Product Description

In Paris for a weekend visit, Elizabeth Bard sat down to lunch with a handsome Frenchman--and never went home again.

Was it love at first sight? Or was it the way her knife slid effortlessly through her pavé au poivre, the steak'spink juices puddling into the buttery pepper sauce? LUNCH IN PARIS is a memoir about a young American woman caught up in two passionate love affairs--one with her new beau, Gwendal, the other with French cuisine. Packing her bags for a new life in the world's most romantic city, Elizabeth is plunged into a world of bustling open-air markets, hipster bistros, and size 2 femmes fatales. She learns to gut her first fish (with a little help from Jane Austen), soothe pangs of homesickness (with the rise of a chocolate soufflé) and develops a crush on her local butcher (who bears a striking resemblance to Matt Dillon). Elizabeth finds that the deeper she immerses herself in the world of French cuisine, the more Paris itself begins to translate. French culture, she discovers, is not unlike a well-ripened cheese-there may be a crusty exterior, until you cut through to the melting, piquant heart.

Peppered with mouth-watering recipes for summer ratatouille, swordfish tartare and molten chocolate cakes, Lunch in Paris is a story of falling in love, redefining success and discovering what it truly means to be at home. In the delicious tradition of memoirs like A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun, this book is the perfect treat for anyone who has dreamed that lunch in Paris could change their life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14488 in Books
• Published on: 2010-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780316042796
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

From Publishers Weekly
In this pleasant memoir about learning to live and eat à la française, an American journalist married to a Frenchman inspires lessons in culinary détente. Bard was working as a journalist in London and possessed of the wonderful puppy-dog enthusiasm of young Americans when she first met her husband-to-be, Gwendal, a computer engineer from Brittany. Soon he had the foresight to put her name on the gas bill of his Parisian apartment in the 10th arrondissement, and they were destined to marry—and cook together. Her memoir is really a celebration of the culinary season as it unfolded in their young lives together: recipes for seduction (onion and bacon); getting serious over andouillette; learning to buy what's fresh at the Parisian markets (four and a half pounds of figs); surviving a long, cold winter in an unheated apartment; and warming up their visiting parents over profiteroles. Bard throws in some American recipes that feel like home, such as noodle pudding, and comforting soups for a winter's grieving over the death of the father-in-law. Bard carefully observes the eating habits of her impossibly slender mother-in-law for tips to staying slim (lots of water and no snacking). Bard keeps an eye to healthful ingredients (Three Fabulous Solo Lunches), and, as a Jewish New Yorker, even prepares a Passover seder in Paris, in this work that manages to be both sensuous and informative. (Feb.)
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From Booklist
“I slept with my French husband halfway through our first date,” begins Bard, a Paris-based American journalist, and she goes on to describe falling in love with both Gwendal, her Brittany-born amour, and with her adopted city, where she learns to shop for and cook delectable meals on a tiny two-burner stove (instructions for preparing the dishes close each chapter). Bard lacks the culinary chops of other recent romance-and-recipe memoirists in the increasingly crowded genre, such as New York Times food writer Amanda Hesser, whose Cooking for Mr. Latte (2003) also chronicled her path to marriage. And while Bard does include numerous, cinema-ready glimpses into her relationship with Gwendal (when she finally moves in, the adorable way he welcomes her feels pulled from a romantic comedy), both the love story and the food story feel slightly muted next to what seems to be the book’s deepest undercurrent: how to build an adult life that reconciles societal pressure, personal ambition, cultural dissonance, and true happiness. --Gillian Engberg

Review
"As charming and coquettish as Paris itself, Lunch in Paris reawakens our tired hearts and palates with a deliciously passionate journey through the city of lights. Be prepared to be seduced by french kisses, the richest chocolate, and the sweet charm of Bard's prose." (Nani Power, author of Crawling at Night and Feed the Hungry )

"Elizabeth Bard's Lunch in Paris is delicious, romantic, and sexy, just as the title indicates. What captivates you is the story of a woman finding herself after she finds love, and the challenge that entails. I devoured this book with all the gusto I would bring to a plate of steak tartare with pommes frites." (Giulia Melucci, author of I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti )

"A love story is always delightful, and one with recipes is also useful in the long run, part and parcel of a real French relationship." (Diane Johnson, author of Le Divorce and L'Affaire )

"Lunch in Paris has got it all: romance in full on the front burner with delicious French recipes for sustenance. Elizabeth Bard's voice is filled with lust and longing-it's Eat, Stay, Love with a side of spiced apricots." (Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of Very Valentine )

"In this pleasant memoir about learning to live and eat "à la française," an American journalist married to a Frenchman inspires lessons in culinary détente.... [Bard's] memoir is really a celebration of the culinary season as it unfolded in their young lives together.... both sensuous and informative." (Publishers Weekly )

