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A Season for That: Lost and Found in the Other Southern France
An American food writer moves his family of unlikely expats to the French countryside, where the locals upend everything he knows about cooking and winemaking, in this delightful memoir from a winner of the James Beard M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award.
Steve Hoffman is a perfectly comfortable middle-aged Minnesotan man who has always been desperately, pretentiously in love with France, more specifically with the idea of France. To follow that love, he and his family move, nearly at random, to a small, rural, scratchy-hot village in the south of the country, and he immediately thinks he's made a terrible mistake. Life here is not holding your cigarette chest-high while walking to the cafe and pulling off the trick of pretending to be French, it's getting into fights with your wife because you won't break character and introduce your very American family to the locals, who can smell you and your perfect city-French from a mile away.
But through cooking what the local grocer tells him to cook, he feels more of this place. A neighbor leads him into the world of winemaking, where he learns not as a pedantic oenophile, but bodily, as a grape picker and winemaker's apprentice. Along the way, he lets go of the abstract ideas he'd held about France, discovering instead the beauty of a culture that is one with its landscape, and of becoming one with that culture.
It’s a story told in transporting writing, humor, and delicious detail.
Steve Hoffman is a perfectly comfortable middle-aged Minnesotan man who has always been desperately, pretentiously in love with France, more specifically with the idea of France. To follow that love, he and his family move, nearly at random, to a small, rural, scratchy-hot village in the south of the country, and he immediately thinks he's made a terrible mistake. Life here is not holding your cigarette chest-high while walking to the cafe and pulling off the trick of pretending to be French, it's getting into fights with your wife because you won't break character and introduce your very American family to the locals, who can smell you and your perfect city-French from a mile away.
But through cooking what the local grocer tells him to cook, he feels more of this place. A neighbor leads him into the world of winemaking, where he learns not as a pedantic oenophile, but bodily, as a grape picker and winemaker's apprentice. Along the way, he lets go of the abstract ideas he'd held about France, discovering instead the beauty of a culture that is one with its landscape, and of becoming one with that culture.
It’s a story told in transporting writing, humor, and delicious detail.
368 pages, Hardcover
Published July 9, 2024
298 people are currently reading
5705 people want to read
About the author
Steve Hoffman
1 book38 followersSteve Hoffman is a Minnesota tax preparer and food writer. His writing has won multiple national awards, including the 2019 James Beard M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. He has been published in Food & Wine, The Washington Post, and The Minneapolis Star Tribune, among others. He shares one acre on Turtle Lake, in Shoreview, Minnesota, with his wife, Mary Jo, their elderly and entitled puggle, and roughly 80,000 honeybees.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 175 reviews
September 10, 2024
Couldn't even begin to describe how incredible this was. The writing is so beautiful. I love the structure of interwoven scenes. I love how the author doesn't shy away from the complexity of any part of the story, but especially of his own character. Makes me want to go back to Southern France, and also to drink a lot of wine and cheese. I believe this is going to be one of my all-time favorite memoirs, so truly couldn't recommend highly enough!
September 5, 2024
Don’t be like me and convince yourself that this book might follow in the footsteps of the Mayles classic A Year in Provence. Although the overarching premise of A Season for That suggests there could be significant overlap, the book is unfortunately instead essentially a memoir for foodies, an extended version of a pretentious spread in a self-congratulatory culinary magazine. My personal level of enjoyment of this book was more like two stars, but I’m reviewing it with an awareness of the fact that the emphasis on food was alluded to in the summary blurb, and it wouldn’t be fair to reduce the star rating simply because I so desperately wished for the book to be humorous and Mayles-adjacent.
So putting aside the fact that I find foodie talk mind-numbingly dull, there remain other key factors that made me dislike this book. The most striking is that the author wrote it more than a decade after the experience. The book covers the 2011 wine harvest but was published in 2023. Gaps in his memory are often quite clear, with random choppy anecdotes tossed in awkwardly, and a narrative that doesn’t quite flow. But particularly troublesome is the inauthenticity this introduces into his assessment of events and characters. For example, he can now consider the young adults his children have grown into and present his tale and interpretations in that context. If he had written openly, with relevant commentary regarding what’s happened since, the time lag could be properly incorporated…but pretending it’s not there feels dishonest.
On the topic of questionable ethics, it troubled me how frequently the family trespassed on others’ land and harvested items they found there. But the saddest of all was the constant need to remove natural things from nature. It was such a glaring disconnect, the author patting himself and his family members on the back for their allegedly enlightened view of the flora and fauna of the region, then doing horrible things like murdering THREE praying mantises, one after another, never occurring to them that they shouldn’t keep replacing the last one they’d tortured with another. The author dedicates a lot of discussion to what a “sweet,” sensitive son he has - frequently also alluding to his perception that he, too, has always been this sort of person - but never stops to think about the fact that they’re leaving a trail of dead “pets” in their wake. And the wife’s blog centers on REMOVING things from nature and pretentiously photographing them. It just all feels very tone deaf and counter to how the author is describing his family…the words and actions don’t align.
The author also skews toward the self-congratulatory and condescending. He’s mercifully self-deprecating in some regards (acknowledging a learning curve for working the grape harvest and deferring to elders for recipe suggestions), but how many times must he emphasize that everyone thinks his French is perfect? His depiction of his neighbor (Jean-Luc, I believe, but I’ve just returned the book to the library and can’t confirm) is so offensively sad. The man is beyond kind in every possible way, yet the author makes snarky comments about how Jean-Luc probably couldn’t understand a blog given that he’s just a peasant. Despite portraying Jean-Luc as a good friend, Hoffman often comes across as condescending towards him, such as when Jean-Luc tells him that Queen Anne’s lace is another name for wild carrot. Hoffman later looks it up to confirm (nothing wrong with that) but then actually makes a point to TELL Jean-Luc that he was right, as if the man should doubt himself until Hoffman says he doesn’t need to.
