Chapter 1

VIVE L'AMÉRIQUE:

THE BEGINNING . . . I AM OVERWEIGHT

I love my adopted homeland. But first, as an exchange student in Massachusetts, I learned to love chocolate-chip cookies and brownies. And I gained twenty pounds.

My love affair with America had begun with my love of the English language; we met at the lycée (junior high and high school) when I turned eleven. English was my favorite class after French literature, and I simply adored my English teacher. He had never been abroad but spoke English without a French accent or even a British one. He had learned it during World War II, when he found himself in a POW camp with a high school teacher from Weston, Massachusetts (I suspect they had long hours to practice). Without knowing whether they'd make it out alive, they decided that if they did, they would start an exchange program for high school seniors. Each year, one student from the United States would come to our town and one of us would go to Weston. The exchange continues to this day, and the competition is keen.

During my last year at the lycée, I had good enough grades to apply, but I wasn't interested. With dreams of becoming an English teacher or professor, I was eager to start undergraduate studies at the local university. And at eighteen, naturally I had also convinced myself I was madly in love with a boy in my town. He was the handsomest though admittedly not the brightest boy around, the coqueluche (the darling) of all the girls. I couldn't dream of parting from him, so I didn't even think of applying for Weston. But in the schoolyard, between classes, there was hardly another topic of conversation. Among my friends, the odds-on favorite to go was Monique; she wanted it so badly, and besides, she was the best in our class, a fact not lost on the selection committee, which was chaired by my English teacher and included among its distinguished ranks PTA members, other teachers, the mayor, and the local Catholic priest, balanced by the Protestant minister. But on the Monday morning when the announcement was expected, the only thing announced was that no decision had been made.

At home that Thursday morning (those days, there was no school on Thursdays but half days on Saturday), my English teacher appeared at the door. He had come to see my mother, which seemed rather strange, considering my good grades. As soon as he left, with a big, satisfied smile but not a word to me except hello, my mother called me. Something was très important.

The selection committee had not found a suitable candidate. When I asked about Monique, my mother tried to explain something not easily fathomed at my age: My friend had everything going for her, but her parents were Communists, and that would not fly in America. The committee had debated at great length (it was a small town, where everybody was fully informed about everybody else), but they could not escape concluding that a daughter of Communists could never represent France!

My teacher had proposed me as an alternative, and the other members had agreed. But since I had not even applied, he had to come and persuade my parents to let me go. My overadoring father, who would never have condoned my running away for a year, was not home. Perhaps my teacher was counting on this fact; but in any event, he managed to sell the idea to my mother. The real work then fell to her, because she had to persuade not only my father, but me as well. Not that she was without her own misgivings about seeing me go, but Mamie was always wise and farsighted; and she usually got her way. I was terribly anxious about what...

 

Though it's easy to approach this book with a grudge (aren't the French superior enough already?), Guiliano is quite disarming--she seems to want to help suffering American women stop torturing themselves and start enjoying a healthy relationship with food. Narrator Kathe Mazur is American, but her delivery of this book seems just right, and when she breaks into the French phrases sprinkled so liberally throughout, she sounds quite authentique. Mazur's pace is delightfully unhurried as she walks us through this simple guide to healthy living, which includes such directives as savor--don't gobble--your food. This book will surprise, delight, and benefit many listeners. J.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

 

"It's hard not to be enlivened by a [weight-control] book that celebrates both chocolate and bread, and espouses such wisdom as 'Life without pasta? Perish the thought.'"

 

"The perfect book for the more literate dieter . . . A blueprint for building a healthy attitude toward food and exercise . . . Full of down-to earth advice . . . We'd all be thinner (and happier) if we followed it."

 

"You've heard it before . . . But somehow, when the advice comes from Mireille Guiliano, you actually listen. A perfect, slim (and slimming) read for dieters and bon vivants alike."

 

 "Ah, Paris, the ideal destination for museum-hopping, couture shopping--and quick weight loss? Mais oui, insists Mireille Guiliano . . . For those who can't hop a plane whenever their zippers won't close . . . her new memoir-cum-'nondiet' book [is] filled with slimming secrets."
--Kim Hubbard, People
"She spurs readers to give up the guilt and dieting extremes, to eat smarter and more joyfully . . . Readers can practically hear the rustling of fallen leaves beneath the narrator's feet as she forages for mushrooms . . . Her writing, like her three-meals-a-day diet, is all part of her joie de vivre."
--Rosemary Feitelberg, Women's Wear Daily 
"Delightful . . . Hands down, this is the best of the newest crop of weight-control books."

 

 
"The past few years have been dominated by 'scientific' diets . . . I welcome this break from the usual kind of quick-fix diet book . . . Will this book transform one's eating habits? Its good sense is unanswerable--and, personally, I love the bit about not going to the gym."

 

"Part Proustian memoir, part guide to living well, part recipe for Miracle Leek Soup, this book announces its distance from the Zone, the Atkins and all the rest on the very first page . . . Even the most skeptical and envious woman will find it hard to hold out against the charms of a beautifully written book that features both chocolate and love as key ingredients in a balanced diet."

 

"Mireille Guiliano's book is slender, elegant, well-spoken, sensible, and unembarrassed by the frank embrace of stratagems--just like the French women whom she holds up to the reader to admire and, if we can, to emulate."

 

"I recognized things from my own French background and discovered quite a bit more. An important and fascinating book for all those people out there who've ridden the vicious diet roller coaster to failure."

 

"Not only delicious, but a true story from one of the greatest ladies in the world."

 

"French Women Don't Get Fat is not only charming and witty, but useful. It made me want to run out and buy a pound of leeks and a bottle of Champagne!"

 

French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano
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