Detour de France : An Englishman in Search of a Continental Education Paperback / softback
by Michael Simkins
Paperback / softback
Description
Though happy enough with his lot, Michael Simkins has never truly shaken the nagging doubt - helpfully upheld by his partner Julia - that he somehow lacks worldly sophistication.
While she spent her teenage years as a nanny on a boat moored at Cannes, his utter lack of travel experience (Weymouth, Cleethorpes and a day trip to Dieppe) still has the power to shock people into leaving dinner parties early. So as he hits middle-age, Michael takes up the challenge of broadening his horizons.
He decides to improve himself in the same way English gentlemen lacking refined edges have for centuries: by learning from our more cultured French neighbours.
Michael, an English provincial ingenue, sets off to discover just what the Gallic nation can teach him and the rest of us Anglo-Saxons about living the good life with equal parts elan and savoir-faire.
Armed only with 50 Useful Phrases in French, he waits to see if his odyssey from La Manche to the Riviera will finally turn him from the scotch-egg eating spawn of Anne Widdecombe and John McCririck into the champagne-sipping love child of Serge Gainsbourg and Catherine Deneuve.
Julia is saying a prayer for him at Lourdes.
Information
-
Item not Available
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:320 pages
- Publisher:Ebury Publishing
- Publication Date:07/05/2009
- Category:
- ISBN:9780091927523
Other Formats
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Information
-
Item not Available
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:320 pages
- Publisher:Ebury Publishing
- Publication Date:07/05/2009
- Category:
- ISBN:9780091927523