These things may sound somewhat nitpicky, but they wear on a reader. I so frequently found myself thinking “did he seriously just say/do that and then actually WRITE that he did, does he have that little self-awareness?” I read a lot of travel memoirs though, so I’m accustomed to often feeling that way as I read the accounts of what are generally wealthy white men. At least Hoffman spoke of his wife in a generally kind way and didn’t have sophomoric commentary about the appeal of local women, so that bumps the book up a star in my mind relative to most other books in the genre.
Final conclusion: I’d recommend this to someone who’s REALLY interested in French cooking and/or wine-making. But for those simply seeking an interesting travel memoir, give this a pass.
So putting aside the fact that I find foodie talk mind-numbingly dull, there remain other key factors that made me dislike this book. The most striking is that the author wrote it more than a decade after the experience. The book covers the 2011 wine harvest but was published in 2023. Gaps in his memory are often quite clear, with random choppy anecdotes tossed in awkwardly, and a narrative that doesn’t quite flow. But particularly troublesome is the inauthenticity this introduces into his assessment of events and characters. For example, he can now consider the young adults his children have grown into and present his tale and interpretations in that context. If he had written openly, with relevant commentary regarding what’s happened since, the time lag could be properly incorporated…but pretending it’s not there feels dishonest.
On the topic of questionable ethics, it troubled me how frequently the family trespassed on others’ land and harvested items they found there. But the saddest of all was the constant need to remove natural things from nature. It was such a glaring disconnect, the author patting himself and his family members on the back for their allegedly enlightened view of the flora and fauna of the region, then doing horrible things like murdering THREE praying mantises, one after another, never occurring to them that they shouldn’t keep replacing the last one they’d tortured with another. The author dedicates a lot of discussion to what a “sweet,” sensitive son he has - frequently also alluding to his perception that he, too, has always been this sort of person - but never stops to think about the fact that they’re leaving a trail of dead “pets” in their wake. And the wife’s blog centers on REMOVING things from nature and pretentiously photographing them. It just all feels very tone deaf and counter to how the author is describing his family…the words and actions don’t align.
The author also skews toward the self-congratulatory and condescending. He’s mercifully self-deprecating in some regards (acknowledging a learning curve for working the grape harvest and deferring to elders for recipe suggestions), but how many times must he emphasize that everyone thinks his French is perfect? His depiction of his neighbor (Jean-Luc, I believe, but I’ve just returned the book to the library and can’t confirm) is so offensively sad. The man is beyond kind in every possible way, yet the author makes snarky comments about how Jean-Luc probably couldn’t understand a blog given that he’s just a peasant. Despite portraying Jean-Luc as a good friend, Hoffman often comes across as condescending towards him, such as when Jean-Luc tells him that Queen Anne’s lace is another name for wild carrot. Hoffman later looks it up to confirm (nothing wrong with that) but then actually makes a point to TELL Jean-Luc that he was right, as if the man should doubt himself until Hoffman says he doesn’t need to.
These things may sound somewhat nitpicky, but they wear on a reader. I so frequently found myself thinking “did he seriously just say/do that and then actually WRITE that he did, does he have that little self-awareness?” I read a lot of travel memoirs though, so I’m accustomed to often feeling that way as I read the accounts of what are generally wealthy white men. At least Hoffman spoke of his wife in a generally kind way and didn’t have sophomoric commentary about the appeal of local women, so that bumps the book up a star in my mind relative to most other books in the genre.
Final conclusion: I’d recommend this to someone who’s REALLY interested in French cooking and/or wine-making. But for those simply seeking an interesting travel memoir, give this a pass.
March 30, 2024
This story surprised me in so many beautiful ways. I couldn't put it down and dreamt of dusty hills and vineyards in between. I laughed out loud in the first chapter and teared up in the second. As someone who's read Steve's writing and watched his life and adventures from afar online, his book feels like an intimate peek behind the curtain of Hoffman's time in Southern France with his family.
I loved Steve's vulnerability in sharing the undercurrent of his internal personal journey: the complex, sometimes tricky times alongside the moments of clarity and joy.
This story invites you into a place of discovery and growth, of finding beauty and friendship where you aren't looking. It's a story about food, wine, family, dreams, and reality. It's a story about building a fulfilling life and enjoying the season you're in. 10/10, loved it.
I loved Steve's vulnerability in sharing the undercurrent of his internal personal journey: the complex, sometimes tricky times alongside the moments of clarity and joy.
This story invites you into a place of discovery and growth, of finding beauty and friendship where you aren't looking. It's a story about food, wine, family, dreams, and reality. It's a story about building a fulfilling life and enjoying the season you're in. 10/10, loved it.
June 13, 2024
I was really excited to receive and Advanced Reader Copy of this book because the combination of travelogues and memoirs is totally my jam.
The writing is beautifully descriptive and I delighted in feeling like I was right there with him in the Languedoc. As you meet his neighbors (who eventually become friends) you start envisioning yourself moving there and wish that they would take you under their wing and show you how to just live in the moment as they were trying to teach Steve.
