From France With Love

After two failed marriages, she has sworn never to succumb to another man's charms. He is grief-stricken after the death of his wife of forty-odd years. So Nadine and Olivier are both unprepared when their friendshup unexpectedly blossoms into love. Nadine is Australian born and bred, Olivier is very French, yet in spite of all their differences and defences, they find a precious intimacy they want to build on. But can their love survive a road trip around France when the dream holiday becomes a harrowing test of wills and cultural clashes? From France with Love is an endearing yet honest, fiery account of the bittersweet experience of finding love in mid-life. This romantic true tale proves that what matters is the journey, not the destination.

Love stories have always been at the heart of French cinema, but romantic comedies have, until recently, been absent from it. In 2001, the global success of Amelie catalysed a major development in the Western world's second-largest film industry: the appropriation of the 'Hollywood' romantic comedy genre (or Rom-Com a l'Americaine). In From France with Love, Mary Harrod explores this contemporary phenomenon, examining both local hits and films with international status. Using socio-cultural data, box-office figures and analysis of critical reception, she reveals the ways in which these films mirror shifting attitudes towards gender roles within French society, as well as the increasingly important interrelation between French national cinema and transnational filmmaking paradigms.

A language barrier is no match for love. Lauren Collins discovered this firsthand when, in her early thirties, she moved to London and fell for a Frenchman named Olivier—a surprising turn of events for someone who didn’t have a passport until she was in college. But what does it mean to love someone in a second language? Collins wonders, as her relationship with Olivier continues to grow entirely in English. Are there things she doesn’t understand about Olivier, having never spoken to him in his native tongue? Does “I love you” even mean the same thing as “je t’aime”? When the couple, newly married, relocates to Francophone Geneva, Collins—fearful of one day becoming "a Borat of a mother" who doesn’t understand her own kids—decides to answer her questions for herself by learning French. When in French is a laugh-out-loud funny and surprising memoir about the lengths we go to for love, as well as an exploration across culture and history into how we learn languages—and what they say about who we are. Collins grapples with the complexities of the French language, enduring excruciating role-playing games with her classmates at a Swiss language school and accidently telling her mother-in-law that she’s given birth to a coffee machine. In learning French, Collins must wrestle with the very nature of French identity and society—which, it turns out, is a far cry from life back home in North Carolina. Plumbing the mysterious depths of humanity’s many forms of language, Collins describes with great style and wicked humor the frustrations, embarrassments, surprises, and, finally, joys of learning—and living in—French.

From award-winning journalist and filmmaker Stefania Rousselle, a stunning collection of photographs and essays that seek to understand the universality of love Journalist and filmmaker Stefania Rousselle found herself overwhelmed and dejected with the horrors of the news after covering terrorist attacks, human trafficking, and the rise of extremism. To renew her faith in humanity, she took off on a solo road trip across France, determined to see if love still exists. Traveling from village to village, farming towns to industrial cities, heart to heart, Rousselle sought out ordinary women and men, all to ask them one question, What is love? Collecting more than 90 personal testimonies, each one moving and beautiful in its own way, alongside over 100 intimate photographs, Rousselle reveals the many facets of love, and discovers that love can still be found even in the darkest of places. From a baker in Normandy to a shepherd in the Pyrenees, from a tree trimmer in Martinique to a mail woman in the Alps, Amour is a visual testament to love in all its many forms.

After two failed marriages, she has sworn never to succumb to another man's charms. He is grief-stricken after the death of his wife of forty-odd years. So Nadine and Olivier are both unprepared when their friendshup unexpectedly blossoms into love. Nadine is Australian born and bred, Olivier is very French, yet in spite of all their differences and defences, they find a precious intimacy they want to build on. But can their love survive a road trip around France when the dream holiday becomes a harrowing test of wills and cultural clashes? From France with Love is an endearing yet honest, fiery account of the bittersweet experience of finding love in mid-life. This romantic true tale proves that what matters is the journey, not the destination.

After quitting her fast-paced life as asuccessful fashion editor in London, Karen is happily installed in her prettyvillage house in France. Her idyll is almost complete until a gang of machoPortuguese builders, a procession of badly behaving Brits and an ex-boyfriendbegin to arrive on her doorstop. But Karen soon finds her (dancing) feet in thesmall rural community when she discovers the key to acceptance is le dansecountry. And after a few shuffles and twirls shemeets the love of her life he has dark, shaggy hair, four paws and a wet nose. . .

"Sixty Million Frenchmen does its job marvelously well. After reading it, you may still think the French are arrogant, aloof, and high-handed, but you will know why." --Wall Street Journal

Love stories have always been at the heart of French cinema, but romantic comedies have, until recently, been absent from it. In 2001, the global success of Amelie catalysed a major development in the Western world's second-largest film industry: the appropriation of the 'Hollywood' romantic comedy genre (or Rom-Com a l'Americaine). In From France with Love, Mary Harrod explores this contemporary phenomenon, examining both local hits and films with international status. Using socio-cultural data, box-office figures and analysis of critical reception, she reveals the ways in which these films mirror shifting attitudes towards gender roles within French society, as well as the increasingly important interrelation between French national cinema and transnational filmmaking paradigms.