Suite Française

France in the summer of 1940 and the Occupation that follows. Part One drives the panicked exodus out of Paris and down the choked roads south through the Loire; Part Two settles into an occupied Burgundy village where villagers and billeted German soldiers share the same streets. The map runs from the capital to the wine country of Saône-et-Loire.

Lucile Angellier

Paris, June 1940

Part One

As the German army nears, the novel opens on a Paris seized by rumour and air-raid sirens. Families of every class pack what they can and abandon the city in a matter of hours, and the first section follows several of them out through the gates into the crush of refugees on the road.

Part One, Storm in June

explicit Paris is named throughout Part One; sited at the city centre as the starting point of the exodus.

Google Maps ↗ Street View ↗

Lucile Angellier

The roads south, Orléans

Part One

The flight bogs down on roads jammed for miles with cars, carts and people on foot. Fuel runs out, food vanishes, and German planes strafe the stalled columns. Orléans, the gateway to the Loire about a hundred kilometres below Paris, stands for this stretch of the ordeal.

Part One, Storm in June

explicit The refugee columns push south toward the Loire; Orléans, a real city on the exodus route named in the narrative, marks this leg.

Google Maps ↗ Street View ↗

Lucile Angellier

The Loire crossings, Tours

Part One

The Loire is the line everyone races to cross before the bridges are bombed or blocked. Around the river cities and the villages beyond it, the refugees scatter into farmyards and requisitioned rooms, and the veneer of civility frays under hunger and fear. Tours anchors this river country south-west of Orléans.

Part One, Storm in June

explicit The exodus funnels toward the Loire bridges; Tours, a real river city on the escape route, marks the crossings and the countryside beyond.

Google Maps ↗ Street View ↗