Video Diary of an American in France
Video Diary of an American in France is Cynthia’s blog about her life in France.
Unlike many Americans, Cynthia never dreamed about living in France.
But as fate would have it, she fell in love with a Frenchman in 2005 who she met during a train ride in Provence and, after 2.5 years of a long distance relationship between Los Angeles and Chambery, she sold her house, ended her thriving and successful consulting business, and dragged her poor cats to Chambery in the Rhône Alpes.
I think that this is the first video diary that I have reviewed for A Taste of Garlic and I think that the format works well.
As can be seen from Paris, France: a Weekend Break – the sense of atmosphere would be hard to portray in words alone.
This is evident in Lyon, France – Christmas Market as well. You feel that you are actually there and, in a way, a participant as much as an observer.
The big surprise, for me, was how well this format works for recipes. Take a look at Lemon Tart Recipe – Great Holiday Dessert.
Perhaps I’m behind the times (I have been accused of being an old fuddy-duddy more than once), but watching a video of something delicious being made has got to make the whole process far more foolproof.
As well as the videos, Video Diary of an American in France has some lovely photo galleries. Feast your eyes over Photos of Brittany’s Coastal Villages and Western Points and Photos of Auray and Carnac; Brittany. Absolutely gorgeous!
If I didn’t already live in Brittany, I think I’d want to move there myself!
Cynthia and Bernard also run a photoblog at A Photo Journey Through France and Europe which is well worth taking a peek at.
One word of advice though… Make sure that you can spare the time. You could end up spending hours looking around, as I did when I saw the lovely photos at Autumn and Winter Vineyards of the French Alps: The Beauty of France.
I couldn’t find any posts about Mushrooms or 2CVs but I did learn all about The Killer Draft – Strange French Customs which is just as good.
If you are intent on exploring this blog (and why wouldn’t you be?), a good place to start would be… How it all began.
From there you could branch off in any direction and you’re sure to turn up trumps.
Me, I going to head off to Lyon and get myself some culture (I’m sorely in need of culture, I am) at the Cathedral de Notre Dame de Fourviere.
Good luck to you, wherever you dive in. I suggest that we agree to meet up later on and try Picking Blackberries and Making Confiture in Savoie.
All the best
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The French KitchenA delightful book in which Joanne shares with us ‘her family recipes, passed down through the generations. The French Kitchen is a tantalising collection of casseroles, soups, roasts, salads, tarts and sweets. More information |
CholcolatJoanna Harris creates a rich and vibrant description of a rural French village with all its petty rivalries and traditional, narrow-minded boundaries on thought and behavior. More information |
Five Quarters of the OrangeFive quarters of the orange’ is a story of a childhood tragedy in wartime France, and the shadows it casts across the later life of the heroine Framboise Dartigen. More information |
Blackberry WineEveryday magic, he called it, the transformation of base matter into the stuff of dreams – Layman’s alchemy. More information |
The French MarketFollowing the success of The French Kitchen, Joanne Harris and Fran Warde have collaborated once more to write a French cookbook with a difference. This time they have taken their inspiration from the rural markets of Gascony. More information |
CoastlinersPassionate, stubborn Mado, whose “head is full of rocks” tries to save the livelihoods of the villagers of Les Salants by urging them to work together to save the beach from erosion, both natural and man-made. More information |
Five Quarters of the OrangeThree sublime audiobooks from the bestselling author, now available together in a specially priced pack. Includes BLACKBERRY WINE, FIVE QUARTERS OF THE ORANGE and the huge bestseller CHOCOLAT. With a gentle touch and an eye for human frailty and strength, these mouth-watering audiobooks will draw you into her enchanting worlds. More information |
French LessonsFailed rock legend, pickled onion manufacturer, air hostess and euro-entrepreneur George East takes us through another eventful year of his doomed attempts to make a living out of living in rural France. More information |
French Flea BitesThe character of France and the French people has been captured in words beautifully and the hilarious exploits of George his wife Donella, their neighbours and Cato the cat. More information |
French LettersThis is not so much a book as a continuation of the serial story of George and Donella as they carry on with their almost idyllic life in Normandy. It’s at least as funny as the others, but the hanky had to come out again several times. More information |
French CricketOnce upon a time, former night club bouncer, seamstress and professional bedtester George East and his wife Donella fled to Normandy to escape their creditors and try to live off their wits in a foreign land. More information |
Home and Dry in FranceBuying property in France is fraught with mishaps and misunderstandings. George East’s book brings humour and fun to what happens when people venture forth to a foreign land with more hope than money and humour than language skills. More information |
