I'm lucky enough to live in rural France, which is lovely in itself, but also great if you want to pop off for a little jaunt to some other glorious places. One such is Finistere, the most western part of Brittany and less than three hours' drive from my home. Close though it is, I hadn't visited the area until a month or so ago, when I took a trip which included a visit to the beautiful little village of Pont-Aven, once home to the painter Gauguin. When I got home I remembered I had a book called Death in Pont-Aven waiting to be reviewed for Shiny New Books, so I read it with great delight and here's my review of it.
In fact the novel whetted my appetite so much that last week I went there again, and visited some of the places Jean Luc Bannalec (who is really a German publisher called Jorg Bong) mentioned in the novel. One such was supposedly Gauguin's favorite beach, which he christened Plage Tahiti. Happy days!
