Home > Author >
1 " It is a bitter-sweet thing, knowing two cultures. Once you leave your birthplace nothing is ever the same. "
― , Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris
2 " The trail of lime trees outside our building is still a public loo. …where else are they supposed to go to the toilet in a city where public toilets are about as common as UFO sightings?” (pp.281-82) "
3 " You'd think the sight of beautiful Place Vendôme would lift my spirits but oddly the arc of jewellery - so obviously beyond the means of a jobless person like me - only depresses me more. I plod on feeling confused, guilty even, that I should feel unhappy in a place that looks like paradise. "
4 " Such is the nature of an expatriate life. Stripped of romance, perhaps that's what being an expat is all about: a sense of not wholly belonging. [...] The insider-outsider dichotomy gives life a degree of tension. Not of a needling, negative variety but rather a keep-on-your-toes sort of tension that can plunge or peak with sudden rushes of love or anger. Learning to recognise and interpret cultural behaviour is a vital step forward for expats anywhere, but it doesn't mean that you grow to appreciate all the differences. "
5 " I know of no other place that is so fascinating yet so frustrating, so aware of the world and its own place within it but at the same time utterly insular. A country touched by nostalgia, with a past so great - so marked by brilliance and achievement - that French people today seem both enriched and burdened by it. France is like a maddening, moody lover who inspires emotional highs and lows. One minute it fills you with a rush of passion, the next you're full of fury, itching to smack the mouth of some sneering shopkeeper or smug civil servant. Yes, it's a love-hate relationship. "
6 " Gallic rocker Eddy Mitchell bounces "
7 " In Paris, I love having lunch at La Cloche des Halles, a smoky wine bar with a huge ham on the counter and sturdy wines by the glass. To me this simple fare is soul food. "
8 " For example, if you’re a guest it is not polite to ask to use the host’s toilet, apparently: they might feel embarrassed because it isn’t presentable for guests. And as a host, don’t, whatever you do, pass the cheese platter more than once. It’s considered ill-mannered, I read, after I’d done precisely that at least five hundred times. "
9 " French or Foe, is a perennial bestseller, flying off shop "
10 " reiterates the author Polly Platt, which, of course, is exactly what I’ve "
11 " bavette "
12 " choose three others: creamy St-Félicien, which is so ripe it quivers at the slightest movement; brebis corse, a Corsican speciality made from sheep’s milk and rolled in rosemary and thyme; a chèvre—not too dry but tasty, I specify. A lot of the sec goat cheeses have a powdery texture, which I dislike, whereas the younger chèvres can be milky and a bit tasteless. He recommends the small discs of Picodon from the Drôme region. There might be six bakeries on Rue Montorgueil but I’m also particular about where I go for bread. "
13 " The truth is, I'm not ready to go home... Oh, sure, you'll travel and go abroad again but future trips will not stretch toward infinity like this one, they won't contain so many possibilities. Heading home is the full stop marking the end of adventure; the beginning of a responsible life. And despite twelve months of travelling, I am not ready to be responsible. "
14 " Soixante-huitards, for sure, Frédéric says afterward, meaning they probably threw a few cobblestones in 1968. "
15 " I should buy Le Monde. It is, after all, the chosen newspaper of les intellos and it remains the benchmark in France for good journalism. "
16 " I don’t buy Le Figaro, either. Not because it’s a right-leaning paper but because I can’t forgive it for “Madame,” its weekend magazine full of beauty and fashion, the very name of which, it seems to me, implies that lipsticks and liposuction are far more interesting to women than the main magazine devoted "
17 " But ironically it’s precisely this state of poetic perfection—so appealing to visitors—that can become oppressive when you live here. "
18 " times it’s like living in a gorgeous museum. Even the people don’t look quite real—those perfect-looking parents with perfect children in spotless navy coats. I dream of pushing them into puddles. "
19 " clochards—homeless people who have been living on the same streets for so long that no one can remember a time when they weren’t there. "
20 " The city is a testament to civilization. Of course, I know from the last year that living in a gorgeous environment isn’t enough to make you happy. But breathtaking beauty of any kind is moving. It makes tourists of us all. It anchors your heart to a place. "