En Route
A Journey Through France in the Company of Great Writers
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jul 7, 2026
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- $26.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $26.99
Publisher Description
From the Côte d’Azur to the cliffs of Normandy, along the banks of the Seine to the Alps, this is the ultimate literary tour of France.
In this sparkling new narrative—traveling 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 Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone 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 Guy de 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 center of European life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Travel writer Fiennes (A Thing of Beauty) explores French culture through the lens of literature in this gossipy, meandering mash-up of travelogue and history. Contending that "the best way to get to know a place is to immerse yourself in the works of its writers and artists," Fiennes maps a path from Le Havre in the north, to Bordeaux in the south, and back to Paris to visit the towns, homes, bars, workplaces, and graves of 13 writers who called France home, including Émile Zola, Katherine Mansfield, and Simone de Beauvoir. Along the way, he recounts his own adventures in France with his wife alongside profiles of figures such as François Mauriac, a conservative Catholic who became an anti-colonialist, and discussions of links between literati (Gustave Flaubert was a family friend and mentor of Guy de Maupassant). Fiennes is at his best when tracing the travels of a single author, as when he drives around the countryside recreating a trip Edith and Teddy Wharton took with Henry James in 1906 (they visited "a country that was disappearing almost as fast as their wheels could reach it"). Elsewhere, his attempts to squeeze in all the writers linked to a specific place make for a jumbled, unfocused effect. It's a mixed bag.
