My Grape Year by Laura Bradbury

I finished reading 'My grape year' written by Laura Bradbury. Comprising of 40 chapters this memoir is a treat for those who love to explore France and the French lifestyle. I get to see how boldly the French are expressing their views without worrying about what the other person thinks. 

No Dating, No Drugs, No driving and No drinking - were the rules set when young Laura landed in France as an exchange student coming all the way from Canada. Instantly as she begins mingling with the french people around she soon discovers the 'no drinking' rule doesn’t apply to the french, after all, they drink wine (and other things hot) as part of their food! In every family she stays with starting from the Beaupres, she is in for a lot of different experiences that only France can offer. Laura takes part in the grape harvest for the first time and meets Florian, a Swiss guy with whom she shares a brief kiss just shortly after. During grape harvest, most of the youngsters in the region - both locals and tourists, come together to help the wine-making family in the harvest. mostly they are not working for money, instead, some good amount of wine and a hearty feast. 

She finds it difficult to mingle in with her peers in school unable to understand a single french word. taking that for their advantage, some boys teach her nasty french words while Sandrine comes to her rescue. She becomes a good friend and takes Laura along while hanging out with friends. During breaks the french students smoke cigarettes right inside the school campus. She develops a brief relationship with Thibaut, her classmate while still not sure if that meant love. 

As a seventeen-year-old desperately looking for love, she moves on to living with the Girard family and then with the Lacanche family. it was during this time that she meets the much-acclaimed Franck, Stephanie's brother. those first instances spark curiosity in handsome Franck – his warm and charming nature binds them together in no time. they go out taking Olivier's car to show her a secret place on top a hill. how Franck brings the ocean to Burgundy (which is land-locked) to give warmth to Laura who grew up by the sea-side all her life, is something purely romantic. 

What follows is her countless meetings with Franck both in his house and outside spending time with his huge family lunches that extended for hours. she then moves in to live with the Forestiers family, her last family in her stint as an exchange student in France. unlike others, while the Forestiers barely spend their time at home, it gives her ample of time to spend with Franck. at one point, Monsieur Forestier himself suggests spending her last weeks living with Frank in Villers-la-Faye. she couldn’t believe she got permission from her host father before moving in with Franck.

In her final Ursus meeting, her previous host fathers are disheartened about her moving in with Franck. In a dilemma to choose between her host family and Franck – after a lot of struggle – she decides she couldn’t live without Franck and continues to spend her last two precious weeks with him despite her host families’ disapproval.

From the beginning, as a young girl, she was looking for love. When life gives her every encounter with a guy, she was in doubt whether he is the one. But when Franck shows up, it was like a miracle – when she puts all the pieces together it felt like the universe was doing all the background work to bring Laura and Franck together. In many ways, Franck was the one she was looking for – he is her love of life. she could feel that special bond tie them together that she hasn’t felt with anyone before. in every way and with every move, Franck and Laura gets closer and closer that they find each other irresistible. Finally, they promise each other to get back soon while discussing about their future together, already, while its still bleak. with her last few days spent in Paris with Franck, she departs teary-eyed to Canada leaving her heart to Franck.

 

                                          

It was such a wonderful love story - i enjoyed every bit of Franck and Laura; the way their relationship unfolds. Although I couldn’t believe a few things due to those cultural differences, it was a clean romance that i yearned for more and more. When I finished reading this book, I just wanted to read more about it, explore more about France; and about them. With every scene I could see pictures of countryside coming alive in front of me - those vineyards, grand lunches and youngsters partying all night. With this book, I can literally understand how living in France's countryside would be, in Burgundy. The French drank enormous amount of wine and treasured wine-making equal to gold. Wine-tasting is considered as a necessary life skill! Their love for food is incredible; they prepare grand lunches and the courses extended for hours - cheese platter, wine, escargots (snails) - it seems there is no end to the variety of food that the french has in their menu. What I loved most in the book is her vivid description she portrayed throughout the story with a hint of humour.

My Grape Year was a treat. After reading the book, my heart was light feeling good. It was indeed magical to feel the romance shared by Laura and Franck!

Truth be told, I couldn’t wait to read the next book of Laura Bradbury (I have three more of her grape series books with me in my kindle library) to dip myself in the french lifestyle and treat with lots of food, wine, partying and romance!!!

Tidbits in the slides above are taken from 'My Grape Year' and credits go to the author.

Love to buy the book? Here's the link to My Grape Year