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Product Description
Product Description
The Quercy Blanc - named for its white stone - is a wild and sparsely populated area of rural France, squeezed between the great wine trading port of Bordeaux and the fizzing city of the south, Toulouse. It's home to the goose and the grape, sumptuous foiegras, the mysterious black truffle and world famous Agen prunes. There are miles of walnut groves and, most important of all, acres of vines. The author introduces us to some colourful local characters, freezes from the kneecaps down whilst braving the famous winter truffle market in Lalbenque, throws herself with Gallic gusto into numerous fetes and uncovers traces of the luminaries who once called this place home. From Champollion, who translated the Rosetta stone, to the illustrious Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose marriage to Henry Plantagenet brought the area to the English crown.
About the Author
Born in the sedate southern counties, Amanda Lawrence was blessed with pioneering parents who regularly bumped her down the primitive roads of continental Europe. The Quercy was always a favourite halt, slowly working its charm on her until she finally succumbed. It's now where she lives and works, overlooking the famous Cahors vineyards.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Holiday-makers passing through Quercy's seductive villages and vineyards, its little market towns and rambling old farms, its wild limestone plateaus and deep woodlands fantasize what it's like to actually live here year round. In White Stone Black Wine, Amanda Lawrence spills the beans in a light-hearted account of everyday life in the Lot. An accomplished chef, her passion for the seasonal bounty, local markets, the Black Wine of Cahors, and long lazy lunches comes out in every chapter, woven with tales of exuberant village fêtes, local history and peasant wisdom, and what happens when one gets sucked unknowingly into a lady's cleaning products party. Even if you've lived in this little nook of southwest France for years (as we have), White Stone Black Wine is a refreshing reminder of just why you moved here in the first place.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
We spent Christmas in the Lot with some friends and they introduced me to White Stone Black Wine and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I saw it described somehwere as a "light hearted romp through the Quercy" and that's exactly what it is. Sure it doesn't dwell on freezing winter temperatures (it was minus 5) or the economic crisis and such like. It is simply a delightful read that allows you to revisit the sights, sounds and smells of this region from the comfort of an armchair in front of the log fire - or better still a seat by the pool in summer sunshine. It captures the essence of a region and a way of life that has long disappeared in England, but which it is still possible to find in southern France - and long may it be so.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'd just like to second D Paul's review. I loved the author's descriptions of the local markets and those endless, convivial meals - I can well imagine she is an accomplished chef. She really gets the juices flowing and makes you want to hop on the first available train/plane. It's also refreshing to read a book ostensibly about moving to France but which isn't full of tales of woe about trying to find builders, trouble with the septic tank and so forth, nor poking fun at the locals. Instead, she focuses on the extraordinary warmth and generosity her neighbours. This book is more a celebration of life in rural France, while also covering a fair bit of local history and evoking the Lot's stunning landscapes.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Lightweight holday read.
Another "I went to live in France/Italy/Spain and met all these amusing locals" book, not what I had hoped for, but I suppose it is what it says in the title.
Published 15 months ago by Algy
Not quite what I had expected
Having read online the opening few pages of this book, I had high hopes that as a reader I would feel welcomed into a look at family life with a British family living in the... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Amandine
Pass the sick bucket!
What a dreadful book! It is so nauseatingly 'quaint' and, I think, patronising to the author's French neighbours that I struggled to finish it. Read more
Published 17 months ago by FemmeFranglaise
A charming visit to the Quercy!
I loved this perspective on Cahors and life in the Quercy. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to read about this area of France. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Donna J. Betts
Dull, dull, dull.
Did I say it was dull? Boring? It is. First of all, there is the high-handed way the author writes - everything is "quite" or "rather." That really got on my nerves. Read more
Published on 27 May 2010 by Swissmiss
Ideal Holiday Read
If you're going on holiday to France and want a relaxing and entertaining book about life in France - this is it. Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2009 by Francophile
A real insight that does not over-romanticise the Lot
The book is a pleasure to read. It paints a picture of life in the Lot, which rings true and does not over-romanticise it in the way that books of this kind sometimes do. Read more
Published on 4 Sep 2009 by Kernowlot
buy it
This is a lovely book, just dripping with the lazy art de vivre of Quercy life. In between the food, wine and markets - and I defy anyone to decribe them so evocatively-there are... Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2009 by stewart martin
Charming
I read this on a tour through the Dordogne & Lot but the tourist can only get a glimpse of life in the area. Read more
Published on 26 Jun 2009 by Marand
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