Product Description

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'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13271 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 322 pages

AB&P
"France is the new Italy ‘Turnbull’s insights into French culture are witty, insightful, and told with a journalist’s skill.."

Living France magazine, July 2003
"A funny, heart-warming, romantic and poignant tale of fitting in."

marie claire, August 2003
"Required reading for anyone contemplating a spot of French leave."

Customer Reviews

Great recommendation, Amazon!
Once I ordered "Petite Anglaise" Amazon recommended "Almost French" to me. I was a tiny bit sceptical: I had indeed enjoyed the sublect matter of "Petite Anglaise" but was a bit put off by the self-love and self-righteousness of that book. Still, I tried "Almost French" on their recommendation - and could not have been more pleased. This is a really down to earth book by a woman who came to live in Paris for love, did not find it easy at all, had her battles with the language, the people, the customs - you name it, and mastered them to a degree that in the end she could call herself "Almost French". I really liked it, it is unpretentious, self-deprecating, honest and very very interesting. It doesn't serve up "Oh lá lá" cliches, it describes modern French people as they are, with their strengths and foibles - and what it's like to make France your home.

Only when you finish it do you see how good it is.
I got this book completely out the blue, reading the title only. When it started off i was a little concerned that it was going to turn into a romance novel and yes a fair section of the book discusses her relationship with her fellow. When reading through chapter by chapter you don't really get a sense of how good the book is. It is only when you finish it and look back on the story you have read do you realise all the little things you have taken in. The stark final fact from the book is that if your weren't born French you never will be French as obvious as that may seem. The book teases out this little things which are those things that will never make you French unless you were born there to good effect. Overall a great read, especially if you are planning to move there.

Presque Parisienne
These ex-pat books seem ever so formulaic after a while:

1. Go to France
2. Play up differences between the French and Anglo-Saxons
3. Write a Book
4. Profit!!!

Books taking sideswipes at Gallic culture obviously have a market. So far we've had

1. Crafty Provencals bamboozle London Sophisticate (Peter Mayle - A Year in Provence ISBN-13: 978-0140296037) - shades of Pagnol
2. American Chatteratti bonds with Parisian Chic Set (Adam Gopnik - Paris to the Moon - ISBN-13: 978-0375758232)
3. Brit mocks the gin-swilling Dordogneshire ex-pat crowd (Suzy Kelly - Two Steps Backwards - ISBN-13: 978-0553816204)

And of course
4. Uncultured Aussie all at sea with the Paris smart set. - Almost French

One can't help feeling that George Orwell (Down and Out in Paris and London - ISBN-13: 978-0140282566) did it so much better in the 1930s by actually walking the walk rather than just mocking from the sidelines.

Almost French, although as another reviewer said, Almost Parisienne would be a better title falls into a class of books you could dub "journo-lit". Rather than having a strong central theme this kind of writing is a series of articles that could have been churned out for aircraft in-flight travel magazines. While each article is well crafted and somewhat informative a 320 page book feels a bit much and Almost French was quite plodding at the end. It seems most of Sarah's adventures had happened in here first 12 months in Paris.

I've given the book 4/5 because, apart from the last chapters which are not that engaging and a bit rushed (maybe she could have cut the waffle about the dog) the book is well written and there are some funny passages and I think people who like these kinds of books will find this pretty good fayre. Having done the whole Paris thing (I lived 5 years in the French capital) I must say I have trouble identifying with the experiences of Sarah (and I'm also married to a lawyer) and feel that she had played up some of the problems and I don't really agree with some of her critics. People have to understand that France is different but that doesn't necessarily mean it is bad. In the end Sarah seemed to have acquired some of the worst traits of a certain crown of Parisiennes - the BCBGs - without becoming as French as she perhaps thought.

Some bits that jarred were the bit where the Green mayor of the 4ieme district that married her and Frederic saying they were the future of marriages - well if having the carbon footprint of Portugal (with all the cheap flights to Oz) is a Green mayor's idea of viable future well then... Bonjour!

The piffle about Jospin's talented female ministerial team - Aubry and Royal were pretty useless and prattling on about the sisterhood - really does make her sound like some sub Germaine Greer lecturing the non-PC Europeans.