The way he writes about food and wine will leave your stomach grumbling and wishing that you had maybe a small plate of some figs & runny cheese nearby to nibble on, with a really nice tannic red wine to languidly sip on while devouring these pages.
I feel like the underlying theme is everyone wants to feel like they belong. It starts out with a young Steve Hoffman heading off to Paris and wanting to prove that he is not just some tourist but a "true" French citizen, and dealing with imposter syndrome which feels like follows him on his later journey back to the French countryside as an adult with family in tow. Ultimately it feels like he learns to let go and just savor the moment, which is something we all should try and do a bit more frequently.
The writing is beautifully descriptive and I delighted in feeling like I was right there with him in the Languedoc. As you meet his neighbors (who eventually become friends) you start envisioning yourself moving there and wish that they would take you under their wing and show you how to just live in the moment as they were trying to teach Steve.
The way he writes about food and wine will leave your stomach grumbling and wishing that you had maybe a small plate of some figs & runny cheese nearby to nibble on, with a really nice tannic red wine to languidly sip on while devouring these pages.
I feel like the underlying theme is everyone wants to feel like they belong. It starts out with a young Steve Hoffman heading off to Paris and wanting to prove that he is not just some tourist but a "true" French citizen, and dealing with imposter syndrome which feels like follows him on his later journey back to the French countryside as an adult with family in tow. Ultimately it feels like he learns to let go and just savor the moment, which is something we all should try and do a bit more frequently.
July 13, 2024
I love books in which ex-patriots settle in a farm or small village, but I had just read a novel about a woman moving to France which I found wholly unsatisfying. When I saw this just released memoir, I had great hopes that it would do the trick and satisfy my longing.
Steve Hoffman loves France and speaks excellent French, his children, Eva and Joe have been taking French in school and his wife, Mary Jo speaks un poquito. They decide because Steve's position allows to live 6 months in France, but in the south not very crowded Languedoc or Occitanie region in a small town called Autignac.
It doesn't start well for Steve:
We had some work to do, we Hoffmans, if we were going to fit in around here, and with this thought, and with a practiced Parisian, I suppose the word is “insouciance,” I took a sip of beer, lifted my chin, and leaned back into my chair, which snapped with the sound of a belly flop in a quiet pool, and I went over backward with it, baptizing myself on the way down with the dregs of my Kronenbourg, before the glass slipped from my hand and shattered on the pavers near my head.
And to be honest Steve didn't start well for me. He was just a little been of a, well I won't say it, but he was becoming annoying. Just when I was thinking don't tell me I'm going to read two duds about life in rural France, things began to pull together.
There is so much I love about this book, Steve's attempts and learning French cooking, his wife's love of native flora, the village people and the children Joe and Eva who are so special in their own unique way.
If you aren't convinced here is a quote which I saved especially for the sensory experience:
We poured the last of the wine, and ate more fruit with our blackberry-stained fingers, and as the sun disappeared behind the hills to the west, we heard what sounded like dull bells in the distance, and then, one by one, a troop of brown cows emerged from the upper tree line and, with the bells around their necks tunking peacefully, ambled down the meadow in our direction.
If you like memoirs, France or food, this may be the book for you.
Steve Hoffman loves France and speaks excellent French, his children, Eva and Joe have been taking French in school and his wife, Mary Jo speaks un poquito. They decide because Steve's position allows to live 6 months in France, but in the south not very crowded Languedoc or Occitanie region in a small town called Autignac.
It doesn't start well for Steve:
We had some work to do, we Hoffmans, if we were going to fit in around here, and with this thought, and with a practiced Parisian, I suppose the word is “insouciance,” I took a sip of beer, lifted my chin, and leaned back into my chair, which snapped with the sound of a belly flop in a quiet pool, and I went over backward with it, baptizing myself on the way down with the dregs of my Kronenbourg, before the glass slipped from my hand and shattered on the pavers near my head.
And to be honest Steve didn't start well for me. He was just a little been of a, well I won't say it, but he was becoming annoying. Just when I was thinking don't tell me I'm going to read two duds about life in rural France, things began to pull together.
There is so much I love about this book, Steve's attempts and learning French cooking, his wife's love of native flora, the village people and the children Joe and Eva who are so special in their own unique way.
If you aren't convinced here is a quote which I saved especially for the sensory experience:
We poured the last of the wine, and ate more fruit with our blackberry-stained fingers, and as the sun disappeared behind the hills to the west, we heard what sounded like dull bells in the distance, and then, one by one, a troop of brown cows emerged from the upper tree line and, with the bells around their necks tunking peacefully, ambled down the meadow in our direction.
If you like memoirs, France or food, this may be the book for you.
October 18, 2024
I was drawn to this book as it contains many of my favourite themes - food, travel, memoir and full family immersion in southern France.
The writer is acutely self aware that his passion for all things French has led this six month adventure with his family from Minnesota. His children have been taught in a non-mainstream school in the US in French - a school selected by their Francophile father. His wife is supportive and they have obviously shared a life of spur of the moment decisions, but now this involves their children.
I should have loved this. The writing is great. The subject matter is the detailed quotidian of people, lifestyle, food, cooking the local dishes, ways of living - all strands fascinating. Yet, somehow I found long sections tedious and wished the style of presenting the anecdotes and memories had been given more variety of voice.
I did enjoy a view from a Francophile American, which is a rare breed and I did enjoy their sojourn in the Languedoc but ended feeling vaguely dissatisfied
The writer is acutely self aware that his passion for all things French has led this six month adventure with his family from Minnesota. His children have been taught in a non-mainstream school in the US in French - a school selected by their Francophile father. His wife is supportive and they have obviously shared a life of spur of the moment decisions, but now this involves their children.
