Read a good book lately? My downtime always encompasses a book. When I first moved to France I happened on this book French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano. Possibly like some of you, the title did not actually excite me. Intrigued, maybe. But books in English were in short supply, so in the end I began to read.

French Women Don’t get Fat is surprisingly delicious

I thought it was going to be a book about diets (something I don’t believe in), hence my hesitation in picking it up, but it turned out to be about culture. Okay, and food. About how the French in general eat, and drink, and more. It gave me more insight into the backbone of the French, how and why they do some of the things that they do (clearing up a few mysteries for me).

Of course, it was still, ultimately about diet, but not in the sense of ‘Don’t eat this or that’. More about, if you want to lose weight (if you are so inclined) then eat the French way.

Favourite Bit?

Early on in the book and her life, when she plans her first party, she discovers the real price of Champagne. From then on, she only has a party when she can afford the champagne. That really resonated with me, and said a lot about the French culture.

“To engage fully with this lifestyle requires that you embrace the rule of quality over quantity.” (Chapter 3)

Recommendation

So, if you would like to know more about the food and the culture of France, okay from a particular perspective, but a rather good perspective, I do recommend this book. Oh, and recipes are included.

Fancy a Read? You can preview and/or buy it here…

*Our Book Club Disclosure

For our Vive le Livre Book Club we are affiliated* with Bookshop.Org. As great readers ourselves, we wanted to offer a way to purchase the books we recommend about France and the French (and wine). We specifically chose to affiliate with Bookshop because they support independent bookshops. They are currently supporting, and you can buy from, bookshops in the UK, USA and Spain.

For this and other books we recommend in our book club, simply click on your book of choice below to read more or purchase…

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We also offer a small selection of vintage book finds, mostly English, some French in our own Shop.

*If you would like to read more about our Affiliates, visit our Nourishing Pumpjack & Piddlewick page.