Book review: French Women Don’t Get Facelifts

Don’t be fooled by Mme Guiliano’s seemingly feather-brained little book of lifestyle advice for older women — now in paperback and the sequel to French Women Don’t Get Fat.

French Women Don’t Get Facelifts: The Secret Of Ageing With Style And Attitude Mireille Guiliano Corgi Press, €10.99;

ebook, €7.99

As a New York-based former senior executive at luxury brand, LVMH Moet Hennessy, she is not only smart, but well-placed to understand the difference between her native culture and that of her American husband.

Her message, although delivered as a series of self-regarding anecdotes, is essentially sane. American women, she says, cling to an impossible ideal of youthful perfection and sink into apathetic self-loathing when they can no longer achieve it. French women, by contrast, are both wiser and more fortunate.

They live in a land where age is regarded as sexy. So they take an honest look in a well-lit mirror and do what they can with their hair, clothes and (above all) shoes.

Then, they go out and enjoy a good lunch with their friends. C’est tout.