I should have loved this. The writing is great. The subject matter is the detailed quotidian of people, lifestyle, food, cooking the local dishes, ways of living - all strands fascinating. Yet, somehow I found long sections tedious and wished the style of presenting the anecdotes and memories had been given more variety of voice.
I did enjoy a view from a Francophile American, which is a rare breed and I did enjoy their sojourn in the Languedoc but ended feeling vaguely dissatisfied
July 31, 2024
I have a reading habit that I have maintained since childhood -- always finish a book! You never know what hidden treasures may still be hidden between the covers. This was an important habit that guided me well in this book. In the first pages I realized that I hated the author (this was a memoir) and therefore did not enjoy what was going on. Due to mobility issues, I find that I can no longer travel overseas, and I disliked Steve Hoffman for wasting this golden opportunity to live in France for 6 months. BUT as I continued to read, I watched the author turn into a different person whom I liked much better. By the end of the book, I came to love Languedoc through his eyes. I totally recommend this story to anyone who enjoys watching people change for the better. Now I want a follow-up book ro see if he ever did buy that vineyard.
May 28, 2025
Almost didn't finish this book after reading the pompous writing in Part 1. One could make a drinking game out of the number of times he annoyingly mentions how good he speaks French. Unanswered questions at the end - Does he purchase a vineyard in France? Does he import the wine for his friend?
Thumbs down from my book club. We did try some of the wine he mentioned.
I honestly have no idea why this book has so many stars. Save your money and buy a nice bottle of Domaine Balliccioni instead.
This book would have been enhanced by some of his wifes photos.
Thumbs down from my book club. We did try some of the wine he mentioned.
I honestly have no idea why this book has so many stars. Save your money and buy a nice bottle of Domaine Balliccioni instead.
This book would have been enhanced by some of his wifes photos.
September 17, 2024
Such a fun read! You can sense how in tune the author is with his environment through the detail and thoughtfulness of his writing. I particularly loved all the cooking scenes and the scenes with his children (specifically the chapter where he’s driving Eva to school!)
August 14, 2024
An absolutely reflection on travel, family, love, and finding oneself. The prose are delicious; a wonderful intersection of francophile dreams, cooking, wine, and everything that makes France so magical.
But A Season for That is more than a travelogue - it is a meditation on how we often lose ourselves on the journey of searching for what we think we want, when in fact we have found it along the way. I loved the descriptions of the terroir and environs - a truthful reminder that nature and the land we inhabit has everything to offer.
Favorite quotes:
1. "I had spent the afternoon - an afternoon of leisure, ostensibly - not living, as they had, but striving. Jean-Luc and Mary Jo [...] would have described their afternoons as a pleasure, while I would have described mine, more or less, as a success."
2. "Every subsequent career would be a demotion from my first, when for four years I toiled in uninterrupted felicity as a servant in the court of my imperious and demanding daughter."
3. "What if I didn't have to earn this over and over? This moment, this place, this friendship? [...] What if this were - all of it - simply enough for now? What if it were pour de bon?"
But A Season for That is more than a travelogue - it is a meditation on how we often lose ourselves on the journey of searching for what we think we want, when in fact we have found it along the way. I loved the descriptions of the terroir and environs - a truthful reminder that nature and the land we inhabit has everything to offer.
Favorite quotes:
1. "I had spent the afternoon - an afternoon of leisure, ostensibly - not living, as they had, but striving. Jean-Luc and Mary Jo [...] would have described their afternoons as a pleasure, while I would have described mine, more or less, as a success."
2. "Every subsequent career would be a demotion from my first, when for four years I toiled in uninterrupted felicity as a servant in the court of my imperious and demanding daughter."
3. "What if I didn't have to earn this over and over? This moment, this place, this friendship? [...] What if this were - all of it - simply enough for now? What if it were pour de bon?"
September 15, 2024
At first glance, this is a winecentric/foodcentric memoir about a family spending a handful of months in a fairly obscure part of southern France, but it ends up being much more about the dynamics of marriage and parenthood. While learning to be a better cook, Hoffman grows closer to the natives, and in turn, learns more about what his wife and children will actually eat and enjoy. He also quickly learns that in pursuit of his Francophile perfectionism (he is initially loathe to admit he's American and that he might need extra natives-only context from time to time) he's driving his entire family insane, and that relaxing into the rhythms and rituals of the Languedoc will make this fish out of water experience much easier for everyone. Very breezy (read it in two nights) and inspirational in its own turn; it will make you want to pop a bottle of wine and attempt a slightly harder recipe for dinner tonight.
September 3, 2024
Based on the blurb I read in Food & Wine magazine about this book, I was sure it would be a new favorite. While there are parts I really enjoyed reading - especially the overall sentiment about living seasonally and that there is a season for everything in life - I also found myself annoyed/irritated at points. I frequently had a hard time connecting with the author and the way he wrote about his family. Nevertheless, I wanted to see the book through to the end.
December 31, 2024
It’s always fun to interpret the meaning of a book’s title: "A Season for That: Lost and Found in the Other Southern France." The easy part is finding the place—Autignac (population 800) is in between Montpellier and Toulouse in rural Languedoc in southwest France, fifty minutes from the Mediterranean Sea (south) and fifty minutes to the Pyrenees Mountains (southwest) on the border with Spain.
