Orcières (Lot-et-Garonne) – 
Oradour-sur-Glane (Haute-Vienne) – 
Giverny (Normandy) – 
Hérault (Languedoc-Rousillon) – 
Lauragais (Haute-Garonne) – Coming-of-Age novel set on Mudeford Spit, DORSET
TripFiction armchair travel by book – FRANCE
21st April 2020
TripFiction armchair travel by book – France.
We may all be confined to quarters for a while, but TripFiction is here to help you travel vicariously through books with a strong sense of place. The TripFiction team have been trawling through their database of thousands of books – novels, memoirs and travelogues – and hope you’ll enjoy what we’ve dug up to help you get through these difficult times.
FRANCE
We have more than 800 books set in France. Check out our Great Books Map for some top 5 or 10 #LiteraryWanderlust suggestions set in some better known French cities and regions. But get off the beaten track and hunt down a few books set in more quirky places around the country. Here are a few ideas to get you exploring with a book…
Orcières (Lot-et-Garonne) – Wild Dog by Serge Joncour
Franck and Lise, a French couple in the film industry, rent a cottage in the quiet hills of the French Lot to get away from the stresses of modern life.
In this remote corner of the world, there is no phone signal. A mysterious dog emerges, looking for a new master. Ghosts of a dark past run wild in these hills, where a German lion tamer took refuge in the First World War…
Franck and Lise are confronted with nature at its most brutal. And they are about to discover that man and beast have more in common than they think.
Oradour-sur-Glane (Haute-Vienne) – The Silent Hours by Cesca Major
A story of love and loss inspired by heartrending true events in the Unoccupied Zone of wartime France
An epic, sweeping tale set in wartime France, The Silent Hours follows three people whose lives are bound together, before war tears them apart:
Adeline, a mute who takes refuge in a convent, haunted by memories of her past;
Sebastien, a young Jewish banker whose love for the beautiful Isabelle will change the course of his life dramatically;
Tristan, a nine-year-old boy, whose family moves from Paris to settle in a village that is seemingly untouched by war.
Beautifully wrought, utterly compelling and with a shocking true story at its core, The Silent Hours is an unforgettable portrayal of love and loss.
Giverny (Normandy) – Black Water Lilies by Michel Bussi
Giverny: during the day, the home of the famous artist Claude Monet and the gardens where he painted his waterlilies. But once the tourists have gone, there is a darker side to this peaceful French village.
This is the story of thirteen days that begin with one murder and end with another. Jérôme Morval, a man whose passion for art was matched only by his passion for women, has been found dead in the stream that runs through the gardens. In his pocket is a postcard of Monet’s Waterlilies with the words: Eleven years old. Happy Birthday.
Entangled in the mystery are three women: a young painting prodigy, the seductive village schoolteacher and an old widow who watches over the village from a mill by the stream. All three of them share a secret. But what do they know about the discovery of Jérôme Morval’s corpse? And what is the connection to the mysterious, rumoured painting of Black Water Lilies?
Hérault (Languedoc-Rousillon) – The Holiday by T M Logan
Seven days. Three families. One killer.
It was supposed to be the perfect holiday, dreamed up by Kate as the ideal way to turn 40: four best friends and their husbands and children in a luxurious villa under the blazing sunshine of Languedoc-Roussillon.
But there is trouble in paradise. Kate suspects that her husband is having an affair, and that the other woman is one of her best friends.
One of these women is willing to sacrifice years of friendship and destroy her family. But which one? As Kate closes in on the truth in the stifling Mediterranean heat, she realises too late that the stakes are far higher than she ever imagined.
Because someone in the villa is prepared to kill to keep their secret hidden.
Lauragais (Haute-Garonne) – Lauragais: Steeped in History, Soaked in Blood by Colin Duncan Taylor
The Lauragais lies in south-west France at the heart of Occitania. Today it is largely ignored by the millions who visit its neighbours each year – Toulouse and Carcassonne – but in times gone by it rarely escaped the attentions of the great and the good, or the ambitious and the avaricious.
This is a book with big characters – Simon de Montfort, the Black Prince, Thomas Jefferson and the Duke of Wellington among others – but most of all it tells the story of the people who have shaped this land, the living and the dead, families that have lived in the same house or village for hundreds of years. This is the story of their lives, their religion, their forgotten language and their environment.
On the autoroute, a journey through the Lauragais will take you three-quarters of an hour, but all you will see are tantalising glimpses of gorgeous countryside and distant signs of human habitation. In this book, the author takes you on a more leisurely trip through time in a land that is endearingly modest about its illustrious past.
We hope these off-the-beaten track books set in France help you escape for a little while. Let us know what other quirky places you’ve heard of around the country, and check out our database for any books set there. Prefer the big city? Have a look at our Great Books Map for 10 great books set in Paris..
The TripFiction Team
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