La Belle Saison: Living Off the Land in Rural France

In this sequel to her international bestseller, The Ripening Sun, Patricia Atkinson limns a way of life centered on the seasons, the food, and the wine of the glorious French countryside. When Patricia Atkinson first moved to France, her intention was simply to establish a vineyard. Over the years, however, she found herself drawn into a way of life that, had she stayed in England, she would have scarcely believed existed. Grounded in the rhythms of the land and the seasons, daily life in Patricia's southwestern corner of France is dictated by a series of rituals and celebrations that have largely vanished in our age of supermarkets. La Belle Saison is a hymn to this way of life: a testament to the timeless beauty of the French countryside, her generous-hearted French neighbors, and the gifts that are offered up to those who care for the land.