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Pardon My French: Food, Faux Pas and Franglish - One Family's Riotous Year in the South of France

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At the school gate, when she accidentally kissed one new friend on the nose and called another a 'beautiful man-horse', Rachael realised that small-town France could hardly be more different to beach-side Australia. The smell of cigarettes replaced the tang of bone-broth and sprouted sourdough, the neighbours sometimes came to blows and under no circumstances would anyone wear activewear in public. Ever.

Muddling through every interaction in terrible French pushed Rachael's family to their limits. Some days, everybody cried and ate their feelings with almond croissants. But the town of Sommières embraced these ragtag Australians, and the family fell in love with their temporary hometown and its outrageous gossip, cobblestoned beauty and kind, eccentric inhabitants.

Pardon My French is a candid, hilarious love letter to family life and France with three valuable lessons for overcoming adversity: make home a beautiful nest, lean into the tough lessons and look for the comedy in everything.

288 pages, Paperback

Published February 28, 2023

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Rachael Mogan McIntosh

4 books17 followers

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5 stars
152 (27%)
4 stars
235 (42%)
3 stars
127 (23%)
2 stars
27 (4%)
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8 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
Profile Image for Cassie Hamer.
Author 7 books101 followers
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April 16, 2023
I'm so grateful to this book for two reasons:1. It was the loveliest way to pass the hours of a long family road trip 2. It completely cured me of any desire to rip my the kids out of school and ship us all off to a non-english speaking country for a year! Thank you, Rachel, for this warts and all (or lice and all) account of your family's year in France. The writing is funny and beautiful and the detail is superb - I honestly felt like i was there, which is great, as now I don't have to do it myself. Way too much work. I loved the book 'Almost French' and am so delighted to add 'Pardon My French' to my shelf of beloved memoir in the genre known as the 'fromage-blu-French-memoir' - very tasty and delicious but also mouldy and plain nasty at the same time. So good!
Profile Image for Carolyn.
280 reviews
January 7, 2024
A fun read about a NSW South Coast family who go to live in a French village for a year. It’s quite a comedic memoir which documents the highs and lows of dragging a family with three young children to a foreign country in a quest for adventure and personal growth. How they navigate village life, language difficulties and a strict and challenging school system while trying to carry on careers and a social life is quite mind boggling. It reminded me of the six months we spent travelling Australia in a caravan when our three children were similar ages. There were moments when we wondered what on earth we were doing but at least everyone spoke English. We collected friends, funny anecdotes, lasting memories and grew close as a family.

The narrator Rachel sounds like an outgoing person who would accumulate friends wherever she went and the overall great experience the family had is testament to her character. I can’t say I was inspired to embark on a similar adventure but it was entertaining to read her story.
Profile Image for Kimmy C.
600 reviews9 followers
April 12, 2023
Remember when we all wanted to give it all up and live in France for a year? The theme was quite big many years ago, and everyone wrote a book about it. So I thought it’d been done to death, but was pleasantly surprised by this - Rachael and her husband Keith decide the whole ‘if not now, when?’, and uproot their lives to The Wormhole, Rue Canard, Sommières, a small village in the south of France. The reader is taken along for the journey - the most amusing parts, of course, interspersed with the real problem of realising you’ve taken your children out of their lives and thrown them into an alien world. It’s all here, the hilarious language mishaps (I, for one, am guilty of informing a hotel reception many years ago, that I needed a pharmacy because my husband was mort, instead of merely being mal. Fortunately my language skills have come a long way since then.
It’s also about finding your community, and your tribe, no matter how you communicate. A welcome break from my current post-communist Russia and post-nuclear holocaust reads.
Profile Image for Sharon J.
551 reviews36 followers
February 19, 2023
Pardon My French by Rachael Morgan Mcintosh is an absolutely delightful biography/memoir of the family of five, Rachael and her husband Keith and three children, living in a small town Sommeliers in the southern Montpellier region of France for one year.

