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En Route: A Journey Round France in the Company of Great Writers
From the coast of Normandy to the Côte d’Azur, along the banks of the Seine to the Alps – the ultimate literary tour of France.
Travelling in a loop around France, from Le Havre to Paris, Peter Fiennes explores France’s sense of its own people, place and identity through some of its greatest writers and artists. Moving between the centuries, from the Arthurian forests and Neolithic fields of Brittany to the banlieues of Paris, Fiennes follows the threads of history across France. And wonders what is next for this sublime, mysterious and sometimes fractious country.
Fiennes drinks with Sartre and de Beauvoir in the bars of Rouen and Le Havre; follows Edith Wharton’s ‘Motor-Flight’ along the Loire Valley to the home of George Sand; and explores the beaches of the south with Colette and Katherine Mansfield. He lingers in Bordeaux with François Mauriac, canvasses the foothills of the Alps with John Berger and follows Colette to the trenches at Verdun, before finally heading to Paris, where he consigns Maupassant to an asylum and Sartre to his grave.
A paean to the glories of French literature, art, landscape, food and wine, En Route is a heartfelt exploration of where the country finds itself after so many centuries at the centre of European life.
Travelling in a loop around France, from Le Havre to Paris, Peter Fiennes explores France’s sense of its own people, place and identity through some of its greatest writers and artists. Moving between the centuries, from the Arthurian forests and Neolithic fields of Brittany to the banlieues of Paris, Fiennes follows the threads of history across France. And wonders what is next for this sublime, mysterious and sometimes fractious country.
Fiennes drinks with Sartre and de Beauvoir in the bars of Rouen and Le Havre; follows Edith Wharton’s ‘Motor-Flight’ along the Loire Valley to the home of George Sand; and explores the beaches of the south with Colette and Katherine Mansfield. He lingers in Bordeaux with François Mauriac, canvasses the foothills of the Alps with John Berger and follows Colette to the trenches at Verdun, before finally heading to Paris, where he consigns Maupassant to an asylum and Sartre to his grave.
A paean to the glories of French literature, art, landscape, food and wine, En Route is a heartfelt exploration of where the country finds itself after so many centuries at the centre of European life.
368 pages, Hardcover
Published May 7, 2026
About the author
Peter Fiennes
18 books16 followersPeter Fiennes is the author of To War with God, an account of his grandfather's service as a chaplain in the First World War. As publisher for Time Out, he published their city guides, as well as books about London's trees and Britain's countryside.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 20, 2026
I had high hopes for this book. What could be better than to travel around France with some amazing writers?
It did not take long for me to realize that this book was just a writing assignment for this author; it lacked the love for these author I expected.
The book felt like the author had spent time on perfunctory research and loosely knitted together his findings.
Why were many authors omitted?
Please, someone, start over and do this again. And do it better.
It did not take long for me to realize that this book was just a writing assignment for this author; it lacked the love for these author I expected.
The book felt like the author had spent time on perfunctory research and loosely knitted together his findings.
Why were many authors omitted?
Please, someone, start over and do this again. And do it better.
September 18, 2026
Next month our book club is heading to London and Paris on an adventure. Suggesting titles to inform and accompany our adventure, I came across this one. Knowing little of French literature, this book is a fantastic way to introduce the reader to the world of 19th and early 20th century authors. At a time when France was the cultural centre of art and literature, there is a wealth of characters to discover. Peter Fiennes makes this education so enjoyable, I was longing to have had the chance to row down the Seine with Guy de Maupassant or stroll along the beach with Colette. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is how the lives of these disparate writers crossed over or interacted. Fiennes tells us that authors don't make friends easily being such solitary creatures, but living through the same epoch, it is fascinating to see Francois Sagan in the back of the car with Edith Wharton motoring down to Provence for example.
I found this such a page turner that I was reading it at 5am this morning and finished it over breakfast, it will stay close to hand as a reference guide for the future but it is also a very human story of modern travel around a France that many of the earlier writers might find unfamiliar - or would they?
Such a joy to read, I have immediately ordered Footnotes: A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers.
I found this such a page turner that I was reading it at 5am this morning and finished it over breakfast, it will stay close to hand as a reference guide for the future but it is also a very human story of modern travel around a France that many of the earlier writers might find unfamiliar - or would they?
Such a joy to read, I have immediately ordered Footnotes: A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews