My Life in France [Paperback]

 

 

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My Life in France is the most entertaining memoir I've read in 2006! It's a winner.

I first met Julia Child under unusual circumstances. My consulting firm was located down the street from where she got her hair done. Every Friday night, she would be seen peering into the windows to look at our art collection. After a few weeks of this, I walked outside and invited her in to tour the work up close. She was immediately studying everything from about three inches away. She thanked me politely and charged out the door. There was no hint of the slightly tipsy person filled with laughter who hosted The French Chef. Ah . . . I felt like I had met the real woman beneath the persona.

From that meeting, I gathered that she was a woman moved more than most by curiosity. I found myself also being curious about how she learned enough about French cooking to help co-author that masterwork, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Most French people in those days would not choose working with an American as a way to produce a work about France. That would be like putting salty Virginia ham into Quiche Lorraine.

My Life in France nicely filled in all the blanks for me. The book was lovingly finished by her grand-nephew, Paul Prud'homme, after Julia's death and is filled with lovely photographs produced by Julia's husband, Paul Child.

Here's the short version of the book. Julia had been in Asia for World War II as part of the OSS and met her husband there. He was ten years older than she was and well traveled . . . especially in France. After World War II, he joined the USIS (predecessor to the USIA) which played a friendly sort of propaganda function promoting American values and ways of doing things. In November 1948, Paul landed a posting in Paris and Julia, the Pasadena, California bred daughter of a conservative businessman, was in for the surprises of her life. She fell in love with French food at her first meal! With no job in France, she began working on her language skills and learning how to cook (a new task for her!). Soon, she decided she wanted to go to Cordon Bleu. After some misadventures, she finally passed with some modest skills designed to help a homemaker rather than a chef. But she made friends with others who loved French food and eventually became acquainted with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. The latter two had an informal agreement to publish a book on French cooking for Americans. But they had just lost their American collaborator. Julia stepped in.

From there, much of the book recounts the decades of painstaking work that went into creating that first book and its follow-ons in which Julia played the role of making the recipes work in American kitchens with American ingredients and utensils. It's truly mind-boggling. My respect for her work is unlimited!

The book finishes with explaining how Mastering became a best seller and Julia became a television star.

Along the way, you'll meet her favorite food vendors, tutors, chefs and guests. She'll also delight you with her mouth-watering menus and how dishes turned out under different circumstances.

The title of the book is a little misleading. The material also covers time spent in Germany, Norway and the United States. You also get a full look at her marriage and the great joy that both Childs brought to their love.

Throughout, the book is filled with little Julia-isms in that humorous self-deprecating style that we all came to love on The French Chef. She lards the text with some piquant French phrases and quotes (which are usually translated more mildly into English).

As an author, I found her process of finding a publisher and working with publishers to be quite fascinating.

In her last decades, the book is a picture of grace as she devoted herself to her husband, her old friends and to French cooking.

Bon appetit!

Rather than a complete biography this ebulliently phrased memoir covers the years Julia and her beloved husband, Paul, spent in France (1948 - 1954). Paris was where the the woman remembered as the doyenne of French cooking got a rather late start on what was to be an enormously succesful career.

Paul and Julia met in Ceylon where both worked for the Office of Strategic Services, and married in 1946. Two years later Paul was assigned to head the exhibits office of the U.S. Information Service in Paris. A painter and photographer who had been to France earlier he was well suited for the task. On the other hand, Julia had never been to Europe, came from a middle class, conservative California family and by her own description was "six-foot-two-inch, 36-year-old, rather loud and unserious." Little did she know what a life altering experience France would be.

She well remembers their first meal in Rouen which she described as "absolute perfection. It was the most exciting meal of my life." Thus began her love of French food, in fact for all things French - the markets, the people, the restaurants, the countryside. At that time she was an average cook at best but determined to learn how the French prepared such glorious food. To that end she learned the language and then enrolled at the famed Cordon Bleu. Surely no student has ever worked harder, more doggedly or found as much joy in food preparation as Julia. She wanted to know every infinitesimal detail of each dish, including the whys and wherefores of ingredients chosen, and variants in cooking time.

