Languedoc & Provence

Last summer I stayed a couple of weeks in Montpellier - a beautiful city in the south of France - and also visited several places nearby, such as Arles, Nimes, Carcassonne, Narbonne, Avignon, etc.

Unlike London, Rome and Amsterdam, however, it's not that easy to find books set in this area.

The exception would be Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, mostly set in the stunning town of Carcassonne, but it didn't really impress me that much. I also have read The Dream of Scipio by Pears, which was better, but didn't really evoke much of the locale.

Any other suggestions? Surely there must be some great French novels set in these parts...

I immediately thought of Hotel Pastis : a novel of Provence by Peter Mayle, which I gave to my mother as a present, but haven't read. Mayle has written non-fiction books on Provence, so I would imagine that this book is very descriptive, as well as being light-hearted.

Two other fiction books by Peter Mayle came up in my tagmash:

A Good year and Chasing Cezanne.

In addition, there is a historical fantasy that is laid in Provence: Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay. It starts off with a Canadian photogrpaher and his son visiting modern day Provence.

I found Peter Mayle's non-fiction (A Year in Provence and sequels) to be much better than his fiction, although the fiction is also descriptive of Provence. I can't comment on accuracy because I've never been there, but he makes it sound appealing!

There would be the novels of Marcel Pagnol, I guess: Jean de Florette, Manon of the Spring, and his autobiographical books, The Glory of My Father and The Castle of My Mother.

I have seen the film versions of the novels, and they are great. Makes you feel the heat of Southern France...

What about Montaillou? It's not fiction, but more like a very readable history book.

If you want an even bleaker view of human nature than Jean de Florette, some of Zola's Rougon-Macquart novels are set in Provence, mostly in "Plassans" (Aix-en-Provence), including the first, La fortune des Rougon and the fourth, La conquête de Plassans.

The two best books I have read on Provence are: Provence by Ford Maddox Ford and Caesar's Vast Ghost by Lawrence Durrell. Another excellent book covering Aix en Provence and Marseilles is Two Towns In Provence by MFK Fisher.

I've ordered Two towns in Provence from another library. Possibly the fastest trolleybus in the world ran between these two cities, but the line didn't survive the 1960's.
I've only read one book by MFK Fisher, From the Journals of M.F.K. Fisher and I don't own it.
(Another try at the author touchstone Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher -- still doesn't work)

I have most of Fisher's books. If you are interested about her time in France, you should read Long Ago In France which covers the time she lived in Dijon.

When I was in the area, I briefly visited Sommieres, a small town where Durrell spent the last two decades of his life.

Along with Caesar's Vast Ghost, his Avignon Quintet is perhaps worth checking out?

There was a film documentary done of Durrell in Sommieres; however, I have been unable to locate a copy. I tried reading his Alexandria Quartet a number of years ago, but gave up. I have not tried the Avignon Quintet. He was heavily influenced by Henry Miller who was somewhat of a mentor. I have enjoyed all of Durrell's nonfiction, including Bitter Lemons and Prospero's Cell.

enjoyed Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunee

I am presently reading Nancy Goldstone's Four Queens: The Provençal Sisters who Ruled Europe/

You might also be interested in The Mays of Ventadorn, by W.S. Merwin.

For those who love hiking, there is 26 Gorgeous Hikes on the Western Cote d'Azur by Florence Chatzigianis and for those who like folklore, Alphonse Daudet, most known for his Lettres de mon moulin, is a must (la chèvre de Monsieur Seguin is a childhood favourite).

You might want to try some Giono, possibly Regain (I'm not a Giono specialist ; someone else might come up with a better choice). The Provence countryside pervades his books. And if your French is up to scratch, the Centre Jean Giono in Manosque organises 'literary walks'.

I'm reviving an old thread in search of non-fiction.

Please can anyone recommend an English-language history of Languedoc and/or Occitania? Or of the department of Ariège?

There's no need to mention Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's Montaillou (no. 6, above), which I already have. Nor really other books concentrating on the Cathars. Many thanks.

*Previous post deleted because apparently, I can't read anymore*

Sorry I can't think of anything in English. You could search for books on "Septimanie" or "Septimania" as well, if you're interested in this region's history, but I can't recommend anything first hand. Hopefully, someone else will be able to chime in...

>18 Cynfelyn: Since I last posted here, I've read James Pope-Hennessy's glorious — if somewhat camp — travel book Aspects of Provence from 1952. He recommends "...the best and most exhaustive English work on the subject, Sir Theodore Andrea Cook's Old Provence (1905)" "...a book which is unlikely to be superseded and which should be read and carried by every English person setting out to travel through Provence." There are only 20 copies of it on LT, so it doesn't look as though many people have followed that advice lately.

JPH cites a lot of French historical works about the region, and he's very keen on Frédéric Mistral's autobiographical book Mes origines, which seems to be available in English. Also Prosper Mérimée's Notes d'un voyage dans le Midi, which doesn't.

...I had a look at the Tagmash "Provence, history": https://www.librarything.com/tag/Provence,+history

A book I don't know, but which seems to get high ratings, is Provence: a cultural history by Martin Garrett — might be worth looking out for in the library?

One I'll be putting on my own TBR is Ford Madox Ford's Provence, from minstrels to the machine - but that looks to be more travel writing than serious history.

Another from my own shelves I'd forgotten about, but might be interesting, is Morris Bishop's Petrarch and his world. A bit dated, perhaps, but there's a lot about 14th century Avignon and Vaucluse, as you would expect.