Almost French: A New Life in Paris

by SarahTurnbull (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $3.25

  In the tradition of Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun, Chris Stewart's A Parrot in the Pepper Tree or Peter Mayle without the pile of stones, Almost French is a perceptive, poignant, often hilarious mixture of personal memoir and travel. As a student at University, Sarah Turnbull dropped French after failing the subject during her first year. Then, during a career break from journalism to travel the world, she finds herself changing her plans to settle permanently in Paris. Almost French is the witty account of her new life in Paris and the difficulties she faces in trying to integrate fully into Parisian culture while trying to establish herself as a freelance journalist. Sarah gives the reader a fascinating insight into her love/hate relationship with the French through humorous examples of runins with her new countrymen. Everything from using the correct language and etiquette to address everyone from the local baker to a senior figure in the French Ministry of Defence, from how you laugh and what you serve on your dinner table, to what you wear, all prove vital to being accepted as one of them. Finally, as the title suggests, Sarah succeeds in becoming 'almost French'.

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.25

• New

  Paperback
  2005

  $13.02

  A delightful new twist on the travel memoir, Almost French takes readers on a tour fraught with culture clashes but rife with insight and deadpan humour - a charming true story of what happens when Sarah meets a very French Frenchman. Backpacking around Europe, twenty-something Sarah Turnbull meets Frederic and impulsively accepts his invitation to visit him for a week in Paris. Eight years later, she is still there - and married to him. The feisty Sydney journalist swaps vegemite for vichyssoise and all things French, but commits the fatal errors of bowling up to strangers at classy receptions, helping herself to champagne, laughing too loudly and (quelle horreur!) rushing out for a baguette in her 'pantalons de jogging'. But Paris' maddening, mysterious charm proves irresistible and Sarah makes spectacular progress. She finds work as a freelance journalist, learns to survive Parisian dinner parties and how to deal with grim-faced officialdom. As she navigates the highs and lows of Parisian life, covering the haute couture fashions shows and discovering the hard way the paradoxes of France today, Sarah succeeds in becoming 'almost French'.