Turnbull’s struggle between a desire for French friends despite their constant rejections and the ease with which she connects with other travelers is a common one. But she finds solace instead in relationships with other expatriates and, though she eventually discovers the secret of Parisian friendships, is bound to them by their shared foreign-ness. She struggles to make French friends and survive at French dinner parties, imagining that the secret to her happiness lies in being accepted into the local culture. Though technically an expatriate, we see Turnbull struggle with issues familiar to travelers and expatriates alike – an often insurmountable language barrier, a society unwelcoming to outsiders, an unfathomable government bureaucracy, and cultural norms that defy even the most devoted of students. Turnbull instead chooses to focus on her efforts, usually thwarted, to understand and assimilate into French society, an undertaking which, though challenging, is not without its rewards. But her account, though at times deeply personal, is not about romance or falling in love. At the risk of ruining the ending, Turnbull marries the lawyer and moves to France permanently. In her best-selling travel memoir Almost French, Australian journalist Sarah Turnbull documents her trip to Paris to visit a French lawyer she meets while on assignment in Budapest, only to find herself, drawn to both the man and the city, unable to leave.
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