An American in Paris — with food!

I am a not-so-secret Francophile. To put it bluntly, I am obsessed with France – Paris especially. A big part of this obsession is the food. The baguettes, the soft cheese, the macarons, the chocolate – my god, the chocolate!

I have been to Paris only once. It was a high school trip and we spent three days in Paris before moving on to the next city. Those three days are solidly etched in my mind as three of the best days of my life. Could this dramatic distinction be the result of the haze of nostalgia and hyperbole of teenage emotions? Possibly. But my love of the City of Light (and Delicious Food) has been immoveable ever since.

Not the first with this particular obsession, I have found many fellow Parisian-food-appreciators who have written books about their time there. This means I get to read about and imagine the food in Paris without it going to my hips – or having to sit on a plane for 12 hours

If you want a taste of Paris with none of the calories, check out these enchanting and mouthwatering memoirs:

My Life in France  by Julia Child
The autobiography of beloved and iconic chef Julia Child. This book spans Child’s life, but focuses on her time in France where she got her culinary education, both formally at Le Cordon Bleu and informally on the streets of Paris. You will fall in love with the French locales described in this book. The colors, the smells, and, most of all, the tastes of all the places Julia lived and visited – from Paris to the port city of Marseille – will stay with you long after you finish reading.

Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard
Elizabeth falls in love with a Frenchman and moves to Paris where, after some hemming and hawing, she marries him. But this is just the beginning of the story… There is plenty to love in this true tale of Elizabeth and Gwendal’s romance, marriage, and life in Paris, including some very seductive recipes that I wanted to rush to my kitchen to make immediately.

The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz
David Lebovitz actually did what many of us only dream of – one day he packed his bags (three of them, to be precise) and moved from his home and career as a pastry chef in San Francisco to Paris for a fresh start. Of course, the Paris Lebovitz finds is not necessarily the one of his imagination and he chronicles this true Paris in hilarious and witty detail. My favorite part of the book is when, one day Lebovitz finds himself rudely but unabashedly cutting in line and he suddenly realizes that he has become a Parisian!

If your appetite isn’t sated yet, here are even more tasty morsels for you to try:

• Paris, My Sweet by Amy Thomas
• French Milk  by Lucy Knisley
• French Fried: The Culinary Capers of an American in Paris by Harriet Welty Rochefort

       — Elizabeth B., Intern at SPL; University of Washington iSchool grad student