Destination: France

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Travel Literature

France inspires reams of writing.

A Piano in the Pyrenees (Tony Hawks) - He’s gone round Ireland with a fridge, played the Moldovans at tennis and now it’s off to the Pyrenees with a piano for the wackiest of English travel writers.

French Revolutions (Tim Moore) - Great title, great read: ‘Suburban slouch’ Moore cycles around France in a quest to pedal to the bottom of the Tour de France.

Birdsong (Sebastian Faulks) - The horror of trench warfare during WWI sits at the powerful heart of this novel, essential reading for anyone visiting the Battle of the Somme memorials.

The Price of Water in Finistère (Bodil Malmsten) - The story of what happened when middle-aged Swedish novelist Bodil Malmsten traded in Stockholm for the heart of Breton culture portrays daily life in Brittany beautifully.

The Ripening Sun & La Belle Saison (Patricia Atkinson) - The Atkinsons moved to Bergerac to pursue the Brit-dream of renovating an old property, only for Mr A to return home, leaving Mrs A to man the Bordeaux fort. Clos d’Yvigne wine is now award-winning.

Down and Out in Paris and London (George Orwell) - Famous account of the time Orwell spent living with tramps in Paris and London in the late 1920s.

Tender is the Night & Bits of Paradise (F Scott Fitzgerald) - Vivid accounts of life during the decadent 1920s Jazz Age on the Côte d’Azur.

A Motor-flight Through France (Edith Wharton) - Classic travelogue of three pioneering automobile trips embarked on by the Whartons around belle époque France from 1906 to 1907.

Travelling to France?
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