Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [26]
Harriet Welty Rochefort
French Toast: An American in Paris Celebrates the Maddening Mysteries of the French (1997) and French Fried: The Culinary Capers of an American in Paris (2001), both by Harriet Welty Rochefort and published by St. Martin’s, are two excellent books that approach the cultural differences between the French and Americans with wit and wisdom. Welty Rochefort, an American from the Midwest who is married to a Frenchman and holds both an American and a French passport, has lived in Paris for more than three decades. She is a journalist, having written for the International Herald Tribune, Time, and others, and is a journalism professor at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (known simply as Sciences Po). She also writes a great online column, “Letter from Paris,” for the Paris Pages (paris.org).
Welty Rochefort’s position in a Franco-American couple allows her to be both a participant and an outside observer in French life. “Being neither fish nor fowl,” she writes, “has given me a constant comparative view of both life in the United States and life in France, as well as perceptions about the French that tourists rarely acquire. For example, life with the French has put a whole new meaning on the word complicated. The simplest situation in France suddenly becomes something extremely complex and detailed. The French attention to detail—from the way one cuts cheese to the color of one’s panty hose—has never ceased to fascinate me.” She relates in French Toast how she feels “rather more at home” with the French because of their refreshing lack of Puritanism while, on the other hand, when she visits the States she really appreciates the “civility of people who aren’t afraid to be nice to one another even if their families haven’t known one another for the past two hundred years.”
Also in French Toast she interviews her husband, Philippe, to share his points of view, which are sometimes eye-opening. And though French Fried is dedicated (mostly) to food, since “the most awesome experiences in France revolve around cuisine,” it is an equally revealing read. Harriet and Philippe maintain their own Web site (understand france.org), which I also highly recommend—it’s packed with suggestions for places to stay and eat, sites to see, dozens of tips, and just-like-home places in Paris for homesick Americans.
The French, Theodore Zeldin (Pantheon, 1983). Zeldin is better known for his major work France: 1848–1945, which I’ve not yet seen, but in this book he explains that he puts a lot of stock in humor because “nothing separates people more than their sense of humor.” As a result this book is filled with dozens of caricatures and cartoons, which help illustrate various themes. The final chapter, “What It Means to Be French,” is worth reading on its own. At its conclusion, Zeldin leaves readers who are determined to cling to a more grandiose definition of France with a remark by Pierre Dac, at the time one of France’s most popular comedians: “To the eternal triple question which has always remained unanswered, Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? I reply: As far as I, personally, am concerned, I am me; I come from just down the road; and I am now going home.”
The French: Portrait of a People, Sanche de Gramont (Putnam, 1969). Sanche de Gramont, whose family is a very distinguished one in France, became an American citizen in 1977 and legally changed his name to Ted Morgan, an anagram of de Gramont. In addition to An Uncertain Hour, recommended previously, he is the author of more than a dozen books, including biographies of Churchill (a Pulitzer