C'est La Vie: An American Woman Begins a New Life in Paris and--Voila!--Becomes Almost French [Paperback]

Suzy Gershman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 31, 2005

Bestselling writer Suzy Gershman (dubbed “Super Shopper Suzy” by Oprah) is our answer to Peter Mayle in this heartfelt, breezy, and funny story of starting over in Paris. Suzy had always fantasized about moving to Paris with her husband, but when he dies unexpectedly, she decides to fulfill their dream alone. Here she gives a deliciously conversational chronicle of her first year in Paris and of the dizzying delights and maddening frustrations of learning to be a Parisian. Filled with Gershman’s insider’s tips on everything from cooking the perfect clafoutis to—naturally— shopping, C’est la Vie is delightfully entertaining and captures the exhilarating experience of beginning a new adventure.

“Anyone who has dreamed of going to live in Paris, or who has faced a devastating loss, or wonders about sex with a Frenchman, will love Suzy Gershman’s inspiring story.”
—Diane Johnson, author of Le Divorce

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Suzy Gershman, author of Frommer’s Born to Shop series, has also been a travel- shopping columnist for Travel and Leisure and Travel Holiday. She has appeared on Oprah, CNN, and Good Morning America.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (May 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143035509
• ISBN-13: 978-0143035503
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #225,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Suzy Gershman is an author, journalist and shopping goddess who for the last 27 years has pioneered the Born to Shop series of travel guidebooks. Having just sold her house in Provence, she has returned to California and partnered with Amazon and Talking Frog Media to revise existing and write new Born to Shop titles.

The first new book, written with Sarah Lahey, is Born to Shop California Wine Country which will be available through amazon.com after September 1, 2010. Gershman and Lahey will follow up with books on Provence and the surrounding area (including Geneva and Barcelona), Asia (Tokyo, Kyoto, Bangkok, Manila, etc) and then the next edition of Born to Shop London, which will be ready pre-Olympics.

Gershman is currently living in Paso Robles, California, a small food and wine town she discovered while doing the research for Born to Shop California Wine Country. She is writing Merci, Madame -- something of a sequel to her memoire C'est la Vie, but a story about Gershman's house in Provence, the lifestyle in Provence and the Frenchman who asked for her hand in marriage.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Worthless Exercise in Vanity, August 20, 2005

By 

Robert Roth (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: C'est La Vie: An American Woman Begins a New Life in Paris and--Voila!--Becomes Almost French (Paperback)

It used to be that authors would have to pay publishers (the "vanity presses") to print junk like this. Gershman, unfortunately, was able to leverage her previous success with the "Born to Shop" series and got this book on the market.

Sorry to say, there is nothing in C'est la Vie" for the average reader. It is difficult to feel any sympathy for Gershman, whose solution to virtually any problem is to call one of her well-placed "friends" to solve it. The average American is not buddies with the executive editor of the top English-language newspaper in Europe. Or with general managers of the top hotels and chefs of the top restaurants. Or with numerous journalists.

So knowing Gershman's experience will not help you. Nor will you identify with her.

This book gets five stars for name dropping but none for the rest of its content.

To make things worse, Gershman throws in some bad legal advice (you do indeed need a work permit to accept writing assignments from a French magazine in France) and bizarre religious views (she says she observes Jewish rituals while mentioning none and violating numerous religious laws. Newsflash, Suzy: Adultery violates your religion. So does cremation.)

There is a dreaded hint of a sequel buried in one of the last chapters. Please don't.

If you want to read an interesting, well-written and humorous account of a foreigner moving to France, the standard is still Peter Mayle's "A Year in Provence."

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars and the reason for writing the book was: ______________?, August 11, 2006

By 

Harold McInnes "haroldmcinnes" (Kensington (Philadelphia)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: C'est La Vie: An American Woman Begins a New Life in Paris and--Voila!--Becomes Almost French (Paperback)

Planning to relocate to Paris? Maybe just thinking about it? Mulling over what problems you will encounter? Then do NOT buy this book. Suzy spends more time babbling about her preparations to bed a still-married geriatric aristocrat. Pathetic. Fortunately I did not buy the copy I read, I found it on a park bench in town. No wonder it had been abandoned...

I am HalMcInnes, bye.

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Can you say bourgeois?, August 13, 2006

By 

wizmo (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: C'est La Vie: An American Woman Begins a New Life in Paris and--Voila!--Becomes Almost French (Paperback)

Constantly shopping and bragging about her connections, she must mention buying linens a hundred times. I was fairly horrified by how much emphasis she put on feathering her nest and bargain-hunting. I felt like I was listening to some horrid aunt go on and on about her friends and her clever buys, and I just wanted to say, "Well aren't you just wonderful?" I want to move to France to get away from people like her!