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Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate)
Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate)
Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate)
Audiobook7 hours

Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate)

Written by Amy Thomas

Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this audiobook

Forever a girl obsessed with all things French, sweet freak Amy Thomas landed a gig as rich as the purest dark chocolate: leave Manhattan for Paris to write ad copy for Louis Vuitton. Working on the Champs-Elysees, strolling the charming streets, and exploring the best patisseries and boulangeries, Amy marveled at the magnificence of the City of Light.But does falling in love with one city mean turning your back on another? As much as Amy adored Paris, there was part of her that felt like a humble chocolate chip cookie in a sea of pristine macarons. Paris, My Sweet explores how the search for happiness can be as fleeting as a salted caramel souffle's rise, as intensely satisfying as molten chocolate cake, and about how the life you're meant to live doesn't always taste like the one you envisioned.Part love letter to Paris, part love letter to New York, and total devotion to all things sweet, Paris, My Sweet is a treasure map for anyone with a hunger for life.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 28, 2012
ISBN9781452677866
Author

Amy Thomas

Amy Thomas is a New York–based writer who, for two lucky years, got to call Paris home. In addition to working as a copywriter in advertising, she writes about food, travel, design, and fashion for various publications such as the New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, Town & Country, and Every Day with Rachael Ray. She is slightly obsessed with sweets.

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Reviews for Paris, My Sweet

Rating: 3.405000045 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

100 ratings28 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing! I felt like I was living in Paris with the author!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I honestly had no idea what to expect when I picked this novel to listen to, but it summarized perfectly the joy and loneliness of expat life. As someone who lived abroad for 5 years in Asia, I felt a kinship to the triumphs and struggles Amy Thomes so eloquently put into words. If I read this book earlier I still might be overseas.

    Paris is definitely on my buck list again and now all I want to do now is eat my way through Parisian sweet shops as she did.

