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My French Platter by Annemarie Rawson: book review

 



 

My French Platter: A Journey to a Dream Life in France (2020) is set in south-west France. 

 

Private tour operators in New Zealand, Annemarie and her husband Steve, in their early 50s, get a caretaking job in France to manage a private 15th century farmhouse, Mas de Lavande, that belongs to a London couple. Near Brens, it is a ‘three-storeyed, cream-coloured stone farmhouse, with old wooden shutters painted in a light moss-green colour.’ But, to their shock, they don’t live in the farmhouse – they live in a renovated pigeonnier– a house for pigeons – until their cottage is ready.

 

The farmhouse looks nothing like the brochure. There is much renovation work to do, and they need to learn French, plant vegetables, cook, and learn how to operate a guest house.

 

Finally the farmhouse is ready for guests. But country life is not easy, especially when it involves looking after animals. Worse than that are their domineering English bosses Sarah and Tristan. Then the Cornwall Art Club arrives for a week’s vacation. It starts well, but … it certainly doesn’t end well. 

 

It is such an ordeal that Annemarie and Steve have to decide whether to stay or leave. Things have a way of working out, even if in unexpected ways. 

 

This is a light, easy, and quick read. And there are some French recipes at the end. 

 



 

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MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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