French Letters is based on the letters and records of an Australian francophile who has spent most of his leisure time, and a good deal of his working life, in France and the French-speaking world. The reminiscences range over Paris, of course, Bordeaux and Lyon with their rich historic and gastronomic treasures; regional corners such as Grignan, in Provence, with its elegant literary connections, and the curiously-named Condom (in Gascony) with its links to the "Three Musketeers", and then Marseille with its maritime links to the French colonial world and to Outremer, to far-away French-influenced places such as Egypt, Indochina, Madagascar, New Caledonia, Quebec, Reunion Island and Tahiti. This is a light-hearted and yet thoughtful view of a wide and often little-known world, presented here in an easily accessible form for dreamers, adventurers, and armchair travellers.
French Letters is based on the letters and records of an Australian francophile who has spent most of his leisure time, and a good deal of his working life, in France and the French-speaking world. The reminiscences range over Paris, of course, Bordeaux and Lyon with their rich historic and gastronomic treasures; regional corners such as Grignan, in Provence, with its elegant literary connections, and the curiously-named Condom (in Gascony) with its links to the "Three Musketeers", and then Marseille with its maritime links to the French colonial world and to Outremer, to far-away French-influenced places such as Egypt, Indochina, Madagascar, New Caledonia, Quebec, Reunion Island and Tahiti. This is a light-hearted and yet thoughtful view of a wide and often little-known world, presented here in an easily accessible form for dreamers, adventurers, and armchair travellers.