News • Events
- Dec 21, 2025 — Contest Drawing winners announced, view the post here.
Events in 2026
- Feb 7, 2026 — Zoom presentation with My French Life.
- Feb 21, 2026 — Presentation at Book Passage bookstore in Corte Madera, CA .
- May 31, 2026 — Meet the Author event at Festival du Livre de Nice (Nice Book Fair).
- June 12–14, 2026 — Spring Book Fair in Budapest, Hungary.
Past Events
- Dec 14, 2025 — Zoom presentation with ATFrenchies, a French language learning program.
Click this link to join on Zoom presentation the day of at Sunday Dec 14, 9am PST, 11am CST. - Dec 4, 2025 — Alliance Française, Napa, CA: in-person conversation at Bookmine bookstore.
- Nov 20, 2025 — France Today: nation-wide webinar conversation about the book.
Click here for full video on YouTube
click here for comments from the Zoom talk. - Nov 12, 2025 — Zoom presentation with Alliance Française USA, a nation-wide event. Watch here .
- Nov 6, 2025 — Zoom presentation with Charlottesville, Virginia chapter of Alliance Française.
- Oct 28, 2025 — Book Launch Event at Mrs. Dalloway’s Books in Berkeley.
- Oct 21, 2025 — Ongoing discussion of I’ll Never Be French (no matter what I do) at Bookworm's Heaven's Facebook Page.
- Sept 18, 2025 — Interview with Worlds Collide
- July 19, 2025 — Interview with France Today.
- July 14, 2025 — Interview with Talk Radio Europe, click player below.
Reviews
November 11, 2025 – East Bay Times review
Sep 04, 2025 – Keith Van Sickle for MyFrench Life
September, 2025 – DearAuthor
August, 2025 – Hopewell’s Public Library of Life
August, 2025 – Belle Provence Travels
July 28, 2025 – Adrian Leeds for Jazzy Times
July 17, 2025 – Janet Hulstrand for France Today
Alameda author Greenside pens new book on living part-time in France
Longtime Island resident and wife spend summers at their house in country’s Brittany region; work his latest on topic.
By PAUL KILDUFF | Correspondent
Published: November 11, 2025
Just the idea of visiting France for most French-challenged Americans can seem more than a bit daunting due to the language barrier.
Alameda writer Mark Greenside says that based on his first visit as a 21-year-old in 1966 to Paris, where he ran into a buzzsaw of Parisian rudeness, he wasn’t eager to return.
In 1991, though, persuaded by his then-girlfriend, he decided to give France another chance and became smitten — not with Paris but the countryside of Brittany — France’s northwestern region just across the English Channel from Great Britain that in ancient times was settled by mostly Celtic people and for whom Brittany is named.
Greenside says that he was struck upon arriving by all the Celtic flags and how welcoming everyone was, unlike Parisians. It was no accident, as Bretons are said to have long considered themselves outsiders within France.
“And so they’re welcoming to outsiders,” says Greenside, who recently authored a new installment of his French memoir series, “I Am Finally, Finally French — My Accidental Life in Brittany.”
After he and his girlfriend broke up, Greenside says he decided to put down roots in Brittany. So in short order, he became the owner of a charming three-story, stone-walled, French country home in “Plobien,” Greenside’s fictitious name that he came up with for the undisclosed village where his summer home is — “plo” in Breton means “village,” and “bien” in French means “good,” so together the name means “good village.”
“Which it certainly has been for me,” says Greenside.
It was cheap too — he bought the place for the princely sum of $75,000. At the time Greenside also worked full-time teaching history, English and other subjects for the Peralta Community College District, which has campuses in Alameda, Oakland and Berkeley. With his teacher’s schedule, Greenside began spending his summers in Brittany.
He also began writing about his experiences adjusting to and learning about French culture in a trilogy of memoirs. These include “I’ll Never Be French” (2008), the bestseller “(Not Quite) Mastering the Art of French Living” (2018) and his aforementioned latest work.
All display Greenside’s laugh-out-loud sense of humor about French customs — like having people over for dinner. One time he just casually ordered a pizza. Another, all he had on offer was a salad made with cheese (God forbid!). Taking pity, one of his newfound Breton friends pulled him aside to let him know this kind of behavior was not going to cut it and that dinner guests in France expect a 7-course meal — even for their dog, invited or not.
Greenside says he quickly upped his dinner game but still faces challenges, like getting a beehive dripping honey down one of his home’s multiple chimneys removed. It took months and several visits from different specialists until it was cleaned up and properly plugged — along with a reassurance from the worker that the bees would eventually return. In France, “c’est la vie” apparently isn’t just a saying but a way of life.
