I’ve been so lucky to get a chance to get involved with the blog tour for this publication! A massive thank you to Anne from Random Things Tours and the publishers Duckworth Books.

In her own words, it is a book about the things Julia loved most in her life: her husband, France (her “spiritual homeland”), and the “many pleasures of cooking and eating.” It is a collection of linked autobiographical stories, mostly focused on the years between 1948 and 1954, recounting in detail the culinary experiences Julia and her husband, Paul Child, enjoyed while living in Paris, Marseille, and Provence.

Synopsis:

The classic memoir of life in post-war Paris by the legendary celebrity chef.

When Julia Child arrived in Paris in 1948, ‘a six-foot-two-inch, thirty-six-year-old, rather loud and unserious Californian’, she barely spoke a word of French and didn’t know the first thing about cooking.

As she fell in love with French culture – buying food at local markets, sampling the local bistros, and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu – her life began to change forever. We follow her extraordinary transformation from kitchen ingénue to internationally renowned (and internationally loved) expert in French cuisine.

Bursting with Child’s adventurous and humorous spirit, My Life in France captures post-war Paris with wonderful vividness and charm.

I have loved Julia Child and everything she stood for since the first time I watched Julie and Julia and the first time I tried her iconic boeuf bourguignon. This story encapsulates her time in France perfectly, to give the reader a glimpse into the struggles she overcame as an American abroad in a country where she knew nothing about the cooking culture and couldn’t speak the local language.

This book is such a wonderful insight into all the adventures she had in France with her husband, a perfect guide to how things were back in the day in Paris and how they made it their own. I think this book is a wonderful gift to anyone who loves travelling, history and cooking because this just feels like a classic French onion soup for the soul. Julia Child is sassy, witty and so funny and I think that this book really does her story justice.