A Year in the French Style: Interiors and Entertaining by Antoinette Poisson

This book is about an 18th c house in Brittany which has been bought and lived in by a couple who run an interiors shop called Antoinette Poisson in Paris, the name is that of Madame de Pompadour before her court days. The couple were told about the house when it was about to come on the market because it had been unchanged for hundreds of years. The book features the house as it is now, and it is stunning, the couple have furnished it with furniture from the period, used paints with carefully chosen pigments and hand made papers. It is superb, a remarkable project beautifully executed and the photography so atmospheric and respectful of the beauty in textures, natural light and waxed well wood, its amazing how different this is to modern varnish and you can clearly see this in the photos. If you like books by Ron Byam Shaw you'll love this. It has a few recipes in too, that are typically French and features on remarkable local people, like the chap who makes paper locally, but not just any paper, beautifully hand made paper and there are other similar people. People with a passion for things and committing so much time to things are to be encouraged in society and I love this book for the way it celebrates beauty and integrity, its a dream to flick through & I think my next holiday might be to Port Louis, its a Mecca for creative & history loving types.

Very interesting book about cooking and making a stylish home in Brittany

I was expecting a lot more. If you like crafts then this might be for you. I found it vacuous and lacking any useful content, even the recipes. A few atmospheric pictures…

The first thing that attracted me to this book was the unusual and exquisitely produced glossy red of the edges of the pages. I have followed and enjoyed the work of this company, Antoinette Poisson, and I sensed that their first book wouldn't disappoint. The overall theme is of "domino papers" (I'll leave it to you to explore what these are) and how the designers Vincent Farelly and Jean-Baptiste Martin discovered them. They take you thru their years of creating and using these decorative papers in a brilliant and unusual variety of ways. The photographs, by Ruth Ribeaucourt, are beautiful and inviting - you can sense that she worked very closely with the authors and that they all understood each other. In fact, that is the overall feeling of the book - a labor of love done amongst friends. This is definitely not a book that was thrown together - you can sense that a lot of passion and knowledge went into creating and producing it. If you are drawn to the creations of John Derian, Astier de Villatte, Pierre Sauvage (Casa Lopez) and by Marin Montagut, you will savor this book. All of these artists have looked to remarkable but forgotten art of the past, utilizing their discoveries in eye catching ways that bring a smile and pleasure. Best of all, this book "A Year in the French Style", features many ideas and recipes that you can create for yourself. And thankfully yes, their domino papers are available! The book's seasonal approach along with several atmospheric locales (especially the author's home in Brittany, walks thru the woods, boating) has provided me with the pleasures of inspiration, armchair traveling and the value of nature, home and friends. I'll certainly be buying copies of this book for holiday gifting.

Such a treat to get a behind-the-scenes peek at a talented artist’s home! So much inspiration is packed into these beautiful pages. I keep coming back to it for inspiration.

Such a stunning book - the red pages are a show stopper and the photography and contents are beautiful and special.