French KissesThose poor people who don’t like George East’s books often dismiss them as fiction. Not so, everything is at least based on real people and real happenings. George admits to a degree of embellishment and often combines several mishaps to produce a spectacular disaster. Such is the nature of his works. More information |
Rene and MeTold in the inimitable style which has alrea dy won the author an army of followers, Rene & Me is a somet imes hilarious, sometimes moving and always captivating cele bration of human nature, people and, above all, life and living. ‘ More information |
A Year in the MerdeThis very funny book sounds a lot more like the France that I know. Read it and you’ll still want to come here, you’ll just be a lot better prepared for the surprises that France has to offer. More information |
Merde HappensPaul West is in deep financial merde. His only way out of debt is to accept a decidedly dodgy job that involves him touring America in a Mini, while pretending to be typically British. Also in the car is Paul’s French girlfriend, Alexa, and his American poet friend, Jake, whose main aim in life is to sleep with a woman from every country in the world. More information |
Merde ActuallyA year after arriving in France, Englishman Paul West is still struggling with some fundamental questions: What is the best way to scare a gendarme? Why are there no health warnings on French nudist beaches? And is it really polite to sleep with your boss’ mistress? More information |
Dial M for MerdeIn this book, you’ll get Paul, Elodie, her dad and some new French girls. All of them are of course hot and all of them adore Paul. Didn’t see that one coming… More information |
Talk to the SnailThe only book you’ll need to understand what the French really think, how to get on with them and, and most importantly, how to get the best out of them. With useful sections on: Making sure you get served in a café, Harassing French estate agents, Living with bacteria, Pronouncing French swear-words and much more! More information |
1000 years of Annoying the FrenchWas the Battle of Hastings a French victory? No! William the Conqueror was Norman and hated the French. Were the Brits really responsible for the death of Joan of Arc? No! The French sentenced her to death for wearing trousers. More information |
The Olive FarmThis is television actress Carol Drinkwater’s lyrical account of a new life in France; about her house, Appassionata, and the trials and tribulations of acquiring an olive farm, restoring it, farming the olives, overcoming the heartaches of taking on a “new” French family and understanding slowly the workings and lifestyle of a vivacious Provencal community. More information |
The Olive SeasonThis is an extraordinary and fascinating follow-up to The Olive Farm. The reader is drawn deeply and inexorably in to the world of the author, confronted with her personal struggles and entranced by her pastiche of growth and decay in the world of nature, a metaphor for her life. More information |
The Olive HarvestCarol and Michel have again returned to Appasionata, the Olive Farm that they have restored, and Carol is eager to continue production of the olives and attain their cerificate for producing Organic Oil. More information |
The Olive TreeTHE OLIVE TREE charts Carol Drinkwater’s colourful and often dangerous journey in search of the routes that olive cultivation has taken over the centuries. Set during a springtime Mediterranean that is evocative and perennial, it is above all a tale of our time. More information |
The Olive RouteA tour de force from Carol Drinkwater in this, the fourth in her Olive series. The joy of this book is in the pen pictures that she creates of the unusual characters that she encounters on her journey. More information |
The Illustrated Olive FarmThe photgraphy is wonderful and the book is a great insight in to life with the olives and all that that involves. There are wonderful pictures of the dogs, family, friends, even the dreaded wild boar. Recipes as well. More information |
Petite AnglaisePetite Anglaise is a memoir by Catherine Sanderson based on her blog of the same name. In 2004 Catherine decided to start up a blog based on her life in Paris. More information |
French KissingName: Sally Marshall Status: single mother Age: 32 Nationality: ten years in France, yet still English through and through I like: Living in Paris, playing with my daughter Lila (four years old), the company of good friends, the smell of baking bread. More information |
Tout SweetYou cannot help but fall in love with the author’s character. She seems like a Bridget Jones let loose in the French countryside, getting into a lot of funny situations with both ex-pat English and French locals like, as she adjusts to a totally different way of life. More information |
Serge Bastarde Ate My BaguetteJohn Dummer’s sharply focused descriptions of the landscape, towns and villages, and the weather of the South West of France form a animated background for a series of adventures with an array of characters from some intimidating and belligerent peasants to a sad little old man whose only companionship is a collection of antique dolls. More information |
Merde!This book is an excellent source of words and expressions, of varying degrees of vulgarity, that are used all the time by french speakers. I used it often during the first of my two years in France. More information |
Almost French“Almost French” is the story of a woman who goes to France to visit a French lawyer she has only met a couple times before and barely knows. Of course, she gets caught up in the romance of the city and stays on to live there. More information |












































