“For months, I’d feel like an infant wandering into rooms that filled with tension the moment I appeared: What is the giant baby doing here?”
Another ex-pat observes life as a worker bee in the City of Light. This book is actually very funny, and Baldwin is a good writer, though somewhat shallow and off balance—he arrives speaking less French than he promised his employer, so he starts out from a slightly disingenuous place with readers. While I hardly think spending 18 months as a copywriter in an ad agency in Paris makes one an expert on the city’s nuances and cultural consistencies, there are some funny insights to be had. Check out an excerpt from the book here:
http://www.gq.com/entertainment/books/201204/paris-i-love-you-but-youre-bringing-me-down-rosecrans-baldwin-excerpt#ixzz209E4QzIY
For a different angle on life as an ex-pat, Australian journalist Sarah Turnbull’s account of transferring her life to France for a man she barely knew is charming and makes me wish my husband were French-born so I could have the same experience. Almost French is out of print, but it shouldn’t be too hard to procure a copy in the usual suspect locations.
