Our introduction to literary Bordeaux begins with the 3 most famous Bordeaux authors, the ‘3 Ms’, that is the philosophers Montaigne and Montesquieu and the novelist François Mauriac. There are statues of them all in the city. There are mini biographies and pointers to their works. Then we follow up with more books set in and around Bordeaux - historical fiction, two very different detective stories and the true account of the web of spies – French, German, British – operating in Bordeaux during World War II.
Reading Suggestions
The Essays A Selection by Michel Montaigne
How to Live A Life of Montaigne in 1 Question and 20 Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell
Persian Letters by Montesquieu
The Knot of Vipers by François Mauriac
Thérèse Desqueyroux by François Mauriac
The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick
Bordeaux Private Eye by Rorie Smith
Game of Spies by Paddy Ashdown
Death in Bordeaux by Allan Massie
Link for this post
Musee d'Aquitaine
City Breaks: all the history and culture you'd research for yourself if you had the time!
Check our website for the blogpost accompanying this episode, to find more episodes from our Bordeaux series or to browse our back catalogue of other cities which are well worth visiting: https://www.citybreakspodcast.co.uk
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