My Grape Year

My Grape Year by Laura Bradbury Starts out with her leaving BC, Canada and heading to France=not her first choice for one year of school abroad. Lots of travel and new things for her to get used to. The girl that she's taking the place of is leaving to head to the USA for her year abroad. Lots of things to consider and wonder about as she is served coffee in a bowl rather than a mug. She had studied French in school but didn't like it so didn't learn so much. She is able to pick out a few words when others are talking. When she arrives her lugguage didn't make it-lucky she had packed shorts and a shirt in her carryon bag. After spendng a day at the grandmothers they arrive back at the familys house where there is a older son who speaks English who's most helpful to her lack of speaking in French. After school starts she finds everything so confusing. Especially love the lesson in how to taste wine-i knew some of the parts but not all of them. Love that there are grapes nearby and by the title know I will learn more about the vineyard. For the most part there is French being spoken and she has no idea what's being said-she can't study that way or learn anything and the book does not translate what is being said to us reading it. There are four different host families that she stays with and she learns so much about the culture. There is food everywhere and it's described so much in detail you get hungry. Laura is able to learn and harvest the grapes and the processes of making the wine. Learned so much about the grapes, so glad I read this book from the start to the finish. Loved the four major parts of a good wine and how to tell once it's poured. Her friend has a brother and when she meets him it's love at first sight....love family gatherings and all the food. Especially liked the places visited, so much detail to descriptons. Excerpt from the next book in the series is included at the end.

My Grape Year. Laura Bradbury. 2015. Of course this account of a young Canadian woman's year as an exchange student in the Burgundy region of France appealed to me. I hesitated to download it as I could see it was number 1 in a series, and I have come to dislike Kindle series, I just needed to read a book about France. I enjoyed it and will probably read the others, not that it is great literature, but I am a sucker for this kind of book. It is easy to read and romantic to the nth degree!