Kickstarter

The Southern France Wine Project is a book writing & publishing project. Kimberly Brady and myself, François Pointeau, are going to write a book in one month. It is going to be a travel-wine book illustrated with sketches and photography.

We are flying to Marseille on the first week of September where we will rent a car, and drive towards Avignon, Orange, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Seguret, and many other villages and towns in the wine country. We are going to visit wineries, interview the winemaking staff, take pictures of the harvest, and break bread with the locals.

We picked the month of September because that is when the harvest happens, Les Vendanges! We want to capture the community of wine production in action. I’ve participated in three harvests, and it is an amazing experience of hard work, wine, and the physical proof that it does indeed take a  village! It takes whole villages to produce lots and lots of some of the finest wine in the world.

The harvest is the most important season of the year for wine producers. They’re whole livelihood depends on a successful harvest, and for wineries to accept to see anybody that time of the year is a huge endorsement. This means a lot to us.

We will document our experiences with words and pictures. Basically, we will write a book on the go, in the heat of the moment, a travel journal interspersed with interviews and anecdotes where there will be lots of talk of wine & food. And though the book will revolve around the production of wine, we will also cover our experience visiting the villages, meeting the local people, and checking out whatever comes our way.

When we come back to Austin on the first week of October, we will have a first draft of the book. At this point, the revising, editing, and book layout process begins. We are working with a macro-publisher who will provide us with all the book professionals needed to put a book together. By the end of November, we will have a finished book.

Our objectives are very ambitious, and yet we are confident in our abilities to accomplish them.

We are both professionals. I have been working in the wine industry for over eight years. I am a published writer. Kimberly is a dedicated artist who has designed one book cover, and is currently illustrating two manuscripts. We are both very passionate about our art, our lives, and about the community locally and at large.

Three wineries have already accepted to join us on our adventure. Friends and family have come out of the woodwork wanting to lend a hand.

This project is no longer just about Kimberly and myself. We are bringing the talents of so many individuals together, from so many different walks of life, from Texas & France, that the project is already taking on a life of its own. We are very excited, and thank you in advance for your support, however large or small, we are so appreciative it gives us goose bumps!

The Wineries so far:(we will add names as we receive confirmations)

Dauvergne-Ranvier
Domaine de Cabasse
Les Vignobles Foncalieu

The Publisher:

Javelina Books

Why we need your financial support:

Writing & Publishing a book is an expensive adventure.

Though we are buying our own plane tickets, and some of the wineries are going to help us with accommodation, we need your help renting a car and buying gasoline. We are very frugal, and will cover most of our food needs ourselves.

When we come back to Austin, we need to hire professional editors, professional book designers, and print several hundreds of copies. All this costs money.

Any extra money that we raise, we will use to enhance our book, publish in color rather than black and white, and if we raise way above our goal, we will use the money to help fund other Kickstarter Projects as well as start saving for a second François & Kimberly book project.

You can follow our BLOG on our website: FrancoisAndKimberly.com

Thank you!!