I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do) by Mark Greenside

and succeeds.'-David Lebovitz, author of My Paris Kitchen From buying a lamp to mastering mollusks (oysters), and learning the right-and wrong ways-things are done in France, Mark Greenside perseveres. 'Learning how to shop, drive, and eat in France have their own sets of rules, and (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living tackles them with a soupçon of humor. A smart, delicious memoir of life off the beaten track in France.'-Julie Barlow, author of The Bonjour Effect 'Failure to speak French has never been so funny! Greenside may never master the gender of French nouns, but he sees straight through the French. “A bicontinental life with more pratfalls than a Jerry Lewis movie.”-Christine Muhlke, New York Times For a guy who likes to think he knows what he’s doing, it’s been an unexpectedly bumpy ride.”Įxperienced Francophiles and armchair travelers alike will delight in Greenside’s exploring the practical and philosophical questions of French life, vividly brought to life by his humor and affection for his community. I’ve been coming to France-Brittany-for more than twenty years now, and I’m still trying to master the art of French living. “This is my world, the Old World that is constantly new to me. Through some hits and lots of misses, he learns the rules of engagement, how to get what he needs-which is not necessarily what he thinks he wants-and how to be grateful and thankful when (especially when) he fails, which is more often than he can believe. Continuing the journey begun in his 2009 memoir about beginning life in France, (Not Quite) Mastering the Art of French Living details Greenside’s daily adventures in his adopted French home, where the simplest tasks are never straightforward but always end in a great story. Mellowed and humbled, but not daunted (OK, slightly daunted), he faces imminent concerns: What does he cook for a French person? Who has the right-of-way when entering or exiting a roundabout? Where does he pay for a parking ticket? And most dauntingly of all, when can he touch the tomatoes?ĭespite two decades that have passed since Greenside’s snap decision to buy a house in Brittany and begin a bi-continental life, the quirks of French living still manage to confound him.

A Wall Street Journal Bestseller! In the tradition of Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence, let the author of I’ll Never Be French introduce you to Brittany a world of color and flavor that most of us only fantasize about.Įvery year upon arriving in Plobien, the small Breton town where he spends his summers, American writer Mark Greenside picks back up where he left off with his faux-pas–filled Francophile life.

I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do) by Mark Greenside