My friend Michèle has had an interesting life.

Born in France, she’s spent a lot of time in England, Germany, Ireland and Canada.

A professional translator, she’s studied the language and culture everywhere she’s been. Also FOOD.

Now she’s written and recorded part 1 of her story. I recommend the audio version as Michèle reads it herself.

Crossing Borders and Cultural Divides is set in Europe in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, a time when it became easier to cross European borders and settle in another country.

It is based on my life growing up in a French village, then working in England, and finally discovering Germany. Numerous details and characters allow the listener to understand the difficulties of learning a language and appreciate another culture enough to be able “to feel at home” in another country.

Tradition, wine, and oysters?

Rock ’n’ roll, tea, and fish and chips?

Or politics, beer, and sausages?

… Can she follow her heart for the English language and embrace an outlandish culture in Britain?

Or can she simply follow her adventurous streak and check out the intense culture, which is prevalent in Germany?

Can she take roots in a foreign environment?

Will she ever be able to bridge the cultural divides?

The book jumps forward and backward in time, starting with her first flight as a 15-year-old. To Beatlemania England. Her British pen friend there was already on the Pill, recently introduced.

You can buy the book on Amazon.

A few years younger than Michèle, I was touring Europe with friends in an orange Volkswagen van in 1976 while she was motoring around the continent with a boyfriend.

The book ends abruptly in 1976. I want more. Happily, Michèle is already working on a second volume.