What about “Lost and Found?” The family chose this place partly for its affordability, but when they arrived, they were shocked and considered leaving. Steve especially, as a lifelong Francophile, felt disconnected from Paris, where he formerly lived, and its cultured language, economy, education system, cuisine, and customs—lost. Instead, they chose to stay in rural France for six months, as planned, and adapt to the village people’s local language, economy, education system, cuisine, customs, and culture—found.
And what about “A season for That?” They chose not to isolate themselves as foreign observers and critics but to immerse themselves among the local people in their daily lives, from sometime in July into January. In Chapter 98, Steve writes, “There were seasons of the year, but there were also seasons of a life. This was my season to be a husband and father, in the home that our kids would think of as home. To take that lightly in any way was a kind of sin…It was time to finish out my pruning [of himself], putting one season to bed, and at the same time preparing for the season to come…it was now time to give our kids a homeland, from which they could choose someday to set sail…My place on earth was that life [in Minnesota]. It was the ground I had cleared and tilled and planted.” They would not transplant themselves to Autignac, as they were strongly tempted to do, after being urged to do so by the locals. They had to finish raising their “iron-willed daughter” (age 14) and their “tender son” (age 9). “Perhaps someday there would be a vineyard [of their own] overlooking dark hills, and bottles of our own round black wine in a cool cellar, next to dusty, unlabeled bottles. And there would be a season for that.”
If I calculate correctly, the events in this book occurred in 2012, yet the book was published in 2024. In his Dedication to Mary Jo, Eva, and Joseph, he writes, “Sorry this took so long.” So, it took 12 years for the experience to cook in his mind, heart and soul. Meanwhile, Eva and Joe, their two children, passed through their teenage years into their early and mid-20s. Perhaps today, Steve and Mary Jo are now empty nesters.
But from my point of view, his slow processing was worth it. Steve has produced an outstanding book. I especially appreciate the way he candidly revealed his own growth during that season of his life. At times, it reads like a confessional. If it took 12 years to process it all and reach the wise insights from the experience, then so be it. It’s worth it to us readers, himself, and his family. And in the Author’s Note, Steve writes, “Throughout [the years after the events in the book], I used the writing process and the narrative that emerged from it as an effort to understand the truth, as I felt it, of an experience that affected me profoundly and irreversibly.”
Mary Jo would not let him act out his preconceived French persona. In Chapter 9, she challenges him, “This isn’t working…You in France. It’s not working…[You] can’t get over [yourself]…I keep waiting for you to start building something. If you really want France. You’re not doing the work. You’re just playing some character, and I don’t even like him…whoever that is, he’s not helping his family become a part of this village, which is the whole reason we’re here…I’m not interested in watching you wait for your life to be revealed to you. This is real, Stevie. We’ve got kids and they’re not extras in the Steve Hoffman show. We’ve got a marriage that doesn’t need France in order to be what it needs to be. You say France is something important to you. OK. Make this count. And take us along…You say you want to be French, Stevie. Go be French…You say you want the kids to fall in love with France. Right now you’re making sure that won’t happen. And I’m on their side.”
And near the end of the book in Chapter 95, Steve says to Mary Jo, “You asked me to step up, to help us be a part of this place. And I have done so.”
She replies, “Sort of spectacularly.”
“…it should prove to you,” says Steve, “that I can…I will…do whatever you ask me to do.”
“I’m not a submissive wife…I would rather follow you [and] do all that with the Stevie who can tell me what he wants and is willing to go get it, than do almost anything else with the Stevie who is waiting to figure out what he wants, or worse, waiting to figure out what I want him to want. I want you on my team. I want an equal partner to dream with. I don’t care what decision we make. I don’t mind letting you lead. Just fucking dance with me.”
Read the book. See how he made the transformation. Read his insights, and smile at his humor. See how he comes to love immersing himself, with his family, in rural French life and how that impacts and infuses them, just as Mary Jo said it would. It was his season for that. It’s a remarkable, entertaining story. Well done, Steve.
What about “Lost and Found?” The family chose this place partly for its affordability, but when they arrived, they were shocked and considered leaving. Steve especially, as a lifelong Francophile, felt disconnected from Paris, where he formerly lived, and its cultured language, economy, education system, cuisine, and customs—lost. Instead, they chose to stay in rural France for six months, as planned, and adapt to the village people’s local language, economy, education system, cuisine, customs, and culture—found.
And what about “A season for That?” They chose not to isolate themselves as foreign observers and critics but to immerse themselves among the local people in their daily lives, from sometime in July into January. In Chapter 98, Steve writes, “There were seasons of the year, but there were also seasons of a life. This was my season to be a husband and father, in the home that our kids would think of as home. To take that lightly in any way was a kind of sin…It was time to finish out my pruning [of himself], putting one season to bed, and at the same time preparing for the season to come…it was now time to give our kids a homeland, from which they could choose someday to set sail…My place on earth was that life [in Minnesota]. It was the ground I had cleared and tilled and planted.” They would not transplant themselves to Autignac, as they were strongly tempted to do, after being urged to do so by the locals. They had to finish raising their “iron-willed daughter” (age 14) and their “tender son” (age 9). “Perhaps someday there would be a vineyard [of their own] overlooking dark hills, and bottles of our own round black wine in a cool cellar, next to dusty, unlabeled bottles. And there would be a season for that.”
If I calculate correctly, the events in this book occurred in 2012, yet the book was published in 2024. In his Dedication to Mary Jo, Eva, and Joseph, he writes, “Sorry this took so long.” So, it took 12 years for the experience to cook in his mind, heart and soul. Meanwhile, Eva and Joe, their two children, passed through their teenage years into their early and mid-20s. Perhaps today, Steve and Mary Jo are now empty nesters.
