# Detour de France

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![Detour de France](https://quivercdn.com/covers/ebury-press/michael-simkins/detour-de-france_978-00-9192-753-0.jpg?v=2026-04-22%2002%3A25%3A38)

- Book: [Detour de France](https://www.bookquiver.com/michael-simkins/detour-de-france) ([Detour de France.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/michael-simkins/detour-de-france.md))
- Authors: [Michael Simkins](https://www.bookquiver.com/michael-simkins)
- Publisher: Ebury Press
- ISBN: 978-00-9192-753-0
- Pages: 320
- Published: 2010-04-01
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

Though happy enough with his lot, Michael Simkins has never truly shaken the nagging doubt - helpfully upheld by his partner Julia - that he somehow lacks worldly sophistication. While she spent her teenage years as a nanny on a boat moored at Cannes, his utter lack of travel experience (Weymouth, Cleethorpes and a day trip to Dieppe) still has the power to shock people into leaving dinner parties early. So as he hits middle-age, Michael takes up the challenge of broadening his horizons. He decides to improve himself in the same way English gentlemen lacking refined edges have for centuries: by learning from our more cultured French neighbours. Michael, an English provincial ingénue , sets off to discover just what the Gallic nation can teach him and the rest of us Anglo-Saxons about living the good life. Armed only with 50 Useful Phrases in French , he waits to see if his odyssey from La Manche to the Riviera will finally turn him from the scotch-egg eating spawn of Anne Widdecombe and John McCririck into the champagne-sipping love child of Serge Gainsbourg and Catherine Deneuve. Julia is saying a prayer for him at Lourdes.