America and France have always had a special relationship. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the two have enjoyed a love affair of sorts, with all the love/hate dynamics that suggests. From Benjamin Franklin charming Louis XVI to Jackie Kennedy enchanting Charles de Gaulle, the two peoples have fascinated and repelled each other. Mary Blume has cultivated her own love affair with this often inscrutable land -- France.It is an affair that spans more than thirty years, from the time Mary Blume first came to Paris, beginning her renowned columns in the International Herald Tribune with a fine eye for the charms, and no aversion to skewering the pretensions, of her adopted home. As with the best chronicles of a time and a place, the narrator begins to emerge through the text. Only Mary Blume could have written these essays. Hers is a unique voice that has won her a devoted audience who have turned religiously, over decades, to her weekend features.Quintessentially American, she has managed that fine trick of not assimilating, and yet coming to know, in the fullest sense, the place and the people in all their often sublime and sometimes ridiculous complexity. In the pieces themselves, whether she turns her penetrating lens on Frenchemen or their money or their socks, whether a bearded lady or Simone de Beauvoir, street performers or members of the Académie Française, whether the newest chic potato or the eternally chic St. Germain de Prés, whether the events of May '68 or the last presidential elections, she sees what would pass unseen -- were she not there to notice it.In the simplest things, Mary Blume reveals the telling detail. In a piece ostensibly about cooking lessons given by two well-meaning aristocrats, she lays bare the acute French sense of class; in a deadpan explanation of the byzantine process of changing street names, she captures the Kafkaesque French bureaucracy; in looking at one beloved Left Bank bistro, she gives us the essence of every such restaurant; by describing the French art of window shopping, she gives us a reflection of how the French see themselves. Whether plumbing the nuances of their language, their rites, rules, or rituals; whether looking at the Mona Lisa or the political arena, film-makers or winemakers, the places and personalities come alive with an uncanny ring of truth.Illustrated by Ronald Searle with the unique wit and delicacy for which he is world famous, A French Affair gives us not only a unique perspective on a time, a place, and a people, but a France that we can digest, distill, and revisit without ever leaving the comfort of home.

America and France have always had a special relationship. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the two have enjoyed a love affair of sorts, with all the love/hate dynamics that suggests. From Benjamin Franklin charming Louis XVI to Jackie Kennedy enchanting Charles de Gaulle, the two peoples have fascinated and repelled each other. Mary Blume has cultivated her own love affair with this often inscrutable land -- France.

ContentsPrefacePARIS FRANCEWhen Paris Put On Its Best DressMen Will Be BoysGenêt: French Rigor and American GustoThe Friends of Mona LisaA Rueful Glance Ahead at New Face of ParisThe Last Old-Time Soup Kitchen in ParisA Struggle for the Soul of a Paris RestaurantParis in a Bottle: A Wine Grower's DreamAnimating Paris, City Hall StyleCooking Classes by Princess and CountessPotato of Snobs, Dainty and Newly Chic, Captivates ParisDaniel Cohn-Bendit: Ten Years After the Events of MayHappy Memories of Gray Paris in the FiftiesVionnet, Last of the Great CouturiersThe Fine Art of Window ShoppingSaint-Germain's Latest BrainstormSimone Signoret: A MemoryRITES AND RULESParis -- La France Profonde Comes Back to TownMoney Speaks in FranceGetting Through France's Linguistic JungleExemplary, Bearded ClémentineThe 2 CV: They Laughed, Then Loved ItAge-Rated French Encyclopedia on SexLuminous Ideas of the Concours LépineAssembly Line VacationsFrench Pursuing the Right NumberHow Long Is Long? The Meter Turns 200The "Rustproof" Candidate for the French PresidencyVirtuosi of the People's PianoFrench History: Past and Present ClashAn Election in Which the Scofflaw Wins1944: The Many Who Were ForgottenLetting Loose and Holding DownBe Careful, It's Mushroom Season AgainMonsieur le Perpetuel to the Rescue of EnglishWhy a Leopard Cannot Change Its SpotsWORDS AND IMAGESA Vintage Year for DurasSimone de Beauvoir Talks, and TalksV.S. Pritchett's Cheerful LamentsElisabeth Lutyens: "A Dog Barks and a Composer Composes"Erich Salomon's Eye on Clever HopesKeeping Berlin Berlinisch"Love Ya": Voznesensky and His CollagesBrassaï, Among FriendsRobert Doisneau's "Little Scraps of Time"Photographer Don McCullin: "The Dark Side of a Lifetime"Christo in Search of a Perfect UmbrellaPeter Brook: "One Has to Do Everything as Lightly as Possible"Robert Morley Has Just Had FunBefore "Paradise" and After -- Carné's Prickly RecollectionsA Renoir Air of FamilyFrançois Truffaut -- Love and ChildrenAlain Resnais: The Rhythm of the Ear and EyeIn Raul Ruiz's Cinematic LabyrinthWertmuller: "I Love Chaos"Fate, Fellini and CasanovaIngmar Bergman: A Shadow of the FutureMarcel Ophuls, Professional Memory ManBertrand Tavernier and the War That Never EndedElla Maillart at Her Journey's EndA Lost World in Paris