Two Books in One Month
One Territory, Two Lenses
Within the space of a month, two English-language books about the French Riviera were released: Inside the French Riviera and Crazy About the French Riviera.
They share geography, but not tone.
Inside the French Riviera examines what happens when an outsider steps into an established regional system. It moves through institutions, resistance, bureaucracy and the gap between Riviera mythology and operational reality. Structured, chronological, at times almost forensic, it focuses on cause and consequence.
Crazy About the French Riviera takes a different approach. It is a collection of stories previously published in Dutch, written over many years. Instead of systems, it observes people — encounters during the Cannes Film Festival, delegates during MIPIM, charter guests during Cannes Lions, hotel corridors after midnight, small cultural misunderstandings that reveal more than any official narrative.
The move into English was gradual rather than planned. Over time, recurring questions from international visitors made the linguistic limitation increasingly noticeable. The material had travelled informally through conversation long before it travelled through print.
Releasing both books within one month was therefore less a strategy than a convergence. Years of accumulated work simply reached translation at the same time.
The Riviera itself has not changed.
Only the language has.
And perhaps that is the quietest form of expansion
.