Around the World in 80 Books discussion

I am not a travel writer by trade but a recovering war correspondent and book author. Having covered many wars in the Middle East, in 2003 my wife and I had the opportunity of returning to France where we had lived previously for eighteen years, to buy a run-down house on a hillside in Provence, where today we raise olives from 100 trees. This is the (often) hilarious story of what happened next, discovering olive trees on our property, cultivating them, and bringing them to production. Along the way I introduce readers to places and people you would never find in the tour guides, from olive presses to truffle markets, thieves and renegades, wannabe aristocrats and actual royalty. This is the South of France as only the French know it - and won't tell you about.