The book is Petite Anglaise and she's friends with Belle du Jour and mentions her in the book
There was one particularly purple passage I thought I bookmarked, but I can't find it now. When she's being honest---describing her beautiful Paris, for example---the book has its moments. But when she tries to be cute or clever, it all falls apart. It makes me think of this wall we had in my Grade 4 classroom called 'Instead of Said...' where we posted cue cards with every possible variation on 'said' that we could think of. This was supposed to add 'variety' to our writing, which is fine when you are in grade 4, but I had a college writing teacher who was horrified when she heard of this wall
I think Petite Anglaise must have her own 'Instead of...' wall with all sorts of different words...