Brilliantly written with an engaging style and turn of phrases that are totally awesome! Loved the depiction of Sommeliers and the mixture of people in the town, in their neighbourhood and at the school the children attend. One of my favourites is Maurice, a septuagenarian who teaches Rachael to swear, the favourite one being “Purtain de merde” (meaning ‘fucking shit’).

Some totally incredible scenes depicted including being locked out of the school for arriving late and standing at the locked gate in the freezing cold and wet for fifteen minutes before finding out that the consequences for being late is that the children won’t be let in at all that day.
And for Rachael to get the courage up to drive to the supermarket (the intermarche) involving driving on the wrong side of the road and narrow streets - “Through the whole ten-minute trip, my palms sweat, my hear pounds and I pep talk to myself out loud like a mad Tom cruise in full method-acting flow.” And when she gets there “I made it! I hope nobody sees my victory fist pump, another embarrassing Tom Cruise moment.”
But best of all are the mistakes in the French language leading to embarrassment and then eventually to hilarity. For example Rachael she says “Je suits excitee”! thinking she is say she is excited but instead saying “I’m horny” and where she goes to say “A plus tard” (see you later) and accidentally shouts out “A putain” which means ‘whore’.


This is a wonderful read which I absolutely loved and would highly recommend.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from Affirm Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#PardonMyFrench #Netgalley
Profile Image for Seba Jun.
3 reviews
May 11, 2023
I think this book is failing in two major aspects that really feel like missed opportunities :

1) offering an Australian audience an interesting perspective of a culture and society so different from ours, and what we could potentially learn from them. Instead, this is left almost entirely to the reader, through the author's experience, except for a few short sections where she offers her perspective.

2) analysing how this experience has impacted her family's dynamic, and if it was an enriching experience in any way. I don't think anyone reading this would be encouraged to replicate the experience, which is a shame given how Australians are often too self-centred and lacking curiosity for other cultures.

Missing those, I feel like the book is lacking a purpose, and is just light entertainment akin to Emily in Paris. And it is definitely lacking a conclusion. Why did the author want to write this book in the first place? And what message did she want to convey? The only one I can think of is that we have amazing cafe in Australia.

The overall book is very descriptive, and too rarely analytical, and reads more like an often disappointingly shallow diary of a mum and her daily life. And when it gets analytical, it is too often focused on mothering issues and too rarely about the experience itself. This book could very easily be shorter, delivering unnecessary details about what the family eats and does on an everyday basis.

Despite all its flaws, which in the author's defence are probably mostly related to my initial expectations, I was never really encouraged to put this book down. And still making a book lacking in substance an enjoyable read has to be put to the author's credit, and witty writing style that somewhat makes you stick. It is an easy read with some funny anecdotes that made me laugh, and even though some descriptive sections are boring, you're looking forward to the next story that will make you smile.
Profile Image for Katie.
113 reviews5 followers
June 14, 2023
J’adore cette livre! A beautiful, moving, hilarious story of a year spent in France. I snorted out loud several times and I felt really connected to all the characters. I’m also grateful that this book made me realise I may not be cut out for living overseas! I gave it five stars because it sparked an emotional response in me and will have me thinking about the stories inside for a good while. Looking forward to more books from Rachael. Putain de merde!
11 reviews
June 11, 2023
I loved this book so much. We are currently four months into living in France ourselves (we're a NZ family) and this book has fed my soul, tickled my humour, and there are so many relatable moments! Thank you 😊
25 reviews1 follower
July 21, 2023
Really enjoyed reading this whilst cycling through France. Totally agree with Rachael about the coffee. Love her honesty and style of writing as well as her parenting skills! What a great experience and bravery in spending a year in one French city!
Profile Image for Annie.
103 reviews
June 5, 2024
A detailed account of one family’s gap year in the south of France, enriched with unique experiences and relationships, ranging from the wonderful to the awkward and the difficult.
There was much to enjoy in the pages of this book.. vivid descriptions and quirky humour, vulnerable moments and joyful celebrations.
This story will appeal in particular to Francophiles and more generally to those with an adventurous nature.
Profile Image for Diana.
569 reviews38 followers
August 15, 2023
There is a plethora of these types of books. Middle class family uproot and experience life in another country. This time it was an Australian family in the south of France and while I enjoyed reading it, particularly about the school life of the author's children, there wasn't anything particularly new or startling about this book.
Would I recommend it? For a light travelogue - yes.

