As promised, from your entrepid tour leader and owner operator of Che Bella Tours, since we can’t bring you to France right now, we’re bringing a little bit of France to you! Enjoy and let yourself be carried away!
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Culture Shock! France by Sally Adamson Taylor. This is a great series of books I use before I travel to a new country, demystifying cultures and people.
Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and June Barlow. This is a must-read for anyone serious about understanding French culture, contemporary politics and what makes the French tick.
D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches by Stephen E. Ambrose. Relying on 1,400 interviews with war veterans, Ambrose spins a detailed history of this fateful day.
My Life in France by Julia Child. The zesty chef recounts her early days in Paris. Though remembered fondly as a cooking wizard and endearing television personality, Julia Child began as an awkward ex-pat who didn’t begin cooking at all until she was 37! The memoir is her version of a ‘Thank You’ to France for its kindness and influence on her rise to fame.
A Year in Provence and Toujours Provence by Peter Mayle. Yes, another run-away-to-Europe-and-renovate-a-villa book. You know I love this genre – and I will do this some day, somewhere! Mayle’s memoirs include humorous anecdotes about restoring and living in a 200-year-old farmhouse in a remote area of the Luberon. His best-selling novel about his first year in the South of France is a humorous and witty recollection of his time there.
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. This is a memoir from the man who has fostered wanderlust for generations, set in Paris during the roaring ’20s where Hemingway lived, struggling to make a living as a writer and a journalist. It remains one of the best memoirs about living in France to this day. Paris is accurately portrayed as he remembered it: an artistic haven and a moveable feast.
The Paris Wife by Paula McClain. A parallel story to A Moveable Feast, Hadley Richardson is a quiet 28-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. (Audio book free with an Audible trial!).
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. A moving tale of occupied France seen through the experiences of a blind French girl and a lonely German boy whose paths cross in war-torn St-Malo.
Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky. Némirovsky, a Russian Jew who was living in France and died at Auschwitz in 1942, plunges readers into the chaotic WWII evacuation of Paris, as well as daily life in a small rural town during the ensuing German occupation. It has since been transformed into a film starring Michelle Williams. What you may not know is that this film was first a book set against the backdrop of WWII and was meant to be the title of a series of five books. However, the author Irène Némirovsky, a Frenchwoman of Ukranian-Jewish origin, was arrested in 1942 for being Jewish and was then murdered at Auschwitz. Her daughters preserved the notebook containing the works but did not look at them until 1998. In 2004, a novel was published under the title ‘Suite Française,’ an amalgamation of the first two novels.
Madame Bovary by Gustave Floaubert. Emma Bovary is unhappy with her small-town, provincial life and seeks a more exciting one. There is a reason why Madame Bovary is on the list of every book club and class on world literature: It is a timeless masterpiece. Alternatively, watch free on Amazon Prime the 2015 movie with Mia Wasikowska or the 2000 BBC mini-series (4.5 stars out of 6).
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
The work is historical fiction and is set in the two capitals before and during the French Revolution. It follows the intertwining stories of Lucie and her father, Doctor Manette, who have never met as he was imprisoned for eighteen years in the Bastille. It’s well worth a read if you ever get the chance and explores the conditions that led up to the French Revolution. Alternatively, get the 1980 movie free now with Amazon Prime.
Some of my favorite movies from and about France:
Amélie. This tells the story of Amelie Poulain, a quirky waitress manipulating destiny to spread joy. Audrey Tattou is charming.
Paris Je T’aime is a medley of 18 short films, each telling a story set in one of Paris’s arrondissements. With a star-studded cast including Natalie Portman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gerard Depardieu, it’s an easy and bittersweet introduction to the capital’s neighborhoods.
Jean de Florette. This marvelous tale of greed and intolerance follows a hunchback as he fights for the property he inherited in rural France. Its sequel, Manon of the Spring, (only available on DVD) continues with his daughter’s story. Yves Montand and a young Gerard Depardieu star.
La Vie en Rose. Marion Cotillard won the Best Actress Oscar for this film about the glamorous and turbulent life of singer Edith Piaf, who famously regretted nothing.
Les Misérables. A Frenchman trying to escape his criminal past becomes wrapped up in Revolutionary intrigues. Anne Hathaway’s I Dreamed a Dream is gut-wrenching.
Loving Vincent. The is a very creative animated feature film, “painted” in the style of van Gogh, which follows an investigation into Vincent’s final days before his death in Auvers-sur-Oise.
Midnight in Paris. Woody Allen’s sharp comedy shifts between today’s Paris and the 1920s mecca of Picasso, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald. (Free as of this writing for Amazon Prime members).
The Return of Martin Guerre. A man returns to his village in southwestern France from the Hundred Years’ War — but is he really who he claims to be? Again, Gerard Depardieu starts.
Chocolat. In the south of France, far away from the glittering lights of the big cities, in the fictional town of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes, a young single mother arrives with her six-year-old daughter. The main protagonist, Vianne Rocher sets up shop as a chocolatier and the film explores life in France, as well as some of its best culinary delights. If you love food, reading and France, Starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Dep.
Two For the Road This is one of my favorite old movies, starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. This story cleverly and amusingly leaps back and forth in time, catching the couple at various points during their courtship and marriage, remembering when they were “on the road” traveling throughout Europe in an old MG – very romantic. The marriage gradually loses its novelty and charm, gradually transforming itself into a deep and weary familiarity.
Have more to add to this extensive list? Tell us and share with our readers in the comments section! (Note: comments from first-time commenters are moderated, so may take 24 hours to appear).
