Footloose in France

Footloose in France

Footloose in France book cover, showing a portion of Albert Marquet's oil-on-canvas painting Saint-Jean-de-Luz
Authors	John Adamson and Clive Jackson
Illustrator	George Adamson (1913–2005) (frontispiece)
Cover artist	Albert Marquet (1875–1947)
Language	English
Genre	Travel writing
Set in	Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Paris, France
Published	Cambridge
Publisher	John Adamson Books
Publication date	2023
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print
Pages	214
ISBN	978-1-898565-18-5
Dewey Decimal	944.0830922
Website	Book on publisher's website

Footloose in France (2023) is a travel book by the British authors John Adamson and Clive Jackson. They recall with humour their separate experiences of living in France in the mid-to-late sixties and early seventies: Jackson worked in the western Pyrenees and Adamson in Paris.

The book, whose prologue and epilogue are set in West Mersea, ^[1] recounts Jackson and Adamson's French adventures, the recollection of which is sparked by the unexpected brightness of a late summer's afternoon at the Essex seaside resort, as if they were back in France.

Description

The alternate tales the authors tell are true reminiscences of a France of decades ago. There are insights into the worlds of wine-making, art and film, the challenges of language teaching, translating, banking, balloon-selling and much more. Encounters with Alain Delon, ^[2] Piem, the cartoonist, ^[3] Louis Derbré, the sculptor, ^[4] Toru Iwaya, the Japanese mezzotint artist, ^[5] Modigliani's daughter, ^[6] and across the tables in a Provençal restaurant, Noël Coward, ^[7] are mingled with interactions with the locals in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and exchanges with workers, among them waiters, ^[8] barbers and business executives, in Paris. ^[9] Falling in love at a château in the Pomerol, ^[10] putting on an exhibition of Franco-British humorous art in the Marais ^[4] and discovering a letter in Paris written by Vincent van Gogh to Paul Gauguin ^[11] are among the highlights of the book.

Through the memories of those they meet the reader is transported back to the Algerian War; ^[12] to the occupation of Paris in the Second World War; ^[13] to the quandary of a young French doctor working at Buchenwald in the aftermath of the War; ^[14] and more recently to the behaviour of the CRS in the Paris riots of May 1968. ^[15]

The book's frontispiece reproduces Tuileries Gardens, Paris , a painting by George Adamson, father of one of the authors.

Reception

The Cambridge Critique hailed Footloose in France as having "all the quirky fun of an authentic adventure, a trove of fascinating real-life tales – whilst it reveals the real France in all its remarkable differentness". ^[16] Sir Quentin Blake found the incidents and experiences sympathetic to him and induced "a measure of nostalgia". ^{[17] [ better source needed ]} The booksellers Hatchards on Piccadilly, London, dubbed the book, "A beautiful portrayal of the country from an outsider's perspective". ^{[18] [ better source needed ]}

References

1. A seaside town near Colchester in Essex. See prologue, pp. 7–8 and epilogue, pp. 209–12.
2. Chapters 11 and 15.
3. Chapter 47, p. 207.
4. Chapter 43.
5. Chapter 33.
6. See Jeanne Modigliani.
7. Chapter 46. Les Baux-de-Provence.
8. Such as at La Coupole, Montparnasse, where, as described in the book, a version of Derbré's sculpture La Terre is given pride of place.
9. Chapters 9 and 17.
10. Chapter 4. At Château Beauregard.
11. Letter 739, now held in the archives of the musée Réattu, Arles (inv. no. 114480).
12. Chapter 18, p. 94.
13. Chapter 5, pp. 27–8; chapter 43, p. 184.
14. Chapter 43, pp. 190–1.
15. Chapter 11, p. 65.
16. "Footloose in France". The Cambridge Critique. 29 September 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2025.
17. "Footloose in France". John Adamson Books. Retrieved 24 January 2025.
18. "Footloose in France by John Adamson, Clive Jackson". Waterstones. Retrieved 24 January 2025.