Picnic in Provence
Title: Picnic in Provence
Author: Elizabeth Bard
Publisher: Harper Collins
What’s it all about?
A delicious follow up to Lunch in Paris this time the author takes readers to the heart of Provence.
In Lunch in Paris, Elizabeth Bard fell in love with a handsome Frenchman and moved to the City of Light.
But life c ahangesnd on a last romantic jaunt before a baby arrives, the couple take a trip to the tiny Provencal village of Céreste. A chance encounter leads them to the wartime home of a famous poet, a tale of a buried manuscript and a garden full of heirloom roses. Under the spell of the house and its unique history, in less time than it takes to flip a crepe, Bard and Gwendal decide to move – lock, stock and Le Creuset – to the French countryside.
In this book, the couple and their newborn son bid farewell to Paris for rural life in a tiny village in Provence – land of blue skies, lavender fields and peaches that taste like sunshine.
This is the story of how they embarked on a new adventure and became culinary entrepreneurs, starting an artisanal ice cream shop and experimenting with local ingredients like saffron, sheep’s milk yogurt and olive oil. Along the way, challenges abound, from renovating a historic cottage to navigating new motherhood (French style), but Bard meets them with her trademark honesty and humour.
Full of discoveries, mishaps, feasts, and recipes, Picnic in Provence is about everything that happens after the happily ever after, and reminds us that life, in and out of the kitchen, is a rendezvous with the unexpected.
It is a memoir, love story and recipe book all rolled into one delightful story.
Filled with enticing recipes for stuffed zucchini flowers, fig tart and honey & thyme ice cream, Picnic in Provence is the story of everything that happens after the happily ever after: an American learning the tricks of French motherhood, a family finding a new professional passion, and a cook’s initiation into classic Provencal cuisine.With wit, humor and scoop of wild strawberry sorbet, Bard reminds readers that life – in and out of the kitchen – is a rendez-vous with the unexpected.
Bard is an American journalist and author based in Provence, France. Her first book, Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes, was an Australian bestseller as well as a New York Times and international hit, and the recipient of the 2010 Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best First Cookbook.
Sue Wallace
© Copyright The Finer Things
