WICE's "Café Littéraire: Savoring French Literature in English" offers a unique and enriching literary experience. We look for French literature that has won (or been nominated for) one of the six big French literary prizes, and that is available in English translation. The monthly discussions are in English.

"Café Littéraire" provides an opportunity to explore these masterpieces in the original French or in English translation. The works selected offer a window into French culture, history, and literary tradition, and allow members to immerse themselves in the eloquence and artistry of France's most esteemed authors.


The group normally meets on the 4th Friday of each month from 3:00 - 4:30 pm.

Note: Historically our book reading groups have been among the most popular activities in WICE, and available spaces often fill quickly. We reserve two places in this group each month for new WICE members. If no new members have signed up four days before the meeting, we will open these seats to all members.

If you would like more information or if you have questions, please email:

literature@wice-paris.org

Return to Literature

UPCOMING EVENTS

    • 26 Sep 2025
    • 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
    • A member's apartment near Place de la République. Details will be included in reminder emails.
    • 7
    Register

    Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is a landmark novel of 19th-century French literature that explores the tensions between romantic ideals and mundane reality. It follows Emma Bovary, a provincial doctor’s wife who yearns for passion, luxury, and a life of excitement beyond the confines of her dull marriage and small-town life. Influenced by romantic novels and disillusioned with domesticity, Emma engages in affairs and spends recklessly in pursuit of beauty and meaning. But her attempts to escape lead only to emotional turmoil and financial ruin. Flaubert’s style—precise, ironic, and emotionally restrained—offers a penetrating portrait of a woman’s desires clashing with societal expectations. The novel was controversial at the time of its publication in 1857, leading to an obscenity trial, but has since become a foundational work in literary realism. Madame Bovary remains a powerful study of disillusionment, longing, and the tragic costs of self-deception.

    Two spaces are reserved for new WICE members. If no new WICE members have registered before 19 September, those two spaces will become available to the general WICE membership.


    The book group meets at the organizer's apartment. The directions, door code, telephone number, etc., are sent in the 7-day and 1-day reminder emails, following registration.

    Registration for the September meeting opens on 01 September 2025.

    • 24 Oct 2025
    • 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
    • To be announced
    • 10

    Total Chaos is the first novel in Jean-Claude Izzo’s gritty Marseilles Trilogy, a landmark of French noir that blends crime fiction with social critique and Mediterranean lyricism. The story follows Fabio Montale, an ex-cop drawn back into a violent underworld when two childhood friends are brutally murdered. Set in the sun-drenched, volatile streets of Marseilles, the novel explores themes of loyalty, lost ideals, racism, corruption, and the personal cost of justice. As Fabio investigates, he’s forced to confront not only the criminal forces at work but also his own past and complicity in the chaos around him. Izzo’s Marseilles is not just a backdrop but a living, breathing character—multicultural, decaying, and deeply human. With its blend of poetic language, political edge, and emotional depth, Total Chaos transcends the crime genre, offering a mournful, passionate portrait of a man—and a city—struggling to hold onto a sense of meaning amid collapse.


    The book group meets at the organizer's apartment. The directions, door code, telephone number, etc., are sent in the 7-day and 1-day reminder emails, following registration.

    Registration for the October meeting opens on Saturday, 27 September 2025.

    • 28 Nov 2025
    • 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
    • To be announced
    • 10

    Fresh Water for Flowers, by Valérie Perrin, is a tender, quietly powerful novel about grief, resilience, and the hidden lives of ordinary people. The story centers on Violette Toussaint, a cemetery caretaker in a small French town, whose calm exterior hides a past marked by deep sorrow and unexpected joy. As mourners come and go, Violette tends not just to graves but to the emotional weight others carry—and, in doing so, slowly reveals her own story: a complicated marriage, an unimaginable loss, and the unlikely friendships that help her endure. When a police officer arrives with questions about his mother’s final wishes, it sets in motion a series of revelations that reshape Violette’s understanding of her own life. Poetic, humane, and laced with humor, Fresh Water for Flowers explores how love and loss intertwine, and how healing often comes from the most surprising places.

    Two spaces are reserved for new WICE members. If no new WICE members have registered before 17 November, those two spaces will become available to the general WICE membership.


    The book group meets at the organizer's apartment. The directions, door code, telephone number, etc., are sent in the 7-day and 1-day reminder emails, following registration.

    Registration for the November meeting opens on Saturday, 25 October 2025.

    • 19 Dec 2025
    • 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
    • To be announced
    • 10

    The Great Meaulnes, by Alain-Fournier, is a haunting coming-of-age novel that blends youthful idealism with nostalgia and loss. Narrated by François Seurel, the story follows the enigmatic Augustin Meaulnes, a charismatic student who stumbles upon a mysterious, dreamlike estate and falls in love with the elusive Yvonne de Galais. Meaulnes becomes obsessed with finding the estate and reclaiming that fleeting moment of enchantment. Set in the French countryside at the turn of the 20th century, the novel explores themes of lost innocence, romantic yearning, and the disillusionment that often follows the pursuit of idealized dreams. Alain-Fournier, who died in World War I shortly after the novel’s publication, infused his only work with a sense of tragic beauty and emotional depth that continues to resonate with readers today.







    Two spaces are reserved for new WICE members. If no new WICE members have registered before 17 December, those two spaces will become available to the general WICE membership.


    The book group meets at the organizer's apartment. The directions, door code, telephone number, etc., are sent in the 7-day and 1-day reminder emails, following registration.

    Registration for the December meeting opens on 25 November 2025.

Past events

27 Jun 2025 LU271 Café Littéraire: Ballerina (La Danseuse), by Patrick Modiano
23 May 2025 LY231 Café Littéraire: "Chéri," by Colette
25 Apr 2025 LA251 Café Littéraire: "La Familia Grande," by Camile Kouchner
28 Mar 2025 LM281 Café Littéraire: Clara Reads Proust
28 Feb 2025 LF281 Café Littéraire Book Group: Fear and Trembling, by Amélie Nothomb
24 Jan 2025 LJ241 Café Littéraire Book Group - The Perfect Nanny ("Chanson Douce"), by Leila Slimani
20 Dec 2024 LD201 Café Littéraire: The Stranger, by Albert Camus
22 Nov 2024 LN221 Café Littéraire: Bonjour Tristesse ("Hello Sadness"), by Françoise Sagan
25 Oct 2024 LO251 Café Littéraire: Lady in White ("La Dame Blanche"), by Christian Bobbin
04 Oct 2024 LO041 Café Littéraire: HHhH, by Laurent Binet
05 Jul 2024 LL051 Café Littéraire: The Elegance of the Hedgehog (L'Élégance du hérisson), Muriel Barbary
17 May 2024 LY171 Café Littéraire: The Braid (La Tresse), by Laetitia Colombani
26 Apr 2024 LA261 Café Littéraire: The Lover (L'Amant), by Marguerite Duras
29 Mar 2024 LM291 Café Littéraire Spring and Autumn Book Selection
23 Feb 2024 LM221 Café Littéraire - L'Ordre du Jour (The Order of the Day), by Éric Vuillard
26 Jan 2024 LJ261 Café Littéraire - Nos Richesses (Our Riches), by Kaouther Adimi
15 Dec 2023 LD151 Café Littéraire: Personne (No One), by Gwenaëlle Aubry
24 Nov 2023 LN241 L'Anomalie (The Anomaly), by Hervé le Tellier
27 Oct 2023 LO271 Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée (Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter), by Simone de Beauvoir