Finding Fontainebleau: An American Boy in France

Finding Fontainebleau: An American Boy in France

A beguiling memoir of a childhood in 1950s France from the much-admiredÂ New York TimesÂ bestselling author ofÂ The Piano Shop on the Left Bank

"Like the castle, [Carhart's] memoir imaginatively and smoothly integrates multiple influences, styles and whims."â€”The New York Times
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For a young American boy in the 1950s, Fontainebleau was a sight both strange and majestic, home to a continual series of adventures: a different language to learn, weekend visits to nearby Paris, family road trips to Spain and Italy. Then there was the chÃ¢teau itself: a sprawling palace once the residence of kings, its grounds the perfect place to play hide-and-seek. The curiosities of the small town and the time with his family as expats left such an impression on him that thirty years later Carhart returned to France with his wife to raise their two children. Touring Fontainebleau again as an adult, he began to appreciate its influence on French style, taste, art, and architecture. Each trip to Fontainebleau introduces him to entirely new aspects of the chÃ¢teau's history, enriching his memories and leading him to Patrick Ponsot, the head of the chÃ¢teauâ€™s restoration, who becomes Carhartâ€™s guide to the hidden Fontainebleau.
Â Â Â Â Â What emerges is an intimate chronicle of a time and place few have experienced. In warm, precise prose, Carhart reconstructs the wonders of his childhood as an American in postwar France, attending French schools with his brothers and sisters. His firsthand account brings to life nothing less than France in the 1950s, from the parks and museums of Paris to the rigors of French schooling to the vast chÃ¢teau of Fontainebleau and its village, built, piece by piece, over many centuries. Finding Fontainebleau is for those captivated by the French way of life, for armchair travelers, and for anyone who has ever fallen in love with a place they want to visit over and over again.

From the Hardcover edition.
Country USA
Manufacturer Penguin Books
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2016-05-17
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Penguin Books
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2016-05-17
Format	Kindle eBook

Finding Fontainebleau: An American Boy in France

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