On Rue Tatin : Living and Cooking in a French Town

by Susan Herrmann Loomis

Release Date: 30 April, 2002

Edition: Paperback

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Envy and Enchantment

There are many---perhaps too many---first-person narratives about adventurous Americans falling in love with Provence, with Tuscany, with Portugal, and deciding willy-nilly to move there, to buy and renovate a house. Invariable we laugh and sigh and commiserate with their struggles with the language, the culture, the habits of the natives, the rules and regulations of the government. But many of these, to my mind, fall far short of the ideal---which should be to create a feeling of both envy and enchantment. Ms. Loomis, with On Rue Tatin, does both. This book not only tells a wonderful story but tells it wonderfully. The sights, the sounds, the scents, the tastes, of building a new life in an old, old house in a small French town---a wonderfully-humorous and never-too-self-congratulatory voyage into the fulfillment of one person's life-dream: to live, work, and write in France. If you've ever used one of Ms. Loomis' excellent cookbooks in your kitchen, you'll know how thorough, precise, and user-friendly her writing is---I've never had to struggle with one of her recipes, no matter how obscure and unfamiliar the ingredients---and this memoir (which, joyfully, also includes recipes! Try the mussels in apple cider vinegar) gives further proof to the strength of her writing talents. A really lovely little book, sure to set the romantics among us daydreaming....

Mouth Watering

Susan Herrmann Loomis' book on living in the French countryside should come with a warning: Do not read this book hungry!
Not only does she end each chapter with some amazing recipes, but much of the book is spent in loving detail describing all the various types of food in the region.A baguette smeared with butter has never read better.
Similar in tone to Frances Mayes Tuscany books,but this is less about restoring a house and more about daily life in the town with her husband and child. Simple, and satisfying it is a charming and wonderful escapist read. One that when you finish, will make you want to brush up on your French, and book the next flight out.