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player ready...“They Eat Horses, Don’t They? The Truth about the French”
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, $26.99
How do the French do it? How do they get away with their envious lifestyle of long weekends, even longer holidays, delicious food and thin waists? Author Piu Marie Eatwell has lived up to her perfectly irresistible name. She did indeed eat well went she first went to France for a long weekend many Augusts ago and never left.
In this fun book, Eatwell unravels numerous French myths: myths about French food and drink (The French don’t get drunk), French women (French women don’t get fat), French sex, marriage and children (the French tolerate adultery), French manners (the French are rude), French history and society (the French don’t work very hard), French culture (French films are pretentious) and the City of Light itself (the Left Bank is a haven of writers and intellectuals). Each myth is followed by a myth evaluation.
Eatwell points out that the worst of the French stereotypes dates from the post-World War II era, when Americans returning home from the war complained about French plumbing and the dirty, stinky Parisian Metro. “A certain frostiness and mistrust set in between the two peoples,” Eatwell writes, “hitting an all-time low in the dark years of the Gulf War in the early 2000s.” (Freedom fries, anyone?) But now the French, Eatwell says, are back in America’s good graces even as many of the old stereotypes remain, for better or worse. A 2013 Gallup poll, for example, revealed that 73 percent of Americans have a positive view of France.
Eatwell examines the origins of some of the best known stereotypes, such as that of the archetypal, beret-wearing Frenchman wearing a striped shirt and riding a bicycle decorated with onions. On the other hand, some myths are at least partially true: The French really do love cheese (although, she says, the Greeks win the honor of being the world’s No. 1 consumers). Still, Eatwell notes, cheese embodies the very French idea “that the food we eat is not an anonymous, factory-made product but rather a living, breathing entity” with its own personality. Despite France’s highly regarded culinary reputation, it is a myth to say that the French do not like fast food. They do. In fact, Eatwell points out that France is the second-largest market in the world for McDonald’s (after the U.S.). Unfortunately, the French also have followed the drinking habits of their Anglo-American friends: binge-drinking among the young has increased dramatically since 2007.
But back to that legendary French rudeness: Eatwell shares a hilarious anecdote about an ebullient fellow who, when riding the Metro, not only gave up his seat to the elderly but also apologized for stepping on toes and gave a free newspaper to another traveler; his giddiness led to such suspicion that his fellow passengers contacted the security services, and he was arrested. The moral of the story? “… Smiling on the Paris Metro can be a risky business.”
Eatwell’s smart book is an entertaining procession through French history and culture as well as a shrewd portrait of contemporary France, it’s full of surprises and revelations.
“Paris Les Boulevards”
Rizzoli, $29.95
Napoleon III’s Paris was known for its grand boulevards and stately architecture. This handsome little book is a new edition of a volume that originally was published in the late 19th century and illustrated by Charles Franck. In addition, this edition re-creates the original binding with 11 gatefolds: Each page reveals six panels that display the famous streets, from avenue de l’Opéra to boulevard Montmartre.
As Pamela Golbin notes in her introduction, Napoleon’s complicated plan to transform Paris led to chaos and upheaval: More than 400,000 workers constructed 300 miles of roads, the demolition of 18,000 houses, the displacement of 300,000 people, the planting of 80,000 trees and the creation of mile after mile of green spaces. The result? Some 60 percent of the city “was altered beyond recognition.” But what a result!