Book description
A sweet, leisurely exploration of the life of Les Arques (population
159), a hilltop village in a remote corner of France, untouched by the
modern era. It is a story of a dying village's struggle to survive, of
a dead artist whose legacy begins its rebirth, and of chef Jacques
Ratier and his wife, Noelle, whose bustling restaurant - the village's
sole business - has helped ensure its future.
The author set out to explore the inner workings of a French
restaurant kitchen but ended up stumbling onto a wider, much richer
world. Whether uncovering the darker secrets of making foie gras,
hearing a chef confess his doubts about the Michelin star system, or
absorbing the lore of the land around a farmhouse kitchen table after
a boar hunt, Michael Sanders learned that life in Les Arques was
anything but sleepy. Through the eyes of the author and his family,
the reader enters this world, discovers its still vibrant traditions
of food, cooking, and rural living, and comes to know the village's
history, sharing along the way an American family's adventures as they
find their way in a place that is sometimes lonely, often wondrous,
and always fascinating.
Michael S. Sanders, a former book editor and author of The Yard:
Building a Destroyer at the Bath Iron Works, lives in midcoast Maine
with his wife and daughter.
