Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table, Book One (Champagne, Alsace, Lorraine, and Paris Regions): Savoring the Olde Ways Series: Boo - Paperback

by Carole Bumpus (Author)

Part culinary memoir and part travelogue, Carole Bumpus gathered this compilation of intimate interviews, conversations, stories, and traditional family recipes (cuisine pauvre) in the kitchens of French families as she traveled throughout the countryside. Travel with her through Champagne caves/wineries and historic cathedrals, local farmers' markets, ancient potters' guilds, and restaurant kitchens with wood-fire ovens. Learn how to make homemade Spinach-stuffed Tortellini with Bolognaise Sauce from the Champagne region, Crêpes and Watercress-stuffed Ravioli from the Lorraine, and Baekeofe and Kugelhopf from the Alsace. "Go blind" from the family stock of Eau de Vie liqueur and be treated to tales of foraging for snails for the infamous and now extinct Escargots Festival. And, on a somber note, listen to accounts of families forced from their communities during the German occupation of WWII in the Alsace and Lorraine, only to continue to struggle for survival after finally making their way home.

This book is a compilation of stories about making ends meet; about people being grateful for all they had, even when they had almost nothing; about the sharing of family jokes and laughter; and about family trials and triumphs. This book is about people savoring the life they have been given.

Author Biography

Carole Bumpus, a retired family therapist, is the author of the historical novel A Cup of Redemption, published October 2014 through She Writes Press. She is a state board and branch member of the California Writers Club's San Francisco/Peninsula Branch and has been published in three CWC short-story anthologies: Fault Zone: Words from the Edge, Fault Zone: Stepping up to the Edge, and Fault Zone: Over the Edge. She continues to write a travel blog taken from excerpts of her interviews with French and Italian families, Savoring the Olde Ways, and her articles on both food and US WWII veterans in France have been published in both the US and in France.