I picked up this book in the New Books section of my local library-(shout out to Scenic Regional Hermann Branch). I had a little trouble getting in to it at first. Elizabeth Bard is a self-described "free spirit with a five-year plan" who attended a boarding high school, I'm guessing an Ivy League college, and who met her French boyfriend while in graduate school in London. But she drew me into her story first with the recipes and then with her increasingly complex relationship with France. She writes very candidly about encouraging her husband to leave behind the boring but safe job at a state run digital archive to start a consulting business helping French cinemas go digital. In one chapter, she describes observing her mother-in-law for clues for staying slim: no eating between meals, drinking lots of water, small portions, and regular walking, swimming, dancing, etc.-not for exercise but for fun! On their two week family beach vacation, Elizabeth observed that all the women wore bikinis, no matter their age-a good incentive for following her mother-in-law's regime! Anyone who ever dreams of living the expat life in France will find this a worthwhile read. 324 pages.
