My Life in France

I am not ashamed to admit that I picked up this book after thoroughly enjoying Julie & Julia this past summer. (I mean, a movie about blogging AND food! What’s not to love?) So before we went on vacation in September, I picked up Julia Child’s My Life in France. I actually started it at the end of my vacation, and while it took me about six weeks to finish, that’s no reflection on the quality of the book – only on the fullness of my work schedule.

The book starts out with Julia and husband Paul moving to France for his job. Julia wants to learn to cook after experiencing the fascinating food culture in France, and signs up for classes at the famed Le Cordon Bleu. Which led to her teaching local cooking classes, working on her renowned cookbooks, and eventually, filming her infamous American cooking show.

Child’s stories are entertaining, humorous, and her zest for life apparent. I was especially impressed with their frequent and prolonged vacationing. This is a stark contrast to our family’s lack of a proper week-long vacation for seven years. The Child’s frequently took a month or more for rest and renewal.

Even more impressive is that Julia didn’t attend culinary school until she was well into her 30s, and didn’t start on the cookbook until her 40s (if I’m remembering the timeline correctly). I so often feel like I need to be at the peak of my career at 30 (aka now) that I forget there are incredibly successful people who hadn’t even started on their career at my age. In other words, chill out, Kelli.

I you like biographies/memoirs, and are the least bit interested in food, this is a really fun read. My only (minor) complaint – and this is just my ignorance getting in the way – is that I found myself stumbling over many of the French phrases (which often aren’t translated into English) and it really interrupted my attention. I had four years of Spanish, so perhaps if it were My Life in Spain I would have been fine. So if you don’t know French, be prepared to guess the meaning of alot of dishes and French phrases Child incorporates in her storytelling.