If you have ever sat in a work meeting and thought "what a fucking waste of time?", followed - almost immediately - with "what the hell am I doing with my life?" then this book might just be for you. Like the proverbial plumber with a leaky tap, Jeff was a management consultant advising corporate clients about improving staff satisfaction, without ever taking the time to consider his own. Suffering from a peculiar mix of ennui and wanderlust, he has an epiphany - life is short and work takes up far too much of it.
Reasoning that there must be more fun travelling, he convinces his long-suffering wife to take a sabbatical - like a gap year but not really, since they didn't have that luxury - following the classic 18th-century European route undertaken by people of sufficient means. Having the means, but never the opportunity, due to the insistent demands of pesky children that expect to be fed and watered, fate intervenes after eldest leaves home and youngest is invited on a school tour of France.
From being squashed into a Fiat navigating the perilous roads around Lake Como, to feeling middle-aged amongst bikini-clad babes on the beaches of Ibiza or following Jefferson's footsteps in his futile attempt at sampling every Premier Cru in Bordeaux, the author takes you on an educational yet hilarious journey through Europe. With each chapter serving up a new question, he dishes out condensed nuggets of history along with lashings of humour, sometimes even answering the question.
"European nonsense - The French Connection" is a travel (mis)adventure that will appeal to readers who enjoy a mixture of history, psychology and philosophy, delivered in a fast-paced, entertaining style. During a global pandemic, this armchair travel guide provides a timely reminder of our essential need to get out and see the world.
