If it’s Friday, it must be France …
If you are dreaming of spending time here …
Or here …
Or here …
Or here …
There’s nothing like a good read to whet your appetite even more:
SUGGESTED READING LIST FOR SOUTH OF FRANCE TRIP ~ Here are some of my favourites
The Man Who Planted Trees Jean Giono
A Year In Provence Peter Mayle (and any other of his long list
of books set in Provence)
The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers Ted Jones
La Séduction: How The French Play
The Game of Life Elaine Sciolino
My Life in France Julia Child, Alex Prud’Homme
Jean De Florette Marcel Pagnol
Manon Of The Springs Marcel Pagnol
Tender Is The Night F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Ladies Paradise Emile Zola
Loser Takes All (short story) Graham Greene
Chocolat Joanne Harris
Seduction: A Novel of Suspense M.J. Rose
Anne-Marie Simons
Words In a French Life Kristin Espinasse
The Olive Farm Carol Drinkwater
Click this Amazon link for a list of Provence Cote d’Azur tour books
Classics
Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
Candide Voltaire
Any books written by Victor Hugo
I’ve got more but let’s start with these.
What books about France have you read that we need to know about? Tell me any other titles you would like to see on this list and I will add them faster than you can say “baguette”! Thanks! Merci!
Tour update: Our first women’s tour to the south of France with the Womens Travel Network sold out in a flash so a second has been added from June 25 to July 5, 2014. Call your BFF and make a plan! Click here for all the deets!
Patricia Sands 
Some wonderful books you have mentioned above. My favorite is My Life in France! A wonderful book written by such an animated personality! She definitely was a pioneer in the early days.
I loved that book too and have read it a few times. Child certainly was one of a kind!
What wonderful photos and I love the book list that goes with them. Thank you Patricia, you never fail to inspire.
Thanks for your kind words, Kate. There are some great stories in there whether one is traveling or not!
Here’s one of my favorites: “Everybody Was So Young” by Amanda Vaill, about Gerald and Sara Murphy’s life. It plays in part at their Villa America in Cap d’Antibes where they entertained so many artists of the day: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dos Passos, Picasso etc. What a life and what a time!
Thank you for that suggestion, Anne-Marie. I will add it to the next list I publish and I’m going to get it to read immediately! Amazon stopped co-operating with me when I was adding the links to this list so I am going to get back to fixing that this morning. I think the message to me was “Go to bed”!
I’ve always rather liked Sartre’s “Nausea” but I would not take offense if you excluded it from your list. I think that would confirm that you’re sane. Lovely pictures.
LOL! I have vague memories of that book when I was in my Sartre/existentialist phase, back in the day. The memories are vague for a variety of reasons … ah, the Psychedelic Sixties …
Those are beautiful pictures to go along with the books to read. The top few are amazing.
I picked up a wonderful supplement some time ago, reading your way around Provence (it’s in French) to give you when you next visit. I am sure there will be some interesting additions, I am in London currently so I can’t go and have a look at it for you, but very soon, you will have your very own copy!
However for a contemporary, cosy mystery you can’t beat M.L.Longworth’s Death at the Chateau Bremont, Murder in the Rue Damas and her newly published (in May 2013) Death in the Vinesall set here in Aix-en-Provence. She is a foodie and wine connoisseur (as is Judge Antoine Verlaque), so if you appreciate gastronomic delights, Provence and a cosy mystery, these books offer it all wrapped up in one!
You can learn more about Longworth’s books on her website here, or read reviews on Goodreads here.
Merci, Claire! Longworth’s books sound delicious in a number of ways! I will most definitely add them to the next list and must get down to reading them myself. Thank you for saving the supplement for me. I can’t wait to collect it from you in person in the very near future!
You might also like the books of Mary-Jane Deeb. They are set in Gasse, Cannes, Nice France. They are mystery books that I think are a fun read. You can get these books from Amazon too.
Sharon