Novels based in the South of France

[MinnieMountain]

I’m looking for novels set in the south of France. I’m going there next month for a long weekend.

Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald.

A Compass Error by Sybille Bedford

Do you like crime? If so the Jacquot detective series by Martin O’Brien.

Whereabouts in the south? That may hone it down.

The Artist , Lucy Steeds

Martin Walker’s Bruno series (set in the Dordogne) is heaven, particularly if you know the area.

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

The Beekeepers promise by Fiona Valpy (I think it's the South of France).

A Fatal Inheritance by Rachel Rhys

Agree with the Sybille Bedford and F Scott Fitzgerald. Also Bonjour Tristesse by Francois Sagan, La gloire de mon père by Pagnol, Deborah Levy’s Hot Milk. Lettres de mon moulin by Daudet.

Love Bruno but I don’t think of the Dordogne as the south of France! Kate Mosse is fab especially if you’re between carcassonne and the Pyrenees.

Ha - yes, fair one!

Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
If you like spy stories - Box 88 by Charles Cummings

The series by M L Longworth, all set in and around Aix En Provence. They're crime but the setting is so beautifully described

Also, The Darac series by Peter Morfoot, set in Nice are very good

Perfume by Patrick Suskind winds up in the South of France.

I was not over wowed by it but lots do love it.

Holy Fools by Joanne Harris is set on Noirmoutier- does that count as South of France? Anyway I want to go there.

If you are on the Riviera, then it has to be ‘Tender is the Night’, as others have suggested.

I’ll be in Cassis.

Tender is the Night is clearly worth trying. I don’t normally like F Scott Fitzgerald.

Thank you for the other ideas. I’m also not particularly into crime, unless it’s Agatha Christie.

Bonjour Tristesse
A Year in Provence

A year in provence?

I'm off to Beziers in October so following with interest.

Love Cassis! Used to hang out there when I was a student. Might need to get some cassis (or Bandol) rosé…. A few years ago we thought we’d hire a boat to go round to the Calanques but they were ridiculously expensive. We hired a pedalo with a slide instead and had so much fun. Off topic but one of the Jacquot murders was in a Calanque!

Mary Stewart, Madam Will You Talk?

There are two versions of ‘Tender is the Night’. (The chapters are in different orders).
FYI.

The Bay of Angels by Anita Brookner
Villa America by Liza Klausman
Super Cannes by JG Ballard
The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coehlo
Akin by Emma Donoghue
Cooking for Picasso by Camille Aubray
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan
The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway (

a very eclectic list of books set on the French Riviera (Nice, Cannes, st tropez etc) that was presented to my book club recently.

Over at the other side of the Sud de France are all the books by Kate Mosse all set around the Carcassonne area - Labyrinth, Sepulchre, The Burning Chambers etc

Marcel Pagnol, who wrote Jean de Florette. His memoirs My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle are charming.