But from my point of view, his slow processing was worth it. Steve has produced an outstanding book. I especially appreciate the way he candidly revealed his own growth during that season of his life. At times, it reads like a confessional. If it took 12 years to process it all and reach the wise insights from the experience, then so be it. It’s worth it to us readers, himself, and his family. And in the Author’s Note, Steve writes, “Throughout [the years after the events in the book], I used the writing process and the narrative that emerged from it as an effort to understand the truth, as I felt it, of an experience that affected me profoundly and irreversibly.”
Mary Jo would not let him act out his preconceived French persona. In Chapter 9, she challenges him, “This isn’t working…You in France. It’s not working…[You] can’t get over [yourself]…I keep waiting for you to start building something. If you really want France. You’re not doing the work. You’re just playing some character, and I don’t even like him…whoever that is, he’s not helping his family become a part of this village, which is the whole reason we’re here…I’m not interested in watching you wait for your life to be revealed to you. This is real, Stevie. We’ve got kids and they’re not extras in the Steve Hoffman show. We’ve got a marriage that doesn’t need France in order to be what it needs to be. You say France is something important to you. OK. Make this count. And take us along…You say you want to be French, Stevie. Go be French…You say you want the kids to fall in love with France. Right now you’re making sure that won’t happen. And I’m on their side.”
And near the end of the book in Chapter 95, Steve says to Mary Jo, “You asked me to step up, to help us be a part of this place. And I have done so.”
She replies, “Sort of spectacularly.”
“…it should prove to you,” says Steve, “that I can…I will…do whatever you ask me to do.”
“I’m not a submissive wife…I would rather follow you [and] do all that with the Stevie who can tell me what he wants and is willing to go get it, than do almost anything else with the Stevie who is waiting to figure out what he wants, or worse, waiting to figure out what I want him to want. I want you on my team. I want an equal partner to dream with. I don’t care what decision we make. I don’t mind letting you lead. Just fucking dance with me.”
Read the book. See how he made the transformation. Read his insights, and smile at his humor. See how he comes to love immersing himself, with his family, in rural French life and how that impacts and infuses them, just as Mary Jo said it would. It was his season for that. It’s a remarkable, entertaining story. Well done, Steve.
May 25, 2025
3.75 felt like I lived a season in rural France
May 17, 2025
It took 40 pages to believe that the author was actually going to grow out of his insufferable self, but it was worth reading as he embraced the adventure he had dragged his family into. He writes well and paints word pictures with enough skill that I didn't have to run to google images to see the Provencal countryside he was describing (although it did make me *want* to look there).
September 21, 2024
I hate going to the dentist though I have the best dentist in Minneapolis. I usually listen to meditations during cleanings but I started this audiobook and I laughed and cried within the first three chapters and hardly noticed the dental work (no cavities tyvm).
I continued to laugh and cry through this book - sometimes even simultaneously. As a parent especially it moved me. I plan to read this again which is rare for me. Recommend highly as an audiobook with Steve’s Minnesotan accent. Hoping for a French language translation or audiobook.
I continued to laugh and cry through this book - sometimes even simultaneously. As a parent especially it moved me. I plan to read this again which is rare for me. Recommend highly as an audiobook with Steve’s Minnesotan accent. Hoping for a French language translation or audiobook.
November 2, 2024
A lovely and lyrical memoir of the six months the author and his family spent in a small rural village in Languedoc. The author’s tender passages about his sensitive son are deeply touching. For a Francophile like me, this book was a delight.
October 7, 2024
3.5* Loved the descriptions of the French countryside-the sights and smells. Lots about wine making and food.
Want to read
December 13, 2024Eric Asimov best wine books of 2024
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/life...
Steve Hoffman, a successful tax preparer, his wife, Mary Jo, a nature blogger, and their two children leave their comfortable Minnesota home to live in the south of France. I know, it sounds like the setup for another in a long line of clueless foreigners discovering the quaint, amusing French and their colourful ways.
This book, surprisingly, is not that. The family, driven by Hoffman’s obsession with France, formed during his student days in Paris, ends up in the village of Autignac in Languedoc, which Hoffman characterises as the other side of the tracks from sunny Provence. It’s not at all what he expected, and his family grows impatient with his uncertainty over the purpose of the trip and his fearful inhibitions now that he’s among actual French villagers.
So begins the voyage of discovery, and yet it all seems fresh and new as the family overcomes Hoffman’s hesitancy and their own doubts to find their places in the community.
Hoffman takes on cooking chores and slowly befriends the village grocer and butcher. Eventually Hoffman, who knows little about wine, meets grape growers and winemakers and finds purpose in the manual labour of the harvest and the winemaking. This is not the wine world of glossy magazines and rom-coms. It’s the flesh-and-blood, workaday French wine culture in which the wine is priced locally but little known elsewhere.
With wit and warmth, Hoffman finds the eternal, cyclical nature of village life, in which new generations take over family businesses, new families are created by marriage and grudges can span decades. This is a beautifully written book, reflective, sometimes ruthlessly so, occasionally sad and often funny. I started reading skeptically and found I could not put it down. One can only hope for a sequel.
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/life...
Steve Hoffman, a successful tax preparer, his wife, Mary Jo, a nature blogger, and their two children leave their comfortable Minnesota home to live in the south of France. I know, it sounds like the setup for another in a long line of clueless foreigners discovering the quaint, amusing French and their colourful ways.
