Almost French by Sarah Turnbull

Almost French is an easy and enjoyable read and we happily go along with Sarah on her journey of discovery of all things French. We watch enthralled as Sarah the Aussie TV reporter becomes Sarah the expat who writes stories of fashion and food. But this book is about so much more, it is about the journey, the trials and the errors as Sarah strives not only to understand the French but to become one with them if never one of them.

It all begins when Sarah meets Frederic in Romania and he invites her to visit him in Paris. What begins as a week stretches into a month, the holiday romance has in Sarah's words 'shifted to something more serious". In spite of this or because of this she sets off to complete the plans she had set in motion a year before when she planned this year sabbatical in Europe. Four months later she is drawn back to her new life in Paris and life with Frederic, the adventure is about to begin.

To say that cultures clashed is a gross understatement. It is hard to imagine how educated people from two western nations can have developed in such divergent ways but Sarah finds that navigating the social life of Paris is fraught with danger and quicksand. It takes years of misunderstandings and many books to bring her to an understanding that she will always be an outsider, for no other reason than because that is the way it is and to accept that French woman will not become her friends.

We feel her pain and her frustration and when finally she is pushed by the rudeness of a man in the local patisserie to respond in kind, we cheer for her and laugh and enjoy this short moment of triumph. We meet a cast of characters that would rival any great French novel. The street people, the shop keepers, the country friends and the city friends.

For anyone who has ever visited France and tried to communicate with the French, this is a book of eye opening clarity. It makes so many things make sense. Sarah has to deal with the French bureaucracy, the inherent rudeness and frustration at every level and yet throughout her love of Paris, the people and most of all Frederic shine through.

In the end we come away with a greater understanding of the differences in our cultures and expectations. We appreciate what makes the French, so French. Surrounded by amazing history, culture and beauty we applaud Sarah as she becomes Almost French.