Happy New Year to you all, I hope
2015 brings health, happiness and lots of time spent in France, or at least
reading about France!
It’s the 7th Day of
Christmas and my review today is for by Bonnes Vacances: A Crazy Family Adventure in the French Territories
by Rosie Millard. This is a
travel memoir of an epic family voyage around the French overseas departments - it's France, but not the France I know.
by Rosie Millard. This is a
travel memoir of an epic family voyage around the French overseas departments - it's France, but not the France I know.
Rosie and her brave and
adventurous family decide to boldly go where few have gone before and spend
three months visiting the French overseas departments that are spread out over
the five continents of the world. Many of them don’t get huge numbers of
tourist visitors, so arriving with a young family in tow and trying to film a
low budget documentary along the way proved to be quite a challenge, especially
for their four children. It was a real adventure for the whole family and each
chapter started with a diary excerpt from one of her daughters. I thought this
was a lovely touch, as it was nice to read their thoughts as well as Rosie’s.
Whilst she gushes with the romantic ideas of turning up at their next gîte or auberge, the reality often means employing the British stiff upper lip and
grinning and bearing the sweat encrusted pillows, bare light bulbs and
cockroaches. I’m not sure I could have stayed in some of the places they
stayed. One memorable evening saw their daughter disturbing a burglar while
they were dining at the home of the chief of police in Guiana where iguana was
being served in their honour and they came very close to losing all their
valuables. It was certainly a trip packed full of experiences.
I learned a lot about the
history, geography and culture of the French Dom-toms in this entertaining
read, but I’m not sure it has made me want to jet off to embrace the outré-mer life. I don’t think it is the France for me, I’m
more an Ardeche gorges and Bordeaux city type of girl.
Bonnes Vacances! is published by
Summersdale Publishers and is available in paperback and ebook format. Links to
Amazon are below.
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