About this title: An Australian journalist meets a French lawyer, marries him, and moves to Paris. In this memoir about the experience, Sarah Turnbull is candid about her difficulties fitting into French culture, and accepting its enormous differences from what she is used to. Her efforts to build a career there, to find friends, to accept her husband's family's customs, and--finally--to feel just a little bit French provide an unusual perspective on being a stranger in a strange land.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Gotham
Date Published: 2003-08-18
ISBN-13:9781592400386ISBN:1592400388
Description: Like New. Advance Reading Copy, PAPERBACK, likely unread, covers clean and crisp, interior is clean and bright, binding is tight, a very nice copy throughout. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Gotham Books
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9781592400829ISBN:1592400825
Description: Grade: C. Catalog: Non-Fiction Autobiography Synopsis: 304 pages. Sarah Turnbull's stint in Paris was only supposed to last a week. Chance had brought Sarah and Frederic together in Bucharest, and on impul... read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"I didn't quite finish with this. I got half way through the book and was just not that interested. I ended up falling asleep twice. Don't get me wrong. It's not really that it is boring. The author talks about her life in France, and her adjustment, and I enjoyed that and felt liked I learned a lot more about France. There were even some laugh out loud parts. I didn't really connect with the author and she didn't talk to us much about her relationship with her husband so I felt a bit isolated from her experience in that regard. It's almost like she left out the emotion in the relationship entirely. I just couldn't commit to the time it was taking to read this book."
"What I learned..... ... Parisians are rude and pompous ... It is difficult to make friends with French women because they are more interested in men and perceive other women as competition. ... bureaucracy is a pain in the butt ... Paris not only has the Louvre but it also has homeless people and giant size rats ... haute coutre only serves 2,000 women in the world who can afford it, and they are generally Arabian princesses and Hollywood starlets ... surprisingly, according to the author, Parisians could tell that she was not French even before she opened her mouth and bastardized their beautiful language. Of course, this cracked me up because she may it sound like they were so intelligent and insightful. When we see someone in our country who is not a native American, we usually can tell before they open up their mouth to speak. It is not so difficult to spot someone who is culturally different even after they have been here for years. ,,, French people think France is the next best thing since the baguette was invented, but then of course, les Americans think we are the next best thing since sliced bread. Most people feel that way about their country of origin. It is called national pride. ...finally, if I had the chance to live there for a year or even less, I would still be the first person on the plane to suck up the Parisian culture and I wouldn't care if they knew I was an American and they treated me rudely. I would just chalk it up to cultural differences."
"This is a fascinating book that taught me more about the French then all of my years taking French in high school and college. Turnbull is frank, but respectful, about her life in Paris as an expatriate. It certainly made me want to go to Paris again.
I would have given this book 5 stars, but I felt the subtitle of the book is misleading. I thought she would share more of the love story that lead her to settle permanently in Paris, but there was almost nothing about how they fell in love. If the subtitle had been "A New Life in Paris", I probably wouldn't have missed the love story."
"Dymocks $22.95 Autobiography of Australian journalist who falls in love with a Frenchman. Sarah, the ex-pat living in France is trying to understand the idiosyncratic and highly 'proper' Gaellic race.
Descriptions are highly colourful, humour incidental and writing style informal. Sarah's understanding of the French arrogance and their mannerisms make this book a great 'guide' for the would be traveller. I would read again before a trip to France.
I enjoyed the writing style and her use of future tense at the end of a chapter to add interest to an incident.
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