Secret Life of France

The Secret Life of France by Lucy Wadham is not the usual story of idiosyncratic locals and their strange French rural habits – in fact it is not really a story at all.

Lucy married a Frenchman, and was fascinated by the different attitudes to life, sex, war, manners, TV, maternity and history which pervade the French. They clearly have an alternative world and local view, the roots of which she tries to describe and explain (often from personal experience) – but also with evidence from history and events. She describes how her own children grew up accepting many of these “foreign” attitudes.

Perhaps next time you see President Sarkozy or even retired President Chirac flirting with an attractive younger woman you might understand it better having read this book.

“The Secret Life of France challenges our preconceptions and debunks may of the myths – bleak and rosy – on which our view of France rests, Might we have something to learn from this most beguiling and infuriating neighbour?”