarily enriched our lives. This book is a look back to a time when the world moved more slowly; when the physical demands of country life sculpted muscular bodies, when a stubborn farm animal was more unforgiving than any personal trainer and when we could nestle into our beds at the end of the day to enjoy sound, unmedicated slumber. This book beautifully illustrates that "keeping it simple" is not just a magazine title or a lifestyle choice; that daily life woven in and around the rhythmic renewal of the seasons brings with it the unspoken awareness of one's place and one's purpose in the universe. This is not the urban, armchair tourist's source for "decorating ideas," nor the suburban, weekend farmer's guide to garden planning - you will not find the items celebrated within at Smith and Hawken. You will find an insightful look into the real lives of real people, all of whom I found to be far more dignified than depressing. Further, the respect that these people afford the animals and the land they depend on for their sustenance is a model we would all do well to study - no genetically-engineered or altered food on their tables. "Free-range" food before it was trendy. Making "your own" absolutely everything before Martha Stewart made a billion bucks off of selling the concept just for the bragging rights. I am grateful to the people who agreed to be interviewed for this book. In the society we live in now, experiencing simplicity without an agenda made this book a delight.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars charming view of rustic life, February 16, 2000

By A Customer

The "review" below made me laugh out loud! Obviously the reader has the "french poodle" view of rustic life in France and little familiarity with the real thing. This is a fine book displaying an exquisite level of detail and an authentic view of agricultural life on ancient soil. Very, very nice, indeed, and a solid reference.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Either you'll love it or cry reading it..(see reviews below), May 11, 2000

By	www.delalonde.com (Chateau-Bois-Briand, Nantes,Loire-Valley,France) - See all my reviews

Rural France is a perfect complement to "cafés" from the same author. Marie France Boyer is one of the most sensitive authors that I know. Her books are the best documented you might ever search for (see her book about Marie-Antoinette in Versailles asin:0500016909 ). She is a reference in terms of elegance, good taste and french etiquette. Most of all, she really loves people. If you really love people, you'll really love "Really rural". If your roots are rural or if you think your grand-grand mama came from a tiny village in Europe, buy this book. You might cry looking at these old women posing close to their Aga cooker in the center of their kitchen/living-room/bed-room. The most exciting feature of this book lies in the fact that you can still meet thousands of people and interiors like this in France, and spend good time with them. These peasants will allways be happy to meet you. You might be the only person who will have visited them since months. Within ten years, most of these houses and people will have disappeared. Because of new security regulations, all the items that make these interiors warmful will be removed: coal heater, wood chimneys, candle lights, dwells in the garden. Cheese will never be made anymore on the sink of the kitchen. Come and take pictures. Then send them to your new friends from France. They will frame them and fix them on the wall above the fireplace. Near Bois-Briand (Nantes) where we live, you can discover many of these wonderful, inspiring interiors and people. Come and visit us.