Five Flights Up: Sex, Love, and Family, from Paris to Lyon

4.2/5 ( ratings)

“How can you be sick of living in Paris?”

Life unravels when American psychotherapist Kristin Louise Duncombe faces being uprooted again—to follow her husband from their secure nest in Paris to bourgeois Lyon. The result is a touchstone memoir for anyone facing a move, dealing with marital ghosts, or confronting the professional death of starting anew.

Duncombe’s unique specialty is helping “trailing spouses” maintain their sanity while following their other half around the globe. But she must reconfigure everything she thought she knew about her "expat expertise" when her child sinks into existential crisis, addiction to Lyonnais cream puffs blooms, and tea time is to be had with glamorous French moms whose sex lives include swingers’ parties.

This boisterous, big-hearted book provides a compelling glimpse into love, family, and sex in France, and a modern family grappling with the inevitable downs - and ups - of building a new life.

“An insightful memoir of life in France in which the author and her multi-cultural family embrace the wisdom, step by step, that home is where the heart is.”—Meg Bortin, author of Desperate to be a Housewife

“Five Flights Up is hilarious and brave. With her trademark honesty, Kristin Louise Duncombe reveals the imperfect yet privileged world of being a foreigner in France.”—Lizzie Harwood, author of Xamnesia

“A must-read for any woman coping with monumental transitions, and who has felt they have lost their way along this trajectory we call life.”—Samantha Vérant, author of Seven Letters from Paris