The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers

by Ted Jones

The French A Literary Guide for Travellers is a reader's journey along the fabled coast which has provided the inspiration and setting for some of the greatest literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From Hyères and St. Tropez in the west to the Italian border in the east, Ted Jones introduces the lives and work of writers who passed this way, from distinguished Nobel laureates to new authors who discovered their voices there. His encyclopaedic work covers them writers such as Graham Greene and W. Somerset Maugham, who spent much of their lives there; F. Scott Fitzgerald and Guy de Maupassant, whose work it dominates; and the countless writers who simply lingered there, including Louisa M. Alcott, Albert Camus, Bruce Chatwin, T. S. Eliot, Ian Fleming, Sylvia Plath, Jean-Paul Sartre, Leo Tolstoy, Evelyn Waugh, Oscar Wilde – and countless others.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, History

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[ATLANTIC BOOK REVIEWS · Rating 5 out of 5]

While recently travelling in France I picked up this book to read as my husband and I wound our way along the French Riviera. The book was a treasure trove of places to visit where once our literary heroes had trod. It was exciting to stare and point to a hotel where F. Scott Fitzgerald or Proust or Robert Louis Stevenson had once stayed or wrote or spent time recovering from illness.

Well researched and full of juicy personal information about famous authors and their contemporaries who visited and loved the French Riviera made for great travel reading. So many facts that I didn't know. Although many of the sites we visited are no longer recognizable it was fun to think about what it was like in the past and how it has changed in the present.

This Riviera is a stunning part of the world. The blue of the sea is intoxicating and I felt I never wanted to leave. If only I were a writer, I felt sure this was a place where I could write "the" great novel!

[Abby J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have not yet read this book, but I need to say something. Ted Jones was my grandfather, and was an incredible, kind, beautiful man that loved writing and loved everything that he did with an immeasurable passion. He passed away very recently, which was difficult for us all, but reading the reviews on how much people loved what he did makes me so happy, and I know how happy he would be that his work has made so many people's experiences of a place that he truly loved better, whether in person or solely through the book. Even if you don't like this book, he'd understand that too- he was always like that. Grandad Ted was a wonderful man and I hope his passion shines in his work

[Nick Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gem of a book is a must for any fiction writer. It is an eye-opener that traces the love affairs between a literary pantheon of fiction writers and the magic of The Riviera. It shows that it was not only artists like Van Gogh, Cezanne, Picasso, and Matisse who did much of their greatest work in Provence, but that the same applied to just about any British or American writer you could possibly think of.
Graham Greene fell out with the UK tax authorities and moved to Antibes, where he rekindled a liaison with a Frenchwoman and bought an apartment to live and work in. There he wrote Travels with My Aunt, The Honorary Consul, The Human Factor, and Monsignor Quixote. He also published “J’Accuse – the Dark Side of Nice,” which claimed that the City of Nice and its Police were in collusion with the Mafia. As imagined, this did not win him many friends locally.
The connection between writers and Provence goes back a long way. In 1763, one of the earliest writers to discover Nice and the South of France and to write about it for a British audience was Tobias Smollett, who wrote epic novels more than a century before Dickens. He is mentioned too in the book.
Truly, this volume covers an impressive number of writers, from Anthony Burgess, who lived in Monaco, Agatha Christie and Katharine Mansfield in Menton, Anais Nin in St Tropez, Noel Coward and T.S. Eliot at Cap Ferrat, Ian Fleming, Hemingway, James Joyce, P.G. Woodhouse, and of course, F. Scott Fitzgerald, who did more than anyone else to popularize the ‘Riviera’ as a fashionable hangout for writers and associated glitterati. When he and Zelda set up a mansion on the Cap Antibes to host the most famous house parties on the Cote D’Azur, he chose to do it in the summer months, whereas traditionally the English wealthy would visit in the winter, saving the summer for the ‘Season’ of Henley and other must-be-at events.
This book will keep you fascinated as you pore through all the stories about so many writers you have on your shelves. So get it.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. Marvellously gossipy about the writers who visited or lived in the south of France.

