Best novels set in France

I love reading and as I was thinking about my favourite books the other day it occurred to me that some of them were set in France.  I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or not but we live in France.  So I decided to make a list of my favourite French novels.  These are not my all time favourite books but ones that I’ve read and loved and happen to be set in France.

This book certainly would be one of my all time favourites.  It’s a beautifully written book set before and during the First World War and features Stephen Wraysford, an Englishman, who visits Amien in 1910 and meets a married woman with whom he has an affair.  The affair has calamitous results for all involved and haunts Stephen even during his time in the trenches during the war.  It’s a haunting book and Faulks conveys so much by what he leaves to the reader’s imagination.

Sebastian Faulks has also written two other novels set in France, The Girl at the Lion d’Or and Charlotte Gray.

The Girl at the Lion d’Or has Anne Louvert as the central character.  She  arrives one night at the Lion d’Or in Janvilliers to take up a vacant position.  She starts an affair with an older man Charles Hartmann that can only end badly for Anne.  Not a ‘happy’ novel although you do get the sense that there is hope for Anne at the end.

Charlotte Gray is the story of a young woman who becomes involved in the Resistance in France during the Second World War.  The book tells of the oppression of the Jews in France under the Vichy government.  Charlotte is in France for a specific mission for the Special Operations Executive but stays behind afterward to try to find her English boyfriend and in the course of her search becomes involved in the lives of the French living under Nazi rule.

If ever you need a lesson in descriptive writing you should read this book.  Set in 18th Century France it’s about the life of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille.  He’s born with no odour of his own, which in 18th Century France renders him virtually invisible.  But, his own sense of smell is extraordinary and he creates some stunning perfumes.  But he is captivated by a scent that he craves to own – that of a young girl, and this craving leads to murder.  It’s a very odd story and the one of the most bizarre endings to a story you’ll ever read.

I think I enjoyed this book more than Chocolat.  It’s narrated by Framboise, who returns to the village of her childhood on the banks of the Loire and opens a small restaurant using her mother’s old recipe book.  The book jumps between her childhood memories of the German occupied town and her as an older woman.  She tries to keep her identity secret from those around her because of what happened when she was a child but slowly her past and the tragedy it holds is revealed.  A dark, complex and brooding book about relationships, occupation and death, I loved it.

Joanne Harris is probably more well known for her book Chocolat of course.  Vianne Rocher and her daughter Anouk arrive in a town between Toulouse and Bordeaux and open a chocolate shop.  The local priest however is not happy that the villagers are spending so much time and money in the shop (which is opposite the church) and a battle ensues.  We learn about the local characters as they come to the shop to sample her chocolate. The book captures the relationships and petty rivalries perfectly.

Victor Hugo – les Misérables

Victor Hugo – The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Charles Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities

Alexander Dumas – The Three Musketeers

Robert Louis Stevenson - Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes

Louise Dean – the Idea of Love

Joanne Harris – Blackberry Wine

Kate Mosse – Labyrinth, Sepulchre and The Winter Ghosts.

Karen Wheeler – Tout Sweet

This is not an exhaustive list! If you have any more suggestions please let me know.