The wonderfully illustrated book “Feestelike Frankryk – Fabels en Geregte uit die Franse Platteland” by Louis Jansen van Vuuren, Hardy Olivier and Anet Pienaar is the coffee-table book version of moving to France and finding happiness there by three South Africans.
Most of us have read the books by British author Peter Mayle about giving up his career in rainy London and moving to Provence to be happy ever after. His books became a whole series about the difficulties of daily life that were always positively resolved under the blue sky and golden sun of the Cote d’Azur. Some of his books became movies, one of them with actor Russel Crowe, and the storyline never stopped to be fascinating. He died in 2018 in Provence, having spent almost half his life there and having done everything right, in the opinion of millions of slightly jealous readers.
There are other books by South Africans who moved to France, most prominent for a bigger (Afrikaans speaking) audience, by Marita van der Vyver. She wrote funny books about her fist steps in France, and afterwards interesting cook books, mixing the French and South African kitchen. She even hosted a TV show where she met other South Africans that had moved to France.
The book “Feestelike Frankryk”, also its English version “FESTIVE FRANCE: Reflections and Recipes from the French Countryside”, will never have a following anywhere in the range of Peter Mayle. As the authors Louis Jansen van Vuren, Hardy Olivier and Anet Pienaar write, the book is dedicated to family, friends, the French countryside, and everyone who loves art, food, and a festive lifestyle. The book feels like an homage to the happiness they undoubtedly feel about their (big!) second homes in France, the more relaxed lifestyle there, and also the possibility to live safely whilst not hiding their money and status.
Safety in South Africa comes at a high price to all people who own something, completely unimportant of the colour of their skin. The murder rate in South Africa is one of the highest in the world; ‘smash & grab’ robberies are a normality; weapons unfortunately are abundant.
Whilst nature is wonderful, people almost never walk in South Africa except in approved secure circumstances. For European and American tourists though, the money for value rate is incredible, especially when it comes to food or housing. People in South Africa are used to domestic help, children’s nannies, gardeners etc at a scale completely unknown in a first world country. The many millions without education and without chance to raising above their origins repeat the overall sense of inequality and insecurity in resource-rich South Africa.
This is very far away from the life shown on the pages of “Feestelike Frankryk”. Whilst Hardy Olivier and Louis Jansen van Vuren, a famous cook and an even more famous artist, bought their castle/palace/big country house first, Anet Pienaar and her husband Ton Vosloo bought theirs on the recommendation of their friends. All four are part of the South African upper class. Anet Pienaar heads the line by being a member of an old family of distinguished Afrikaner provenance and married to a very prominent husband.
Life in France is very different to South Africa and the authors proudly explain how they use trains and even public transport to reach their homes. They settled in the countryside almost in the middle of France, in the region of Boussac. There is no direct road to reach the border of the Limousin and Auvergne provinces – it is a certain travel time needed to arrive at the wonderful countryside. Often, although not especially mentioned in the book, this travel time is also an important part on the way of switching one’s mood from ‘work/normal home’ to ‘holiday home’, or from one continent to another.
On the front cover of the beautifully illustrated “Feestelike Frankryk” one can see Louis Jansen van Vuuren and Hardy Olivier sitting on a perfectly laid table in front of their renovated French palace, having a country dinner that lets us start dreaming. Candelabras, fine food, a perfect lawn, a big house, friends to celebrate and drink with, wonderful weather – this is what we probably all understand of a perfect day in our lives. The back cover shows the result of one of the many tasty recipes in the book, in this case a chocolate cake.
The structure of the book follows a clear line – Louis Jansen van Vuuren or Anet Pienaar tell a story about what they encountered in France, followed by a 3-course meal of regional recipes by Hardy Olivier. The recipes include a lot of rabbit and lamb – most of them sound delicious.
The pictures accompanying the texts are of a fantastic quality, most of them made by Inge Prins, a photographer known to the authors, some of them made by the authors themselves. With the pictures comes the main difference to all other books of people moving to other countries and finding happiness there. Most books only tell stories and most is left to our imagination. How the house looks, if the garden or the landscape are really so marvellous as described, how the authors present themselves, and so on. In “Feestelike Frankryk” you see it all. With the authors certainly not being poor, the result is terribly beautiful.
Why did Louis Jansen van Vuuren, Hardy Olivier and Anet Pienaar write the book? Not to make money or for fame, that is for sure. It is more like a declaration of pride in what they have created far from home, what their creativity, and also their adaptiveness to the old European lifestyle made possible.
Sometimes you want to create something for posteriority, something that stays on long after the children are out of the door, the houses have been sold, and even the protagonists having died. Only written words can achieve that safely, be it on paper or in the internet. Texts are a momentary snapshot of perfection and happiness, that brings one’s dreams to others.
On my bookshelf “Feestelike Frankryk” will have a prominent place for a very long time.
All rights to the book belong to:
Jansen van Vuuren, Louis / Olivier, Hardy / Pienaar, Anet: Feestelike Frankryk, Fabels en Geregte uit die Franse Platteland, 2009 (this version in 2011), published in 2009 by JONATHAN BALL UITGEWERS (EDMS) BPK, Posbus 33977, Jeppestown 2043, printed in Thailand, stories by Louis Jansen van Vuuren and Anet Pienaar, recipes by Hardy Olivier, ISBN: 978-1-86842-432-0
As for the mentioned books of the late Peter Mayle, most of them are easily available at amazon or other booksellers in various languages. His most famous books are “A Year in Provence” (1989) and “A Good Year” (2004). Both were also made in successful movies.
The other South African mentioned here, Marita van der Vyver, is mainly known to South African readers. Some of her books were translated from Afrikaans to other languages. A google search is probably helpful.