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A Piano In the Pyrenees

The Ups and Downs of an Englishman in the French Mountains

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

'If you had to pick two things you wanted - if you had to - what would you pick?'
I hesitated. This was a bigger question than usually got asked at these post-match debriefs. 'I suppose the honest answer would be,' I said, still accessing the last pieces of required data from a jumbled mind, 'meeting my soul mate, and finding an idyllic house abroad somewhere.'
Inspired by breathtaking views and romantic dreams of finding love in the mountains, Tony Hawks impulsively buys a house in the French Pyrenees. Here, he plans to finally fulfil his childhood fantasy of mastering the piano, untroubled by the problems of the world.
In reality, the chaotic story of Tony's hopelessly ill-conceived house purchase reads like the definitive guide to how not to buy a house in France. It finds him flirting with the removal business in a disastrous attempt to transport his piano to France in a dodgy white van; foolishly electing to build a swimming pool himself; and expanding his relationship repertoire when he starts co-habiting, not with an exquisite French beauty, but with a middle-aged builder from West London.
As Tony and his friends haplessly attempt to fit into village life, they learn more about themselves and each other than they ever imagined.

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    • Booklist

      March 15, 2008
      This delightful memoir begins with Hawks, the British author of Round Ireland with a Fridge (2000) and Playing the Moldovans at Tennis (2001) buying a house in the French Pyrenees. It was an impulsive purchase, but for Hawks, who seems to live his life from one impulse to the next (how else could he conceive and then carry out the notion of traveling around Ireland with a refrigerator for a companion), its situation normal . . . and situation hilarious. On one hand, this sets up like a fairly typical saga of the tribulations that come with buying a house in a foreign land (Under the Tuscan Sun, et al.), but Hawks has more in common with your average lager lout than he does with a wine-loving, culture vulture like Frances Mayes. This massively funny odyssey of complications, misunderstandings, setbacks, and offbeat characters takes Eric Hodgins classic novel Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1946) and raises it several levels of wacky, as if Ricky Gervais, not Cary Grant, were playing the lead.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

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  • English

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