Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes
Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes
Tags: Love, Lunch, Paris, Recipes, Story
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March 6th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
This is the account of an American woman who moves to Paris and marries her French boyfriend (who’s not at all a stereotype – he’s a tapdancing engineer with the unlikely name of Gwendal). It’s about how she adapts to living in Paris and how she falls in love with the city and the cuisine. She ends every chapter with some of her favourite recipes, so it’s part memoir, part travelogue, part recipe book.
Unfortunately Elizabeth just isn’t as interesting as she thinks she is. There’s too much about her – I love history! I grew up surrounded by women! I like eating! – and not enough objectively about the experience of moving to a new country. Parts of the book also felt like they had been taken verbatim from emails to her mother (eg “tonight when I came out of the Louvre I noticed them cleaning the windows”).
Some of the most interesting parts for me were the way that she starts to find fault in so many aspects of the American culture. She pokes fun at American tourists and sneers at her mother for assuming that things will operate in Europe as they do in the US. Over my life I’ve lived in seven different countries, and it got me thinking about the way that I have adapted and assimilated. I was also interested in her views on the differences between American vs French attitudes, how what is quite acceptable in the US is seen as pushy in France and how Americans show their power by helping whereas the French show their power by blocking progress.
The integration of the recipes (more than 60) feels very natural given Elizabeth’s obsession with food. (She’s the kind of writer who describes walls as being the colour of butter or a sweater as being the colour of warm milk.) While I haven’t tried any, for the most part they sound tasty and easy to follow. They are also listed in the index.
While I found the book okay, I got bored towards the end, because ultimately it doesn’t go anywhere. It felt like Bard wrote it because she had nothing better to do with her time. There are better books that cover similar territory. Almost French: A New Life in Paris is one which I recommend, or if the foodie aspect is what appeals, try The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter and Tears at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School.
Rating: 3 / 5
March 6th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
This is a terrific book. It is a memoir of the Author’s move to Paris as she meets and gets to know her new boyfriend and as their relationship develops and he becomes her husband. But it is much more than this, it evokes the author’s past, family (both real and chosen), in-laws and the reasons why they all have arrived where they are today. It is gentle, but also raw, passionate and angry at times. The descriptions of living within, and yet on the fringes of a different culture are so well expressed and resonate deeply for me. Small things become both joys (the perfect croissant) and frustration (bureaucracy). The need to connect and engage within a culture where you are without the rules is difficult to experience and more difficult to express fluently and coherently. The book is honest about her lonely times, and her struggles to adapt, but is leavened by the small and great triumphs she enjoys… lunch in a cafe, reading her first french book with fluency… I have been absorbed, transported, emphasised with the author and resented having to put it down to carry on with my normal life. Thank you for this glimpse into your life Elizabeth! I can’t wait to get home to try the recipes, many of which are written with an emotional context. I think french onion soup will be first. Can we have a recipe for the chicken broth too please?
Rating: 5 / 5
March 6th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
A young girl goes to Paris for the weekend. A young pretty American girl goes to Paris for the weekend and is invited to lunch by a good looking Frenchman.
And, life for this young girl will never be the same.
Elizabeth Bard from New Jersey travels to London to find herself and a job. She had a major in art and finds little bits and pieces to keep body and soul together. On a weekend in Paris she finds the Frenchman. Not the man of her dreams, but a dreamy man. They fall in love, move in together and then the meeting of the families. The overwrought American parents meet the laid back French parents. Soon everyone loves each other. And, Elizabeth, well, she is still trying to find herself. She does some freelance jobs and learns to cook. She learns to order from the meat market, choose the right veggies and fruits and finds Paris is her home. Gwendall, her French boyfriend proposes and a wedding is planned. A small quiet affair, a new apartment and a new life. Elizabeth finds her place. Happy forever more.
Elizabeth Bard intersperse her stories of life with recipes and they look and sound wonderful. She gives advice with her recipes and shortcuts that make sense. She writes in a manner that causes interest and empathy. She is bright and witty. Paris and the French are explained in a manner that should interest every American. By the way, while riding the subway never talk about your sex life, how much you detest the French, the person sitting next to you probably understands English!
Recommended. prisrob 02-21-10
Rating: 4 / 5