From Here You Can't See Paris: Seasons of a French Village and Its Restaurant

About this book

From Here You Cant See Paris is a sweet leisurely exploration of the life of Les Arques (population 159) a hilltop village in a remote corner of France untouched by the modern era. It is a story of a dying villages struggle to survive of a dead artist whose legacy began its rebirth and of chef Jacques Ratier and his wife Nolle whose bustling restaurant -- the villages sole business -- has helped ensure its future. The author set out to explore the inner workings of a French restaurant kitchen but ended up stumbling onto a wider much richer world. Whether uncovering the darker secrets of making foie gras hearing a chef confess his doubts about the Michelin star system or absorbing the lore of the land around a farmhouse kitchen table after a boar hunt Michael Sanders learned that life in Les Arques was anything but sleepy. Through the eyes of the author and his family the reader enters this world discovers its still-vibrant traditions of food cooking and rural living and comes to know the villages history sharing along the way an American familys adventures as they find their way in a place that is sometimes lonely often wondrous and always fascinating.