ISBN 1-58939-773-8. $14.95. Softcover. 278 Pages.
HOTEL DES MOUSQUETAIRES tells the story of two retired American academics living in France who are intrigued by an abandoned hotel for sale in the Basque region. This book reveals their adventures when they purchase and renovate the hotel.
The author and his wife were American university professors for 30 years before retiring to Aix-en-Provence, France to continue their joint research in French socio-economic history. While on a research trip to archives in Pau, they learned that a handsome old hotel in the Basque country was for sale. The price was unbelievably reasonable, since it had been abandoned for two years. Finally, the challenge of renovating the hotel proved too exciting to pass up and they became the hotel's new owners.
The following months were filled with the various technical and administrative tasks associated with renovating the hotel, assembling a staff, and becoming acquainted with their new neighbors.
Unexpectedly, a Canadian film company enticed them into opening the hotel earlier than planned since they wanted to use the hotel as headquarters for two weeks while they shot a quasi-documentary about the Three Musketeers. Afterwards, the fledgling hotelkeepers were off and running, working from dawn until late at night at their new adventure.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Wayne Snyder was originally from California, but eventually attended Harvard University, where he earned a Ph.D. in economics. For over 30 years he divided his time between teaching economics at American universities and working as an advisor in developing countries, including Greece, Indonesia, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger, Turkey and Vietnam. In addition to his publications about the economic problems faced by developing countries, he is best known for his quantitative evaluations of the effects fiscal policies among developed, survey evaluations of perceptions of the quality of life, and for having initiated the first quantitative analysis of horse race gambling. In recent years, he and his wife have worked on historical archival research about socio-economic issues of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries in France.
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