    This was a great book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I love sweets, I love Paris; I was definitely interested in reading this book! Amy Thomas tells the story of leaving her beloved New York for Paris for work (as a copy writer for Louis Vuitton) - a dream of hers since a semester abroad in college left her smitten with the city. Amy has a sweet tooth and has lots of experiences visiting bakeries in both cities which are interwoven throughout the book. All in all, I thought the book was interesting - the experience of an expat (with limited french) living and working abroad. As much as she loves Paris, she misses New York and her life there (friends, family, full social calendar) and talks about that candidly. I did find it a bit repetitive at times and thought she worked hard to make some things align.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    2-1/2*Memoir written by an American woman who had the opportunity to work for Louis Vuitton and live in Paris for two years. She shares her doubts as a mid-30s woman who has always put career first and now faces some angst in being single as she sees all of her friends pairing off and starting their families. She has an obsession with pastries and sweets and turned that into a blog and eventually this book. This falls into the same genre as Eat, Pray, Love. I knew this going into it. I wish I would have followed my instincts and put the book back down. The cover drew me in. This was not my cup of tea. I found it quite boring, unfortunately, although it would have made a great travel guide for foodies visiting NYC or Paris...back in 2008. A lot of the bakeries and boulangeries she mentions are probably out of business by now.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Love Paris, but this book just wasn't for me. There were some good descriptions about some of the areas, but, I really thought is was going to be so much more interesting and fun. The comparisons between Paris and New York were cool to read about, how popular items in each city are crossing the ocean. There are many books about Paris that are much better.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I won this as a goodreads giveaway. Unfortunately I didn't like this book much. I did a lot of skimming. It would appeal to anyone who shares the author's interest in sweets, New York and Paris. Unfortunately, I am not in that category.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I stopped reading this at the 50% point. Too many references to sex and the city. -whine whine whine- my life in Paris sucks. Whatever.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed the author's style - reminded me of Bryson's travel books, which is definitely a good thing. Reading this made me miss France and want lovely viennoiseries, and inspired a walk to a French bakery in the neighborhood.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The author's descriptions of the pastries she loves so much are sensual and evocative, and at times rhapsodic. So are her descriptions of Paris, a city she adores. This memoir avoids being sticky sweet, though, because of Thomas's sharp wit and self awareness, making for a thoroughly enjoyable read, even for someone who doesn't like cupcakes.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Paris: City of Light, macarons and perfect baguettes. Transplant a New Yorker to Paris and you get the the juxtaposition of madelein to muffin, gateaux to cupcake. Each has a place in the orbit of the universe (most readily in my tummy.) Amy Thomas takes the reader along as she lives abroad, in what could be viewed as the perfect job, and explores the city of her dreams, one bakery at a time. Yet she also loves New York, and having lived, written, and nibbled there, invites the reader on that journey, too. The book folds Amy's memoirs into a layered delight with exploration of places to find the most tempting taste treats in both cities. Her own story is the ganache between the two, with a decorative flourish of some of her favorite establishments in each city,capping the end of each chapter like a perfect dark chocolate swirl.I'll admit it: there were moments when the memoir grabbed me more, others where my stomach lusted for sipping chocolate, or a rich, buttery, flaky croissant. I even put down the book and baked a batch of cookies at one point. But I came away less satisfied, in general, than I thought I would at the beginning of the book. Perhaps if tucked between the pages were tickets to either city? Or perhaps if I had the opportunities to retrace some of the travels? I've never been good at reading guidebooks for places I couldn't visit, so this was a bit frustrating. However, I live in a city of gastronomic wonders, and I have plenty of exploring left to do.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Always great to read about living in Paris, although after reading this and Rosecranz Baldwin's "Paris, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" and Gopnick's "Paris to the Moon", I long for a story of someone more like me - not a well-to-do, thirty-something, Manhattanite with a glamourous job in Paris. The thirty-something part is OK as at least I have been that. How about a person eager to stay in Paris, even without a decent apartment or a real job, trying to extend their carte de sejour and make enough money to enjoy sitting for hours at a cafe nursing one grande creme?