2023 non-fiction challenge - Travel
420 reviews2 followers
January 4, 2024
A book for those interested in the relocation experience of a family, in this case an Australian one with small children who took the leap to a village in France pre-pandemic.
It is a diary of life for a person without French skills who lived through the year while supporting her husband in his own business and three primary aged children ( who also spoke no French), and who journalled the trials and tribulations of daily life.
It is very personal and covers many situations that may be of interest to those considering the same, but in another way it is a broader family development story that most could relate to.
I found it charming, very evocative of small town life and delightfully funny in parts
Profile Image for Annaleise Byrd.
Author 5 books21 followers
June 26, 2023
Gosh, I adored this! It's a rare book that can make me laugh out loud, but this memoir made me do so multiple times. It's the story of an Australian family of five who move from a kale-smoothie type of NSW beach town to the cobblestone streets of rough-around-the-edges Sommières, France, in 2017. The language woes, the excruciating faux pas and the highly dramatic locals... I loved it all. Rachael's writing is witty and self-deprecating, peppered with wise insights into parenting, marriage and life. Highly recommended for all who love travel memoirs, funny books and France!
Profile Image for Gretchen Bernet-Ward.
564 reviews21 followers
February 4, 2024
From the cute chickens on the bookcover to the humorous and painfully truthful warts and all story of one family’s adventures in the ancient village of Sommières in France, I enjoyed every word. I laughed, I shook my head, I groaned, but in the end I had to admire the determination of the Morgan McIntosh family which knew no bounds and, while often shrinking in despair on the inside, mother Rachael always gave it a hot go. So did the three children, Tabitha, Biggles and Mabel, and heaven knows the good and bad school tales they will reveal in their adult years. There are a considerable amount of things which go horribly wrong but are deftly written in a humorous way. From the language barrier to shopping; locked out of school for being tardy; to a car parked a block away, nothing seems easy and everything is an adventure. Or a huge challenge, depending on how the day rolls.

