At My French Table: Moving To France
Food & Drink / Cooking / French Travel / France / Memoir Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs Family & Relationships / Life Changes Regional & Ethnic / French Cuisine Essays & Travel Writing Illustrated / Gift Books
Jane Webster’s At My French Table: Moving to France is the warm, sun-drenched memoir every francophile dreams of owning. In 320 illustrated pages, the Australian author invites readers to follow her young family as they abandon corporate Melbourne for a crumbling nineteenth-century château in Normandy. What begins as a daring leap becomes a delicious love letter to French country life—morning markets for white asparagus, neighbourly lessons on perfect pâté, and restoring a walled potager while raising four children amid the orchards. Random House’s 2014 trade paperback is generously sized (9" × 7.2") and crammed with colour photographs, handwritten menus and watercolours that make every flip feel like opening a friend’s travel journal.
Unlike standard cookbooks or travel guides, Webster blends recipes with real-life storytelling: you learn to bake the apple tart the local mayor requests for fêtes, but you also discover how to negotiate with guarded village suppliers or survive a Norman winter when the ancient boiler gives out. The food writing is practical—think step-by-step coq au vin and tips on sourcing inexpensive Sauternes—yet the emotional arc turns the meals into milestones of belonging. Readers come away knowing not just how to whip up a silky chocolate mousse, but why sharing it at a long table of new friends can anchor a brand-new life abroad.
Collectors value this first English edition (ISBN 9780670078240) for its oversized, image-heavy format that rarely survives in clean condition; this acceptable copy from a smoke-free home still delivers every vibrant photo and sidebar, making it an affordable entry point into Webster’s world. Whether you’re planning a move to France, hunting for authentic regional recipes, or simply craving an escape that feels both grounded and magical, At My French Table offers the next-best seat to a farmhouse feast under the apple trees.
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