Embodying the Francophile dream, Carole Bumpus merrily depicts herself and her gang of travellers as enthusiastic and bumbling gourmands let loose in southern France, and she kindly packs us into her luggage so we can escape to the Côte d’Azur with her!
Adventures on Land and Sea is the most recent instalment in Carole’s series Savoring the Olde Ways – a collection of culinary-travel memoirs roaming across the length and breadth of France (with a brief sojourn to Italy to slurp on pasta alla vongole for Book Three). Now we are firmly back in French territory, or should I say terroir, a theme pivotal to the whole series. This ‘taste and identity of the land’ is revealed in all of Carole and the gang’s day-trips, whether it’s to the market or cooking classes, or to taste wine and olive oil where all of the friends come to the realisation that the apparent flavours of “artichoke”, “apple” and “almond” don’t so easily spring to mind.
Carole and her husband Winston are seasoned travellers. On this excursion they are exploring Provence – Nice, Nîmes, Moustiers, Marseilles, San Tropez, and San Remy – along with a gaggle of friends and family, first by car, then – as the title suggests – by boat.
The year is 1997. This vacation to France pre-dates Google Maps and, most importantly, Google Translate. Booking hotel rooms took place over the phone rather than online. Consider all the avoidant ways we don’t learn languages today, and suddenly Carole’s trip is an educational one! As she explains, their well-thumbed guide – and phrasebooks, are essential travel companions, but so is a lot of head bobbing and smiling. Yet, she very successfully books hotel rooms and dinner reservations – dare I say she is fluent in French by the end?
At the book’s centre is, of course, food. This is where our author’s heart lies. Carole recounts the exquisite meals she enjoys throughout her journey – no doubt finding kindred spirits in her readers who whole-heartedly agree with her when it comes to eating “anytime, anywhere… And while in Provence, I refused to be denied… my goal in life has been to sample my way across France.” And eat well she does, every meal a celebration of fresh, local Provençal ingredients and southern French living, all accompanied by the scent of lavender, with a glass of wine in hand.
Then, when you’re so jealously hungry you could eat the book, she distracts you with lessons in Provençal culture and history. Visits to Le Palais des Papes and Arènes d’Arles plunge us into the depths of French history, but Carole’s writing gently takes us by the hand and guides us along as we follow her and her friends around the region’s jaw-dropping sites. Fun facts ease us through the thousands of years, such as the location of Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night or the prison which held the Man in the Iron Mask in the 17th century.
And it doesn’t end there – oh no – as ahoy mateys, it’s time to board the boat and sail along the Côte d’Azur! The group chug into ports dotted along the coast, feasting on platters of seafood, admiring the superyachts docked nearby, and swimming in the crystalline waters after long days at sea.
Carole’s explorations of Provence are a pilgrimage of sorts, a return to the land and sea she worships, for the friends she meets along the way, the blunders and banter with her gang, and her manna from heaven – French cuisine. Reading Adventures on Land and Sea you can’t help but agree with her and yearn to be invited next time!
Available as an e-book or print (published November 2024), ISBN: 978-1647427726
