Andrea Bouchaud began her love affair with France at the tender age of 13. As the granddaughter of a 

Frenchman who gave up his language and culture to become American, Andrea always wondered what 

it meant to be French besides having a last name that no one could spell or pronounce. French foreign 

language studies all throughout high school and college only whetted her thirst for more knowledge. When 

she was twenty years old, Andrea studied abroad in Paris for a year at the Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 

Paris IV.

The experience was not what she hoped it would be. Her first semester in Paris was plagued with 

disappointment, frustration and the ups and downs that come with being twenty years old. Andrea almost 

gave up on her dream to live in France but persevered and stayed the year. Studying abroad was not just 

a chance to connect with her French roots and improve her linguistic skills; It was a chance to grow into 

an adult. In 2009, Andrea graduated from Rutgers with a Bachelors degree in French. In August 2013, she 

published Twenty in Paris: A Young American Perspective of Studying Abroad in Paris and its sequel The 

Paris Diaries: The Study Abroad Experience Uncensored in April 2014 with Kindle Direct Publishing on 

Amazon. She lives in Dallas, TX.