Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) by Amy Thomas

   

 "Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate)" by Amy Thomas.  This is a great Paris memoir for those food lovers out there. Thomas, the author, is initially indecisive about whether she should take an opportunity to live in Paris and work at Louie Vuitton, a fashion corporation, or if she should stay in New York. When she takes the plunge and moves to France, Thomas will ponder which city is better, New York or Paris? 
She spends her time in Paris; looking at houses and eating at all the dessert shops.  She rides her bike to work, in hopes of keeping her Butt the same size as it was before.
Thomas is filled with smart quips about French culture, and she'll throw them in where she sees fit.  One that caught my attention, is when Thomas was observing a French woman who was quite attractive.  When the woman glances back at Thomas, she says that she rolled her eyes, Thomas notes that "the French don't smile at strangers, if they do, their retarded."

 I like how the author describes her indulgance in American sweets as a kid.  She said that she ate anything from Ho-Ho's to Kit Kat's to Twix to strawberry whips, to gummies, to licorice, etc.  But these treats, she says have nothing on the french desserts, she tasted. 

When she goes into a French bakery, she criss-crosses the menus in french,(with descriptions she can barely read) with what she saw in the showcases.  

 You'd think Americans were indecisive when they walked into a foreign Starbucks, just topple that with a chocolate shop containing many more options.  

 I liked when the writer describes the real sign of her becoming a Parisian, Whens someone stopped me in the street to ask for directions, (She responds in French), "I look like a Parisian?

I, myself, (the writer of the blog) had the same experience, when I went to France, and I felt overjoyed when someone mistakened me as a Frenchy.
Throughout Thomas' stay, she'll contemplate renewing her contract in France and at one point she makes a list of her favorite things in both US vs France, which include:

 America/France

Manolo's/Rapettos

oversize sunglasses/oversize scarfs

diner/cafe

downtown/left bank

Carie Bradshaw/Charlotte Gainsbourg

NY/Paris

 Thomas has a brief scare with a cyst attached to her ovary and she questions her direction in life, and whether she is wasting her time, and aging instead of raising a family, before she's too old.  When she sees a French specialist, she is surprised by the woman's dispositions and her matter of fact attitude, Thomas says "I should have known better, I had been living there, the french and their all business demeanor, their eye rolling, shoulder shrugging, their mmm attitudes".

 Here are just some of the Dessert shops that she says exists in NY and what their famous for:

 vanilla Carmel Venice Coffee cupcake at "Spot" bakery

butterscotch pudding with bread surbee at "Grammar C Tavern"

crack pie at "Mama Fukoo" bakery

Peanut butter cookies at "City Bakeries"

Chocolate Blackout donut at "Donut Planet"a restaurant

banana creme cheese cake at "Billies" restaurant 

 Thomas dines at a resturant in France, where Hemingway, Picasso, and Fitzgerald had dined, she says, "I was thinking that Hemingway or Picasso had been in the very seat where I was;just left of the bar."