[Norbert P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ted Jones travels along the French Riviera from Marseille to Menton encountering most of the novelists, poets, dramatists and philosophers of the last two centuries, who chose to live on the French Riviera either permanently or at least for some time. Among his encounters are D.H. Lawrence, Robert Louis Stevenson, Katherine Mansfield, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Friedrich Nietsche, Guy de Maupassant, Colette, W.Sommerset Maugham and Graham Greene. Some bought villas, others rented them or lived in appartments on the coast or in the mountains behind. Jones gives small biographies of the authors and describes the destinies they met in their mediterranian homes, since many died early for still being consumptive or else contracting consumption in a not generally alleviating climate for diseases concerning the lungs. A highly recommendable book for expats and all Riviera travellers and those who are planning to go there.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this before a holiday to Antibes, and it was interesting to find out who had written and painted in the places I visited. However, I think the organisation by place rather than by person involved repetition e.g. Guy de Mautpassant popped up in Antibes and Cannes (necessitating a repetition of his end), and Nabokov in various places, and it meant it was harder to keep track of the different people. I did enjoy many of the anecdotes, which I might have not have come across otherwise, e.g. the 'macho fishermen' of Villefranche took against the male angels painted by Cocteau in their chapel there. One final point - the author describes the people of Monaco as Monagesque rather Monegasque - a trivial point, but one that should have been spotted by the editors.

[Cliff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part travelogue part literary non-fiction. A great book by a great man. Well told and a must for anyone interested in literary greats and the French Riviera. There were more than a few surprises in this engrossing, education and entertaining read. As a writer and Riviera resident, the authors love became his labour for bookworms and travelers to enjoy.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting literary history/travelogue of the French Riveria. I was ready for a trop with a good book after finishing this.

[Päivi Brink · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually did not read the whole book, sinbut I really liked the way it was written. Anecdotes and facts and famous people through the times spending their winters at the Riviera. Entertaining!

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[The Contented · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had purchased this book for a Nice holiday during June half term, 2019 I think. I finally got to read it - the second book I read in a single day - on the first day of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee long weekend. A literary book about travel. Such fun! I really liked this. It was funny, and full of references to La Côte d’Azur (memorable short breaks and, in the good old days, hedge fund conferences in Monaco). Great memories. Thoroughly enjoyed this. Although of course ‘The RivieraSet’ - the book I DID read in Nice, was even better.

[Eightwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing area with its fruitful literary histories, but this book simply a grasp of all the passing-bys, no precise citation, and too many overlapping details. The writing style is also not really good. Pity. Such a fascinating topic.

[Tiina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted more, I think it was too repetitive and really dry at times. Probably should have just read about towns I want to visit? Maybe it's on me but I really had higher expectations for this book.
Great cover, though, and appreciate the research.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally enjoyable read. Only sorry I didn't read the book before wandering about the Riviera 5 years ago. Very informative and I found it a great way to segue into authors and towns mentioned in the book.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really excellent “literary guide for travelers” - accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. You get a feel for the towns and cities along the coast and excellent, and efficiently written, scenes of the famous authors who lived or visited.

[Vel Veeter]

I kind of hate travel guides for a lot of reasons. For one, I hate traveling, and I am always suspect of the tone and content of a lot of them. So seeing a hotel listing from 1996 doesn’t usually tell me a whole lot about what to do in Paris these days. Also, it makes me think of the narrator of We Need to Talk about Kevin.

Anyway, this is a literary traveler’s guide to the French Riviera/Cote d’Azur starting on the western end at Hyeres and ending on the eastern front/Italian border with Menton.

For the most part I think this is fine. It’s a solid list of the kinds of writers who traveled in, wrote in, or wrote about the area. On the other hand it’s an odd collection of vignettes and factoids that are distracting and offensive at times. Also, a lot of the information I found here was just wrong.

So I do actually have some literary knowledge, and Ted Jones has plenty of geographical knowledge. So we’re at odds here. But some of his way presenting information is off, off-putting, or clearly based on a fact-only sense of the literature.

Is it true that James Baldwin wrote plays? Sure, but would you call him a “Novelist and Playwright”? No! You would call him a “Novelist and Essayist”. Also, Nabokov wrote “early notes about Lolita” here, but also…umm he wrote a whole novel that became the backbone of Lolita as well.

So it’s a limited guide…and belongs in a summer house, but I was frustrated by having to correct this as I went.

[Frank Gottman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having lived for approximately two months a year for 31 years in my residence in Villefranche,SM on the French Riviera, I was intrigued to learn from this Ted Jones' book all that I could. Reading the authors tales about the history of the various locations, the homes, and towns and especially the people inhabiting those places, was pleasurably interesting. Especially so when one could recognized areas, buildings, and homes of which he spoke.
AS interesting as reading the book was when I did know of which incidents or places he spoke, Jones' dwelling at length on incidents or places of which I knew nothing were not stimulting enough to hold my attention.
There is little to hold one's attention from cover to cover. The book - as it declares - serves mostly as a 'Literary Guide' or research work.

In that, it succeeds.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting travelogue over time of the famous authors and artists who came through the French Riviera broken out by towns.