sometimes you just cant stand a book. i found that book.

A delightful book, especially if you read it while traveling through France :)

I would recommend it to any food lover.

As a person who rarely cries, leaving France has brought me to tears twice. In my youth I imagined I'd end up there long-term. So I'm with Julia straight off the get-go. She is also a commendable ambassador for my country, my gender, my mid-life years and my height (she's even taller than I am, which doesn't happen often). Alas, we are not a nation of assholes and/or idiots. (Mostly just our politicians are.)

I could hear Julia's inimitable voice while reading the book. I started using French words around the house. I enjoyed getting know her cher mari, Paul. He comes across as interesting as she does. I like their sense of adventure, respectfulness and collaboration.

On breaking the mold: "If I'd done that [marry a respectable, Republican banker like her father expected of her] I'd probably have turned into an alcoholic, as a number of my friends had."

Paul on the misery and excitement of moving often: "No wonder newborn babies cry so much.... If variety is the spice of life then my life must be one of the spiciest you ever heard of. A curry of a life."

On imperfection: "One of the secrets, and pleasures, of cooking is to learn to correct something if it goes awry; and one of the lessons is to grin and bear it if it cannot be fixed." She points out, quite rightly, that you should never serve a meal with an apology. This forces your guest to reassure you of your cooking skills rather than relax and enjoy the food.

Paul on ageing: "old age is a state of mind and a function of mass hypnosis rather than an absolute." I'll keep telling myself that. "illegitemus non carborundum" "One thing that separates us Senior Citizens from the Juniors is learning how to suffer. It's a skill, just like learning to write."

To sum it up: "In Paris in the 1950s, I had the extreme good fortune to study with a remarkably able group of chefs. From them I learned good French food is an art, and why it makes such sublime eating; nothing is too much trouble if it turns out the way it should. Good results require that one take time and care.... a careful approach will result in a magnificent burst of flavor, a thoroughly satisfying meal, perhaps even a life-changing experience." Like my first lobster! Mmmmm.

One kink. Why-oh-why did Julia not feed her cat table scraps? She ran though hoops to get him "cat food"? Weird.

I never watched Julia Child and I’m not into fancy, complicated French cooking, but I wanted to read this because Julia Child wasn’t even introduced to French food until she moved to France at 36. I just turned 37 and wanted to read about someone who found their calling and life’s work later in life. Unfortunately this was not as inspiring as I hoped.

In this memoir of her time in France, Julia begins so full of joy and life and hope. But by the end, she comes across bitter, narrow-minded, and just snobby. I found it especially sad and off-putting that she endlessly criticized her father for voting and living differently than she did, basically dismissing him as an important person in her life. She talks frequently about how she only wants to be around intellectuals who are serious about cooking.

Her time in France I actually found rather boring. It seemed like a long list of “we ate these dishes at this restaurant with these people” just on and on. I don’t speak French and am not super familiar with French cooking (but I know what a roux is!), so I was lost when she rattled off all the names of the dishes. Most of the time, I had no clue what she was even eating. It also got into the politics of the era which is just not interesting to me.

I did find the parts of her writing her cookbooks to be very interesting as I never thought of how much work it takes to write one. And I loved the close and supportive relationship she and her husband Paul had.

I don’t think Julia Child would have liked the not-very-intellectual, not-fancy cook that I am and that’s okay by me.

Every so often, I pass along books to my husband. My Life in France was my honeymoon book, the one safely tucked in my suitcase alongside Comfortable Shoes™ with which to reconcile myself to my poor feet. It was the perfect honeymoon choice. Julia and Paul's marriage is #goals. They are so different, and yet so similar. So deeply in love with the wholes of each other, so wonderfully supportive.

My husband loves to cook, and Child's boeuf bourguignon is our go-to Fancy Homemade Meal. He absolutely adored the foodie parts of this book. We agree that Child reminds us of his mother: tall, slightly goofy, ebullient, wholesomely welcoming. Just today, we reflected that we hadn't sent out Christmas cards, but he suggested St Valentine's cards à la Child as our new tradition. Maybe not the bubble bath portrait--more likely, sticking our longsuffering corgi in the mailbox with a bowtie on--but a tradition to consider.

All in all, I'm chuffed my husband enjoys this book as much as I do. Even though he can't pronounce French words at all, bless his heart. I'd forgotten how much butter is in this memoir. Mmm.


2018 Review
Such a beautiful portrait of a woman finding her place in the world, a marriage of creatives, and the art of conversation and digestible hospitality.

What an absolute joy of a book to read!

