47: My Life in France

I've mentioned My Life in France several different times over the life of this blog, and I've finally gotten my nose deep into it. (Granted, I haven't finished Gertrude Stein yet... but it was the weekend. I needed a break.)

Julia Child is one of the most endearing women I've ever heard, seen on television or read from in my life. Her stories flow through My Life in France as if you were sitting next to her on a worn out loveseat or at Parisian café. Child and her husband, Paul Child, had a love so deep and so perfectly matched that you can't help but envy them and be greatful for their marriage and what it gave to American pop-culture.

Child was in her mid-30s when she moved to Paris with her husband. They were newlyweds. She was humbled by her husband's rooted understanding of the culture and language, but she was not to be held back. She was awed by his talent, but she acknowledged that she was still growing and discovering who she was meant to be.

I hope to use The Julia Child Approach to Language Learning when Joe and I arrive in France. Child threw herself into Paris full-force. She devoted time each day to studying and utilizing the language. Of course, her favorite place to learn new phrases and bits of culture were the fresh food markets.

Each page is basted with flavors of specialty shops and seasonal food choices. What is important is Child's gracious and humble approach to the knowledge that she gains. She acknowledges her unknowing, roots her desire to know in her new marriage and her desire to develop as her own person, and invites us to learn along side her instead of asking us to watch her--as she watched countless cooking demonstrations at Le Cordon Bleu.

I am more excited than ever to return to France, to step into the bread shops, the creameries, the butchers, the seasonal markets, and do as she did--ask the French to share their recipes and culture and knowledge, engage with the world a round me and use my time in France to discover the person I am meant to be.

I will not come back the next Julia Child, but I will come back more sure of myself, more rounded as a person and more in love with my husband. I hope that my heart can be opened a fraction of what Child's was, and I hope equally that you will take the time to fall in love with her and her Life in France.