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    (I’ve read so many great books about Paris during this wonderful month of Paris in July that I’m a little nervous about mixing up my plots. Paris My Sweet is yet another one.)Amy Thomas (get ready for the swell of covetousness that is about to overtake you) goes to Paris to write ad copy for Louis Vuitton. That’s an actual job, people. And the job is in Paris. But if you have read a single moving-and-starting-over book about Paris then you know the sad truth is that even in Paris one has trials. Even if one is making one’s living writing ad copy for Louis Vuitton. Even if one is living in an amazing apartment with a view of Sacré-Cœur. Even if one works from an office on the Champs-Élysées. Even if one spends one’s after work hours perusing the wonderful sweet shops in Paris. Yes, poor Amy Thomas can’t find a decent French boyfriend. We all have our trials.Fortunately, she finds consolation in the amazing sweets and she shares all that deliciousness in this little memoir. Read it. It is yummy.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Reading this memoir, it’s easy to fall in love with Paris as Amy Thomas sees it. She has a way of describing food not just as the fuel the body needs to survive but rather as something to be savoured and revered.As a lover of all things sweet and a desire to travel all over the world, at times it felt like this book was speaking directly to me. Amy Thomas, a thirty-five year old career woman who enjoys the single life in New York City gets the opportunity to live in Paris for a year. With the help of a Vélib, Amy travels all over Paris and experiences all the chocolate shops, bakeries and pastry stores that the City of Light has to offer. This book is part memoir, part guidebook. At the end of each chapter Thomas gives a brief selection of venues in both New York City and Paris that offer some of the delicacies mentioned previously in the chapter. There are a lot of French terms mentioned in story. I was over eager and looked up what they meant only to find a definition of sorts in the next paragraph. Whilst some may say there was too many foreign terms, I appreciated the chance to indulge my inquisitive side and felt better educated by the end of it. D’accord?Amy as a narrator is fantastic. She’s romantic and shows Paris off in a way that you the reader can tell it’s a place she treasures. The beauty of the food and the city are written about with such passion and detail that I could almost believe I’d been there. At the same time, she doesn’t gloss over the negatives – like the pigeons and the unsmiling locals. She describes it in it’s whole. I also liked her attitude towards life – she’s practical and doesn’t take her situation for granted. I love how brave she was to take this chance and I also adored that despite the indulgence of the food, she doesn’t take it for granted.Whilst reading this book I kept going online and sneaking peeks at Thomas’ blog, SweetFreak. Between the pictures there and the way the chocolates, cupcakes and other delicious morsels were written about, I was in food heaven. It’s a good thing that window shopping (so to speak) is fat-free. It was enough to both make me extremely hungry and at the same time dissatisfied with all the food options I had in my house. I was craving a Pain au chocolat from Paris, a banana cupcake from New York or another of other sweets that I’d just read about.If I lived in New York or Paris (or was planning a trip to either city in the future) I’d be including at least one or two of the stores Amy Thomas wrote about!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A must-read if you love bakeries, sweet treats and exploring European cities
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I think my experience with reading this book is much akin to a crumble; I somehow expected the story to end with a tidy bow wrapped up in an exquisite architecture of sugar. Alas, the messy, jumbled ending reminds me that real life is often like that - imperfect, unrefined, and haphazard. I appreciated the honesty of her struggles to fit in and could almost feel the pull of each of her lives waiting to be claimed across the Atlantic. I would love to see a Part Two to get a peek at where she is now!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Really enjoyed this one, & not just because I'm going to Paris on vacation & appreciate all the sweet recommendations! The only thing that struck me as slightly odd was that it's called "Paris My Sweet" & it's really a comparison of Paris & New York. The dessert tips for both cities are mouth-watering, though, so I'm not going to quibble too much. I really got caught up in Amy Thomas' story. As a single 40+ woman, it was good to read about someone else with the same kind of lifestyle & the same kind of worries - & to have the book not wind up with the author meeting the man of her dreams was so heartening to this reader. What I'll take from this book is the yummy memories & this quote: "..at thirty-seven my life clearly looked nothing like the one my younger self had envisioned. But sometimes you want things just because you think you're supposed to. & sometimes it's the things you never even knew you wanted that give your life the most meaning."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    MY THOUGHTSLOVED ITAfter getting her dream job in Paris, writing copy for Louis Vuitton, Francophile, Amy Thomas, finds that the grass may not be as green as it should be. Oh, it is green alright, but like all good things, even chocolate, you can overdose. So when Amy's dream job starts to dump on her, she tries to stand up for herself and well, she finally realizes that her golden ring of a job is more brass. She discusses using a bike as transportation around town and her descriptions of the major bakeries and their wares will make your mouth water. I was dying for some chocolate truffles, maybe some tarts, and for sure a nice loaf of French bread. I never knew there were so many different kinds! Of course, at 36, no 37, years old, her friends are married and having kids, so when a health crisis develops she really must decide if children are in her future. Her parents come to visit and there are some really funny moments. She does become very introspective at this point. Where the book truly shines is when she raves about the sweets and how she hunts them down. Her searches around New York are amazingly descriptive and it would be wonderful to plan a trip around some of the places she mentions. Some of the things she talks about (cupcake bubble anyone?) are really insightful and I would weigh a billions pounds by eating all of the things she writes about. Truly a wonderful read about sweets and how to get through life in a new country by yourself.