Product Description

A beautiful book celebrating rural life in France and the simple luxuries of good food, wine and friendship, by the author of the bestselling The Ripening Sun.

How often have you eaten a mushroom that you picked yourself that morning? Or sat on a boat opening and eating oysters as you lift them from the sea? Or partaken of a seven course feast of game to celebrate the success of the chasse?

When Patricia Atkinson first moved to France, her intention was simply to establish a vineyard. Over the years, however, she found herself becoming integrated into a way of life.

La Belle Saison is a testament to the timelessness of the beautiful French countryside, the bounty of the land, and the generous-headed French neighbours who showed Patricia that a simple life has many rewards. In France, every season is ‘la belle saison’, offering up its gifts to those willing to appreciate and look after the land.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #316032 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-01
• Released on: 2006-04-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Patricia Atkinson has lived in south-western France for 15 years, having left her city job to work in the vineyards. Her first book, The Ripening Sun, describes her transition from novice amateur to expert, award-winning winemaker.

Customer Reviews

The Beautiful Season
La Belle Saison
Patricia Atkinson

The beautiful season! It surely is. Patricia Atkinson's second book begins with the timeless Ecclesiastes verse: A time ... A time ... A time ...

"It's late August in the Dordogne as I look out over towards the valley of Bergerac from the highest point of my land."

On the verge of another harvest at her vineyard in Gageac, she welcomes us. She pours and talks.

You recall how in The Ripening Sun I moved to a country whose language I did not know to begin a life I was not prepared for? The first red wine harvest turned to vinegar. Our savings drained away. Our marriage foundered. He returned to England. "I threw myself into work with a vengeance."

Now she's an accomplished vintner writing of seasons she shares with family, friends, neighbors, and visitors like us--of hunting wild boar, wild truffles, wild pigeons, wild cepe mushrooms; vines, geese, ducks, and oysters to cultivate.

Preparing a savory meal requires devotion. "They start with Jambourra, a soup of vegetables cooked in the stock that the black pudding was boiled in." Followed by fricassee cooked slowly with onions and carrots all day with meat that "simply" melts in the mouth, then fillets and chops grillade, salad, cheese, and dessert.

She writes in winter, a thousand words at a sitting. Her style is generous and reserved. When you find Patricia, you find her with granddaughters Amy and Beth; neighbors Gilles, Odile, and Juliana; and the lovely Edge who sweats out vendanges, writes zany whimsical hopeful poems, and passes along with Geoffrey, Madame Cholet, Comte de la Verrie, and Fidde.

Mouth-watering
I was not sure that Patricia Atkinson could top her first book (The Ripening Sun), but La Belle Saison comes close. It is a wonderful series of personal stories, of a tragic death of a friend, of various French farmers, hunters, and wine makers. I salivated over the meals that she described. The only disappointment: her wines are not available in the United States. I am saving my pennies with the hope of traveling to her winery and trying her wines there!

Boring. Disappointing.
Pros:
incredibly detailed
Cons:
incredibly detailed

The author describes daily routines in painstaking details (emphasis on the pain). On one hand I can learn all the tedious details of tending to a vineyard or going on the hunt or picking mushrooms (sic!). On the other hand, I caught myself skipping entire pages of boring details.
In some places I could use the expression "watch paint dry".

Overall, I felt sorry for Patricia - her obsession with work, her failure to hook up with Fidde (he dropped dead from the stress and never got to enjoy the fruit of his work). I was also shocked to learn that she was more concerned about the hail which destroyed her harvest than with Fidde's passing. I admire her hard work but understand why she ended up living alone. She is a rural version of career woman.

I also found it annoying that the book contained hundreds of french expressions and sentences which haven't been translated, not even in an annex. I do have a french dictionary at home, but you get the point.

An autobiography is always a tricky subject, especially when the most interesting event of one's life is a neighbour's dog dying of old age or having oysters for dinner with friends. Perhaps Patricia should stick with making her wine at which she says she is really good. I hope her wine is more exciting than her life!