They recall with humour their separate experiences of living in France in the mid-to-late sixties and early seventies: Jackson worked in the western Pyrenees and Adamson in Paris.

The book, whose prologue and epilogue are set in West Mersea,[1] recounts Jackson and Adamson's French adventures, the recollection of which is sparked by the unexpected brightness of a late summer's afternoon at the Essex seaside resort, as if they were back in France.

Encounters with Alain Delon,[2] Piem, the cartoonist,[3] Louis Derbré, the sculptor,[4] Toru Iwaya, the Japanese mezzotint artist,[5] Modigliani's daughter,[6] and across the tables in a Provençal restaurant, Noël Coward,[7] are mingled with interactions with the locals in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and exchanges with workers, among them waiters,[8] barbers and business executives, in Paris.

[9] Falling in love at a château in the Pomerol,[10] putting on an exhibition of Franco-British humorous art in the Marais[4] and discovering a letter in Paris written by Vincent van Gogh to Paul Gauguin[11] are among the highlights of the book.

[17][better source needed] The booksellers Hatchards on Piccadilly, London, dubbed the book, "A beautiful portrayal of the country from an outsider's perspective".