Paris for Visitors logo 


Home Where to Stay Sightseeing Airport Transfers, City Passes, & Tours
Main Index Transportation Top 11 Tourist Mistakes Booking.com: Paris (1700+ hotels)

book coverAlmost French

Book Review - Excerpt 1
Continued from page 1

Eating in France

"Before arriving in France, I hardly ever had more than two courses at restaurants and was totally unaccustomed to rich flavors. In a not so distant life in Australia, I had a refrigerator full of soy and skim milks and low-fat yogurts alive with apparently desirable cultures. My cupboards contained costly health food-shop items such as bee pollen granules and lecithin....I could quite easily have turned vegetarian.

"But France took care of that.

"These days, breakfast is a café crème with a croissant or a pain au chocolat, which I guess is a bit like starting the day with coffee and cake. When Frédéric has time he prepares a fresh fruit salad--served with snowdrifts of full-fat fromage blanc, sold straight from the farm at our local cheese shop.....I can no longer tolerate skimming anything, and studiously avoid low-salt products--the butter I buy is packed with crunchy crystals from Brittany.

"...France has this effect on foreigners. It turns your eating habits and food principles upside down so that before long you're rhapsodizing about the delicate silkiness of foie gras entier without a thought for the fat content, let alone the poor goose or duck who was force-fed with a tube down his throat. The damage is irreparable--there's no turning back to muesli after flaky pastries filled with ribbons of dark chocolate."

Sarah Turnbull
Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris

Read Excerpt 2: Service in Parisian shops and restaurants


In this article:

Also see:

"Best of the Web"
- Forbes and The Washington Post


More resources:



(c) iStockphoto.com/Robin Ahle

Need a car in Europe?

Auto Europe guarantees the lowest rental rates for standard cars, sports cars, SUVs, luxury cars, chauffered sedans, and RVs. Its Web site also has driving information for 38 countries.

If you live outside the EU, a tax-free Renault or Peugeot tourist lease can be cheaper than renting. Minimum driver age is 18, there' s no upper age limit, and rates include insurance. See: Short-term car leasing.


River Baroness

From Europe for Cruisers:


Europe for Visitors - Home  |   About us  |  Contact  Testimonials  |  Audience  |  Disclosures  |  Privacy  |

Copyright © 1996-2013 Durant and Cheryl Imboden and their licensors.