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Highly recommended. A friend lent me this book and I devoured it in a day or so. Although I didn't agree with ALL of the tenets, it was an amazing tour de force that opened my eyes to the certain je ne sais quoi that French women possess.
The doctors put the baby on a bottle. Realize that for the duration of your time as a dairy queen, you are comnpletely responsible 24/7/365 for getting a perfectly balanced diet, to take no drugs, prescription or OTC, to get plenty of exercise, to not get sick or injured -- becuase you will transmit everything that happens to you to your baby, which is not giving your baby the very best start he/she deserves. The mom went home, breastfed the baby, and the baby had to be hospitalized for serious complications from getting an adult dose of mom's heart medication. The bottom line is that if you can't make that kind of commitment, buy the formula because your baby needs the best possible start in life, not the cheapest and most convient for mom, all dressed up in psychobabble. The author moves to France with little to no knowledge of the language or culture when she is about to give birth to her second child. Do not waste a single second of your time on this book. This author exploits every possible stereotype of French women and shows more scorn than wit. Now, I've met Princess Michael of Kent (who was very nice and I later discovered that she is in her early 60's, and looking very good.
She then retells the experience of a friend who was on heart medication and gave birth in France. As can be attested to by the baby in her book that got to spend his/her first few days in a French hospital fighting for his/her life insead of eating good formula at home, cuddled and loved by his/her mother and father. How ignorant can you be. A baby is a huge responsiblity. That is why lots of women still choose to bottle feed their babies despite the breastfeeding Nazis who think it is their business to equate bottle feeding with child neglect. This author of this book takes the cheap shot, calling a woman who has earned the right to be considered a woman of letters ".a Barbie doll, just off the factory line." and then she adds that she ".knows that she is old enough to be my grandmother." I have my doubts that the author is 40-50 years younger than Princess Michael of Kent, for that would make her between 12 and 22 years old.Second problem was the chapter on babies. The problem with breast feeding is that everything mom eats, drinks, smokes, contracts, is strained through her body and into the body of her baby. The first few chapters were a little funny, but after that it was the same criticisms, over and over, for a group of women who happened to be of a different culture.
The author blames the French and their lack of support for breast feeding. The author got stuck in a real rut because she thinks that not enough French women breast feed. The first shot she takes is at Princess Michael of Kent, a woman I respect because she is a serious wirter of history -- a Princess with a career. It was horrifying.
Healthy eating in France. And last but not least, your husbands are perfectly safe with me.
French women are not a different species. I have been married for over 20 years, and I love my husband so much I cannot think of life without him.So, please drop the stereotype.
I am French. It usually takes me 2 weeks to recover from all the heavy eating when I come back from visiting my family.
They come in all size and shapes, some are nice, some not so nice.As for this book, it is just meant to be entertaining, not an actual anthropopology study. Moved in the US 4 years ago.I do wear sneakers, practically live in them.
I am just roaring with laughter at that one.
are u ashamed of being it. French society is just like any other society: there's tragedy and comedy. Women are competitive just as men are, humans are competitive, men with chests, women with nails, both with loud voice, unnecessary bling bling, and bad sarcasm. For what I see, yes, and you want to embody the image you have of French women. It's shopping what you like because it's original and not because everyone wear it. (why is that for.
But if something changes is that there are more parties and get-togethers, less hypocrisy, more talking, more drinking, less punishing and less "little dirty secrets" as in US. I was astonished when I read the reviews. In most cases I got the same question, why Americans want to emulate French women, don't u are American. It's the lace of your underwear, the silk on your top and the parfum on your wrists that makes you feel beautiful, it's the (guilty-free) sex, the basic yet classic/original style, the orange juice with toasted bread and butter (no guilt) in the morning, the salad and vegetables (no punishment) with duck, foie gras and wine, final cheese, choc and coffee (no guilt) for dinner.
Yes, one key word is pleasure and that is to smell good, to feel good, to sleep good, to eat good, to treat yourself with nice clothes, to treat yourself with a nice dinner, in sum, with a nice life (and that's not a LV, a Burberry coat, a Hummer, a shopping spree and a Chanel for the mall). I don't know if "French women" but French in general have a different scope on pleasure. And what about your concern on competition. It's funny how the reviewers (and the authors) want to be someone they're not, and how they need a guide to do it.
Yes, but they hide with a big fake smile and fake blessings. French women are like any other women in the world. American women are not ($$$, jewels, LV, moral, religious, social) competitive. don't u want to be an American woman.
It's about being the best yourself and not about being French. All pleasure is guilt in US. mmm, let me think: Irak, obesity, McDo, Wal-Mart.). The gym thing is, yes, American, but it exists because here nobody walks and depends on car and malls, eat hamburgers for lunch with coke, feels guilty and run for hours in the gym feeling yet half guilty-half relieved.
To the plus side, French women take pride in their appearance and can even make jeans and a t-shirt look smart; they are thinner than American or British women and do not drink to excess; they have a tremendous amount of family and government support so that they can raise their children, and use sex both for pleasure and exercise. Oh, and they smoke like crazy.After reading this book, and the even better-written "Almost French," I've concluded that it's best to pluck the admirable things about France and Frenchwomen -- the interest in good food, appearance, decor and the family -- and forget those that would only be damaging to our self-esteem. All You Need to Be Impossibly French is an entertaining and enlightening read. To the negative, they are suspicious and spiteful where other women are concerned; do not seem to have much of a work ethic; have few real friendships outside their families; and have no problem going after other womens' husbands. Some of our puritanical American and buttoned up British traits aren't so bad, by comparison. But after finishing the book, I was very glad to have been born elsewhere. French women do not sound like they have much joie de vivre.
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