"[A] charming narrative...penetrating insights quickly add a subtle complexity that will captivate readers...She pleasantly details her joys and obstacles...provides poignant revelations about cultural differences ... A cozy, touching story." (Kirkus )

"In this charming memoir, Bard searches for her new identity by balancing her love for two countries. She discovers the common denominator that will give her life meaning: food.... If you enjoyed the Julia Child romance that made the Julie & Julia film so entrancing, you'll love this voyage into the gastronomic soul of the French - complete with luscious recipes." (USA Today Carol Memmott )

"sweet and heartfelt with delicious recipes" (People "Style Watch" )

"[A] delicious story about falling in love-over food-in France." (Harper's Bazaar )

Customer Reviews

Love and Laughter With An American In Paris
I can not say enough wonderful things about this book. I confess that I am a sucker for all things French, and any book that tells me about Paris, food and the French is a book I will treasure. I didn't read the chapters in order, necessarily, and that is what I really loved about it. Although there is a chronological time line, you can read it out of order and enjoy it just as much as if you had done it the way most people do. The chapters really stand on their own, and the writing was delightful. It was tender, sassy, and kind, but honest. Ms. Bard clearly loves France, but she doesn't hold back from offering critiques either. I like her honesty, and I like that it was tempered with affection and humor. These are the stories that a friend would tell you, and make you laugh and think about, long after the covers are closed, and the book is sitting on a shelf. This is not a book that will, or should, sit on a shelf. It is part philosopher, part lover, part friend, and part chef. I loved the fact that the recipes are generally simple and good, and things that the French themselves eat, and are not show off or Haute Cuisine. Ms. Bard fell in love with a guy and with France, and she got both. Hats off to her. She made me feel like part of the family with her stories; this book is infectious and really invades your consciousness, and makes you want to read it. I would definitely give her high marks for voice, style and content. The only disappointment with my copy of the book, was the binding. The first time I opened it, one of the pages nearly fell out. I felt that the publisher let us down by putting up with such shoddy workmanship. I love this book enough to buy copies for my daughter and daughter-in-law, but I will warn them to handle it with care! It does detract from the joy of reading when you have to handle a book as gingerly as if you were holding a baby. It's a real shame that the book wasn't put together better, because it is one that you will want to read and savor more than once.

Winsome and fun
I'm a francophile who devours anything and everything I can get my hands on that is about French culture. I was delighted to receive an advance copy of this book since it sounded exactly like the kind of book I love, one that combined two of my favorite pastimes -- food and France. While I enjoyed this book, I didn't find it very substantive, and for that reason would give it 3 1/2 stars.

While the book was interesting, it seemed much too self-indulgent in places. Memoirs, of course, are nothing if not self-indulgent, but Bard's recounting of her relationship with her husband seemed to draw out scenarios that didn't quite merit the attention that she gave them. I did enjoy the intermingling of her stories with the recipes that inspired each narrative, and found it to be a creative (if not original) play on the memoir genre.

The book itself is light-hearted and fun, although it is also tinctured with darker elements, such as Bard's revelations about her father's manic depression. Having lived in France for a year when I was about Bard's age, I could also relate to her descriptions of French culture and the French mode de vie. Overall, I would recommend this book if you're looking for a light read.

A delicious read!
Elizabeth Bard's Lunch In Paris: A Love Story with Recipes is marvelous entertainment. Not only will readers of Peter Mayle and Frances Mayes adore the author's immersion into the European way of life, the love story will delight...and the recipes will interest even non-cooks, including myself, with their fresh ingredients, and the joy with which they are prepared and eaten. If you recall any of the cooking or eating scenes in the film Big Night, where even the making of eggs was a joyous experience, I can heartily recommend this book.

Some of you may recognize the author's name from her Paris Notebook entries on the Huffington Post; indeed, some of them found their way into this book. Bard's upbringing may not have been that of the typical middle-class American, but her drive to succeed is something all of us recognize, and her struggles to find direction for that drive once she moves to France is something most over-achievers can understand. But it is her willingness to follow her dreams - first to England and then to France - that requires leaps of faith most of us would not make. And that's where the romance between her husband and herself takes the lead.

Bard's story brims with wry humor. It begins with the line: "I slept with my husband halfway through our first date" - and her husband-to-be first tells her he loves her after they've shared their first plate of andouillette - sausage made from the innards of pigs. After all, as she writes, "We had clearly passed on to a new phase in our relationship; the American girl had proven herself an enthusiastic eater of offal."

There's not just romance and good humor, though...the author illuminates basic differences in the French and American ways of looking at the world, from how we view debt and credit to how we view hard work and moving up the corporate ladder. And along the way, the author lovingly writes about the melding of her and her husband's families, cultural and language differences and all. To be more specific would spoil the book. Read it yourself...it's delicious.