France

[John Whiting]

“France is still a country where you can sit down at their midmorning snack with the workers who have come to fix your plumbing and talk seriously about Grandmother’s daube; it is also a place where you can write about it with what can only be called rigorous sensual intellectuality.” “Simple French Food”, _Pot on the Fire_, p.353.

John, that says it all. Did you ever consider moving to France, if only for part of the year?

[Jonathan Day]

And to follow this up ... have you visited France? If so, did it meet your expectations?

[John Thorne]

I think about it all the time. Whether I would ever actually do it is another thing entirely. What I would like to have is the opportunity to spend a year there, either in a Parisian suburb or some out of the way city, just to absorb the rhythm of things and find my way about at my own speed. You might well ask "Why France? Why not Spain? Portugal? Italy?" My answer, such as it is, is that what we're talking about is frustrated youth. If I had gone then I might have less interest in going now. But my one experience of Paris (when I was sixteen) was so overwhelming and short that it was like being thrust through a banquet by the scruff of the neck. But the logistics of this AND keeping Simple Cooking appearing on people's doorsteps (and the renewals appearing on mine) make this all highly unlikely. At the very least, it calls for organization skills that are far beyond me.