Being the gracious, French-trained hosts they now are, Greenside and his wife, Donna Umeki, regularly have their French pals visit their Queen Anne home on Alameda’s West End, which has enlightened their friends to the Bay Area’s famous diversity.
“One of the things my French friends — all from Brittany — who’ve visited Alameda and the Bay Area noticed, felt and commented on was the diversity of people and cultures, and, being French, food.
“They loved (Alameda restaurants) La Penca Azul and Dragon Rouge. They enjoyed all the different-looking people. In Brittany, you see a few Asian people and Black people. There’s a small Turkish community and sometimes Roma, but basically and for most people it is White.
“Donna is Japanese. When she first started coming to Brittany, people would walk up to her, touch her hair and ask, ‘What are you?’ In the U.S., she’d deck anyone who touched her. There, she answered, ‘American.’ ‘No, no,’ they would persist. ‘What ARE you?’ ‘Japanese-American.’ And people were satisfied and pleased and sometimes asked more questions,” says Greenside.
Greenside says Alameda’s Victorians also impress his French visitors.
“They’re just now starting to introduce wooden houses. All around France, nobody has houses like the Victorians we have,” he says.
Umeki regularly posts pictures of them on Facebook. Still on their summer-in-France schedule, Greenside, 81 and now retired, and Umeki spend the rest of the year in Alameda, minus a monthlong visit to his native New York City.
“I like the amenities of urban life. I like theater, I like museums, I like art, and I want to do those things. I also have friends here, and Donna has family here. So now when we could spend more time there, we still don’t,” says Greenside.
“Even the people who live there don’t want to be there in the winter,” he says.
Greenside’s latest book can be purchased in all the usual places. To keep up with the author, visit his website at markgreenside.com
Past News & Events Continued…
March 12, 2025
Announcement: I'm now on Substack, an amazing platform for writers. I'll be moving over there for my main newsletter content this year. Click here to visit and subscribe
December, 2024
New Book in 2025: I’m Finally, Finally French: My Accidental Life in Brittany
On December 9, a day that definitely (hopefully) will not be a day of infamy, I signed a contract for my new book with Skyhorse Publishers, the publisher of (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living.
The book will be published in November, 2025, just in time for your holiday shopping—so plan ahead, save your shekels, and think trifecta: I’ll Never Be French (no matter what I do), (not quite) Mastering The Art of French Living, and Bonjour, Au Revoir, I’m Finally, Finally French.
Meanwhile, don’t forget this year’s holiday, especially since what the world needs now is laughter, and with I’ll Never and (not quite) Mastering a guffaw and a giggle are a book away. Be bold: spread chuckles; increase tolerance for fools and failures; don’t laugh at others (who don’t want to be laughed at), laugh at me (who has become inured).
Most importantly, though, before all and after all, I want to thank you for your support. You often believed in me more than I did. I hope you understand how much you mean to me.
I also want to thank all the people who are in the book, with special thanks to Donna, Norbert, Leslie, Jack and Daniela: you know what you’ve done to get this book published.
October 25, 2024
A fan created this video on youtube, I don’t know who it was but I’m thankful for it.
March 6, 2024
I'm at Bookmine Bookstore in Napa, California having a conversation about (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living in an event sponsored by the Napa chapter of Alliance Française.
Click here for more information and to register.
February 20, 2024
I'm at the Piedmont Library in Oakland, California having a conversation about I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do) and (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living at their Meet the Author night.
phone: 510-597-5011
directions: 80 Echo Ave, Oakland CA
February 13, 2024
I'm zooming with the Richmond/Charleston Virginia chapter of Alliance Française and discussing I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do) and (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living
Click here for more information and to register.
April 12, 2023
I will meet in person with a book club in Napa, California to discuss (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living.
More details to come.
January 9, 2023
I will Zoom discuss I’ll Never be French (no matter what I do), and (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living with Delta Kappa Gamma, an organization for women educators in northern California.
July 1, 2022
I had a Zoom discussion about (not quite) Mastering… with Janet Hulstrand (author of Demystifying the French) and her class “Linguistic (and Other) Adventures in France” at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.
April, 2022
Thirteen years after its initial publication, the audio book of I’ll Never Be French is now available. I helped select the reader, Jonathan Beville, and I’m very happy with the result. Click here to see more.
January 29, 2022 - This event has ended.
I again participated on Zoom with Janet Hulstrand, Adrian Leeds, and Harriet Welty Rochefort in a follow-up panel discussion, Demystifying the French II.
Presented by Alliance Françaises, San Francisco, CA
January 18, 2022
I will Zoom with the California Retired Teachers Association. (CalRTA), Tri-Valley Division 85, and talk about I’ll Never be French (no matter what I do) and (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living.
