A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke

When Paul West, a young Brit executive, is sent to the City of Light to help a French businessman open English tea shops throughout Paris, he has no idea what he is getting into. His good friend Charlie had warned him not to move to France – “Great lifestyle, he said, great food, and totally un-politically correct women with great underwear” – but West decided to go anyway and spent one year in the French capital.

As we follow West’s struggles to understand and master all things French, including the work ethic of his colleagues, the real estate market, the 35-hour work week, and women, the author gives an insightful and humorous account at how’s the life in France through the eyes of a Brit.

The inside flap of A Year in the Merde says, “This book is for everyone who can never quite decide whether they love – or love to hate – the French”. This may be true, but before all things, it is a terrific book on French assimilation.

Stephen Clarke is an English journalist who has been living in Paris for ten years. He is to publish a new book in a few weeks, “Paris revealed, the secret life of a city”.