Written from pre-Covid times, I wondered how Sommières residents coped with all that social kissing. In between française domesticity the family managed tourist trips away, and in the midst of everything is husband Keith, cool, relaxed and mostly glued to his business laptop. He is the calm to Rachael’s storm. Rachael suffers from back problems and did remarkably well considering the stairs in their quaint old house, the winding, hilly streets and cobblestoned lanes traversed when she visits the food market and brocante antique market. The photographs in the middle of the book are enlightening but I’m afraid I would find it all a bit claustrophobic. Still, I have a friend in Marseille at the moment so I gleaned the whole French vibe. An enjoyable read and suitable for anyone considering the sizeable effort involved for an overseas homestay.
Profile Image for Smitchy.
1,182 reviews18 followers
December 4, 2023
One Australian family's adventure of living in a small city in France for a year. Rachael includes all the ups and downs of adjusting to a new language, new school, new house, new culture and new social norms. A small city in France is a culture shock from a little Australian beachside town and I like how McIntosh doesn't downplay the challenges, especially doing this adventure with primary school aged children who are expected to immerse in the language at school. McIntosh talks about her own challenges too as an adult trying to navigate new social situations with only a marginal grasp on French while being expected to run the household while her husband is working remotely from home on Australian time. In spite of the fears, frustrations, and the odd hilarious / embarrassing accidental language faux pas (Je suis excitee! does NOT mean I'm Excited! it means I'm horny!) McIntosh and her family end up having the adventure of a lifetime. I feel like this is the book you want if you are seriously considering taking a leap and doing something similar, whether that is a journey to France or somewhere else, especially if you have kids. This is not romanticised or underplayed from the kids feeling overwhelmed and needing extra support, to the freezing, under-insulated house, to the lice that will not die this about both the good and bad sides of upending your life and having a real adventure.
661 reviews3 followers
September 27, 2024
Certainly it's true that there are many books which deal with a person or a couple or a family upending themselves and moving, permanently or, as in this case, for a limited period of time, to live in another culture: France, Italy and, to a lesser extent, Spain or Greece, seeming to be the most likely environments.
While some are definitely more enjoyable and effective than others, I always begin them with enthusiasm, I guess because I would so love to be able to do that too! I'm always disappointed when such a story develops from a came-to-find-myself into a found-the-(tall, dark and handsome!) love-of-my-life type of story . . . or when it focuses on the difficulties of dealing with shonky tradespeople! Or (rarely!) on the pure romance of the place!
Rachael McIntosh's story does none of those things. She and her husband transport themselves and their three children to the South of France for a year, and she tells the story exactly like it is: the joys, the miseries, the difficulties (emotional and practical), with complete honesty and sincerity. I loved her ' voice' throughout.
Surely, despite the difficulties, this is a dream come true! I'm sure that's why I enjoyed it so much ***** (5:* based on pure enjoyment!)
Profile Image for Wide Eyes, Big Ears!.
2,611 reviews
March 6, 2024
This entertaining memoir is a great reality check for people who want to spend a year living in a foreign country. Rachael Mogan McIntosh and her husband, Keith, uproot their three preteens from their idyllic NSW South Coast beach suburb and pack them off to France for a year. While Keith knows some French, Rachael and the kids know none and it’s a big adjustment. There are lots of wonderful moments, lots of embarrassing and awkward moments, and some quite hard ones as they experience cultural whiplash in a small French town. As a hard-working mum, Rachael worries about how each of the kids are coping, while in reality it’s she who finds it hardest to adapt.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Rachael is a really down-to-earth person with an earthy sense of humour and a great ironic writing style—she’s someone you feel would be good to know! She’s candid about the good and bad, the stresses she and Keith experience, and lovely bonds she forms with some of the locals. Rachael narrates the audio herself and she does a fantastic job—she’s a natural and I felt like she was just chatting with me the whole time!
Profile Image for Lorena Otes.
14 reviews
August 29, 2024

As memoirs go, this book is right up there. Beautifully written, but achingly hilarious with an honest messiness. I mean, what more can you expect from a woman writing about uprooting her three primary school-aged kids and husband from Sydney’s northern beaches to a provincial town in the middle of France?

And with not a baguette of French between them, the results are confronting, at times cringey and absolutely enlightening. Told with heart and humour. Two winners for me.

#My favourite line: “Three magical children, taking up all the room in the bed and breathing their hot little dreams into my face.”— well, that’s motherhood.

And I’ll also leave you with this: “My offerings look quite like a plate of droppings from a large and unwell marsupial.“ (The idea of lamingtons to a French soirée seemed better in the author’s head 🤣)

Read it! A wonderful Auzzie memoir!!!
133 reviews1 follower
October 24, 2025
A quite enjoyable read exploring the idea we all have while watching "escape to the country" - who hasn't thought about how much "fun" it would be to rent a Chateaux for a year and just enjoy that storybook ideal of immersing ourselves into another culture?

This isn't a deep read - there is no monumental "point" - it is a lovely travelogue exploring the impact of moving the family to France for a year. Some really funny enjoyable scenes. It is certainly a privilege that is not available to all - and the author makes sure to regularly remind herself of the incredible gift that this opportunity was. It was also an amazing exposure into the willingness of the citizens in the village to embrace the outsider, to provide help and support to make their lives more comfortable.

