My Life in France in Around the World in 80 Books

Oct 13, 2009 Elaine Kasteler rated it really liked it

What an enchanting life and love story Julia Child had created for herself. She was a liberating, free thinker and I found I liked reading about her.

I saw the movie - which got me to read this book. I hate to admit this, but in the 80's I thought Julia Child was a loud, tall, funny looking lady who Saturday Night Live had pegged perfectly.

Now I see her as an artist in her study of French Cuisine. Also I would love to live in France in a tan stucco home with a red tile roof that overlooks a hill ...more

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Dec 14, 2012 jennifer rated it really liked it

This is Child's autobiography, written in conjunction with her nephew Alex, and while it does cover her childhood, education, time in government service and meeting of her husband Paul, it centers on how she learned to cook French food and then the writing of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It's the basis for the "Julia" parts of the movie "Julie and Julia".
The Childs lived in many countries, due to Paul's job, but it was France that really felt like home to them. They became fluent in the ...more

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Jun 30, 2011 Kathleen Valentine rated it it was amazing

Back in the 1970s I was on my own and, though I had grown up in a family of excellent cooks and had done a lot of cooking myself, I wanted to do new recipes so I bought Julia Child and Company. I loved the book and I swear that to this day I cook things that are variations on the recipes in that book. So when I came across Julia Child's memoir, My Life in France, I just had to read it. I loved every page of it.

First of all she has a folksy, down-home way of writing that is really just like the w Back in the 1970s I was on my own and, though I had grown up in a family of excellent cooks and had done a lot of cooking myself, I wanted to do new recipes so I bought Julia Child and Company. I loved the book and I swear that to this day I cook things that are variations on the recipes in that book. So when I came across Julia Child's memoir, My Life in France, I just had to read it. I loved every page of it.

First of all she has a folksy, down-home way of writing that is really just like the way she talked in her cooking shows. She complains about her cranky old father, gossips about her writing partner's difficult personality, gushes over her culinary explorations of Paris, and every page drips with her endless love for her husband Paul. Of course, I have long been of the opinion that I should have been born in Paris – not Paris as it is now but Paris as it was for Hemingway and Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound and now Julia.

Speaking of Hemingway, one of the first friends Julia and Paul Child made when they moved to Paris was Hadley Mowser, the first Mrs. Ernest Hemingway, and the subject of the wildly popular novel, The Paris Wife. In fact, Julia was the maid of honor at Jack (Bumby) Hemingway's wedding. I loved that and reassured me that, had I been born when and where I was supposed to, I probably would have been at that wedding. Of course, I'd be dead now, too.

But the book is just marvelous. Julia McWilliams grew up in California and during WWII she wanted to join up but at 6'2” she was too tall to be a WAC so she joined the OSS where she met Paul Child who was to become the love her life. After the war they married and he was assigned to a diplomatic bureau in Paris. She went with her husband and soon discovered that the food of Paris was light years from the food of California! Exploring cheese shops and bakeries and produce stands and wine shops she quickly decided that she needed to learn to cook authentic French food and thus enrolled in the Cordon Bleu. Her descriptions of her absolute passion for food and for French cooking fills the rest of the books with added commentary on her travels and then he attempts to publish her first great cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. If anyone thinks publishing is difficult now they need to read this book!

This book is an absolute joy because its author has take such joy in so much – food, cooking, Paris, her friends, her husband, and life. The Joy of Julia. She introduces readers to a huge array of fascinating characters and constantly tantalizes the senses with descriptions of the marketplaces, shops, restaurants and kitchens of Paris, the Marseilles, and finally Provence. A wonderful read written by an American treasure with a massive appetite for life. Bon appétit, Julia, wherever you are! ...more

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Jul 05, 2011 Greer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2011-books

Immensely satisfying and comforting (much like a great meal).

I got interested in this book after seeing the movie "Julie and Julia" (found Julie annoying, but left wanting more Julia Child!)

What an impressive woman - I was captivated by her passion for food, friends and new experiences; her sense of adventure; her refreshing lack of self-pity; her desire to learn; and her no-nonsense approach to life! ...more

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Jan 26, 2010 Kay Green rated it really liked it

What an enjoyable read! I loved her relationship with her husband, her ideas on friendship and hard work, and her disdain of Republicans who were obsessed with money and possessions! Bon apetit - read it with a good Pouille Fume. (And of course see Julie/Julia with Meryl Streep.

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