Kristin Espinasse

Based on the popular blog (french-word-a-day.com) and newsletter with thousands of subscribers -- a heart-winning collection from an American woman raising two very French children with her French husband in Provence, carrying on a lifelong love affair with the language. Imagine a former French major getting vocabulary tips from her young children! That was the experience of Kristin Espinasse, an American who fell in love with a Frenchman and moved to his country to marry him and start a family. When her children began learning the language, she found herself falling in love with it all over again. To relate the stories of her sometimes bumpy, often comic, and always poignant assimilation, she created a blog in the tradition of books such as "A Year in Provence" and "Almost French," drawing more admirers than she ever could have imagined. With an approach that is as charming as it is practical, Espinasse shares her story through the everyday French words and phrases that never seem to make it to American classrooms. ""Comptoir"" ("counter") is a piece about the intricacies of grocery shopping in France, and ""Linge"" ("laundry") swoons over the wonderful scent the laundry has after being hung out in the French countryside, while ""Toquade"" ("crush") tells of Espinasse's young son, who begins piling gel onto his hair before school each morning when he becomes smitten with a girl in class. Steeped in French culture but experienced through American eyes, "Words in a French Life" will delight armchair travelers, Francophiles, and mothers everywhere.

Kristin struggled--and eventually succeeded--in learning French in school, but the real lessons begin when she lands in France, to start her adult life with a Marseillais. From quitting her first stable job (as a glorified janitor) near St. Tropez, to dusting off her dream of writing, Kristin pursues 'la vie en rose' only to discover that reality is... muddy! There are no clear instructions on how to behave in France. In this book of colorful photos and tender essays, Kristin shows us how she overcomes these cultural "tests", always finishing with an "A" for amour de la vie!