BRUNSWICK, Maine — Attuning himself to the gentle rhythms of life in a tiny French village, author Michael S. Sanders gradually became part of the agricultural community he went on to describe to the outside world.
On Sunday afternoons after the family meal, Sanders, his wife and their 6-year-old daughter would stroll into the village of Les Arques, falling into a leisurely pattern of country life that has been followed for generations.
"You take a walk and you say 'hi' to your neighbors, and maybe you stop in if it's the right time of day and have an aperitif, but you never stay for dinner, nor would you be invited," he says.
His respectful approach included showing up at any and all village events, from baptisms and funerals to elections and meetings. He happily discovered that the villagers were as curious about him as he was about them.
A Francophile with a lifelong interest in food and cooking, Sanders set out to find a small chef-owned restaurant in a rural location in southwestern France that could serve as the centerpiece of his new book.
He was familiar with the region because he and his wife were married there 14 years ago. The weather was relatively warm, the region was less well-known to Americans than places like Provence, and the cost of living was much cheaper than in Paris.
His search led him to Les Arques, with a year-round population of 159. Its only business is La Recreation, the successful restaurant in an abandoned schoolhouse that helped revive what had been a dying village.
The legacy of Ossip Zadkine, an emigre Russian sculptor whose long association with the village led to the establishment of a small museum and summer artists' colony, is another part of that revival.
Sanders and his wife Amy, both fluent in French, spent 13 months in Les Arques, living in a stone farmhouse they rented from the son of their nearest neighbor, the mayor. While daughter Lily spent her days in kindergarten and Amy and their dog roamed the countryside on foot, Sanders conducted interviews and gathered materials for the book.
Published this month, "From Here You Can't See Paris," (HarperCollins, $24.95), examines village life through the four seasons as it details the culinary magic of Jacques and Noelle Ratier's restaurant and presents the personal story of a family's move to a community whose traditions are rooted in its medieval past.
From the moment he first peered into the kitchen of La Recreation during dinner prep, Sanders found himself riveted by the masterful work he observed. It was the same feeling he experienced years earlier when he first set foot on a huge and bustling shop floor at Bath Iron Works to gather material for his first book, "The Yard," which describes how Navy destroyers are built at the shipyard near his home in Brunswick.
In researching his latest book, Sanders served as an apprentice under chef Jacques Ratier, whose talent, energy and dedication have won the restaurant a devoted following among tourists and locals alike.
The author's fascination is evident in his description of Ratier's stuffed squash blossoms, perhaps his signature dish. Prepared from the flowers of the lowly zucchini plant, the dish reflects Ratier's meticulous work in the kitchen and the care and patience of his friend Bernard Bousquet, the local gardener who supplies the delicate blossoms fresh from the field.
Although the original focus of the book was the restaurant, the book took other directions. "I realized there were so many things around me, and the restaurant led me to them," he said.
One of the seasonal rituals of country life that proved fascinating to Sanders was the production of foie gras, a regional specialty turned out by local farmers who raise ducks and force feed them for two weeks prior to slaughter. The overfeeding engorges the duck's liver, producing the richly flavored delicacy reserved for holidays or special occasions.
The book also introduces the reader to the mysteries of black truffles, the rare fungus buried among the roots of oak trees that commands up to $300 a pound wholesale. They emit a reek that the author likens to a combination of old gym socks, boiled cabbage and leaking gas.
"Truffles are a mythological beast," Sanders said. "There are these whole layers and layers of accretive mystery and love and poetry and passion, and people get killed over truffles there. If you go into somebody's truffle trees at the wrong time of year and they don't like you and they shoot you, no court is going to convict them."
When the year was over, Sanders and his family made their bittersweet departure from the region whose people and countryside they came to know and love. But they took home lessons in life.
"It gave us a much greater appreciation for living — essentially for how to live well," he says.
Although he may curse the quality of supermarket cheese in Maine, his family has retained the habit of avoiding most processed food and has been conscientious about patronizing farmers' markets and small specialty grocers and produce vendors.
Thoughts of moving permanently to the Lot, the sparsely populated region midway between Bordeaux and Toulouse that includes Les Arques, had crossed his mind but were soon set aside.
"Over there, life was in a sense too slow for us, and we were smart enough to realize that. I don't think we would be happy there in the long term."
Still, Sanders believes there is much to learn from the slower-paced life that delighted him during his stay, and he is not quite ready to let it go.
He and his family have already returned to the region, where he has begun researching a companion book about winemaking.
French contact
Information: French Government Tourist Office, 410-286-8310 or www.francetourism.com