(Not Quite) Mastering the Art of French Living

Twenty years after his spur-of-the-moment decision to buy a house in Brittany, Mark Greenside—writer, ex-New Yorker, and aspiring Frenchman—is still asking questions: Where on Earth do you pay for a parking ticket in a rural village? What do you do with a sick American friend on a Sunday morning? How do you cook for French people? What do you cook for French people? And why doesn't a literate, educated person manage to learn the language after twenty years visiting the country? Despite two decades spent in the Breton village he calls home for half the year, the vagaries of French life still manage to confound him. In spite of it all, Greenside's love and respect for the French people and the surprising kindnesses he experiences will make it clear why he keeps coming back. With quick wit and rich voice, Greenside narrates his trials and tribulations in answering these questions and more through the daily adventures in his adopted French home, where...