Tres bien

[rainbowunicorn_reads]

Almost French
Love and a new life in Paris
by Sarah Turnbull


"But appreciation of beauty can also creep up on you. It can be a taste acquired through experience, time, love and deepening knowledge. It can spring not from the grandeur of the big picture but affection for the small things and parts that gave a place its heart."
-Almost French, Sarah Turnbull

I find myself attracted to books that allow me to experience armchair travel. I'm quite fond of living vicariously through others behind the safety of pages, when the real fun proves to be expensive as of the moment.
This book was bought by chance, one rainy day at Booksale, where I found myself wishing I could just leave this gloomy rainy weather behind me, and just scoot over to Paris on some romantic adventure.
I'm so glad I bought this book--I can honestly say it's one of the best books I've ever read (so far :) ). But that's me. I often read to escape, and if you really know me, you'd know that I'd pick Francesca Lia Block's surreal fantastical worlds over a gritty realistic Palahniuk anytime.

Almost French was a perfect slice of escape, even for a while. Each page fills my head with much anticipation and vivid imagery. Places, tastes and smells are described in detail that I could almost imagine being there with the witty and self-deprecatory Ms. Turnbull.

I've read similar books: Eat, pray, love; Toujours, Provence and A Year in Provence; Under the Tuscan Sun and right now I'm reading "Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France's Cote d'Azur and Italy's Costa Bella, but I can already say that Almost French still remains to be my favorite. Maybe it's also due to Turnbull's journalistic background, her attempts to be objective by doing some research and the way she seems to always write with the audience in mind. I love reading about France from an outsider's perspective and finding out more about their culture from Sarah's French boyfriend, Frederic. And unlike other memoirs about living in some European country, Sarah here is totally likeable. Sure, she often has some mishaps like accidentally asking Frederic if he would like to have um, some, sexual favors done to him, at a dinner party in front of his friends, due to a mistranslation of "Are you looking for your pipe?". Or that incident where she pretends to be a vet to stop strangers from giving her unsolicited advice on how to better take care of her dog and how she stutters at the pronunciation of said profession, much to the delight of her hecklers. Or when she was treated as a social pariah for insisting on creating small talk at dinner parties instead of what the guidebook said, which was to "...pretend you are a chair. You won't be surprised when no one speaks to you. After all, you are a chair!". Her misadventures, and how she can laugh at her foibles make me love her more.

I also love how she got this nugget of wisdom from Christian Lacroix himself (I love him, too bad he's now bankrupt, sadly :( )
"Don't expect eternal happiness," he says, quoting the French poet Andre Gide. "I wasn't brought up to think every day would be beautiful. I was taught to just stay open every day to whatever may happen and eventually the positive will come back to you."


Vraiment, vraiment, vraiment bon. A thoroughly enjoyable read. :)

What I think: 9 unicorns