Among many excellent Christmas presents Cath got for me, one was this by one of my favourite French authors.

The only issue is, as I’ve mentioned before, M Mauvignier doesn’t like to use one word when he could use five.

For example in this passage where he uses:

Trous – holes

Anfractuosités– crevices

Crevasses – crevasse

Ravins– ravines

Plaies – cuts

As a result this book is somewhat of un pavé – a massive slab. It’s 744 pages long.

I wonder if that’s why one of the reviewers in France said:

Pourquoi Laurent Mauvignier veut-il punir les lecteurs qui ne lui ont rien fait ? 

Frédéric Beigbeder

Figaro Magazine

It is a epic story of one French family through the last 150 years.

I loved this description of a French village with its carotte rouge lumineuse (a tabac sign) and the echo of la croix verte (the pharmacy sign). Those are of course omni-present in all French towns and villages.

I would highly recommend it – but I might read a shorter book in English next.

Cath spotted something in the Times about 10 fascinating French museums that are nowhere near Paris – and one of them is right on our doorstep.

It is called Camp des Milles and is a former brickworks that became an internment camp that first housed German-speakers, then republicans Spanish and then Jews.

Two thousand people were transported from here to Auschwitz.

It was a real history lesson and you could see pictures and messages on the walls drawn by the detainees.

There was also a reminder of the need to stand up to things that you see that are wrong.

All in all, it was very moving and inspiring.

We even got a reduced price entry for senior citizens – which I was more happier about than Cath.