A year in the merde by Stephen Clarke

Few years ago I bought a book called 'A year in the merde'.

The book is about Paul West, an English man who comes to work for a French company establishing English Tea houses in France. That does not sound special right? Well, the book describes all the situations you can get to when trying to work or live in France. Paul is trying to understand the French people, their habits and he tries to become one of them. He finds out that going to a post office or getting his work permit done is not as easy as it seems. Even ordering a cafe is problem!

No matter what, as a person who had to come through many of the described things it was nice to read. I experienced the very same situations in my life and at that time I was just swearing and was incapable of understanding how things can be working this way. But they do. The system works but you need to adapt to it. It was a nice reminder of all the hardships I had undergo.

The book is easy to read, quite short (288) and sometimes rather rude. But still it is loads of fun and even though I don't like stories like this or can't really put myself in Paul's place I would recommend people reading this. It is a series of books but the first one is sufficient to give you quite big insight what problems can arise (while describing the French people as well).