I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do) by Mark Greenside

Continuing the journey begun in his 2009 memoir about beginning life in France, (Not Quite) Mastering the Art of French Living details Greenside’s daily adventures in his adopted French home, where the simplest tasks are never straightforward but always end in a great story. Mellowed and humbled, but not daunted (OK, slightly daunted), he faces imminent concerns: What does he cook for a French person? Who has the right-of-way when entering or exiting a roundabout? Where does he pay for a parking ticket? And most dauntingly of all, when can he touch the tomatoes?ĭespite two decades that have passed since Greenside’s snap decision to buy a house in Brittany and begin a bi-continental life, the quirks of French living still manage to confound him.

It explores the joys and adventures of living a double life.A Wall Street Journal Bestseller! In the tradition of Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence, let the author of I’ll Never Be French introduce you to Brittany a world of color and flavor that most of us only fantasize about.Įvery year upon arriving in Plobien, the small Breton town where he spends his summers, American writer Mark Greenside picks back up where he left off with his faux-pas–filled Francophile life. It is a memoir about fitting in, not standing out being part of something larger, not being separate from it following, not leading. I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do) is a beginning and a homecoming for Greenside, as his father's family emigrated from France.

Against his personal inclinations and better judgments, he places his trust in the villagers he encounters - neighbors, workers, acquaintances - and is consistently won over and surprised as he manages and survives day-to-day trials: from opening a bank account and buying a house to removing a beehive from the chimney - in other words, learning the cultural ropes, living with neighbors, and making new friends. In a playful, headlong style, and with enormous affection for the Bretons, Greenside tells how he makes a life for himself in a country where he doesn't speak the language or know how things are done. When Mark Greenside - a native New Yorker living in California, doubting Thomas, downwardly mobile, political lefty, writer, and lifelong skeptic - is dragged by his girlfriend to a tiny Celtic village in Brittany at the westernmost edge of France, in Finist re, 'the end of the world,' his life begins to change. Tired of Provence in books, cuisine, and tablecloths? Exhausted from your armchair travels to Paris? Despairing of ever finding a place that speaks to you beyond reason? You are ripe for a journey to Brittany, where author Mark Greenside reluctantly travels, eats of the crepes, and finds a second life.

I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do) by Mark Greenside