[Catfish]

I'm curious which of these books do you recommend?
Or do you have any other information or suggestions?

Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French
http://www.amazon.com/Sixty-Million-...4167593&sr=8-1

A Year in the Merde
http://www.amazon.com/Year-Merde-Ste...4167593&sr=8-1

Talk to the Snail: Ten Commandments for Understanding the French
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159...=1GD52PMLKCRKF

Cultural Misunderstandings: The French-American Experience
http://www.amazon.com/Cultural-Misun...4167593&sr=8-1

Au Contraire! Figuring Out The French
http://www.amazon.com/Au-Contraire-F...4167593&sr=8-1

French Toast: An American in Paris Celebrates the Maddening Mysteries of the French
http://www.amazon.com/French-Toast-C...4167593&sr=8-1

I have never been to France, but would love to visit.
My wife has, but that was 15 yrs ago.
I want to know what the French are truly like. So far,
my only outlet is Ligue 1 matches, FFF matches,
and lots of French wine, lol.

Do they really drink glasses of wine everyday?
Etc.

Thanks so much.

[Pierre-Henri]

Well, I doubt many French read books about us (we know who we are after all). Anyway, we're impossible to categorize. As some Brit reporter cleverly said : "France is sixty millions of minorities".

For example, western French are lazy, good for nothing beatniks, while eastern French are serious, honest, hardworking and very distingué people.

Jokes aside, it's difficult to summarize us all. From Lille to Marseille, from Bretagne to Alsace, from the Martinique to the Réunion, we are all different. And Parisians are a specific species by themselves, too.

You can see that in our history : no country on earth had more civil wars, revolutions and riots than us. Since 1787, American still works with the same Constitution. In the same time span, we had :

- an absolutist monarchy.
- a first republic, after the 1789 Revolution.
- an insane and murderous theocratic regime (la Terreur).
- the first empire, with Napoleon.
- another kind of monarchie (la Restauration).
- yet another kind of monarchie (Orléaniste).
- a second republic, after the 1848 revolution.
- a second empire, with Napoléon III.
- a third republic, after the 1870 invasion by Prusse.
- a fascist regime, during WWII.
- a fourth republic, after the Liberation.
- a fifth republic, devised by de Gaulle in 1958...

... and, of course, countless massacres in between...

... and if you look earlier, you find religious wars, an endless struggle vs our treacherous neighbours the Brits, the really cool period of pirates and corsairs, crusades, succession wars and betrayals aplenty...

... and I forgot to mention the colonisation-decolonisation process, our Vietnam war (yes, we had one one, too), and the Algeria war, and...

... and I really should talk about communism, that marked French history during the 20th century...

... and, and ...

Well. In short, you can't understand French people if you don't know our history. So, if I were you, I'd start with a book about that. Everything else is linked to that : current political and social situation, our culture, etc... everything finds its origin in history. For example, some southern people still talk about the Cathares crusades (another civil war, in XIII century) as if it was yesterday.

And I'm sure Nanbawan thinks he still has corsair blood in his veins. In France, you face the past at every street corner.

[ilv2]

^repped!

my meager 2 cents to supplement of PH's excellent post would be to be wary of the generalizing that goes on in those books. As noted, the french are tremendously diverse given their regions, cultures, and history so when a book tries to talk about the french, they unfortunately usually mean parisians (a year in the merde, for example, funny book btw). And even then, they only talk about one single aspect of paris and nothing else, like the difference between life in the chic arrondissements and life in the poorer quartiers where a lot of the social unrest manifests itself and unemployment tends to be a huge theme. Sure, one can't expect to get it all in, but when a book purports to help you understand the french, it's quite a big issue.

[Catfish]

Both of you posted outstanding stuff...that being said,
what French History books do you recommend?

I own The Citizens about the French Revolution. I bought
it last summer and still need to read it.

Any other suggestions especially post WWII?

Thanks again so very much for your time and thoughts.

[Catel]

Newsweek reporter Ted Stanger wrote several humorous books (in French) about the French : "Sacrés Français !", "Sacrés fonctionnaires !" and so on.
He wrote "Sacrés Américains !" too.

I guess he copied his colleague Bill Bryson ("Notes from a big country").

[Pierre-Henri]

"Sacrés fonctionnaires" isn't that bad, but Stanger definitely doesn't play in the same league than Bryson. Plus, french language doesn't help him. One liner jokes are easier in English, since it's a much more synthetic language.

This said, Catfish, I'm afraid I can't help you. It's nearly impossible to provide a good bibliography in english from France. At least for general history books : for more specific things, some American historians, like Robert Paxton, are well renowned. BTW, you best luck would be to find a "history of France" from some authoritative academic publisher.

Cambridge University Press has a "concise history of France" : http://www.cambridge.org/uk/browse/b...jectid=1117953

Haven't read it, but when you chose Cambridge U Press, you can't be wrong. Of course, I suppose American U Press publish the same kind of things.

[guignol]

all i can recommend is to stay well away from peter mayle's a year in provence and sequels... the worst kind of quaint stereotypical tripe.

like a potemkin-pastis-petanque village!

[Douai]

Catfish, don't believe everything you read about Nordistes, and Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The weather isn't extremely depressing, and the food is not horrible.

[guignol]

Originally Posted by Douai

Catfish, don't believe everything you read about Nordistes, and Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The weather isn't extremely depressing, and the food is not horrible.

limited perhaps, but great if you like french fries... they don't do them anywhere else in the world as well! (well belgium, but that's practically the same cuisine). moules-frites and a great beer... that's living!

[Catel]

My grandfather has got a vegetables garden like many workers in the North.

He cultivates salads, tomatoes, french beans, radishes, strawberries and so on. And my grandmother can cook an awesome soup maison.

I like the candi sugar, sugar pie too. And tons of potatoes.