Books About France:

Books I liked:

C’est La Folie. One Man’s Quest for a More Meaningful Life. By Michael Wright. What a lovely book and what a nice guy. Read this and live vicariously ... I can’t recommend it enough. Click here to buy the book.

Michael Wright’s website is: http://www.lafolie.co.uk/ 

A Vineyard in the Dordogne by Jeremy Joseph. An interesting story about an unpleasant man. Credit to him though for allowing himself to be portrayed in such an unkind light. Click here to buy the book.

Buying a House in France by David Hampshire.

Instructions for Visitors. Love and Life in a French Town by Helen Stevenson. In my humble opinion, if you’re going to go and live in another country, this is a good example of how to do it ... although I think I’m more Michael Wright than Helen Stevenson. Click here to buy the book.

Life in a Postcard - escape to the French Pyrenees by Rosemary Bailey. A nice story - her enthusiasm is contagious. It is worth noting she packed up and moved back to England. Click here to buy the book.

Selling French Dreams by Alan Biggins.

 Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong-... This book argues that the French are not just superficially different, but that they are fundamentally different. Click here to buy the book.

Talk to the Snail by Stephen Clarke. Not as good as his Merde series and with some “remarkable” parallels to another book on this list, but worth a read. Click here to buy the book. 

50 Reasons to Hate the French. Read this and you will. I couldn’t put it down once I started it. Click here to buy this book by Jules Eden and Alex Clarke. 

501 French Verbs: Barrons.

Books I didn’t like:

Spotted in France: A Dog’s Life on the Road by Gregory Edmont. This is quite probably the worst book I have ever read. I forced myself through it in the hope it would get better. It didn’t . This book is so bad I’m not even going to include its link to Amazon. The author should give up writing books and do something more in keeping with his skill level - perhaps telling shaggy dog stories to three year olds. Actually that requires a lot ability than Edmont will ever possess.

Touche. A Fenchwoman’s Take on the English. Agnes Catherine Poirier. Puerile vacuous nonsense. I don’t recommend you buy this book, but if you can’t help yourself then click here . 

Other:

Search The Economist magazine for some very sober insights into France.

Learn French with Michel Thomas - a CD-based teaching method that I found quite helpful. Click here to buy the set of CD’s.