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1-Page Summary of My Life in France
Overall Summary
My Life in France is the autobiography of Julia Child, a famous chef and television personality. Her grandnephew Alex Prud’homme helped her write it. They shared stories over meals or at farmer’s markets to get ideas for the book. Julia died before she could finish writing it, but Prud’homme finished it without much help from her after that.
My Life in France is the story of Julia Child’s journey from her first trip to France, through cooking school and her career as a chef. Along the way, she grows in self-confidence and learns how to love life more. She also loves food and describes My Life in France as “a book about some of the things I have loved most in life: my husband Paul Child; la belle France; and the many pleasures of cooking and eating.”
Julia and Paul meet in Ceylon during World War II. Julia is working as a secretary for the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) while Paul works as an artist designing war rooms for General Mountbatten. They marry in 1946, ten years after they first met. While Julia is only 24 at that time, she describes herself as old enough to know what she wants out of life and ready to settle down with someone who will be a good husband and father figure to her child from a previous marriage. She finds this in Paul, whom she says was very cultured and had many interests outside his work such as art, music, food and wine.
Julia admired her husband greatly because he was not only well educated but also very supportive of her career goals even though it meant spending long periods apart due to his job assignments overseas or hers at home which required frequent travel abroad on business trips or attending conferences all over the world.
In the beginning of My Life in France, Julia Child is thirty-six years old and a self-professed loud Californian. She comes from a Republican family that doesn’t cook meals, and she had no interest in cooking until her trip to France. She is also liberal, which causes tension with her conservative father.
Paul and Julia move to Paris after Paul takes a job with the USIS (United States Information Service). He is working on building good-will between France and the U.S., as well as warning them about Russia, following WWII. The couple arrives in Paris on November 3rd, 1948. Julia has never visited France before, cannot speak French, and knows little about it.
Julia Child and her husband move to Paris. On the way, they stop in Rouen for lunch at La Couronne (“The Crown”). Julia orders sole meuniere and a glass of wine. The meal is an “epiphany.” She rhapsodizes, “It was the most exciting meal of my life.” She loves “the people, the food, the lay of the land, the civilized atmosphere, and the generous pace of life.” In Paris she takes language classes from Berlitz and explores markets and restaurants with her tastes growing bolder. Her language coach gives her a cookbook that she reads obsessively until she declares that French food is it for her.
Julia Childs attends cooking school in Paris and learns from a famous chef. She takes her studies seriously, spending lots of time in the kitchen. She realizes that she had never taken anything as seriously as cooking before, and that it is “pure flavorful heaven.” Julia entertains guests at home frequently with her husband Paul, who has opinions about politics but doesn’t really know much about them. Therefore, Julia decides to learn more about world issues so she can have informed opinions on political matters when talking to her husband.
Julia Child realized that French recipes do not transfer exactly to American cookbooks because of differences in ingredients and chemistry. She began researching, practicing, and perfecting recipes so they would be accessible for cooks in the US. Julia teamed up with two French friends (Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle) who were working on a cookbook called “The Book”. The three worked together to re-write the book which grew steadily larger as time went on.
