Coming to grips with the world's most beautiful but baffling country. In 1988, journalist Sheryle Bagwell went to France seeking an escape from her real life back home. She discovered an unexpected country - one where the popular images of naturally thin women and national arrogance vie with the spread of fast food and crippling self-doubt about France's place in the world; where hypochondria and the slacker ethic are national obsessions; and where the code of liberte, egalite and fraternite is being tested by the rise of an anti-immigrant mood and violent street riots. Living and working in Paris and Lyon with her husband, Michael, Sheryle navigates local customs, language and baffling social niceties, uncovering a country that is charming, sometimes maddening, and more than a little contradictory.