October 23, 2021
Donna and I were interviewed by Gilen Chan and Gene Preudhomme for their podcast Retirethere (www.retirethere.com). They currently have 53 podcasts in the series with people who have retired in Florida, Ecquador, Bulgaria, Canada, Hawaii, Spain, Mexico, and New Jersey. (Go figure!) I’ll send you the link when it’s posted.
August 28, 2021 - This event has ended.
If you missed it or would like to see it again, click the image to the right to watch the whole panel discussion.
I was invited to participate in a Zoom panel discussion sponsored by Federation Alliances Françaises, U.S.A. It included fellow authors Janet Hulstrand, Harriet Welty Rochefort and property consultant Adrian Leeds, all sharing our insights, perspectives and experiences, gathered over the course of many years of living, traveling and working in France.
Click the video for the discussion in its entirety.
Jun 18, 2021
I'm pleased and proud to tell you The magazine My French Country Home has featured (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living in its July/August issue.
Click here to read the feature. Click the image to the right to enlarge.
June 5, 2021
A friend and Newsletter reader has invited friends from Rwanda, Israel, California and the East Coast to join me in a private Zoom to discuss I'll Never and (not quite).
May 25, 2021
Live Zoom session with Alliance Francaise, Dupage and North Shore, to discuss the books I’ll Never be French (no matter what I do), and (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living.
April 15, 2021
The Editor of Connexion, a British magazine, for English-speaking people living in France, has recommended the new paperback version of (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living to its readership. It won't be available in Europe until June 10, 2021, but you can get your copy in the U.S. in early May.
Click here to read the recommendation.
I do book clubs and Alliance Française meetings—in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and Alameda, California; Milwaukee; Philadelphia; and Portland, Maine. I’ll Zoom in and out wherever you are to chat about the books, answer questions, and talk about ex-pat life in Brittany. If you’re reading one of my books— I’ll Never Be French (no matter what I do) or (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living, and you’d like me to attend, contact me, and I’ll be there.
- Mark
March 18, 2021
Afternoon Tea and Talks with Authors at the Los Gatos-Saratoga Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) is featuring a talk with Mark.
Click here for information.
December 18, 2020
The magazine Bonjour Paris, for its 2020 Holiday Edition, has reposted an excerpt from May 2018 of (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living. Click here to read.
December 6, 2020
Lifestyle Blog Oui in France recommended (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living in their 13 Books about France that make perfect Francophile gifts. Click here for the link and scroll on down. I’m Lucky #13.
November 13, 2020
Literary Journey into the Heart of France
Presented by world-famous bookstore, Politics and Prose, in Washington, D.C. is an online class featuring Mark as one of four American writers who are long-term residents of France.
Click here for more information.
August 13, 2020
This is an interview with Alliance Française in Milwaukee from August 13th. It’s a Zoom interview, so it starts and stops in places, but it has great content. Click here and enter the password, which is case sensitive: mgkA7?Ly
May 11, 2020
An interview with Norbert Uzseka for the Hungarian website ekultra.hu, click here.
Click here for photos from Budapest.
April 22, 2020
Dawn Dailey, contributing editor of France Today has recommended I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do) on its list of Essential France-Themed Reading: “I have compiled a list of France books themed by region. Transport yourself…” click here to read more, scroll down to 'A Tour de France'.
March 11, 2020
The Fourth Annual Alameda Authors Series
sponsored by Friends of the Alameda Library
and the Alameda Branch of AAUW, featured Mark in an intimate reading and talk. Held at the Alameda Free Library in Alameda, CA
July 2019
(not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living was on the Wall Street Journal’s Best Seller List for non-fiction e-books.
Book Bub recommends (not quite) Mastering…as one of 17 Nonfiction Books That Are Perfect for the Beach.
click banner below, scroll down page
May 2019
Review of (not quite) Mastering the art of French Living
click banner below
February 2019
A review from The Good Life France of
I’ll Never Be French (no matter what I do)
click banner below
October 3rd, 2018
A review from Bonjour: A Francophile Blog
click banner below
August 6, 2018
An interview with Mark Greenside: Brooklyn comes to Brittany, with Terrance Gelanter of Your American Friend in Paris - The Radio Show & Podcast
Recommendations:
Mark’s book has been recommended by the blog Americans in France, click here and scroll to bottom of page Brittany”, click here for her blog, and scroll down the page to the mention.
June 05, 2018 - Eye Prefer Paris Book of the Month
Click logo above
Readings / Signings:
May 15 / Tuesday / BERKELEY, CA
Mrs. Dalloway’s - 7:30 pm Reading and signing
June 14 / Thursday / ALAMEDA, CA
Books, Inc. - 7:00 pm Reading and signing
November 2 / Friday / PHILADELPHIA, PA
Alliance Française de Philadelphie - 7:00 pm Reading and signing
May 23, 2018- Interview with Mark AT fictionalcafe.com
click below