Anyone read "A Year in the Merde"?

I got it for my birthday and was enjoying it until about halfway through when I realised that the protagonist and the author had different names, and that it’s fiction. Kinda soured me on it now because it’s sort of turned from an enjoyable Bill Brysonish look at another culture to yet another French bash. The various encounters with beautiful girls have also changed from humerous to feeling like they were writting with one hand otherwise occupied.

Anyone read it and have any thoughts?