Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25521 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

A great gift for oneself or a female friend
It doesn't change a person into complete archetypal "French chick" overnight. What it does is that the author extracts the valuable and positive aspects found in the French girls she encountered and crystallizes her observations into clear points to help oneself live a more positive and beautiful life. A pretty little book about how to enjoy living and love the woman you are. Easy to understand, with many helpful little anecdotes and recommendations (french films/books) for those who would like to go a bit more in-depth into the points that the book makes.

La Vie en Rose-tinted lunettes
A generous and graceful tribute from an American girl to her French friends. Ms Ollivier wants us to celebrate the very best of French style, poise and worldliness and gives us examples of their best exponents. She tactfully minimises the less enchanting aspects of everyday French life, such as flowery wallpaper on every possible surface including doors, truly dreadful plumbing, and habitual irritability. Instead she praises French fashion, both the classic variety and its quirkier offshoots, suggests some very good films to watch, books to read and food to eat (and, of course, cook), and gives us a sensitive insight into national attitudes to life and love. The result is a delight for anyone who enjoys France. But do read Madame Dariaux first - Elegance or Men or both - for the real thing.

The usual French stereotype
My origin is half French, I spend most of my time in France and my best friends are either French or Swiss French. At first I was shocked to discover how very French I actually turn out to be as described in the book, and how the traditions and values that I've been bequeathed are very French too. But then the word "archetypal" is mentioned in the proloque and you'd better bear in mind all throughout your reading that this book is more about the ideal French woman and how to bring out the archetypal French woman in you rather than a description of what French women actually are like. Though many of my friends and acquaintances fit into the French girl description, I know scores of French women who are nosey, frumpy, tacky and gauche as anybody under the sun. Especially if you've never been to France, don't be misled: this book is full of the typical prejudices and stereotypes about the French women as seen through the gawking eyes of the American outsider who thinks the grass is always greener in Gaulle. There are also some mistakes in the book, like ascribing Madame de Pompadour as Louis XIV's lover (she was Louis XV's) and the fact that other women reviewed as favourite French girls (Anaïs Nin, Catherine de Medici, Marie Antoinette or Pauline de Rothschild) are not even French. Anyway, the book makes interesting beach reading. The prose is feisty, fast-paced and you'll find the book hard to put down.