France With My Father

October 15, 2013

Retired librarian Volkmar chronicles her travels in France with her elderly father as companion. In two three-week trips, they visit Paris, Normandy, Provence, Bordeaux, and the Dordogne. She describes food, flea markets, traffic, tourist sights, and their encounters with French people. During their first journey, the travelers visit places related to two artists: her French ancestor, painter and potter Charles Volkmar, and Paul Cezanne, the protagonist in the novel she is writing. Over a year later, Volkmar and her father return to France and explore the region where her French grandmother, who appears throughout as the subject of fond memories, lived. The final chapter explains the methods that the author and her father used to connect with others, such as sharing pictures. VERDICT Yet another book of armchair travel to France that offers little that is new. Sometimes Volkmar focuses too much on minor details, such as when she reports what they ordered for meals or discusses her nostalgia for the bidet. Like an evening spent listening to an aunt's vacation tale, this title is pleasant but not memorable.--Janet Clapp, N. Clarendon, VT

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