A Town Like Paris: Falling in Love in the City of Light [Paperback]

Bryce Corbett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

At the age of twenty-eight, stuck in a dead-end job in London, and on the run from a broken heart, Bryce Corbett takes a job in Paris, home of l’amour and la vie boheme; he is determined to make the city his own—no matter how many bottles of Bordeaux it takes. He rents an apartment in Le Marais, the heart of the city’s gay district, hardly the ideal place for a guy hoping to woo French women. He quickly settles into the French work/life balance with its mandatory lunch hour and six weeks of paid vacation. Fully embracing his newfound culture, Corbett frequents smoky cafes, appears on a television game show, hobnobs with celebrities at Cannes, and attempts to parse the nuances behind French politics and why French women really don’t get fat. When he falls in love with a Parisian showgirl, he realizes that his adopted city has become home.

As lively and winning as Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence and Sarah Turnbull’s Almost French, A Town Like Paris evokes the beauty, delights, and charms of Paris for an ever-eager audience of armchair travelers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Australian journalist Corbett offers a humorous and vivid account of his love affair with Paris. In an attempt to save his nine-year relationship with his high school sweetheart, Corbett follows her from Sydney to London. His efforts prove ineffectual and the two break up within weeks of his arrival. On a whim, 28-year-old Corbett applies for the position as head of public relations for a government organization based in Paris. Although he has little PR experience—or interest in the job itself—he is offered and accepts the position, living the French belief that people should work to live and not live to work. Corbett balances his boring formal office life with various exploits involving nightly debauchery. As an expatriate, his experiences with the French government, the French Plumber's Union and the various crazies who make up his Le Marais neighborhood are entertaining. As Corbett adjusts to the city—language barrier and cultural differences included—he makes friends, enjoys the food and eventually falls in love with a woman named Shay. Corbett's comically insightful observations of the French, along with his Aussie interpretations of joie de vivre, make for an amusing memoir. (Apr.)
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Review

“Corbett excels in self-deprecating humor and laugh-out-loud funny observations.”--Sunday Mail

‘Fast-paced and amusing, told with rollicking good humor . . . Corbett writes wittily and accurately about Paris, not glossing over the rough patches and the mysteries.”--Sun Herald

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767928172
• ISBN-13: 978-0767928175
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,001,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars INANE DRIVEL, March 24, 2011

By 

Lance (Tempe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Town Like Paris: Falling in Love in the City of Light (Paperback)

WHAT INANE DRIVEL.

Corbett's so-called self-deprecating humor is phony, and his constant criticisms of others are offensive. Truly offensive. The book is so full of clichés, it's hard to keep count - Paris is a harlot? - give me a break. I agree with the other reviewer's observation about the "camera-toting Americans" - by his own standard of "coolness," one can only assume the Italians got a good laugh out of this egotistical clown and his camera that he carried to Sicily.

This unbelievable paragraph from his book sums up his penchant for self aggrandizement:

"Stand in a bar in France and tell a Frenchman you are Australian and they almost explode with excitement. Whether borne of simple relief that you are not English or a genuine expression of delight at having met the most extraordinary of the human species, a real live Australian, I could never tell. Either way, it was immensely gratifying."

What an ego! He never misses the opportunity to trash all non-Australian foreigners in order elevate himself to god-like status. I'm surprised he had to cross the Channel in a train - he can't walk on water?

Since writing this book, Mr. Corbett, his wife the Showgirl and their two children, have returned to Australia where she has written (ghostwritten by Corbett) a book called "Memoirs of a Showgirl" (not sure it will ever be available outside Australia). Both maintain shrines to themselves on Twitter and Facebook, and one can only hope that the continent of Oz is big enough to contain their massive egos.

For a truly thoughtful and insightful account Parisian culture read David Lebovitz's book instead The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Unpleasant, offensive waste of time, April 22, 2011

By 

Jazz Baby (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Town Like Paris: Falling in Love in the City of Light (Paperback)

I was so irritated by the condescending and self-important writing in this book, not to mention its dreadful lack of structure (it is a series of lazy, over-written yet underdeveloped essays) and its endless cliches that I spared myself the trouble of finishing it. It is an exercise in turning a book supposedly about a magical city into a shrine to the author's ego and narcissism. Thoroughly unpleasant reading experience.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Lame story about an expat in Paris, January 1, 2011

By 

S. Thillens - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Town Like Paris: Falling in Love in the City of Light (Paperback)

Thankfully, I borrowed this book from the library instead of buying it new from Amazon. From the reviews and description I was expecting a fun and interesting story of an Australian expat's life in Paris. Instead, what I found was an annoying memoire of a man who surrounded himself with an ever widening circle of fellow anglo expats and his resulting failure to truly immerse himself in Parisian life. Mr. Corbett proudly tells about the fun, gay neighborhood he chooses for his own, while making sure that we understand that he's keeping his macho Aussie neanderthal street cred by drunkenly carrousing around with other fellow expats (mainly in the expat bars he has managed to discover during his tenure in the City of Light.) I couldn't help but want to get on a plane to Paris so that I could find the author and wack him soundly over the head a few times with his book in the hopes that he might see some sense. In all, Mr. Corbett utterly fails to understand French culture or to truly grasp the native citizens of his adopted city by then end of this book. Really, save your money and skip this waste of time. If you're looking for an interesting and thoughtful read I would either recommend Sarah Turnbull's book "Almost French" or Vanina Marsot's "Foreign Tongue" for better insight into French and Parisian culture and the clashes that come with expat life in Paris.