Travels with Alice (1989)

by Calvin Trillin

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401	6	67,160	(3.8)	19
This delightful book collects Calvin Trillin's accounts of his trips to Europe with his wife, Alice, and their two daughters. In Taormina, Sicily, they cheerfully disagree with Mrs. Tweedie's 1904 assertion that the beautiful town "is being spoilt," and skip the Grand Tour in favor of swimming holes, table soccer, and taureaux piscine. In Paris, they spend a day on the Champs- Elysé es comparing Freetime's "le Hitburger" to McDonald's Big Mac. In Spain, Trillin wonders whether he will run out of Spanish "the way someone might run out of flour or eggs." Filled with Trillin's characteristic humor, "Travels with Alice" is the perfect book for summer travelers.… (more)

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Showing 1-5 of 6 (next | show all)

A book about travel in which Trillin spends most of his time describing great meals he has had. As a special bonus we learn about the sport taureaux piscine, in which players attempt to get a bull to chase them into a swimming pool. I am tempted to travel to France just for that. Here is a video of a bull that seems to be having a great time leaping in and out of the pool in pursuit of teenage boys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf4K_QdCtWw (

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JanetNoRules | Sep 17, 2018 |

"Travels With Alice" by Calvin Trillin had me laughing out loud. My only disappointment was that there really wasn't much about Alice, and it's his love for and relationship with Alice that made me a Trillin fan to begin with. (

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LeslieHurd | Jan 11, 2017 |

This was a very fun travel book and a quick, enjoyable read. I don't use the word "cute" for books often, but this was that! (

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RachelGMB | Aug 5, 2015 |

This is one of the best of the travel and dining memoirs ever written. Trillin's humor and his love for his wife are evident throughout. (

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TadAD | Oct 5, 2010 |

This book made me very jealous of folks who can decamp for months at a time to a completely foreign place and take up temporary residence. Because I work for companies and never seem to accrue enough time or have enough un-busy time to do this, it sounds like heaven!!! I'd love to "hang out" in other countries like Calvin and Alice did. Maybe I need to change my life to make this possible! (

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MaryEB | Feb 1, 2010 |

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1989

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To some families we've been traveling with for many years --the Jowells (Jeffrey, Francie, Josi, and Danny), the Mackintoshes (Tony, Mary, Sonya, and Gabriel), and the Smiths (Bill, Genny, and, of course, Caroline T.)

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I might have seen more of America when I was a child if I hadn't had to spend so much of my time protecting my half of the back seat from incursions by my sister, Sukey.

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This delightful book collects Calvin Trillin's accounts of his trips to Europe with his wife, Alice, and their two daughters. In Taormina, Sicily, they cheerfully disagree with Mrs. Tweedie's 1904 assertion that the beautiful town "is being spoilt," and skip the Grand Tour in favor of swimming holes, table soccer, and taureaux piscine. In Paris, they spend a day on the Champs- Elysé es comparing Freetime's "le Hitburger" to McDonald's Big Mac. In Spain, Trillin wonders whether he will run out of Spanish "the way someone might run out of flour or eggs." Filled with Trillin's characteristic humor, "Travels with Alice" is the perfect book for summer travelers.

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