A Fête to Remember

Author/Guide: Julia Stagg

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: The fourth in the series of the Fogas commune in France – a delightful and fictional commune set in the French Pyrenees

ISBN: 978-1444764444
Genre: Fiction, Humour

Comment

What you need to know before your trail

We rejoin the residents of Fogas as they try to fight the bigger boys in order to keep the village independent – there are plans to effectively wipe the lovely community from the map – to merge them with Sarrat, their arch-rivals from across the river – and farmer Christian Dupuy is not a happy man.

Well he is at times as he is harbouring romantic thoughts for someone but is scared by his feelings and is unlikely anytime soon to declare his feelings. But with the threat of the community vanishing and the matter of one of the hottest summers in recent times, the temperature is as high as the tension and emotional ups and down of the Fogas villagers.

Locations

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Travel Guide

This is one funny and amusing look at French village life. I SO want to live here

The food of Fogas..

“I repeat, you cannot put tomatoes in a cassoulet!’

The tourist spluttered into his pastis

The mountain setting…

Black clouds simmered on the horizon behind the distinctive flat peak of Mont Valier, and although the sun had lost some of its ferocity as evening approached, an oppressive heat had settled on the region, stifling the mountain breezes that normally brought respite to the village of Fogas.

Life in the village

Well, the day after the party to celebrate Bastille Day and the opening of the post office – before they hear the news that Fogas could be merged….

“For the good people of the commune of Fogas, that sleepy community across the hills, which was slowly waking up from the excesses of the night before, this very letter was tantamount to a bomb about to be hurled among them”

Aah yes the village life and the characters you meet there – as well as the farmer we meet a gypsy who although has the gift of second sight, finds that she is helpless to use it to solve her own problems, the Brits who run the local bar – well they try to as they battle the famous French red tape. Oh and did we mention there is a ghost living in the epicerie fireplace?

A fete to remember takes you back to Fogas and back to the same characters but it develops their story and their characters so now we feel as if we know them perhaps better than they know themselves (Christian are you listening?)

Booktrailer Review

Susan @thebooktrailer :

The first three books introduce the region and the characters and it does help if you’ve read the series in order – not that it spoils the plot but as with anything the more backstory you know leading up to the events here make for a more thrilling and amusing read.

You definitely need to read this book to understand what it means to live in a French village – the levels of bureaucracy and the ways of doing things is hard to explain at times but Julia obviously has lived the life of the characters – ie in a French village and auberge – hopefully not the more way out and extreme Fogas habits (hehe). This is one funny and amusing look at French village life. I SO want to live here! Julia adopt me!