I learned many lessons from my time in Paris, but the most profound lesson I learned was to lead a life of passion. Every detail of life can become exceptional if you allow it to be so. You hold the key. When filled with laughter, friendship, art, intellectual endeavors and a certain verve life can be extraordinary.

You should know, this book is a quick read. Before you can really settle in to figure out whether you disagree with it or love it, you're at acknowledgments and find yourself thoroughly entertained. At a modest 146 pages, this work is more reminiscent of a lighthearted diary than a manual tightly packed with style tips. It is no surprise then that the book originated as a blog entry on The Daily Connoisseur, Jennifer L. Scott's beauty and lifestyle blog. A crossover between a memoir, a humor column, and fly-on-the-wall reporting, Lessons from Madame Chic: The Top 20 Things I Learned While Living in Paris, successfully provides solutions on how to incorporate the best of Parisian wisdom into our daily lives.

As a University of Southern California student with understanding parents (read: who agreed to pay for the trip) and a personal sense of adventure (read: a very limited grasp of the French language), Jennifer L. Scott decides to take a semester abroad to expand her cultural horizons beyond California's laid-back attitude. Her time spent in Paris teaches her that a little formality in our daily lives can reignite pleasure in performing even the simplest of tasks (i.e. having meals at the same time every day or dressing appropriately for bed every night).

MEET THE AUTHOR

Evelyn Dumonte hails from a very tiny country of Estonia...you'll find her traveling, reading, participating in general "debauchery", and making new friends. She has several degrees and some accolades but she'd much rather tell you about the time she smuggled a kitten on an airplane out of Russia.

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK

The third part of the book, How to Live Well, engages the reader in a more introspected discussion of what lessons the author took away from her semester abroad. Scott encourages the audience to live every day as if it is special, in a formal yet festive way. She also harbors on the fact that intellect means far more in the French culture than physical beauty and, in order to keep one's mind sharp, we must always seek out knowledge through the acts of reading, going to museums, exploring cultures through travel, enjoying foreign cinema, and sharing our experiences with friends and family through entertaining at home.

Due to the book's unconventional use of narrative, it is better read in chapters, rather than in one sitting. The prose is wonderfully written, if at times giving away the fact that this is the author's first major work. Most importantly, throughout the entire manuscript, Lessons from Madame Chic: The Top 20 Things I Learned While Living in Paris urges us to Live Passionately - a relevant advice across personal and geographical borders...

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