Review: First French Essais: Venturing into Writing, Marriage, & France

American Kristin Espinasse has compiled 28 pleasant essays about her life in France after she met and married a French man. The book grew out of her French Word-A-Day blog. As with each blog post, she includes a few French words and definitions in each chapter, as well as interesting photos. Essays touch on quaint customs, colorful observations, small human dramas, family anecdotes. Reading this book feels like strolling through gently rolling French countryside, finding a grassy spot for your blue-and-white-checked picnic cloth, and resting against your wicker picnic basket all afternoon to gaze quietly over farms and villages as little everyday French scenes play out before you.

I have subscribed to and enjoyed Kristin’s blog for several years. As an American, I like discovering differences in French culture (like doggy bags and parking meters) along with Kristin. I like learning handy French words and expressions (like la bagnole for car) that often don’t show up in textbooks or even dictionaries. I believe First French Essais has more vocabulary than the blog, and I like that. In the book, for some odd reason, Kristin teaches that la belle-mère means the mother-in-law at least three times. After the first mention, she could have used the space on her vocabulary blackboard graphics for fresh words.

And I would say that for the book’s language lessons to stick, a reader would have to already have some foundational grammar pegs to hang the new expressions on. Even if a reader did not pick up a single new French word, however, First French Essais: Venturing into Writing, Marriage, & France is an enjoyable read. The simple stories are charmingly well-told, and you can identify with the emotions of the people in the stories. Two bonuses at the end: a hidden-word puzzle and a dual-language story of how Monsieur Farjon, “the plant man,” ended up on the book’s cover. I enjoy Kristin’s openness to cross-cultural experiences and her candor about both failures and successes.

Book Review: The Perfect Meal by John Baxter

In The Perfect Meal, John Baxter recounts some of his France memories as he imagines a feast celebrating the most iconic French foods. And he travels to locales best known for the dishes he wishes to serve in his imaginary repas. The premise of the book allows Baxter to be raconteur and travel guide, historian and amateur chef.

 

I enjoyed reading anecdotes about “France’s greatest chef” Georges Auguste Escoffier’s ascendancy to demi-deity by way of German prison camp in 1870; about the invention of the “perfect aperitif,” Kir, by Dijon mayor Félix Kir to welcome his many Sister Cities visitors while promoting local vintners and crème de cassis makers; and about the flight of the tiny ortolan bunting from delicacy to protected species.

The Perfect Meal gives little history vignettes along Baxter’s various journeys. Readers get to see the invention of the fork; visit 1671 Chateau Chantilly in the days of Louis XIV; and witness Baron Haussmann’s 1850 transformation of Paris’s meat and produce market, Les Halles, from haphazard sheds originating in 1183 to metal and glass pavilions.

Baxter’s stories are also personal. Some hinge on his wife’s home region. Sometimes he contrasts France with his native Australia. Some stories include friends, including Boris, the mysterious mentor of Baxter’s quest. Baxter’s style is rich in humorous observations.

The Perfect Meal includes some recipes and an index. Foodies, Francophiles, and history buffs would all enjoy this book.