Summer in France on the Beach, or at least in France

This post comes from our bookseller Katie L. 

I sure as hell can’t afford to vacay in the Riviera this summer, but these books’ll do their best to take ya there from wherever you’re stuck.

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy

A lot of this book is set in Paris, where our protagonist is trying to figure out her life in the 1950s Parisian boho scene. She ends up on the beach eventually though, and the story ends with a thrilling twist. Kind of like Plath meets A Moveable Feast with a little bit of crime thrown in – it’s a fun one.

Bonjour, Tristesse by Francoise Sagan

This one’s just a lovely little story, sort of coming-of-age on a beach in France. Despite the title and a very French ending, it doesn’t leave you with a despairing kind of sadness. It’s youthful and hopeful, I think.

Tender is the Night by F.Scott Fitzgerald

Well, Fitzgerald. So – beautiful and sad but so very worth it. It’s a tragic story about a couple that throws parties on the beach in a big lovely house and life gets to them and they torture each other. But it’s just so lovely and so well done that it’s worth it.

Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau

This one is just fun, promise. It won’t take you to the beach, but Zazie’s a quirky preteen who’ll take you all over Paris. Her mother’s brought her to the big city and dropped her off with her uncle in order to go rendez-vous with her lover, and Zazie just wants to go ride the metro. Read for laughs and word play and a different view of Paris.

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

You just can’t really have a list of books about France without including this one. You might not end up on the beach with this one either, but you will get to deal with a bizarre Fitzgerald drunk on Whiskey sours who cuts off the top of his car to make a convertible. Hemingway’s nostalgic Paris stories are the best – always worth a reread, in my opinion.