I admit to my near total ignorance of Madame Child prior to having watched "Julie&Julia" with the wonderful Meryl Streep playing this icon of american cooking - the movie isn't really that good, but she is worth the trouble of watching it.
So it was with a good deal of curiosity and expectation that i got this recently from a book sale - and its worth it, so worth it!
Julia Child was without a doubt that type of "larger than life" character that is getting harder and harder to find these days, and here she does a wonderful job of showing us her life, her devotion for France, her always positive spirit no matter what life put in her way...i kid you not, her energy and joy de vivre are crystal clear and quite literally jump from the pages at many moments along the book!
This is a memoir, written alongside a nephew of hers, of her time in France, her discovery of the many wonders of french cuisine and the process that lead to that classic "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and would ultimately make her a legend in the USA.
From her arrival in 1948 and her first dish of Sole Meunière at La Couronne, to her goodbyes at La Pitchoune in 1992 this is, more than anything, a delicious love letter to France, French Cuisine and her many wonderful years in her spiritual home as she and her husband Paul called France.
The descriptions of dishes, cooking, ingredients and such are abundant, delicious and more that certain to make your mouth water..but personally, and because a good deal of these dishes are such a huge part of my own upbringing, what particular impressed me and made me enjoy this one was her care and passion in describing a way of life that for you modern reader is now the stuff of movies.
My only disappointment was with the epilogue, after all the love and attention to detail that went into this memoir, the epilogue felt a little flat and very uninspired...its a shame, but still don´t let it distract you for how much fun these pages can be to read.
Warning...if like me you have watched the movie and had no idea who she was/what she looked (or sounded) like it may be almost impossible to not imagine Meryl Streep narrating this one to you dear reader.
Have fun ...and try not to drool too much! ;)

I think I've owned this book for 15 years and finally decided to read it... so charming!

(Written after reading the first thirty pages or so.)

Every now and again I pick up a book by a chef which isn't a recipe book....and I always regret it. This time shouldn't have surprised me. I'd seen the movie (loosely based on the book) and it was merely innocuous.

It could have been made 20 pages shorter, just by taking out the exclamation marks.

I guess if I were American and she was my cooking icon maybe?

But I'm not.

I've seen the film, I've attempted to cook from her cookbooks (with a variety of success) but never read about her actual story.

I'm so very, very glad I have! A truely incredible woman who just faced adventures full on and gave me a wonderful window into Europe in the 40's and 50's.

A brilliant bit of escapism whilst in Lockdown.

If I had to sum this book up in one word, I would have to say "Delightful". I felt as though I was on a journey with Julia as I read this, at the local markets and restaurants, savoring every sip of wine and every morsel of food with her! I kind of hated to finish it, it was like coming home after a vacation.

This book is very well written as if Julia is speaking to you. She had a wonderful life, able to find and pursue her passion and make that her life. One thing you can't help but notice as you read this book is Julia's postive outlook on life and everyone she meets...it's so refreshing. As is the relationship she had with her husband, Paul.

Oh, and I must buy her cookbooks now - Mastering the Art of French Cooking and it's "son".

FUNNIEST ANECDOTE: When her husband and brother-in-law "helped out" by cleaning up after dinner and scraped all the garbage from the plates into Julia's "precious, wonderful, unique, never-to-be-equated veal stock!"

FAVORITE LINE: "I've always felt that when I'm done with something I just walk away from it - fin!" Amen, sister.

The first part of this book covers the years that Julia Child lived in France, from late 1948 to early 1954. She had moved there, at the age of 36, with her husband Paul Child, who had assumed a post with the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) in Paris. He had lived in France previously, spoke French well, and was already enamored with French food. Julia was introduced to everything her husband loved about France in these years, learned French herself, took cooking courses at the famous L'Ecole du Cordon Bleu, and in general fell in love with La Belle France. As she says in the Introduction

Those early years in France were among the best of my life. They marked a crucial period of transformation in which I found my true calling, experienced an awakening of the senses, and had such fun that I hardly stopped moving long enough to catch my breath.

This part of the book introduces us to Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, two women she met while learning French cooking. The three of them began collecting and developing recipes, opened a cooking school in Paris (L'École des trois gourmandes), and eventually wrote and published in the U.S. in 1961 Mastering the Art of French Cooking, one of the most influential cookbooks to appear in English in the last 50 years.

The second part of the book documents the trials and tribulations involved in bringing Mastering to the American public, as well as the publication of the second volume of that work, and other milestones of Julia's career in the following years.

My Life in France will be of interest to anyone who has enjoyed Julia's great cookbook. The story of how she became first acquainted with, and then passionate about, French cooking, and the details of the making and publication of the book, are recounted in engaging prose. (I also found it personally endearing that Julia, despite being raised in a very well-to-do Republican family, turned out to be a very left-leaning adult, who became something of a disappointment to her father for her political views.)

ooh i loved this book. Julia has way of writing that invites you in. It's like you are old friends talking about her memories. Some things I learned about Julia.
• She was tall (same as me) and had big feet (same size as me 12)
• She and her husband Paul never ended up having any kids although they tried for years.
• Julia moved to France after her and Paul were married since Paul worked for the US governent. He promoted the Us culture to the French. He worked all day and she learned the french language and to cook.
• Julia repeatedly recalled her first meal in Rouen of oysters, sole meunière, and fine wine as a culinary revelation. She described the experience once in The New York Times newspaper as "an opening up of the soul and spirit for me".
• Julia introduced French cuisine and cooking techniques to the American mainstream through her many cookbooks and television programs.
• She was quite funny and could win most people over.
• She and her friends would constantly talk about food and so they called themselves "foodies"
This book made me want to travel to France more than I already did. And I have made 4 french meals since reading it. :) 4 out of 5.