Comments for The Secret Life of France

Comment on At Last… by Lucy Wadham

Lucy Wadham — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:33:20 +0000

Hello Frances,

The book comes out in France on June 3rd, 2013, under the title “So French” and the subtitle, ‘L’amour vache d’une Anglaise pour la France.’

Best wishes,

Lucy

Comment on At Last… by Frances Allen

Frances Allen — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:28:41 +0000

And…. has the book been published in French yet? I live in France, am in the middle of reading it – and it keeps striking chords. I would like to have a copy I can lend to friends here.

Comment on Belle et Boring by GS test

GS test — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 15:27:14 +0000

Belle et Boring | The Secret Life of France

Comment on Light relief by Maria

Maria — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 17:14:57 +0000

-between Marseilles and Monaco, all along the railway… this coast sells itself as an exclusive destination, but NOT SO in reality….I hate it, some is good most is grotty…

Comment on Light relief by Lucy Wadham

Lucy Wadham — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 20:27:48 +0000

Can I ask where abouts you were, and what kind of graffiti it was?

Comment on Light relief by Maria

Maria — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 19:21:19 +0000

On the recent trip to le South, a lot of graffiti? Why is this tolerated ?

Comment on À paraître… by Lucy

Lucy — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 21:12:42 +0000

Do you remember looking at your reflection too? The burgeoning spot, always dead centre – on the chin, the nose, or the middle of the forehead?

Comment on À paraître… by teamgloria

teamgloria — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 20:06:57 +0000

saw your delicious essay in Brit Vogue and just had to buy a copy!

ah.

sweet memories of being sixteen and On The Tube ALONE.

*shivers*

*wavingfromlosangeles*

_teamgloria x

Comment on The Book by Caro

Caro — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 19:19:54 +0000

Hi Lucy, I’ve just finished your book “The Secret Life of France” and it stirred up all sorts of emotions! I found myself reliving my own arrival in Paris in the ’90′s, remembering my shock at the way people spoke to me, the frustrating battles with bureaucracy etc etc… I also really appreciated all the digging and delving you did to explain the reasons behind the Anglo-French socio-cultural-political-and just about everything else-chasm. My reading was peppered with “a-ha”‘s. Like you though, my relationship with Paris and the French gradually changed (matured, probably), helped by marrying a Frenchman and having my children in Paris (although I reached out to an English-speaking mums network when my kids were born, as its French equivalent didn’t exist). For the past 8 years we’ve been living near Barcelona, so I have a whole new Latin, Catholic culture to get my no-messing Protestant head around. And yes, I still miss France.

Comment on Playing with Fire by noontao

noontao — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 11:41:51 +0000

Greetings, I think your site could be having browser compatibility issues.
When I take a look at your site in Safari, it looks fine however,
when opening in I.E., it’s got some overlapping issues. I merely wanted to provide you with a quick heads up! Besides that, great website!

Comment on À paraître… by Sydney Server

Sydney Server — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 10:24:10 +0000

Love the pic and Paris

Comment on Q & A by Lucy Wadham

Lucy Wadham — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 21:02:19 +0000

Thank you. I shall have a look.

Comment on Q & A by Piqued

Piqued — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 20:41:10 +0000

Lucy, thank you for your reply. I suggest Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder to understand Ewa’s point about comparing living in occupied France to living in occupied Poland.

Comment on Q & A by Lucy Wadham

Lucy Wadham — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 15:19:23 +0000

Dear Piqued,

What I actually wrote was this: “In Poland the Holocaust took more than 3 million Jewish lives and 8 per cent survived, while in France seventy-five thousand Jews died and 72 per cent survived.”

I think you’ll find that these figures, taken from Serge Klarsfelt’s research, are accurate.

Ewa’s point sprang from a sentence in the book that has since been changed because it was not clear. I did not mean to suggest that the Polish population killed 90% of its Jews.

Here is the corrected sentence:

“Compared to Poland, Estonia and Lithuania where around 90% of the Jewish population was killed, France – even with the complicity of Vichy – was one of the countries in Nazi-occupied Europe where the largest number of Jews survived.”

Best wishes

Lucy

Comment on Q & A by Piqued

Piqued — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 14:16:01 +0000

As you have stated in your book that Poland killed 90% of their Jews , why should I give any credence to any content of your book.

Was this a deliberate slur, or just a lack of historical perspective on your part ?