A sometimes poignant but optimistic tale, George’s Grand Tour is a heartwarming read in the vein of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared that teaches us we’re never too old to get out of our comfort zone and have an adventure.

At the age of eighty-three, retired butcher George Nicoleau is about to set off on the greatest adventure of his life. George and his neighbor Charles have long dreamt of a road trip, driving the 3,500 kilometres that make up the stages of the Tour de France. And now that George’s over-protective daughter has gone to South America, it’s time to seize the moment.

But just when he feels free of family ties, George’s granddaughter Adele starts calling him from London, and he finds himself promising to text her as he travels around France, although he doesn’t even know how to use a mobile.

George is plagued by doubts, health worries, and an indifference to modern technology. And yet-might the journey still prove to be everything he had hoped for?

A gentle story with wide, cross-generational appeal, George’s Grand Tour has been a European bestseller with sales of two hundred thousand copies.

Caroline Vermalle writes in French and in English. She worked as a producer for the BBC prior to becoming a writer. She is currently somewhere around the globe, traveling with her husband and son.