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I'm a sucker for almost any book about living in Paris, but this one was so lame and so badly written that it was almost painful to read. It really isn't about living in Paris at all. It's about the cosmic angst of a thirty-something woman who seems to have the emotional maturity of a 12-year old. At least I thought the list of restaurants & patisseries would be useful, but on checking them out, mot are nothing to right home about either. If you love Paris avoid this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wow!!! Can you say sweet??? This book was delicious, not only the book but the descriptions of all the deserts, especially the chocolate ones. But then the cupcakes sounded pretty good too. I guess I have to say that I am glad that I don't live in New York or Paris, the temptation would just be way to much for me to bear...I loved this book and if you like the sweet side of life you need to read this book too!!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Amy Thomas's descriptions of sweets throughout Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate)are absolutely mouth watering. Given the chance to return to Paris for a job opportunity, Thomas packs her bags and moves her life from New York to Paris. Throughout the book, she does a tantalizing job of describing the bakeries she visits throughout Paris and the numerous sweets she enjoys. I enjoyed reading about her experiences of living in Paris and her exploration of the sweets Paris has to offer. She also provides stories of bakeries and sweets in New York, and it was interesting to read the similarities and differences between desserts and bakeries in Paris and New York. While some of the narrative surrounding her personal life dragged, the love affair she has with Paris and sweets shown through and made for an enjoyable read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    When Thomas talks about food, especially the sweets she loves so much, the book held my interest (even if some of her thoughts, especially those about places in New York, seem more like excerpts from her other writings than part of an integrated narrative). But when she focuses on herself and her pre-mid-life crisis, the story drags. I can understand feeling lost and alone in a foreign country, but going on at length about her issues doesn't solve anything (as she concludes at least 50 pages too late). I also wish she devoted more attention to some of her side trips to the countryside, instead of citing them in passing as reasons to be happy about her Parisian life ... but that could be just me being a greedy Francophile!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Amy Thomas is a writer who lives in New York and owner of the blog Sweet Freak©. Paris, My Sweet is her story about how she got to live her dream. Not only living in Paris for a year, but also working for one of the top designers. And along the way checking out some of the best chocolatiers in the world.I don't speak French nor have I ever been to Paris, but I have always want to visit. Like Ms. Thomas I'm a bit of a sweet fanatic. So, while this book isn't my normal genre - it was the perfect read for me.I loved this book! Paris & desserts - what more can you ask for. I pretty much drooled my way through Paris, My Sweet. It was delectably delicious. Ms. Thomas's writing is fresh and fun. I adored the details. The author writes in a way that makes you feel like you are in Paris too. Experiencing everything as she does. This is a must read for foodies and travel fans.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    After a semester in France years ago and a summer in Paris in 2008, Amy was, without question, just a little obsessed with all things French. Yet, she loves a great deal about her life working and living in New York City. Her job as a advertising copywriter, her friends, her cat, her cute East Village apartment..not to mention an intimate knowledge of every bakery and chocolatier in the city...makes for a good life. But when the chance arises to take a temporary assignment in the City of Light, and delicious desserts, writing ad copy for Louis Vuitton, of course she can not say no.The question becomes will she even want to come back "home". Or actually, maybe what makes a place home.I am not usually a big fan of memoirs. But, I must say I was won over by the promise of descriptions of all sorts of sweet and delicious treats, on both sides of the ocean, and this book did not disappoint in keeping that promise. I do not share Ms. Thomas love of Paris (OK, maybe because I have never been there) but the descriptions of food in this book are so well done, so wonderful, that it could have me packing my bag and buying a black beret for the trip.Ms. Thomas loves food and she excels at writing about it. The descriptions will have your mouth watering and, without a doubt, those parts are my favorite part of the book. Happily, there are a lot of them.But the author also write some very interesting observation about the city and her life there and about it's inhabitants. Again, she is very good at putting us right there as she peddles around on her Vélib', a bicycle for Paris bike sharing system. We are there as she finds the best macarons in the world or shows the city off to her visiting mother and step-father and while she deals with the difficulties of making friends, let alone finding true love, in a culture with some significant differences from the Big Apple.If you live in New York or Paris, or plan to visit either, and have a sweet tooth, this is a book that you will want to pick up. It is fun..and delicious. The lists of 'must visit' places and the cute little maps will be priceless, whether you search out just one or every single one on the list. But even if you never step a foot in either, this is still a fun read, one best read on a full stomach, and yet one with a bit of a serious note too.What will it be for her, NY or Paris?Will she find true love.Well, you will have to pick up a copy and check it out to find out!