Paris With Kids

When Alison Ryan's husband broke the news that he was being transferred to the United States embassy in Paris, the French teacher and lifelong Francophile was estatic. A year later with their young daughter in tow, the couple moved into an apartment near the Champs-Élysées, just as autumn was settling over the city. Paris with Kids is her memoir of the five years she spent as an American mom in Paris, an outsider with a front-row seat at the social theater of Parisian high society. Compared with the decidely laissez-faire attitude of the Parisians, Ryan's American sensibilities are often downright prudish. But thanks to her innaate curiosity, her robust sense of humor, and her deep, genuine affection for the French language and culture, Paris with Kids translates into a thoughtful, humorous portrait of French life.