How to Travel Incognito

Monsieur Le Comte de St Cucuface is a charismatic aristocrat fallen on hard times who slums his way around post-war France in elegant style, trading on his name and his exquisite manners. After a chance encounter on a train, he convinces a wide-eyed Ludwig Bemelmans to adopt the identity of an imaginary German Prince and join him in his ruse for a while. Together they set out on an enchanted adventure through an old France that is crumbling to dust, feeding off the comically vulgar continental set that is fast replacing Cucuface's blue-blooded caste. They dine on the finest food and wine, stay at the finest hotels and chateaux, pausing only for St Cucuface to recount another amusing tale of his eccentric lineage. Originally published in 1952, mixing autobiography and fiction to magical effect, How to Travel Incognito is both a gently comic travelogue and an affectionate and melancholic hymn to the passing of an ancient order.