I’ve read a few of Florand’s romances and even though the descriptions of Paris and chocolate shops were lovely and vivid, as stories they were not really my cup of tea. But I loved her memoir, which is very, very funny.

Laura, in the middle of a year in Paris in preparation for a PhD, isn’t looking to give up her independence, travelling or career plans for romance:

“Men are just heavy. Sure, they look cute, but then they land on you like a two-ton anchor, and your bright little ship that could sail to any horizon gets battle-chained to a good school district and a job with benefits. And then you’re stuffing your three kids into an SUV and taking trips to Disneyland [...] And you can’t tell me the French don’t have their equivalent, only with small, environmentally sound diesels and an annual beach vacation rental in Normandy.”

But then her friends talk her into asking out the French waiter she has been admiring from afar. Getting to know Sebastien and his family allows Laura to see France from a different perspective, but also challenges her assumptions about her own (American) culture and her own family -- and about what a serious relationship does to your horizons. This memoir focuses on the surprises of a cross-cultural romance, Laura’s qualms about commitment, her complicated l relationship with Paris, the universal frustrations of bureaucracy and job-hunting, and then chaos of planning weddings in two countries and the support they receive from their families.

I went to talk to my professors, to tell them I was leaving. They were remarkably sympathetic for some of the most successful academics in their field. “Why in the world,” said one, “would you choose a career in academia over a love affair with a handsome Frenchman in Paris?”
My jaw dropped. “Are you supposed to tell me that?”
“No, but how hard a choice can it be?”
I decided most professors in French literature went into their field out of a highly developed sense of romance and then just got trapped by all that literary theory. Either that or I was a lousy student and they were seizing on the chance to get rid of me. ( )

A story of an American girl living abroad. She falls in love with a Frenchman and has to deal with the less-than-romantic realities of living in two worlds and navigating the treacherous waters of French and American immigration. Plus, a detailed explanation of how to make escargot! I was expecting a chick-lit, romance sort of thing, but this book was much more than that. The description of culture shock on both sides involving both families, as well as the relatively short section of the book actually about the love affair, puts it more into the memoir/autobiography/travel category. The frustration of both parties trying to make a relationship work across different citizenships was realistic and sympathetically portrayed. ( )

This semiautobiographical novel tells the story of Laura, a student in Paris who doesn't like the city but stumbles upon a waiter that she can't resist. I picked this up thinking it would be a fun little chick lit novel and in some ways it is. The romance is delightful and it is a very funny novel. But I found myself entranced by seeing the two cultures interact. It wasn't always pretty, but they learned from each other and we get to learn vicariously along the way. ( )