Day 3383 (Sunday) 13th September 2026

This is Monaco

and this is Nice. 

We had a beautiful sunrise this morning and the weather was perfect all day.

There was another cruise ship in the bay so the passengers had a lovely day to visit.

We took the scooter to Saint-Jean Cap-Ferrat to see the classica car exhibition and had lunch first. Yet another statue appeared in the square.

After lunch we walked down to the port and looked at some of the classic cars, there were some beautiful ones but we soon got bored and left.

Here are the rest of the Contemporary fiction books about France

Literature and History in Earlier France

Le Misanthrope

by Molière

This was the beginning of satire in royal France, where one could take a few pot-shots at the aristocracy without losing one's head – but when Molière's plays first appeared they were banned by the government. In the end, his plays were accepted, at a time when France was positioning itself as a temple of culture under Louis XIV.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

by Patrick Suskind

A fabulous story of murder and aroma in 18th-century Paris. A man with a unique skill, his sense of smell, tries to capture the one odour that is out of his reach. I don't want to tell you more. (I read this and was riveted by the intelligent detail and the unusual story line. A scary bit or two.)

Other non-fiction books about France

France

by Emile Chabal

This book is quite a feat: at 224 pages, it covers the period from World War II to the present, and provides the foundation for understanding France. It's the book you need to read if you want to "get" what France is like today, quickly, in a well-written style.

A Bite-Sized History of France

by Stéphane Hénaut and Jeni Mitchell

This husband and wife team do something very cool and very French, illustrating the history of France through foods and foodways. In one chapter, Hénaut and Mitchell link the French skepticism (until recently) of vegetarianism — see the uproar in Lyon over a vegetarian day in school cafeterias — to the Cathar heresy. Or their chapter on the "Socialist Baguette".

A Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle

by Julian Jackson

De Gaulle was such a central figure in modern French history that this award-winning book will shed quite an in-depth look at the general and his era.

The book is filled with detail, perhaps too much so, but it does provide an enlightening look at a character who is still a reference point in today's France.

I recently visited his home and memorial museum in the Haute-Marne, an absolute must if you want to deepen your understanding of this giant of a man.

60 Million Frenchmen Can’t be Wrong

by Jean-Benoit Nadeau

Published in 2003, this book is a bit outdated, because even in France, things change. We are now 67 million, 10% more than we were back then, our Presidents rule for five, not seven years, our regions have been consolidated from 22 to 13 and some new departments created and so on.

Revolution Française

by Sophie Pedder

This book is not about what you may think it is, the French Revolution. Its subtitle is "Emmanuel Macron and the quest to reinvent a nation", and that's what it's about.

The author, a journalist (The Economist), traces an unknown Macron's rise to power and the initial part of his first mandate (there have since been new French elections which brought him back to power in a minority government).

Unfortunately the book stops early in Macron's term, which makes it difficult to use as a foundation to understand today's French politics. That said, it does say a lot about how a country so anchored in centralisation and bureaucracy managed to elect a relative unknown to the highest job in the land.

Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution

by Simon Schama

At 848 pages this is not a short read, but it is a relatively breezy one, moving quickly along. That said, it is packed with details but you can skip through those you don't need the first time around – this is the kind of book you can return to over and over.

It is the perfect introduction to the French Revolution, without which it is difficult to understand the France of today.

Contemporary memoir books about France

A Year in Provence

by Peter Mayle

Has anyone NOT read this?

A Year in Provence is a travel memoir about the year the author and his wife spent in the Luberon village of Ménerbes in Provence in the early 1980s (there has since been a sequel, My 25 Years in Provence). He provides great insight into their daily life in France, along with the challenges they face and the new things they learn. 

The book is divided into months, beginning with the purchase of the house in January and the decision to stay in December. The author shares his passion for French cuisine and explains their increasing immersion into French culture: they learn to play traditional boules, and are introduced to the world of truffles. This is a classic, translated worldwide, and put Ménerbes on the map, some would say making it too famous.

Dirt

by Bill Buford

Bill Buford, the author of Heat, uses his humour and passion in the kitchen to tell us about his tumultuous move to Lyon and his new life there with wife and twin toddlers. He doesn't speak French but doesn't let that stand in his way. He has a few names on his list whom he hopes will help him find work so that he can learn the culinary secrets of Lyon, and he throws himself into learning the secrets of French cuisine. If you love food and love France, this will be a real treat, deep, detailed and personal.

One More Croissant for the Road

by Felicity Cloake

Felicity Cloake, best known as a food columnist for the Guardian in the UK, takes on the classic food of France – but not in the luxury you’d expect: she takes to the streets, cycling with her trusty steed Eddy, over hills and vales, to find the best dishes in France.

She stops for a croissant every day, keeping a running rating system to catalogue her journey.

This book uncovers two very different sides of France: traditional French cuisine and the grittier side of cycling and camping through backroads. Felicity blends five-star dining with crushed pastries in her panniers at a damp campsite to present France in a way you’ve never seen it before. As a bonus, this professional food taster offers classic French recipes we can all enjoy, wherever we are in the world.

My Life in France

by Julia Child

When American newlywed Julia Child first moved to France with her husband in 1948, she was not at all the francophile she would become after sampling the food, shopping in local markets and familiarising herself with the culture. She didn't even speak French.

But she fell in love with the country, its people and its food, learning to cook, to argue with produce sellers, and eventually becoming a teacher and starting to teach French cuisine.

This book traces her arrival in France, her daily struggles to learn French cooking, and her battles to get her first cookbook published, before she became one of the most famous chefs of the 20th century.

Books about France that don't fit into any other category

Astérix le Gaulois

by Goscinny and Uderzo

The Astérix series are graphic novels, Tintin style, rather than narrative books, but no self-respecting francophile can afford to ignore this feisty little Gaul and his village's fight against Caesar's legionnaires during the Roman occupation of Gaul. Astérix and his partner in crime, Obélix, successfully keep their tiny village out of Rome's reach, the only Gallic village to escape Caesar's troops.

There's plenty of history, laughter and caricature, and of course the Gauls always win against the hapless Romans because of the magic potion their druid feeds them before they go into battle.

Rendez-Vous in Cannes

by Jennifer Bonhet

Rendez-vous in Cannes tells the story of two women. The first one, Anna Carson, is a famous movie producer attending the Cannes Film Festival for the first time in years. The other is journalist Daisy Harris, invited to cover the festival.

As the story unfolds, the paths of these two different women will cross in the most unexpected ways, and the Cannes Film festival will change their lives. The book provides an intense feeling of the lifestyle and atmosphere of Cannes the city and its film festival, as well as the Riviera more generally.