An Englishman in Paris : L'education Continentale

Rating:
Summary: Bachelor living in the City of Light
Review: Expat Brit Peter Mayle has written several delightfully witty books (A YEAR IN PROVENCE, TOUJOURS PROVENCE, ENCORE PROVENCE) describing his long residence in Provence in an old farm house that he and his wife fixed up. Peter contributes the preface to AN ENGLISHMAN IN PARIS written by lunch-buddy and fellow countryman Michael Sadler.

According to the book's back flap, Sadler now lives in Paris and Touraine with his French wife and their daughter. There's no time frame to AN ENGLISHMAN IN PARIS, but I gather that it recalls Michael's experience as a younger and still-single man during his first extended trip to Paris from his home in England.

Sadler's narrative contains some decidedly humorous moments, as when he transports a large wheel of odiferous cheese from point A to B. Or when he makes his first tremulous journey through that chaotic maelstrom of traffic known as the Place de l'Etoile. And when he must transfer his belongings from temporary hotel lodgings to a new apartment, and there's nowhere to park in front of the latter. Or his culinary introduction to such delicacies as beef testicles and pigs ears. Then there's his giddy affair with a married French woman.

Compared to Peter's volumes, however, Sadler isn't quite so relaxed. Perhaps it's the abundant energy and hormones of a younger man. At times, Michael's activities seem positively frenetic. Moreover, he introduces into the text many French phrases and sentences, the translations of which aren't always readily apparent as you read them, if at all. To be fair, there is a 5-page glossary of terms and colloquial expressions at the end. Language aside, chapter 28 is entirely incoherent (by design, I assume) - as if he was writing under the influence of some cooking sauce made with hallucinogenic mushrooms.

AN ENGLISHMAN IN PARIS is short - only 193 pages in a small hardcover format. Reading the book doesn't require a large investment of time. But, if you want something more satisfying about life as a foreigner in France, go first with Mayle.

Rating:
Summary: overdone humor
Review: I was disappointed in this book although Michael Sadler has an impressive knowledge of France, French and the French and parts of the book are undoubtedly funny. Still, I felt the humor was too deliberate and over-the-top for my taste, not to mention a bit on the crude side. A heartfelt francophile, Mr. Sadler tracks a year-long sabbatical spent in Paris with the primary focuses of the book being his quest to bed a married Frenchwoman and his association with a neighborhood group of men who hang out at the local bar and periodically indulge in semi-clandestine meals consisting of unusual French dishes (pig ears, bull testicles, etc.). If the story about the married woman is to be believed as truth, there's an uncomfortable amount of kiss-and-tell, meant-to-be funny detail of their "courtship" and one 23-minute sexual encounter. The book also contains much extensive descriptions of food and drink and, unfortunately, the negative physical ramifications of his over-indulgences for the author. Much of the book is in or references French and, although he explains the majority of it, I doubt that I would have followed it all if I hadn't been living in Paris for some years myself. Not that it detracts, but the perspective is definitely British, not American, so some minor references might not mean much to an American.