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I got this book through Early Reviewers, and I absolutely adored it! Great descriptions, and I liked the recommendations on where to get really good sweets. By the end of the book I really wanted to go to Paris, get a Velib, and sample some of the food she described!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Amy Thomas was living in New York City, working for an advertising agency, writing a blog and a newspaper column for The Metro (one of NYCs free morning newspapers that is handed to people when they leave their subway stations on their way to work). Her blog and column were about the many bakeries, chocolate shops, cookie and cupcake places and desert bars in NYC that she would visit to sample their wares. Her job transfers her to Paris to write copy for their Louis Vuitton ad campaign. She will be working out of the Louis Vuitton offices.Thomas had been in love with Paris since her junior year semester abroad that she spent there. She decides that she will spend her free time in Paris biking to as many patiseries and chocolate shops as she possibly can. Between descriptions of mouth watering desserts and chocolates Thomas complains about being lonely, being single, going through early menopause and being unable to afford the 3,500 Euro Louis Vuitton bag she wants (because she doesn't get an LV discount). Thomas compares the pastry and chocolate shops of Paris to their NYC counterparts. The best part of the book is the list of shops in Paris (where I plan to visit) and NYC (where I live). I've lived in NYC most of my life and have only heard of 20% of the places discussed in the book. I'm definitely going to be checking out some of these shops (if they're still in business). The Paris list will come in handy when traveling to that city.Recommended for the food parts of the book
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What seemed at first like a little slip of a book about eating wonderful sweets in Paris, was actually about not just that, but her life in NYC, eating sweets, where her heart truly lies in regards to most any life topic, eating sweets, her health woes (hit pretty close to home, I have to say), and oh yeah, eating wonderful sweets! At times I wanted to shake her to "snap out of it", but I can't say that being in similar situations myself that I haven't felt the same way. It was a great way to visit NYC and to re-visit Paris from my little couch; all in all, it's a real treat!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    If you're a foodie you are going to enjoy this book. If you love New York and/or Paris (even if you've never been there!), you're going to enjoy this book. I loved all the foodie references and and the little peeks into little known parts of both cities. I wish I could have warmed up to the writer a little more. For someone with all she has going for her, she seemed pretty immature and whiny to me which distracted from this lovely little book.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Amy, a 37-year old writer, gets the opportunity of a lifetime: an invitation to move to Paris to copywrite for a prominent advertising agency's Louis Vuitton account while also pursuing her passion for sampling--and writing about--the city's best sweets. On page 199 of this memoir, Amy is given the advice to enjoy the sweetness of her life in Paris. I only wish that she had taken this advice to heart prior to the book's final chapters. In the first two thirds of the memoir, Amy paints an atrocious portrait of herself that is unpleasant to read. She's a snob who detests tourists who flock to Magnolia Bakery because they were inspired by Sex and the City, while in the same breath idolizing the show, recapping scenes from certain episodes in detail. She is full of self pity and self loathing. She whines endlessly about her life, while reminiscing about the Jetta she drove in high school. She hems and haws about whether to head to Paris, because she'salready cozily established in a professionally decorated apartment in New York's pricey Greenwich Village neighborhood. The cost of abandoning her apartment for two years never seems to factor into her pro and con lists. She has a cushy, albeit somewhat unsatisfying, Madison Avenue ad writing job and she cringingly compares herself to friends who are unemployed, as though they suffer the same lot. There are a number of difficult-to-read digs at loved ones and ugly jealously toward loyal friends who find happiness in relationships while Amy remains single (having chosen to have left several long term relationships). These elements are sure to turn many readers off, especially given that Amy's growth into optimism and nascent self-awareness arrives so late in the narrative.This is unfortunate because Amy's narrative about learning to understand Parisian culture bit by bit is compelling. She succeeds in making the experience of exploring Paris by bike, and sampling each arrondissement's artisanal food shops, come alive. Her writing about food is confident and significant; foodies with a sweet tooth, who can stomach all the negativity, will enjoy joyful and colorful descriptions of innumerable desserts consumed in both in New York and Paris. I loved her written portraits of prominent chocolatiers and bakers. Travelers will enjoy her recommendations of where to go and what to try in both cities.