3.74 AVERAGE

marcstuartpacitti's profile picture

marcstuartpacitti's review

4.0

A warm bath of a book - funny, informative, and personable. Almost makes me want to take up cycling.

A delicious extremely enjoyable foodie cycle romp through France, even when it rains and the author finds everything closed. Cloake writes with self-deprecation, openness and humour that mostly leads to continous chuckling rather than rolling eyes over suspected exaggeration and somehow manages to eat it all - including three boeuf bourguignons in 24 hours without having a heart attack - it's all those kilometres!

Handing it round all my family and friends who love France. Chapeau!
funny informative lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

A very lovely jaunt around France & very funny 

A pleasant enough read over a busy week when it was nice to have something undemanding on the go. Cloake is a food writer for The Guardian who embarks on a cycling and eating trip across France. Her writing style would make for fun letters home (if people still wrote those), but was rather repetitive for a 300+ page book - looong digressive sentences, jolly-hockey-sticks enthusiasm, hills that are very hilly and hard to cycle, rain that is very wet and falls from the sky, restaurants that are closed (boo!) or open (yum! or not!), potato chips and nuts to be had from Relay shops at the train station, friends who show up and cycle and munch and drink with her for a bit then go home, campsites that are damp or loud or what have you. I think I would have preferred more France and the French, and less Brits-abroad. I did like Cloake and think it would be great fun to be friends with her, so this nudges it up to a 3.

An utter delight from start to finish, the travel writing is hilarious, the food writing exquisite. Like the best of MFK Fisher and Tim Moore combined.

Literaturu faktu prakticky nečtu (i o tomhle jsem si prvně myslela, že je to beletrie), ale tohle mě opravdu zaujalo. Tour de France mám ráda, a příběh ženy, která projela Francii na kole a u toho zkoumala francouzskou kuchyni zněl opravdu dobře. Akorát bych si teď dala croissant, to je trochu nevýhoda. Bavilo mě to, o francouzské kuchyni toho moc nevím a obdivuju každého, kdo je schopný ujet takové vzdálenosti na kole. Navíc jsou v knize i recepty, pokud si chcete něco uvařit.

I tried really hard to like this book, but after making it more than halfway through I put it in the "did not finish pile." I love the idea for the book, the writer has a great sense of humor, and the cover art is absolutely adorable! However, I spent a lot of time researching more information on the different French towns and food items mentioned throughout the book. I wish the writer would have done a better job at explaining these things within. Also, a lot of sentences were so long and daunting that I had to go back to reread them. Basically, a lot of words describing pretty much nothing - which is why I had to constantly do outside research of my own. Sadly disappointed in this one.

Dear god, this woman drank more liquor in the first 30 pages of the book than I have in my entire 28years on this planet. Could not finish

What a fabulous book. If you enjoy any combination of France (and the French), cycling, food and comedy you will love this.
adventurous informative inspiring lighthearted fast-paced