I did love and sympathise with Rachael's inability to find a decent Flat White in France!
Profile Image for Pushpa Jhawar.
485 reviews38 followers
May 24, 2024
I am not very happy with the book, it reads as it is expected to, I failed to find novelty in it. It moves pretty predictably and has undertones of being a journal. The daily ins and outs of any generic family. I was looking for some factor that would make it enjoyable. Overly descriptive. While not entirely unreadable, there’s not much the book offers.
India being such a huge country and host to a whole bunch of languages, here without even switching country one can get the experience of different language and culture while shifting from north to south, it’s akin to switching country minus the whole haggle of visa and currency and stuff. I have gone through that experience so while the idea of the book had me interested the execution didn’t work for me.
Profile Image for Chants Du.
3 reviews
June 2, 2025
I was looking for a light hearted read to take my mind off things. This book did not disappoint, I thoroughly enjoyed every page. I found the author’s humour and hilarious descriptions of life in France so entertaining and I had quite a few laugh out loud moments. It was fun being introduced to all the quirky characters and hearing how each member of the family experienced and handled the new culture and language. I’d highly recommend this book if you want a good laugh and to escape for a bit.
6 reviews
November 22, 2025
It was a good read and a refreshing change from my usual pics of crime, mystery, and the like.
During my school years, I lived in the South of England, so most summer holidays, my family took the overnight ferry across the Channel to spend 3 or 4 weeks in France. Over the years, I have often fantisised about living in France for a while, indulging in the fine foods in particular and exploring the quaint villages and immersing oneself in French history.
I take my hat off to this family for giving France a go for a year... good on you!
131 reviews5 followers
May 29, 2023
I so enjoyed this - Rachael Mogan McIntosh writes with wry humour to evoke the chaos of moving three children to France for a year, and introduces the charming, eccentric town and residents of Sommières where they lived. As well as the year-abroad story I really loved reading her thoughts on parenting three children during challenging times, the different stories of the people she met in Sommières (particularly the migrants at the Calade), and on re-entry after being away.
Profile Image for Maverick.
14 reviews
July 31, 2023
This book made me laugh out loud, which is rare when I am reading. Rachael has a classic Australian larrikin way of writing that is very relatable. Reading this book just felt like I was just catching up with a mate having a one way conversation with me. Hilarious and also filled with great insights and deep introspection. I was particularly moved with her commentary around safety nets of privilege, which gave me pause to reflect on my own privilege and practice gratitude.
Profile Image for Jade.
816 reviews9 followers
July 14, 2024
This is an amusing memoir of an Australian family living in France. I listened to the audiobook, and I cannot tell you the comfort that comes from hearing the author's accent; it was like a friend telling me about their adventures. Although the experience was overall successful for the family, it did quietly stamp out any slight desire in my heart to consider anything similar. Thank goodness, I can remain a hermit.

TW: HP references.
Profile Image for Sally Tsang.
28 reviews
July 5, 2024
I enjoyed this book, and the author’s writing style. There are many clever turns of phrase - my favourite: ‘time folds like an envelope’. Descriptions of and reflections on family life are very relatable and at times simply hilarious. Lovely writing and a fun read. Recommend for all those who harbour a secret fantasy to live in France for a year.
Profile Image for Elaine.
302 reviews4 followers
July 15, 2024
An easy and fairly entertaining read. I must admit that I found the mother (narrator) a bit irritating. Poor kids being dropped into a French school with not a word of French between them. Might have been an idea to learn some basic French before they got there. The house they rented is interesting and must have been fun and challenging to live in.
1 review
May 19, 2023
Just finished listening to this on audiobook. Loved it, Enjoyed Rachael reading it, and hearing all about the French people and of the family’s adventure .😀👏🏻

( Rachael, I am also a fan of JC and her character RCB )
Profile Image for Pip Snort.
1,466 reviews7 followers
September 24, 2023
In this memoir, Rachel Mogan McIntosh taps into the latent desire of so many Aussies, a wild European adventure. Her prose is engaging, honest and warm and she brings to life the endearing chaos of a wonderful time.
Profile Image for John.
547 reviews6 followers
February 23, 2024
Funny, realistic one year of life in a small Provence village by an Australian family who relocated from Wollongong.

Some pretty funny escapades splattered with some pretty colourful French (of a sort!). Great light reading before embarking on a trip to Europe.

Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews

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