This book, surprisingly, is not that. The family, driven by Hoffman’s obsession with France, formed during his student days in Paris, ends up in the village of Autignac in Languedoc, which Hoffman characterises as the other side of the tracks from sunny Provence. It’s not at all what he expected, and his family grows impatient with his uncertainty over the purpose of the trip and his fearful inhibitions now that he’s among actual French villagers.
So begins the voyage of discovery, and yet it all seems fresh and new as the family overcomes Hoffman’s hesitancy and their own doubts to find their places in the community.
Hoffman takes on cooking chores and slowly befriends the village grocer and butcher. Eventually Hoffman, who knows little about wine, meets grape growers and winemakers and finds purpose in the manual labour of the harvest and the winemaking. This is not the wine world of glossy magazines and rom-coms. It’s the flesh-and-blood, workaday French wine culture in which the wine is priced locally but little known elsewhere.
With wit and warmth, Hoffman finds the eternal, cyclical nature of village life, in which new generations take over family businesses, new families are created by marriage and grudges can span decades. This is a beautifully written book, reflective, sometimes ruthlessly so, occasionally sad and often funny. I started reading skeptically and found I could not put it down. One can only hope for a sequel.
August 16, 2024
I learned about the author and this book from his wife, Mary Jo Hoffman, whose blog and still photography practice I've been following for years. I bought her book "STILL" a few months ago. This memoir was quite different from the usual in the genre of "Americans in Whatever Foreign Place". Steve Hoffman had been a Francophile since his youth and wanted to spend more time in France with his family to really absorb the culture, people, food and wine. In short, they wanted to be more than tourists. They chose to go Autignac, a tiny village about 30 miles from the southern coast of France, about as different as the Paris of Hoffman's dreams as you could get without leaving the country. They moved into a home along with their kids, 9 and 14, and put them in the local school. The kids had been taking French lessons for quite some time in preparation for such a visit.
Their temporary 6-month residency didn't start out well. They had trouble connecting with the locals, but in fits and starts they learned to be part of the place rather than just tourists. The many vignettes of their life in Autignac were revealing, entertaining and sometimes quite emotional. They learned a deep appreciation for the food and wine of the area and were accepted into the community. Hoffman's is a very skilled writer, and his descriptions of the food he prepared and the wine they drank, and helped to harvest, are mouthwatering.
I'm hoping he'll consider writing a sequel !
Their temporary 6-month residency didn't start out well. They had trouble connecting with the locals, but in fits and starts they learned to be part of the place rather than just tourists. The many vignettes of their life in Autignac were revealing, entertaining and sometimes quite emotional. They learned a deep appreciation for the food and wine of the area and were accepted into the community. Hoffman's is a very skilled writer, and his descriptions of the food he prepared and the wine they drank, and helped to harvest, are mouthwatering.
I'm hoping he'll consider writing a sequel !
February 13, 2025
Going beyond language immersion, is cultural immersion truly possible? It actually seems to be for the author and his family as they bond with the local village over food and wine. But, I do wish the book had a 2024 update. Did the Hoffman family return to France yearly? Did they ever take over their friend's vineyard and design their own wines?
February 14, 2025
A memoir of a Minnesota family who moves to Southern France for 6 months. A heartwarming story of food, wine, family and friends. Be brave and step out of your comfort zone!
January 12, 2025
If you’re a Francophile, this book is for you! Loved every word of it! Helped that I have followed his wife’s blog, STILL, as it provided backstory and context.
June 14, 2024
This beautiful story weaves a tapestry of adventure,food, wine, family, and ulitmately wanderlust vs. reality. I couldn't put it down and can't wait to revisit Steve Hoffman adventures in the future upon further travels abroad of my own.
December 5, 2024
I really enjoyed this book, and the author’s concept of the house with two wings.
I can partially empathize with the author’s desire to not appear American while speaking the native tongue in a foreign country, though his French is leaps and bounds better than my Italian.
I really want to have a friend like Jean-Luc in my life.
I can partially empathize with the author’s desire to not appear American while speaking the native tongue in a foreign country, though his French is leaps and bounds better than my Italian.
I really want to have a friend like Jean-Luc in my life.
July 30, 2024
It may have helped that I have been ill with COVID and so have had to remain indoors and do very little except read and draw, so I read this at one sitting.
I had been thinking — haven’t we had enough of the Peter Mayle imitators? Such a pretty world they all describe. The truth is that actually living there is complicated. The French, as Hoffman says in this book, love being French. Perhaps because of that, many French do not love those who are not French. Certainly you should never move there if you are not fluent in French, because someone will eventually say, “you live here, and you don’t speak French any better than that?”
Hoffman’s life there and his approach in this book are different from all those other stories. What happens when you start reading this book is that you get caught up in the genuine modesty and curiosity of this person “Steve”. He is funny and vulnerable and tells us almost more than we should know about his family. Luckily, he speaks perfect French (perhaps a little academic, but he gets over that). His French neighbors are just lovely. Hard moments are included along with the best…
The writing is wonderful.
Read it. Preferably in one sitting.
I had been thinking — haven’t we had enough of the Peter Mayle imitators? Such a pretty world they all describe. The truth is that actually living there is complicated. The French, as Hoffman says in this book, love being French. Perhaps because of that, many French do not love those who are not French. Certainly you should never move there if you are not fluent in French, because someone will eventually say, “you live here, and you don’t speak French any better than that?”
