Book review of Are We French Yet by Keith Van Sickle

Are We French Yet by Keith Van Sickle

Are We French Yet? Keith & Val’s Adventures In Provence

(travel memoir) Release date: December 15, 2018 at Dresher Publishing ASIN: B07L6N3JK7 157 pages Author’s page | Goodreads  

SYNOPSIS

Can Two Americans Really Become French? Val and Keith turned their lives upside down when they quit their jobs and moved to Provence. But they wondered: Can we fit in? And maybe become French ourselves? Follow their adventures as they slowly unlock the mysteries of France… – Is it true that French people are like coconuts? – Can you learn to argue like a French person? – What books have changed French lives? – Most important of all, how do you keep your soup from exploding? There’s more to becoming French than just learning the language. If you want the inside scoop on la belle France, you won’t want to miss this delightful book!

MY REVIEW

I enjoyed the first memoir from Keith, One Sip at a Time, and even mentioned in my review how it left me wanting more, so I was keen to step back into Keith and Val’s part-time Provençal life in Are We French Yet? 

Keith and Val are doers not just dreamers. They wanted to experience more than just regular holidays in France, so they changed their work life to give them the flexibility to spend three months each year in Provence. They wanted to ensure they learned French and had French friends, so they got out and found language partners, who over time became friends. This ‘we can do it’ attitude is to be commended. They now enjoy the richness that mixing regularly with French friends gives you, even when back at home in the US. They have learned about the culture, politics, food and more, often around a table, where leisurely meals with wine ensure their learning method is enjoyable too. But they are not afraid of hard work and even their method takes plenty of effort. They avidly read the French newspapers every day, put their all into their homework assignments and are not afraid to pick up a French novel in one hand and a dictionary in the other. There are many of us Anglophones living in France who could take a leaf out of their book.

In this second book Keith takes us with him on vineyard picnics, theatre soirees, medical appointments and more. Each little window on their French life is written with his obvious love of France, lots of humour and every now and then a little frustration at the French way too. I enjoyed this book, a bit more than the first, and I’m sure that memoir lovers of all things French will also love it and hopefully learn something too. From places to visit in Provence, food to try and top tips for learning French, this book has it all.

Keith Van Sickle

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Keith Van Sickle is the author of the Amazon best-seller One Sip at a Time: Learning to Live in Provence. A lifelong traveler who got his first taste of overseas life as a university student in England, Keith later backpacked around the world on his own. But it was the expat assignment to Switzerland that made him fall in love with Europe. With his wife Val and their trusty dog Mica, he now splits his time between California and Provence, delving ever deeper into what makes France so endlessly fascinating. Find the author on Facebook and Twitter Visit his website Subscribe to his mailing list and get information about new releases.

Buy The Book On Amazon.Com or see below for links to Amazon UK

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You can read my review of One Sip at a Time here and my France et Moi interview with Keith here.