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Paris > Book reviews
> C'est la Vie > Excerpt 1
 C'est la Vie
Book Review
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Excerpt #1: Being Catherine Deneuve
"When I walked down the streets of Paris and men gave me an
appreciative look, I was glad that I had chosen a city where older women were
visually enjoyed--even by younger men. In America, a middle-aged woman--no
matter how attractive--is invisible. Many divorced and widowed friends had told
me that their social lives in the United States disappeared after the flurry of
condolence-inspired social invites.
"In France, being a single woman did not make you a pariah. At
Parisian dinner parties, no hostess cared if there was an even number of men and
women or arranged a seating plan based on boy-girl, boy-girl. Furthermore, the
art of flirtation thrived in Europe so that a woman who had been married a long
time and found herself single and depressed could at least enjoy a few hours of
eyelash batting. Taxi drivers, black and white, Arab and French, always gave me
come-on lines or asked me on dates.I was suddenly transformed from an ordinary
suburban housewife into a hot number, simply by changing my ZIP code."
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