An Excerpt from My Forthcoming Book

Greetings everyone! Today I have a treat... a tiny excerpt from my forthcoming book Lessons from Madame Chic: The Top 20 Things I Learned While Living in Paris. The book is finished and is currently being designed. It will take a few weeks to get the proofs signed off but in the meantime I thought I'd share with you a sample from the first chapter, entitled Snacking is So Not Chic... Enjoy!

Chapter 1 – Snacking Is So Not Chic

When living with a different family (in a foreign country, no less) there are many things that can initially give one cause for anxiety. One of them, for me, was food in general, and snacking in particular. Back home in California I was used to grazing all day long, cow-like, in and out of the kitchen between meals. A handful of crackers here, an orange there, some cookies here, a yogurt there. Would I feel comfortable going into Famille Chic’s kitchen and foraging as if I were in my own home?

My first evening with Famille Chic, a few hours after dinner, my stomach experienced some hunger pains. I had had a delicious dinner, but being slightly nervous around my new host family, and mainly feeling anxiety about conducting an entire conversation based on three semesters of college French, I hadn’t eaten as much as I would have liked. So I thought I’d tiptoe (in my pajamas) to the kitchen, which I had, up until then, yet to visit.

Famille Chic’s kitchen was not easily accessible. Their apartment was not of the ‘open plan’ variety where the kitchen is a part of everyday life. Their kitchen was at the back of the apartment, down a long, dark hallway and was not attached to any room. I thought I’d sneak down the hall and have a peek. Perhaps there was a bowl of fruit with something for me to nibble on.

Of course the door to my room (being as ancient and fabulous as it was) let out a grandiloquent squeak as I was about to undertake my stealth mission and after a few moments, Madame Chic was down the hallway in her dressing gown, asking if I was OK. I assured her I was and that I was simply going to get a glass of water. She said she’d get one for me. And apart from her strange glance at my pajamas, (which I will address in another chapter) everything seemed to be OK. Except it wasn’t. I wanted my midnight snack!

I went to bed that night, slightly hungry- a sensation I was not accustomed to. The feeling wasn’t that bad... in fact, it intrigued me! I had never allowed myself to get to a place of hunger before. In my old life in California I would instantly snack at the first sign of hunger pains, completely eliminating the feeling as soon as possible- so much so that I never actually experienced what true hunger was. That night I relished in my hunger and had fantasies about what would be for breakfast the next day...

If you like what you've read I do hope you'll stay tuned for my book that will be out later this fall...

In the meantime I would love to know... what are your snacking habits?

*Update* - Lessons from Madame Chic will be published by Simon & Schuster and re-released in the fall of 2012!

The Daily Connoisseur is now available on Amazon Kindle

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