{"product_id":"finding-fontainebleau-isbn-9780143109280","title":"Finding Fontainebleau","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the French Heritage Literary Award\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA beguiling memoir of a childhood in 1950s France from the much-admired \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Piano Shop on the Left Bank\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Like the castle, [Carhart's] memoir imaginatively and smoothly integrates multiple influences, styles and whims.\"\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                                    \u003cbr\u003eFor a young American boy in the 1950s, Fontainebleau was a sight both strange and majestic, home to a continual series of adventures: a different language to learn, weekend visits to nearby Paris, family road trips to Spain and Italy. Then there was the château itself: a sprawling palace once the residence of kings, its grounds the perfect place to play hide-and-seek. The curiosities of the small town and the time with his family as expats left such an impression on him that thirty years later Carhart returned to France with his wife to raise their two children. Touring Fontainebleau again as an adult, he began to appreciate its influence on French style, taste, art, and architecture. Each trip to Fontainebleau introduces him to entirely new aspects of the château's history, enriching his memories and leading him to Patrick Ponsot, the head of the château’s restoration, who becomes Carhart’s guide to the hidden Fontainebleau. \u003cbr\u003e          What emerges is an intimate chronicle of a time and place few have experienced. In warm, precise prose, Carhart reconstructs the wonders of his childhood as an American in postwar France, attending French schools with his brothers and sisters. His firsthand account brings to life nothing less than France in the 1950s, from the parks and museums of Paris to the rigors of French schooling to the vast château of Fontainebleau and its village, built, piece by piece, over many centuries. \u003ci\u003eFinding Fontainebleau\u003c\/i\u003e is for those captivated by the French way of life, for armchair travelers, and for anyone who has ever fallen in love with a place they want to visit over and over again.\"While bringing alive this redolent Gallic chapter of his boyhood (baguettes from the boulangerie; inkwells and laborious handwriting exercises at school), Mr. Carhart also resurrects the mood and mores of a particular window in time: the 1950s of Ike and Elvis’s America, and postwar France. . . . Like the castle, his memoir imaginatively and smoothly integrates multiple influences, styles and whims.\"\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A lovely snapshot of daily life in a bygone France, as well as a tribute to the artistic and architectural glories of this centuries-old royal palace, a predecessor to Versailles.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Perfect . . . [A] giant jigsaw puzzle of history, reminiscence and anthropological detail which paint a complicated but indelible picture.... Details, impressions, memories—and what the author does with them—are the heart and soul of this lovely book.\"—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Washington Times\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A vivid picture of the rhythms and flavor of post-war France.\"—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNorthampton Daily Hampshire Gazette\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Carhart turns his observant eye on small, sometimes odd-seeming details—the once-ubiquitous Turkish toilets in cafes, the uniquely French method of taking household inventory, French cars of the 1950s. These lovely digressions, along with Carhart’s own family’s story, illuminate French culture in an appealing way.\"—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eBookPage\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“American casualness and exuberance meet French formality and grandeur in this lively, perceptive memoir.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The author of \u003ci\u003eThe Piano Shop on the Left Bank\u003c\/i\u003e (2001) returns with another celebration of France…Those lucky enough to have lived and attended school in Europe will love this book, and anyone heading to Paris will surely add Fontainebleau to his or her schedule.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Part memoir, part history, part love letter to France—Thad Carhart’s adopted home—\u003ci\u003eFinding Fontainebleau\u003c\/i\u003e is a fun, intriguing meditation on time, place, and nationality. I don’t think I can pay it a greater compliment than to report that reading it sent me to Paris’s Gare de Lyon, there to board a train to Fontainebleau, which I saw with new eyes.”—\u003cb\u003ePenelope Rowlands, author of \u003ci\u003eParis Was Ours\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Charming and vivid and sweet, \u003ci\u003eFinding Fontainebleau \u003c\/i\u003eis full of the hopeful ambiance of Americans discovering France in the post-war era.”—\u003cb\u003eAlice Kaplan, author of \u003ci\u003eFrench Lessons \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e Dreaming in French\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Anyone who grew up in an American baby boom split level will love reading about how the undaunted Carhart family moved from utterly predictable suburban Virginia to the utterly unpredictable environs of Fontainebleau. I learned, I laughed, I marveled, I yearned to transport myself to Fontainebleau.”—\u003cb\u003eDavid Laskin, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Family:  A Journey into the Heart of the 20th Century\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eFinding Fontainebleau\u003c\/i\u003e is a family memoir, a chronicle of a remarkable palace, and a social history of the vanished world of post-war France. Most illuminating of all, perhaps, it is a guide to the customs and preoccupations of the French, past and present, whom Thad Carhart writes about with humor, insight, and obvious affection.”\u003cb\u003e—Ross King, author of \u003ci\u003eBrunelleschi’s Dome \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Beautifully written, Thad Carhart’s new book is a delight, happily meandering down memory lane through storybook ‘Phone-Ten-Blow.’ Simply marvelous!”—\u003cb\u003eDavid Downie, author of \u003ci\u003eParis, Paris: Journey into the City of Light\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Just as Julia Child’s writing about cooking and eating brought to life France in the 1940s, Thad Carhart uses France’s architecture to describe his own childhood in the 1950s. The Palace of Fontainebleau provides a flamboyant backdrop to his stories of adjusting to French schools, the French language and, naturally, French food. Anyone who has ever felt like a fish out of water will be diverted and informed by Finding Fontainebleau.”—\u003cb\u003eJohn Baxter, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Most Beautiful Walk in the World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Thad Carhart’s new memoir has all the charm and the deftness with insider knowledge of his much-loved \u003ci\u003eThe Piano Shop On the Left Bank\u003c\/i\u003e. It’s both hilarious and profound, as he gives us in turn his boy’s eye view of a new country and customs and his adult deep appreciation of France, French history and the particular place, Fontainebleau, of the title. A delight, at all its levels.  I’ve read it twice already… it’s a book to come back to again and again.”—\u003cb\u003eRosalind Brackenbury, author of \u003ci\u003eBecoming George Sand\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “A delicious journey into a France we never knew and wish we did. Long before mass tourism and globalization France was simple, soulful, and every inch stimulating. Carhart knew it all and shares this with us with the deftness and insight of a master storyteller.”—\u003cb\u003eLeonard Pitt, author of \u003ci\u003eWalks Through Lost Paris\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eParis a Journey Through Time\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eThe son of an air force officer, \u003cb\u003eThad Carhart\u003c\/b\u003e grew up in a variety of places, including Washington, D.C.; Fontainebleau, France; Minneapolis; Amherst, Massachusetts; and Tokyo. After graduating from Yale, he worked for the State Department as an interpreter. His first book, \u003ci\u003eThe Piano Shop on the Left Bank\u003c\/i\u003e, appeared in 2000, published by Random House. \u003ci\u003eAcross the Endless River\u003c\/i\u003e, a historical novel, came out in 2009 with Doubleday. He lives in Paris.","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303439290597,"sku":"NP9780143109280","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780143109280.jpg?v=1767726892","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/finding-fontainebleau-isbn-9780143109280","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}