Armchair Travel: Around the World through Reading – France

We started our journey around the world in Germany. After reading The Reader by Bernhard Schlink, we have “travelled” on to France. A country that is known for its romance, the artist, fashion and museums. 🙂

Just like many other countries, France has some fun and interesting facts. 

• France is almost a fifth of the European Union’s (EU) total area which makes it the largest country in the EU.
• With its six-sided shape, France’s second name is the hexagon (l’hexagone).
• Throughout history, France had many Kings as its ruler. Two of the king’s reigns wasn’t orthodox. King John I was named king five months before his birth. Unfortunately, he only survived for five days after he was born. On the other hand, King Louis XIX was king only for 20 minutes which makes him the king with the shortest reign ever. 
• At a stage, traffic circles (aka roundabouts) were extremely fashionable for towns to have which caused every mayor in France to want one for their town or city. Nobody has written down exactly how many traffic circles France has, but it is approximately between 20 000 to 50 000. That is a lot of circles. 😉
• If you like eating snails, then you should travel to France on your next holiday. The French eat about 30 000 tonnes of snails per year. Although they have around 100 registered snail farms, France only produces about 1000 ton of the 30 000 per year. Just remember, it is illegal to carry live snails on a high-speed train without tickets for all of them. 🙂

Similar to Germany, France also has some Bookish facts. Here we go:

• To this date, 15 writers from France has won the Noble Prize for Literature.
• Marcel Proust holds the world record for the longest book ever written. It is a whopping 3000 page-turner called A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time) 
• For those who both love to read and cook, France is the ideal place to be. On average, the French release two new cookbooks every day.

So, now that the introduction is over – let’s look at the books I’ve chosen for France. Once again, I’ve tried to have a wide variety, something for everyone out there.

Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

I don’t think this book require any introduction. It is possibly one of the most famous historical novels of all time and is Dumas’ most famous novel. It is also on the coveted 1001 Books list.

Plot:

Set in 1625 the story follows a young man and his journey with the royal Musketeers. This story has become an epitome example of friendship and loyalty as we all know the famous saying: 

“All for one, one for all.”

Alexandre Dumas – The Three Musketeers

The story follows the famous trio and d’Artagnan as they navigate the world filled with adventure, espionage, conspiracy, murder, vengeance, love, scandal, and suspense.

The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Little Prince is the most translated book in the French language. With almost 140 million copies sold worldwide and translated into 361 languages and dialects, The Little Prince is one of the best selling and most translated books of all times. Since Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s work was banned in France, his most famous work was only published posthumously in his home country. 

Plot:

The plot follows a young boy and his travels through space. On his travels, he visits various planets where he learns about loneliness, friendship, love and loss from his adventures and the characters he meets. Despite its style as a children’s book, the novel comments on social behaviour and critiques elements of our society through the narrow-minded characters on the planets.

The Alice Network – Kate Quinn

 It allows us a small glimpse into the past through the eyes of strong female characters. Through this glimpse, we see a side of both world wars that we haven’t yet seen.  

Plot:

Two women, a female spy recruited to the Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947, are brought together on a journey in search of the truth.

1947 – Charlotte “Charlie” St Claire venture, with the help of Eve, into the chaotic aftermath of World War II in search of her cousin with whom she lost contact during the war. Pregnant and on the verge of losing the only life she knows, Charlie runs away to London in search of Eve – a short-tempered, gun-wielding English woman. 

1915 – Only a year into World War I (the Great War), the army recruits Eve Gardner to join the famous Alice Network. A network filled with spies in occupied France. Eve is trained by the charming and beautiful Lily, code name Alice, the “Queen of the Spies” who maintained the whole Alice Network. 

Thirty years later, filled with regret and guilt, Eve meets Charlie, and together they embark in search of answers to both their questions. 

The Little paris bookshop – nina george

Originally, the Little Paris Bookshop was a German novel and published as “Das Lavendalzimmer”. Although the author is German, I chose this book because the setting is the south of France, and the story is about a bookstore owner. What more can we ask for? 😉

Plot:

Monsieur Perdu prescribes novels, from his small bookstore on the Seine, to help deal with the challenges life throws at his customers. He has helped his customers with their heartache, but it seems there is one person he can’t help. He’s still haunted by heartbreak after his great love left him with nothing but a letter. After years of not reading the letter, Monsieur Perdu finally decides to read it and starts his journey to the south of France. Joining him on his journey is an author with writer’s block and an Italian chef.

Time was soft there: A paris sojourn at shakespeare & co. – jeremy mercer

For the non-fiction book, I chose this book because Shakespeare & Co. is one of the bookstores I would like to visit one day. A few years ago, I received a gift that came from the store and included in my package was a few extra items. These items made the package extra special to me.

Plot:

Penniless and in need of a job, Mercer walked into the famous bookstore Shakespeare & Co. He only wanted to escape the rain for a bit but ended up staying there for four months. There he immersed himself in the lives of his co-workers as well as the owner George Whitman whose motto is:

“Take what you need, and give what you can.”

Time was soft there is the story of how Mercer ran away from a death threat and how he stumbled down this literary rabbit hole where he made deep and binding friendships with his coworkers.