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Finding Fontainebleau : an American boy in France / Thad Carhart.
Athenaeum of Philadelphia - Circulating Collection DC801.F67 C37 2016
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Carhart, Thaddeus.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Carhart, Thaddeus--Childhood and youth.
- Carhart, Thaddeus.
- Americans--France--Fontainebleau--Biography.
- Americans.
- Boys--France--Fontainebleau--Biography.
- Boys.
- Fontainebleau (France)--Biography.
- Fontainebleau (France).
- Fontainebleau (France)--Social life and customs--20th century.
- Chateau de Fontainebleau (Fontainebleau, France).
- Fontainebleau (France)--Buildings, structures, etc.
- Carhart, Thaddeus--Travel--France.
- France--Description and travel.
- France.
- Genre:
- Autobiographies.
- Travel literature.
- Physical Description:
- xii, 283 pages : map ; 22 cm
- Place of Publication:
- New York, New York : Viking, 2016.
- Summary:
- "A beguiling memoir of a childhood in 1950s Fontainebleau from the much-admired New York Times bestselling author of The Piano Shop on the Left Bank. For 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 chateau 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 chateau's history, enriching his memories and leading him to Patrick Ponsot, the head of the chateau'srestoration, who becomes Carhart's guide to the hidden Fontainebleau. 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 chateau of Fontainebleau and its village, built, piece by piece, over many centuries. Finding Fontainebleau 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"-- Provided by publisher.
- Contents:
- Flight
- France
- The Chateau, the Town, and the Forest
- The House
- Francois I, Henri II
- The Emperor's Office
- Moving In
- School
- Henri IV
- Destructure
- Annick
- Dictee
- Fencing
- Cars and Planes
- Being Catholic
- "Dad Gum It!"
- Marie Antoinette
- A Room of Her Own
- Le Jardin du Luxembourg
- Paris
- Winter
- "In Between"
- Camping
- Painting
- Napoleon I
- The Staircase of Farewells
- Spain
- Guignol
- Napoleon III
- A Ship Weathers the Storm
- Folies d'adolescence
- Souvenirs
- A Crime of Passion
- Return
- Leaving
- The Most Beautiful Room in France.
- Local Notes:
- Athenaeum copy: In memory of Irvin J. Borowsky from the fund provided by Laurie Wagman.
- Other Format:
- Online version:
- Carhart, Thaddeus. Finding Fontainebleau
- ISBN:
- 9780525428800 : HRD
- 0525428801 : HRD
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