The Sweet Life in Paris

such a cranky man in this. I've been following DL for years and never got this impression of him before but good god, man! he complains about EVERYTHING! (some of the recipes are good tho so keeping my copy.)

Light, lovely, delicious. David Lebovitz intertwines his experiences and observations of Parisian life with recipes, all of which I would like to stop and cook right now. As a tourist in Paris, there were so many things I missed out on that Lebovitz points out from living there, and it makes me want to go back to Paris with fresh eyes. And eat all the chocolate!

Some chapters were exciting and many very interesting, but many had some dull parts

This book was far too bitchy. Cute and funny in the first few chapters, this complainathon swiftly began to grate on me. Some of the tidbits he offered could be useful when traveling to Paris, sure, but I just couldn't enjoy the memoir of Lebovitz's apparent perma-annoyance with the rest of humanity or his subsequent passive aggressive solutions chapter after chapter. The recipes are fun though!

The Sweet Life in Paris is the moving-and-starting-over story of Lebovitz's venture into Parisian life. It's a story we have heard many times before, of the trials of dealing with French bureaucracy, of figuring out how to get service in French stores, and of trying to fit into a world that secretly scorns everything that is not French. Yes, we have heard this story many times before, but it is a story we will never tire of, a story we want to read again and again, until maybe, one day, we tell the story of our own move to this magical place.

I loved how Lebovitz tells how he realized he was finally un vrai parisien. It was not a big day, but a simple day, the day he dressed up to take out his garbage. How we all want to live in a world where everyone dresses up to take out the garbage!

The best part, of course, is David's take on Paris treats. David is, of course, an expert on pastries, so who better to take us around Paris and share pastry gossip?

An absolutely delicious book, filled with stories about those amazing sweets of Paris. With recipes.