CultureShock! France

CultureShock! France peels away the layers of the French and their country to reveal the heart of the Gallic temperament. The book navigates through essential topics such as learning the French language, how best to work with the French, observing their body language and even how to choose wine in a restaurant. Discover how easily the French recognise a foreigner just by the way their salad and pasta are eaten and learn how to avoid being the object of their criticism. CultureShock! France is a must-read guide to all the essential information needed for one to feel right at home in France.


Sally Adamson Taylor experienced culture shock at an early age as the product of two distinct American cultures. Her father’s family had lived for four generations in and around New York City. Her mother’s family was from Richmond, Virginia. Growing up in between, in Baltimore, Maryland, she was kept keenly aware of the Civil War most of her childhood, though that war was over a century before she was born.Reality, she learned early, depends on cultural perspective. She took readily to journalism and was managing editor of the Boston University News by the time she graduated in 1970. Then, a year vagabonding through Europe and North Africa hooked her on the international life.To learn her trade, she settled in San Francisco, working her way up from reporter to editor to publisher, in both the book and the magazine trades. In 1981, she left for Hong Kong to enjoy an international life as a freelance writer. Eventually she settled into a position with Publishers Weekly as their correspondent for Asia, Africa and the Americas, a post she held for 20 years. She has also written for a wide range of publications including The Asian Wall Street Journal and The International Herald Tribune. She wrote the only guide to the French wine country by bicycle, Grape Expeditions in France. At the age of 50, she fell in love with sailing and is now rediscovering the planet from another perspective: the water.