August 2025 Newsletter

ANNOUNCEMENT: I'm now on Substack. Click here to visit. 

Volume 9, Number 7, June, 2025

Ulys works!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never, under any circumstances—ever—could I imagine being happy paying a 33-euro toll and a 2-euro transponder user fee, but I am. I’m happy and relieved. (If you don’t know what I’m referring to, here’s a link to my previous newsletters).

Not only does Ulys work, but so do my newly installed fiber optics and 5G network, new dishwasher, newish clothes dryer that acted up for a while, cutting out mid-dry, but now—Who knows why?—dries. All is good in Plobien, my fictionally named village in Brittany (I wish I could say the same about the rest of the world), and all is good with my new book. I’m excited to tell you what’s happening.

Adrian Leeds, French property consultant, author and publisher, and number one French agent on HGTV’s House Hunters International, recommended the book to her thousands of readers on her blog, Nouvellettre®.

Mark Greenside has a new book coming out at the end of October! I Am Finally, Finally French: My Accidental Life in Brittany…. Mark asked me to read the book and give him an opinion. Here’s what I wrote for his book jacket: Greenside offers a humorously thoughtful, in-depth, and in-his-shoes-style experience of life in a tiny village in Brittany. You will love getting to know the textured local characters and complicated situations as well as witnessing Greenside’s most poignant and memorable moments. This is a personal look at life in La France Profonde that only such a skilled wordsmith could craft.”

If you really want to know what life in a French village is like, aside from Peter Mayle’s debacles in Provence, this is your chance to get the inside scoop. It will be officially out in October, order it today…. don’t delay! Visit one of the retailer links at the bottom of this post.



More blurbs were written by….

Jane Bertch, Author of French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris, One Lesson at a Time

Greenside does it again—delivering a delightful deep-dive into the quirks, charms, and occasional chaos of life in the French countryside. From wrangling bees and battling chauffage woes to the elusive French clothes dryer and, along the way, tackling the language (with varying degrees of success), I Am Finally, Finally French is more than a memoir. It’s part comedy, and part self-help guide for anyone dreaming of making a foreign land feel like home. With wit, warmth, and wry insight, Greenside takes us on a journey to learn that becoming French is the beautiful pursuit of belonging.

Leonard Pitt, Author of Walks Through Lost Paris, Paris Postcards, Paris: A Journey Through Time, and My Brain on Fire

Mark Greenside has done the impossible. He buys a house in the French countryside, in Brittany, and makes a life there without knowing a word of French. His trials and tribulations learning the many subtleties of the cherished French life are a prize to read, full of humor, drama, and subtle Aha! moments. For all the Americans who ever dreamt of moving to France, this book is for you.

Craig Carlson, author of Pancakes in Paris and Let Them Eat Pancakes

"An intimate portrait of an American expat who grapples with his mortality in a country that measures time by centuries, not minutes. Living in Brittany for 30 years – even if it’s only part time – has fundamentally changed Greenside, just as it’s done for all of us who are fortunate to call France home. After reading I Am Finally, Finally French, you may find yourself tempted to make an offer on the home that's up for sale next door to Greenside’s cozy abode."

Linda Witt, Vice President of the Fédération des Alliances Françaises USA

Mark Greenside shares his decades-long journey in France with tremendous warmth, love and, especially, humor. Time slows down in a very French way as his friendships and foibles unfurl in ways that provide meaningful life lessons to us all.

And there’s also this:

France Today, the largest circulation magazine in the U.S. about life/living in France with 250,000 website visitors each month has asked Janet Hulstrand, author of Demystifying the French and A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France, to review the book. She wrote:

Those who have read Mark Greenside’s two previous memoirs about his part-time life in Brittany will enjoy this return to familiar territory as he stumbles his way, linguistically and otherwise, through a series of adventures—and misadventures—in his little Breton village. Those who have not read those two books are in for a treat as he opens his part-time French life—the good, the bad, and the embarrassing—with admirable candor and generosity of spirit.

Greenside writes with self-deprecating humor and deep affection for the large cast of Breton, English, Irish and French friends, neighbors, and assorted other characters who help him keep his car, computer, furnace, washing machine, septic tank and other assorted necessities of life functioning so he can do what he does best, which is to write about it all.

A helpful “primer” at the end of the book provides a summary of Greenside’s lessons learned about life in France, from the practical (“Vous and tu matter.”) to the philosophical (“Disagreement is a way of life in France, and one of the rules of living. To differ is not a breach, but a bond.”) See more of Mark’s work at www.markgreenside.com

France Today also asked Janet to interview me. I’ll post that interview in the next newsletter.

The following events are scheduled, and I’m available for more, including book clubs.

  • A Zoom conversation with Gigi Kuhn from AT Frenchies (@atfrenchies), the largest French online community with five million followers across several platforms, 1.9 million on Instagram alone.

  • A Zoom webinar with Janet Hulstrand for France Today.

  • A Zoom conversation with Janet Hulstrand for Fédération des Alliances Françaises USA (with over 100 chapters in the U.S.)

  • Zoom presentation with the Charlottesville, Virginia Alliance Française

  • Presentation at Bookmine bookstore in Napa, California, sponsored by Napa Alliance Française

  • BOOK LAUNCH on publication day, October 28, at Mrs. Dalloway’s bookstore in Berkeley, California. Click here to register.

Harriet Welty Rochefort, author of French Toast, French Fried, Joie de Vivre, and Final Transgression, has recommended the book to the many readers of her blog.

Keith Van Sickle, author of One Sip at a Time, Are We French Yet, and An Insider’s Guide to Provence will review the book for the blog My French Life.

Terrance Gelenter (Your American Friend in Paris), Richard Nahem (Eye Prefer Paris), and Jane Bertch (author of The French Ingredient) have all said they will promote the book on their websites and blogs—and I hope you will, too.

If you have a blog or newsletter, holiday mailing list, book club, or email list of friends, family, neighbors, or colleagues, please consider forwarding this newsletter to them or telling them about the book, and remember: if they read the book and review it, they, like you, are eligible to win the contest. Remember the contest?

If you buy the book, review it on Amazon and/or Goodreads, and send me the review—good, bad or indifferent—by December 6, your name will be placed in a hat and you will be eligible for one of four prizes: First prize, a freebie month vacation at the house in Plobien; second prize, three weeks’ stay; third prize, two weeks’ stay, and fourth prize, one week. All at a time of your choosing—assuming someone else isn’t already there…

Bonne chance, and thank you for your continued interest and support. You have no idea how much it means to me. Mercy beaucoup.

I’m Finally, Finally French will be released on October 28, 2025. It is available for preorder online, at any brick-and-mortar bookstore, or click on any of the following retailers:

Please, feel free to share this newsletter with anyone. If you’d like to read previous newsletters, they are available on my website and on Substack. Thank you.

Yours Sincerely,

Mark


Copyright © 2025 Mark Greenside
Illustration by Kim Thoman

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