Laura Bradbury

My Grape Year by Laura Bradbury
Starts out with her leaving BC, Canada and heading to France=not her first choice for one year of school abroad.
Lots of travel and new things for her to get used to. The girl that she's taking the place of is leaving to head to the USA for her year abroad.
Lots of things to consider and wonder about as she is served coffee in a bowl rather than a mug.
She had studied French in school but didn't like it so didn't learn so much. She is able to pick out a few words when others are talking. When she arrives her lugguage didn't make it-lucky she had packed shorts and a shirt in her carryon bag.
After spendng a day at the grandmothers they arrive back at the familys house where there is a older son who speaks English who's most helpful to her lack of speaking in French.
After school starts she finds everything so confusing. Especially love the lesson in how to taste wine-i knew some of the parts but not all of them. Love that there are grapes nearby and by the title know I will learn more about the vineyard.
For the most part there is French being spoken and she has no idea what's being said-she can't study that way or learn anything and the book does not translate what is being said to us reading it.
There are four different host families that she stays with and she learns so much about the culture. There is food everywhere and it's described so much in detail you get hungry.
Laura is able to learn and harvest the grapes and the processes of making the wine. Learned so much about the grapes, so glad I read this book from the start to the finish.
Loved the four major parts of a good wine and how to tell once it's poured.
Her friend has a brother and when she meets him it's love at first sight....love family gatherings and all the food.
Especially liked the places visited, so much detail to descriptons.
Excerpt from the next book in the series is included at the end.… (más)

My Grape Village. Laura Bradbury. 2014. Apparently this is the last of the memoirs in this series. Laura and her family move back to France to buy and renovate another house and to buy and renovate a house for themselves. The two girls are now school age and they have to adjust to the French school system as do their parents. Laura and Franck run into the usual problems when trying to find suitable houses, but this time they know tradesmen, builders, and renovators who can help them As usual the descriptions of the food and wine are heavenly. If you like the other books in the series, you’ll like this one!… (más)