On Rue Tatin by Susan Loomis

There are countless books about moving to a different country and we have read a lot of them, seduced by the idea that we might one day do the same thing or wishing to extend the atmosphere of a recent holiday. In many cases these are not very good books, the writing is not of a high standard and the content usually revolves around a series of mishaps and setbacks that arise from a lack of understanding of the host country’s language and social structure. We have both recently read On Rue Tatin by Susan Loomis and this in an honorable exception to the rather disappointing overall standard of the genre.

Ms Loomis is a professional food writer who takes advantage of a contract to write a French farmhouse cookery book to move to France with her husband and young son. They originally plan to rent a house for the period but end up buying an old house that needs much restoration. The book is an account of the restoration, integration into French life and French food and cooking. It is well-written with many perceptive observations of French life. Each chapter ends with some recipes of dishes that have been described in that section, many are from French natives living around her in Normandy. We have made the gazpatcho recipe on this holiday and it was very good, we couldn’t quite stretch to making the accompanying cucumber sorbet.

There are a number of factors that probably contribute to the Loomis’s success in their move. Susan Loomis spent a year in Paris at a cookery school when she was a student so she learnt a lot of the French language at a relatively young age and made a lot of friends a few of whom are still prominent in their life in Normandy. They went to France with a ready-made purpose – to write a book, and that book was concerned with one of the most universal interests – food. When they moved they were young and full of energy rather than looking to retire and wind down.

There is a second volume about their continuing life in France and the setting up of a cookery school which we will review later when we have both read that.