MyFrench Husband
Free guide  ·  26 pages

The French Household Field Guide

Twenty rules he brought from Paris, and how to try them at home.

What is inside

  • Twenty rules, one to a page. Each has the rule, the reason the French follow it, and three small things to try this week.
  • At the table, the children, the house. When dinner happens, where the cheese goes, what counts as breakfast, how bedtime works.
  • A one-week starter plan. One rule a day, Monday to Sunday, if you would like to be told where to begin.
  • Illustrated throughout, and short enough to read with a coffee.
A table set for dinner under a clock showing eightDinner is at eight.Children included.
Three cheeses on a boardCheese comes after.Not before.
Radishes with butter and a glassHave an apéritif.Three ingredients, no cooking.
A bedside lamp, a book and a toy rabbitBedtime follows dinner.One story means one story.

The twenty rules

  1. Dinner is at eight.
  2. Three meals. No grazing.
  3. One snack, at four, sitting down.
  4. One menu for everyone.
  5. Courses, even on a Tuesday.
  6. Cheese comes after, not before.
  7. Sweet is a course.
  8. Smaller plates. No refills.
  9. Bread has four ingredients.
  10. Buy the better butter.
  11. Breakfast is small.
  12. One ice cube. A carafe on the table.
  13. Have an apéritif.
  14. Bedtime follows dinner.
  15. Let them go ahead of you.
  16. Lunch is a lesson.
  17. Say bonjour first.
  18. Slippers, perhaps. Never by order.
  19. Getting dressed is manners.
  20. Take the holiday.
Elizabeth and Sacha of My French Husband

We are Elizabeth and Sacha: an American wife and a French husband in Massachusetts, with three small boys and one running disagreement about butter. She films. He objects. The whole story, and the daily episodes on Instagram.

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