Just by chance I came upon this article in the weekend ‘Observer’ by Laura Cumming which delighted me beyond measure. Having leisure time for reading during ‘les grandes vacances’ is something many of us hope to achieve. But I didn’t think I would find a well stocked library in a blue and white cabin waiting for me on the beach! But here they are in Normandy, set up from Le Havre to Dieppe for the summer months. Laura Cumming found one when searching for a café.
These library cabins were set up by the Département de la Seine-Maritime in 2006 and have become super popular. The only rule is that you can’t take a book away. However, there are assistants to help and encourage you in your choices and are happy to keep a book on one side for the next day if that suits.
When it comes to reading in French I’m a great fan of Maigret (also in translation!), Françoise Sagan (same) like ‘Bonjour Tristesse’, ‘Un Certain Sourire’. Then Raymond Chandler, Eric Ambler, always William Boyd. Barbara Comyns and Robert Harris are favourites too. Agatha Christie is in translation but I’m not sure about all of the rest.
I love travel writers – Bill Bryson, Paul Theroux, Freya Stark, Levison Wood… and also memoirs – one by Hunter Davies, who wrote a biography of The Beatles so many moons ago. His memoir, ‘Happy Old Me – How to Live Long and Really, Really Enjoy It’ had me laughing out loud on the bus. He’s ninety – I’d love to take him out to lunch.
I must add a stunningly good biography here – ‘The Man in the Red Coat’ by Julian Barnes. About a fascinating man, Samuel Pozzi, set in Paris.
A classic by H E Bates – ‘Fair Stood the Wind for France’ would be a great read but again I’m not sure if it is translated into French. Perhaps an ‘entente cordiale’ would allow for a shelf of books in English – as long as our French language skills improved too …
A favourite writer on art and The Impressionists is Sue Roe. Her latest offering is ‘Hidden Portraits’- the untold stories of Six Women who Loved Picasso. A new, young history writer is Alice Loxton. I have just enjoyed her book on Eleanor of Castile. I would like to add Olivia Manning, Elizabeth Bowen, Elizabeth Taylor and Hilary Mantel.
More French books – Patrick Modiano, Guy de Maupassant, Marcel Pagnol, Albert Camus, Georges Simenon, Antoine Laurent ‘The Red Notebook’, Dominique Barbéris ‘Un Dimanche à Ville d’Avray’. There will always be something for a wonderful ‘beach’ read.
Normandy offers other temptations too … and these ones make a return trip a necessity … absolutely divine ‘en plein air’.
Lire à la plage or Lire sur mer … Trouville is a great choice … among others … but this is the one I have visited.
I wish all my readers ‘bonnes grandes vacances’. And a big thank you to Laura Cumming for her article flagging up ‘Lire à la Plage’ in The Observer.
I have taken the opportunity of writing about some of my personal choices to read on the beach – there are so many more but I wanted my own holiday choices to be both exciting, relaxing and heartwarming – so these are they.
FIN