Portrait of France

Benjamin Franklin opined that "every man has two favourite countries - his own, and France". Novelist Robert Daley, author of "The Year of the Dragon", returns to France to record his personal experiences in a book that is part travel and part history. The journey takes him to Monaco, to Grasse, where the perfume industry gives off a scent of money, to the sanctity of Lourdes, to the buildings of Paris and the land and wines of Bordeaux. His portrait also includes descriptions of the life of General Lafayette, the crimes of the notorious World War II collaborators and the trials of a Tour de France cyclist.