Almost French
Sarah Turnbull
Penguin Publishing Group
<p>A delightful, fresh twist on the travel memoir, <I>Almost French</I> takes us on a tour that is fraught with culture clashes but rife with deadpan humor.<p>Sarah Turnbull's stint in Paris was only supposed to last a week. Chance had brought Sarah and Frédéric together in Bucharest, and on impulse she decides to take him up on his offer to visit him in the world's most romantic city. Sacrificing Vegemite for vichyssoise, the feisty journalist does her best to fit in, although her conversation, her laugh, and even her wardrobe advertise her foreign status.<p>But as she navigates the highs and lows of this strange new world, from life in a bustling <I>quartier</I> and surviving Parisian dinner parties to covering haute couture fashion shows and discovering the paradoxes of French culture, little by little Sarah falls under its spell: maddening, mysterious, and charged with that French specialty&#8212;<I>seduction</I>.<p>"...a love song to Paris and France, yes, but a love song in a...</p></p></p></p>