A culinary world tour, another among the most beautiful islands in the world, a trip to Brittany, a train ride and pastels as a landscape ... Here is a selection of beautiful books to escape you during a period of confinement.
Gourmet palaces
What a great idea these two authors had to share their travels with us, that in addition to the human adventure lived for thirty years in the four corners of the world, to add the recipes they brought back!
Because this album of wandering memories, from Malta to Rajasthan, from Bolivia to South Korea via New Orleans, Poland or Peru - that is to say 80 destinations in all - is also the stopover always renewed of flavors.
Each of these true tales, so beautifully written, ends with an invitation to the steps of the palace.
You will discover the art and the way of cooking Malawian foutou made from “green and ripe” plantains and cassava;
the Tahitian Chow Mein with its ration of oyster sauce;
or the sweet milk crosses the egg yolks and sugar cane brandy;
or Cuban-style crab polenta.
It is the triumph of taste and colors.
“Around the world in 80 flavors”
, by William Navarrete and Pierre Bignami, ed.
Emmanuelle Collas, 344 pages, 19 euros
The other Jura, surrounded by water
In the name of Jura, there is every chance that one thinks of the region of France famous for its chilly winters and warm wines.
Except that this is an island in the Hebrides archipelago, off the coast of Scotland.
There is no vineyard there, but a whiskey distillery with giant retorts which is the pride and the good functioning of the local economy since its 13 employees account for a third of the working population.
This kind of surprise, Hervé Hamon, writer, journalist and great lover of the sea, reserves a gaggle of it for his readers over the course of the book he signs in the astonishing collection of "Love dictionaries".
"The islands," it is written on the back of the book, "are the sensitive plate of our world surrounded by water, they tell of our desires, our wars, our beliefs, our hopes.
We wander, we dream, we shiver, we remember.
" Not better.
"Dictionary in love with the islands"
, by Hervé Hamon, ed.
Plon, 702 pages, 27 euros
READ ALSO>
Confinement: books to go far from home
Pepper and all the salt from Brittany
Journalist, he has faced the highest waves of the news.
Writer, he played the solitary navigators.
Patrick Poivre d'Arvor was born in Reims but his father was from Trégor and from his earliest childhood, our PPDA felt very early "more Breton than the Bretons".
Brittany, he says, "is the most beautiful concern of my life".
Following in the footsteps of the poet Xavier Grall who described the country "multiple in its secret unity", Poivre leads us, from his lair in Trégastel, along all the paths that crisscross it.
Geographical, with its "visual love at first sight" such as Pointe Saint-Mathieu.
History with Anne de Bretagne.
Cinematographic: the Hotel de la Plage in Locquirec.
And of course literary.
Yann Queffélec, Pierre-Jakez Hélias, Yvon Le Men or JMG Le Clézio, among others, share a part of the road.
As for women, they are the soul of this text.
“Breton land,” wrote the former king of the 8 pm, “has their scent.
I want to remember that this land is the daughter of a queen and of fairies.
»Follow the druid!
Sorry, the guide!
"Brittany in the heart"
, by Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, Editions du Rocher, 179 pages, 16.90 euros
His travels lead great train
The legend says that the writer, reporter and poet Blaise Cendrars, annoyed at being asked if he had really taken the Trans-Siberian, exclaimed: "What can it do to you that since I made you all take it!
"On France 5, the traveler Philippe Gougler, presenter of the show" Trains not like the others ", also makes us take them to all of us, these trains that crisscross the world, legendary in their own way, picturesque so as not to say exotic.
Here, in the superb station of Porto, the "Presidential", "a little gem" intended for the journeys of kings, queens and popes ".
And this “train des Inuus”, in Canada, whose travelers, little talkative, have only one goal: “to get lost in the great outdoors to find inner peace”.
Without forgetting the “technical prowess” of trains hanging from the mountains of Ecuador.
For everyone, Gougler describes the thousand treasures of his stopovers in the thirteen countries that make up this second volume, where photos lead the way.
"Trains like no other - volume II - My most beautiful journeys"
, ed.
Albin Michel / France 5, 239 pages, 29.90 euros
Pastels of the archipelagos
Who has heard of Vestmannaeyjar?
D'Arnarstapi?
From Reynisfjara?
In Iceland, these are desert Icelandic archipelagos.
Do we know that in the Antarctic, seabirds are never disappointed by Deception Island, which they have made their favorite playground?
Wouldn't you want to take a look at the colorful balconies of the peaceful streets of Santa Cruz de la Palma, in the Canaries?
Or, in an entirely different atmosphere of abandonment, to the disused whaling bases of South Georgia?
Well here they are under the pastels and charcoals of Jacques de Loustal, one of the high priests to have celebrated the successful marriage between illustration and comics.
His full-page drawings, sometimes sketched into immediate truth - the wrecks of the boats are superb - sometimes enchanted with colors or worked in velvety reliefs, are works of art to dream of.
You have not finished leafing through these distances.
Newsletter - Most of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le Parisien
I'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.
Learn more
“At the antipodes”
, by Jacques Loustal, ed.
La Table Ronde, 184 pages, 32 euros