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All You Need to Be Impossibly French: A Witty Investigation into the Lives, Lusts, and Little Secrets of French Women | 
 enlarge | Author: Helena Frith-powell
Publisher: Plume
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
Buy New: $6.95
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Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 19343
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.5
ISBN: 0452287782
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.40944
EAN: 9780452287785
ASIN: 0452287782
Publication Date: November 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New/New; No Tears - No Creases - Inventory Mark - New Paperback Book - Ships Now!!
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Product Description
The allure of the Frenchwoman sexy, sophisticated, flirtatious, and glamorous is legendary. More than an eye for fashion or a taste for elegance, the French je ne sais quoi embodies the essential ingredients for looking and feeling beautiful. With wit, whimsy, and wonder, British expatriate Helena Frith Powell uncovers the secrets of chic living in All You Need to Be Impossibly French, a cheeky guide to releasing your inner Frenchwoman. Delving deep into a mysterious realm of face creams, silk lingerie, and shopping- as-exercise, Powell reveals how French women stay impossibly thin and irresistibly sexy by achieving the maximum effect from the minimum amount of effort. Forget diet and inspiration books and style guides this is all you need to embrace the wisdom of French living, and learn how to turn every day into la petite aventure.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 French women are just the same October 15, 2008
Tod McKinney
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am French. Moved in the US 4 years ago.
I do wear sneakers, practically live in them.
Healthy eating in France?? I am just roaring with laughter at that one. It usually takes me 2 weeks to recover from all the heavy eating when I come back from visiting my family.
And last but not least, your husbands are perfectly safe with me. I have been married for over 20 years, and I love my husband so much I cannot think of life without him.
So, please drop the stereotype! French women are not a different species. They come in all size and shapes, some are nice, some not so nice.
As for this book, it is just meant to be entertaining, not an actual anthropopology study.
 You passing by French October 4, 2008
Ena Iansei (Nashville, Tennessee United States)
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
I was astonished when I read the reviews. In most cases I got the same question, why Americans want to emulate French women, don't u are American? don't u want to be an American woman? are u ashamed of being it? (why is that for? ... mmm, let me think: Irak, obesity, McDo, Wal-Mart...) For what I see, yes, and you want to embody the image you have of French women! French women are like any other women in the world. The gym thing is, yes, American, but it exists because here nobody walks and depends on car and malls, eat hamburgers for lunch with coke, feels guilty and run for hours in the gym feeling yet half guilty-half relieved. All pleasure is guilt in US. I don't know if "French women" but French in general have a different scope on pleasure. Yes, one key word is pleasure and that is to smell good, to feel good, to sleep good, to eat good, to treat yourself with nice clothes, to treat yourself with a nice dinner, in sum, with a nice life (and that's not a LV, a Burberry coat, a Hummer, a shopping spree and a Chanel for the mall). It's the lace of your underwear, the silk on your top and the parfum on your wrists that makes you feel beautiful, it's the (guilty-free) sex, the basic yet classic/original style, the orange juice with toasted bread and butter (no guilt) in the morning, the salad and vegetables (no punishment) with duck, foie gras and wine, final cheese, choc and coffee (no guilt) for dinner. It's shopping what you like because it's original and not because everyone wear it. It's about being the best yourself and not about being French. And what about your concern on competition? American women are not ($$$, jewels, LV, moral, religious, social) competitive? Yes, but they hide with a big fake smile and fake blessings. Women are competitive just as men are, humans are competitive, men with chests, women with nails, both with loud voice, unnecessary bling bling, and bad sarcasm. French society is just like any other society: there's tragedy and comedy. But if something changes is that there are more parties and get-togethers, less hypocrisy, more talking, more drinking, less punishing and less "little dirty secrets" as in US. It's funny how the reviewers (and the authors) want to be someone they're not, and how they need a guide to do it.
An Interesting Read on a Complex Culture September 7, 2008
M. Maynard (ann arbor, mi USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
All You Need to Be Impossibly French is an entertaining and enlightening read. But after finishing the book, I was very glad to have been born elsewhere. French women do not sound like they have much joie de vivre. To the plus side, French women take pride in their appearance and can even make jeans and a t-shirt look smart; they are thinner than American or British women and do not drink to excess; they have a tremendous amount of family and government support so that they can raise their children, and use sex both for pleasure and exercise. To the negative, they are suspicious and spiteful where other women are concerned; do not seem to have much of a work ethic; have few real friendships outside their families; and have no problem going after other womens' husbands. Oh, and they smoke like crazy.
After reading this book, and the even better-written "Almost French," I've concluded that it's best to pluck the admirable things about France and Frenchwomen -- the interest in good food, appearance, decor and the family -- and forget those that would only be damaging to our self-esteem. Some of our puritanical American and buttoned up British traits aren't so bad, by comparison.
 Surprisingly Good June 29, 2008
Joann
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was afraid it was going to be too frilly, but it is great. Love that she talks about real & famous french women. Funny at times. Very entertaining!
Very cute! June 29, 2008
J. Catterson
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was such a cute book to read. It's always interesting to see that the author interviewed other ladies and men to get their opinions of France and the chic cultures of the people who live there. It made the book more real for me. I really enjoyed it.
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