Eventually this devotion to French cuisine led to a partnership with two French friends (Simone Beck and Laced Bertholle) in a cooking school and from that to dreams of a cookbook for the American market. There was a very long road ahead filled with happiness, surprises and disappointments but the book was published at last. This, of course, led to Julia's television series and more cookbooks.

My Life In France is filled with rhapsodic descriptions of dishes and accompanying wines as well as details of keeping house in a country still recovering from a devastating war. Due to Paul's career the Childs moved from Paris to Marseille to Bonn to Washington to Oslo and then Paul's retirement. Julia met every challenge with pluck, purpose and bonhomie. Hers was a life well lived, thoroughly enjoyed, and vividly remembered.

- Gail Cooke

'My Life in France' is a superb book that effuses with that wonderful endearing quality we have all come to know and love in Julia Child. The book focuses mainly on the early years of developing her first cookbooks and television show.

The book begins when she and her husband, Paul, make their first trip to France because of his new job assignment. You feel her giddy excitement upon landing on the shores of a place she had for so long desired to go. We hear in minute detail the look, smell and taste of her first French meal, and from there we are introduced to "La Belle France". Before I began the book, I wondered for how long I could sustain reading each night about a person's breakfast, lunch or dinner meal that had been eaten 50 years prior, but Julia has such an adorable way of speaking, and her sometimes child-like observations of life and people around her are so heartwarming, you just wish you had been there. As the book progresses, she speaks about her collaboration with two women for her first book, and sometimes the claws come out. You're thinking, "Julia!" But, as with all friendships, there are things that agree with us and things that don't. Without some of these tidbits, the book may have been too trite, or frankly boring. Subsequently, it was interesting to hear of the minor squabbles that occurred between the women and the simple controversies concerning her husband and his role as a "diplomat". Paul and Julia Child made many friends overseas, whom they adored and loved. The majority of these people stayed in her inner circle until the end of their lives. For me, night after night, I couldn't wait to sit down and read about so many dinner parties with simmering meats and side dishes, lovely conversations, and eccentric friends. The only thing I didn't like about the book is that it ended too quickly, and I found myself missing the evenings with Julia.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Book was in fine condition except for missing pages
The book was missing about 20 pages, and had another section printed twice. Since it was a used book and priced so cheaply, I don't feel like I can ask for a refund or an... Read more

Published 4 months ago by Amy E. Clendenin

5.0 out of 5 stars Will make you want to move to France and become a master-cook.
I've always loved Julia Child, and in fact I was named after her by parents who adored her just as much. This book completely revolutionized how I perceived her... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Julia Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars Charming story of Julia Child's love affair with cooking while living in Europe.
I bought this book after seeing the movie Julie and Julia while visiting friends in Florida. I was glad to find out that one can also purchase it through amazon. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Cynthia Danute Cekauskas, LCSW

5.0 out of 5 stars Julie Child - My Life in France
I really enjoyed this book. It was wonderful to share in her life and the many adventures. It has inspired me to read "Mastering the Art of French Cooking' which I had previously... Read more

Published 18 months ago by Ann Clayton-Gorton

5.0 out of 5 stars What a woman...such energy!
After seing Julie and Julia, I had to learn more about Julia Child. I had to learn more about this joyful woman, this bubble of energy who was so passionate about as something as... Read more

Published 23 months ago by Machushka

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational reading
Julia Child recalls her life in Paris and Marseille and her return to the U.S. She also tells us about the publishing of the two Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Read more

Published on Mar 13 2010 by Elaine M.

5.0 out of 5 stars My Life In France
I loved the uplifting sense of adventure that Julia was able to impart to her chronicle about living and learning across Europe. Read more

Published on Mar 2 2010 by Sherry Caldwell

5.0 out of 5 stars My Life in France
After watching the movie, I had to read the book. I found the book entertaining. She was an amazing woman and had a zest for life and a passion for cooking.

Published on Jan 12 2010 by Gayleen

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Wonderful Book!
This wonderful book pulls you through it whether you have the time to read it or not! It is a fascinating account by a fabulous cook and lady from the time Julia Child crosses the... Read more

Published on Nov 5 2009 by Maxisback

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating insight into the life of a well-loved character.
I simply couldn't put this book down...and was even tempted to start reading it all over again as soon as I finished it! Read more

Published on Oct 16 2009 by Calgary Book Worm

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