Everyone who is British living in France profonde utters, as axiomatic, ‘France is like the Britain of our childhood’, by which they mean, depending on their certain age, the 1950s or the 1970s or 1990s. The idiom is so widely recognized that it titles various works in popular culture. In 1965, duo Sonny & Cher released “Sing c’est la vie” while the band Stereophonics came out with their own “C’est La Vie” in 2015.

I loved the plot of this book, although it did feel a little long when listening to it. Again, that could just be because of my dwindling attention span, but while I did enjoy the art heist aspect, it didn’t seem necessary. The story would’ve been better rounded out if our protagonist’s relationship with Marco, a childhood acquaintance, was the core plot point. Kid, Rose’s Paris fling, could’ve still been included in the story, but rather as another American turned Parisian simply guiding her throughout the city. It would’ve kept the jealousy trope that I, as an angst lover, always root for, relevant and balanced. In the grand scheme of it all, even when we learn about the details behind the great Parisian art heist, it seemed very anticlimactic. The consequence of it all just seemed very unrealistic. La Vie, According to Rose, Lauren Parvizi’s debut novel, is a compelling tale of grief, self-discovery, and new beginnings. Ever since I bought a house in rural France I have been attracted to this sort of guidepost book; my ignorance of France is not quite total, but there are innumerable blanks to fill. Sometimes a knowledgeable foreigner is best-placed to describe and explain the cultural differences in his adopted country. I feel enriched, bit by bit, by descriptions of food, custom, terroir, language and manners as interpreted by a sensitive and observant insider/outsider. A number of English-language books about French life and culture incorporate c’est la vie in their titles, such as the 2017 self-help book C’est La Vie: The French Art of Letting Go. Kedward quite rightly calls French education "the main vector of a unifying culture", consciously asserting the risks of losing what was so painfully and often violently fought for. The French are acutely aware (this is part of their anti-Americanism) of the difference between their enlightenment republic and the far more powerful version across the Atlantic - for the cause of which France bankrupted itself before its own revolution: America kept religion, enabling a return in recent years to the worst period of messianic empire-building and the assertion of an aggressive individualism which excludes the poor. For the French republic is also the interventionist state - thanks in part to the solid strength of the communists among the working class as well as among writers and intellectuals before and after the war: hospitals are excellent, trains run on time, city centres are relatively clean and civilised (though media-bloated insécurité has become a recent obsession). Economic liberalism, and France's various recessions, now threaten one of the most cherished values of the republic: to care materially for its citizens.Don’t get me started on her sisters, especially Lily. Actually, let me rephrase that. Don’t get me started on her Mom. Goodness gracious, they were all unbearable and Rose definitely should’ve cut all ties. It’s an unhealthy dynamic all around that clearly is serving nobody.

The most dramatic shift in society and culture is the post-war, post-colonial "transformation of France from rural to urban" - the ending of a traditional, still Catholic-based society in "a choreography of affluence": consumerism, in other words, happening in the context of a multicultural, globally porous environment which France is doing its best to accommodate. This marvellous book is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand why the survival of the French republic is more than one country's concern. John Lewis-Stempel has permanently moved to France and become a self-sufficient farmer in the Charente region, living in extremely rural France or “la France Profonde”. It reminded me all over again of why I threw up everything for the magic of La Belle France' Carol Drinkwater, author of The Olive Farm As for Rose’s character, I’m a little conflicted. As the oldest Zadeh sister, she’s a pathological people pleaser. I empathized with her, but there were many times when enough was enough. She didn’t stand up for herself until the very end of the novel and it made the pacing drag out too long only to feel rushed at the end. She let everyone walk all over her, and yes, I say let because, from her inner dialogue, it’s clear that this is a conscious decision. She believes that defending herself will ruffle too many feathers. That being said, I wish we saw more of Marco and Rose from the beginning. I just love a good uptight, reserved MMC. Bonus points because he’s an art history professor. There wasn’t much chemistry nor tension between the two of them, but if the plot were indeed changed so that their relationship was a centric narrative, there would’ve been plenty.For many years a farmer in England, John Lewis-Stempel yearned once again to live in a landscape where turtle doves purr and nightingales sing, as they did almost everywhere in his childhood. He wanted to be self-sufficient, to make his own wine and learn the secrets of truffle farming. And so, buying an old honey-coloured limestone house with bright blue shutters, the Lewis-Stempels began their new life as peasant farmers.

Sometimes rural France is older still. While we were house-hunting and renting the mill in the hedged bocage of northern Deux-Sevres the birdsong was of medieval intensity. Here, in our corner of woods and arable fields in eastern Charente-Maritime, we are at Renaissance level.The deepest division is not just between "right" and "left", as it was until recently in Britain, but between revolutionary and counter-revolutionary, secular Jacobin and Catholic royalist, still impassioned by the legacy of the revolution. Only recently has consensus, along with non-party issue politics and both localised and European campaigns, blurred the divide - the symbolic moment being perhaps the sinking of the Greenpeace boat Rainbow Warrior by the French secret services under a socialist government in 1985. In this book, he describes a year on his farm, the birdsong, the wildlife, the crops, the villagers and some of the nuances of French culture, all in his beguiling, poetic style. I watch Jean-Francois make his way from the Boulangerie to the Maisonette de la Presse. A journey of fifty yards, but it takes Jean-Francois quarter of an hour. A former notary in his early seventies, Jean-Francois shakes hands or bisous five different men and women - France is the republic of handshakes and kisses - and exchanges greetings, gossip and news with them all. These same people then greet and talk with others in a slow, slow quadrille.