Hoffman’s life there and his approach in this book are different from all those other stories. What happens when you start reading this book is that you get caught up in the genuine modesty and curiosity of this person “Steve”. He is funny and vulnerable and tells us almost more than we should know about his family. Luckily, he speaks perfect French (perhaps a little academic, but he gets over that). His French neighbors are just lovely. Hard moments are included along with the best…
The writing is wonderful.
Read it. Preferably in one sitting.
August 1, 2024
Books about people moving to France and settling is it´s own genre these days. Peter Mayle set the tone with his Provence-books and a lot of his followers follow the mold he created.
Bumbling fish-out-of-water americans or brits tries to come to grips with French culture, language and food and hilarity (or at least amusement) ensues. In the end they end up loving France in every way.
Steve Hoffman has written a book that ticks all these boxes and it´s often really funny.
But there is something that elevates this book above the usual expat narratives. He touches on themes of belonging; not only in a place and a community but in yourself and your situation.
It´s a well written book that left me both with a smile but sometimes with a lump in my throat. It also made me pick up the pace with my Duolingo lessons and work on my French so I can goo visit the region he writes so eloquent about.
Bumbling fish-out-of-water americans or brits tries to come to grips with French culture, language and food and hilarity (or at least amusement) ensues. In the end they end up loving France in every way.
Steve Hoffman has written a book that ticks all these boxes and it´s often really funny.
But there is something that elevates this book above the usual expat narratives. He touches on themes of belonging; not only in a place and a community but in yourself and your situation.
It´s a well written book that left me both with a smile but sometimes with a lump in my throat. It also made me pick up the pace with my Duolingo lessons and work on my French so I can goo visit the region he writes so eloquent about.
September 8, 2025
Excellent and if u love France, food and wine and family and friends this is a great read.
August 2, 2024
Becoming and Belonging
Heart and soul, deep thoughts, memorable wording, and a portrait of a life well-lived are indelibly embedded in the life of author Steve Hoffman. We begin with a clever “now we are here how do we do this with a twist”. How enticing: Steve Hoffman has a quirky quip, with just a little sarcasm. Throughout the book there are elegant adjectives and compelling phrases beautifully chosen that portray how people think about something, then turn it around, such as in page 1, “I think it is a perfectly beautiful village…. just not a particularly beautiful village is all.” The narrative is a deep dive and profound narrative into Steve Hoffman’s vision of himself as his life unfolds over decades, beginning with younger Steve as an intern with Les Petits Frères, discovering all the delights of Paris where as he puts it “I felt an invitation to belong”. He just wanted to be French. So he put his mind, heart and soul into his love for France at 21, and hasn’t stopped. The depiction of his meeting with his wife Mary Jo, long after his return, is a peon to how love flourishes maintaining one’s own identity yet sharing each others interests. Over the years we see how a family of 4 create a fulfilling life. We take our own walk following them on the streets and terrain of Autignac , immersing themselves in the culture and lives of the villagers. Home? For him, yes, in a way. For Mary Jo, not so much at the beginning. However, as time goes on, we see that all the Hoffmans have become Francophiles, steeped in culture and community. Steve Hoffman, a Man for all Seasons, encourages all of us that we can belong wherever we are in life if we follow our heart to BECOME.
Heart and soul, deep thoughts, memorable wording, and a portrait of a life well-lived are indelibly embedded in the life of author Steve Hoffman. We begin with a clever “now we are here how do we do this with a twist”. How enticing: Steve Hoffman has a quirky quip, with just a little sarcasm. Throughout the book there are elegant adjectives and compelling phrases beautifully chosen that portray how people think about something, then turn it around, such as in page 1, “I think it is a perfectly beautiful village…. just not a particularly beautiful village is all.” The narrative is a deep dive and profound narrative into Steve Hoffman’s vision of himself as his life unfolds over decades, beginning with younger Steve as an intern with Les Petits Frères, discovering all the delights of Paris where as he puts it “I felt an invitation to belong”. He just wanted to be French. So he put his mind, heart and soul into his love for France at 21, and hasn’t stopped. The depiction of his meeting with his wife Mary Jo, long after his return, is a peon to how love flourishes maintaining one’s own identity yet sharing each others interests. Over the years we see how a family of 4 create a fulfilling life. We take our own walk following them on the streets and terrain of Autignac , immersing themselves in the culture and lives of the villagers. Home? For him, yes, in a way. For Mary Jo, not so much at the beginning. However, as time goes on, we see that all the Hoffmans have become Francophiles, steeped in culture and community. Steve Hoffman, a Man for all Seasons, encourages all of us that we can belong wherever we are in life if we follow our heart to BECOME.
December 11, 2024
I loved this audio book.
An audacious move, a Minnesotan taking one’s family to France for 6 months.
Some bits made me laugh out loud. Some bits made me smile. Mostly I couldn’t wait to get back in my car or go to the gym to listen further. I was sad when it was done.
Moreover it made me want to return to writing, an avocation I set aside when my son died 26 years ago.
To me a sign of a good book is one that makes me long to pick up my pen again.
It was nicely written and well read by the author.
I’ll look for more of his work.
An audacious move, a Minnesotan taking one’s family to France for 6 months.
Some bits made me laugh out loud. Some bits made me smile. Mostly I couldn’t wait to get back in my car or go to the gym to listen further. I was sad when it was done.
Moreover it made me want to return to writing, an avocation I set aside when my son died 26 years ago.
To me a sign of a good book is one that makes me long to pick up my pen again.
It was nicely written and well read by the author.
I’ll look for more of his work.
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