The French Country Diary 2009FROM THE PUBLISHER: Created by Linda Dannenberg and the photographer Guy Bouchet, who together have access to the private farmhouses and glorious gardens of the French countryside, THE FRENCH COUNTRY DIARY, now in its twentieth year, is a calendar of intimate glimpses and evocative still lifes. The images are ravishing. Terraced boxwood hedges framing a turreted château. Rows of homemade confitures in a rustic cupboard. A reading corner in the morning sunlight. As always, the gift box, cover, endpapers, and weekly entries are decorated with Provençal fabrics. Trés chic. FROM THE INTRODUCTION TO THE FRENCH COUNTRY DIARY 2007: "Of all the captivating 'departements' and provinces of France, none is more dramatically diverse than Provence. In visits here, you can plunge into the glittering waters of the Mediterranean, climb snow-dusted Alpine peaks, ride stocky white horses through the pampas of the Camargue, and pick lavender on the rolling hills of the hinterland. "In this year's FRENCH COUNTRY DIARY, we revel once again in the pleasures and variety of Provence, our first love. Our leisurely route, always favoring the smallest roads possible, took us from a glamorous hillside villa on the Cote d'Azur, up into the hilltowns of Grasse and Saint-Paul-de-Vence, west to Marseilles, then north to the antique-hunter's riverside mecca of l'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. A later sojourn began with a weekend in the elegant and historic city of Aix-en-Provence, with its charming Old Quarter and colorful outdoor markets, and segued up into the fashionable Luberon, where a veritable who's who of international 'personnages' live sequestered within lavishly restored farmhouse estates. Finally, we made our way to the sensuously beautiful Bouches-du-Rhone, a multihued and painterly pastiche of sunflower fields, lush vineyards, and lovely villages as welcoming to farmers on horseback as to film stars in black Ferraris. For the fifty-two weeks, we captured Provence in four seasons to offer you a bountiful year of promise and discovery." |
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