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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17341 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
A fascinating—and illuminating—read. -- Daily Mail

British expatriate Powell, a regular contributor to the Sunday Times and other newspapers, explores the allure of French women, including their sense of style and their feelings about relationships, diet, exercise, work, and family. In witty prose, she interviews politicians, former models, beauty pageant queens, and others to get the scoop on how French women stay thin, attractive, sexy, and chic no matter their age. Shopping is a form of exercise, but going to a gym is unheard of, just as wearing tennis shoes or exercise clothes when not exercising is unthinkable. This book is similar to Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl by American writer Debra Ollivier, except the comparisons are between British and French women. At the conclusion of the work, one is left wondering whether any woman would want to emulate the style of Frenchwomen, as sensible as many of their ideas are, because they come off like chain-smoking perfectionists who obsess over themselves to the detriment of having close female friendships. Recommended for large public libraries. -- Christine Holmes, Library Journal

Witty, and very elegantly written... verbal Viagra. -- Sunday Times

Review
Witty, and very elegantly written... verbal Viagra. (Sunday Times) A fascinating—and illuminating—read. (Daily Mail)

About the Author
HELENA FRITH POWELL is a regular contributor to the Sunday Times—where she writes the “French Mistress” column—as well as the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Tatler, Harpers & Queen, and the Independent on Sunday.

Customer Reviews

As Bad As It Gets!
Do not waste a single second of your time on this book. This author exploits every possible stereotype of French women and shows more scorn than wit. The first few chapters were a little funny, but after that it was the same criticisms, over and over, for a group of women who happened to be of a different culture. The author moves to France with little to no knowledge of the language or culture when she is about to give birth to her second child. The first shot she takes is at Princess Michael of Kent, a woman I respect because she is a serious wirter of history -- a Princess with a career. Now, I've met Princess Michael of Kent (who was very nice and I later discovered that she is in her early 60's, and looking very good. This author of this book takes the cheap shot, calling a woman who has earned the right to be considered a woman of letters "...a Barbie doll, just off the factory line..." and then she adds that she "...knows that she is old enough to be my grandmother..." I have my doubts that the author is 40-50 years younger than Princess Michael of Kent, for that would make her between 12 and 22 years old!

Second problem was the chapter on babies. It was horrifying! The author got stuck in a real rut because she thinks that not enough French women breast feed! She then retells the experience of a friend who was on heart medication and gave birth in France. The doctors put the baby on a bottle. The mom went home, breastfed the baby, and the baby had to be hospitalized for serious complications from getting an adult dose of mom's heart medication. The author blames the French and their lack of support for breast feeding! How ignorant can you be? The problem with breast feeding is that everything mom eats, drinks, smokes, contracts, is strained through her body and into the body of her baby. That is why lots of women still choose to bottle feed their babies despite the breastfeeding Nazis who think it is their business to equate bottle feeding with child neglect. Realize that for the duration of your time as a dairy queen, you are comnpletely responsible 24/7/365 for getting a perfectly balanced diet, to take no drugs, prescription or OTC, to get plenty of exercise, to not get sick or injured -- becuase you will transmit everything that happens to you to your baby, which is not giving your baby the very best start he/she deserves! As can be attested to by the baby in her book that got to spend his/her first few days in a French hospital fighting for his/her life insead of eating good formula at home, cuddled and loved by his/her mother and father. The bottom line is that if you can't make that kind of commitment, buy the formula because your baby needs the best possible start in life, not the cheapest and most convient for mom, all dressed up in psychobabble. A baby is a huge responsiblity.

French women are just the same
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
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.