Lunch in Paris merges love with food

“Lunch in Paris” is exactly what its spine boasts: a love story with recipes. It’s a true story written by Elizabeth Bard that parallels her life from one lunch in Paris with a special man that turns into an adventure of a lifetime.

Elizabeth is a Jewish girl from New York who loves to travel the world. She hasn’t lived at home since she was 15. She went to high school away from home, and then went to college in England. She speaks conversational French, is far from normal and is what most would call a true New Yorker.

Many young adults in college might feel as though they can relate to Elizabeth. She is scared to death that she could be happy if she doesn’t live the American dream and use her education to be better.

Elizabeth meets Gwendal at a conference and from then until their official first date, they exchange “artfully-worded e-mails.” Their first date is a lunch date where they share good conversation, mouth watering food and, ultimately, great sex. This is the day that Elizabeth becomes obsessed with French cooking.

After this amazing encounter with Gwendal, Elizabeth is hooked. She and Gwendal exchange x-rated e-mails at night and every few weeks she spends a weekend in Paris. On these weekends, she falls more in love with the country and the food that it has to offer as she and Gwendal explore it together.

With vivid details of each meal they eat in the story, it feels like you are right there eating with them.

The real fun starts when Elizabeth moves to France. Her French has gotten better, but she must learn the ways of the country. The culture is completely different and she has to learn how navigate in order to get everything. She is a New Yorker who sees the land of opportunity. The French unfortunately don’t, but she has got to fit in.

Soon she masters the market but she has to get over her New York ways when it comes to Gwendal. He is happy where he is, not taking chances and she (always the American) is pushing him to be more. The worst part is that he is just happy and she is not sure she is. Elizabeth must battle through French culture, her own lack of self and the French way of just being happy in order to make it in this new world that she wants so badly to call her own.

“Lunch in Paris” lets you see the difference between the cultures. It makes you think that the American dream we’re all striving for may need to take a back seat to finding happiness. True happiness isn’t measured in material things, education or salary.

The book is a great love story told from the viewpoint of a true New Yorker living in a different and hard to decipher country. It deserves extra points for being clad with tons of French recipes.

Grade: A

Check out the author’s blog at elizabethbard.com or become a fan of “Lunch In Paris” on her Facebook: facebook.com/lunchinparis.

Photo used by permission of author.