The Travel Book Club Says…

Travel Book Club (9) – Bonnes Vacances! – Rosie Millardby Collette Walsh on May 27, 2013 in Reviews, The Travel Book Club, TV/Radio slotsThis week on The Travel Book Club we’re reviewing Bonnes Vacances! by journalist and broadcaster Rosie Millard.

This book went down a storm with the panel so be sure to catch one of the repeats of the show – we will put the You Tube link up asap too. Order a copy here: Bonnes Vacances! by Rosie Millard

Week beginning 27 May 2013 – broadcast times:
Monday at 9pm. Repeated: Tuesday at 10am, Friday at 7:30pm, Saturday at 2:30pm, Sunday at 8pm

Watch on Sky 284 – Holiday and Cruise Channel

Collette says:

I read this book while on a flight to the USA and found it an entertaining and informative travel read. Not surprisingly, Francophile Millard, who is a well-known UK journalist and broadcaster, is also a good travel writer. Bonnes Vacances! really had me chuckling out loud at points (which is always good on a long flight!)

Goodness me, Millard is a brave woman taking her patient husband and four small children on an epic journey touring the French Overseas Departments and Territories (the ‘Dom-Toms’).

It is a slightly bonkers and at times exhaustingly challenging trip that even the natives of the Dom Toms find puzzling as to their motives when they meet the Millards. The family visits some very far-flung places – among them: the ‘ghost town’ of Saint Pierre et Miquelon (off the Canadian coast), to Martinique and finally Réunion in the South Pacific, crossing five continents. And, as the book’s blurb says, “they eat stewed iguana, 400 croissants and – since the budget is small – copious amounts of Campbell’s soup.”

I liked it and especially enjoyed how Rosie Millard was on a ‘mission’. She fulfilled her ambition, despite is not always being the dream trip she had envisaged, complete with often-times grumpy kids in tow!

My panel really enjoyed it – the book was up against some cracking travel literature this series – and while you will have to tune in, it did pretty well in our poll.

The only parent on the panel, fellow journalist Angela Danby, particularly appreciated Millard’s brutally honest account of travelling with children and likewise loved the inclusion of a ‘mini’ diary entry by Millard’s daughter at the start of each chapter. Overall a good read and certainly original and cleverly written.