THE CAMEMBERT DIAGRAM – A Different Portrait of France

  • An original, sensory journey and a delightful invitation to discover France anew.
  • 12,000 copies sold!

A fresh look at French life, culture, and society through its most popular cultural export: food.

Few countries attract us like France, but how well do we really know the country? Nadia Pantel offers a fresh perspective on French life, culture, and society through its most popular export: food. With charm and wit, she shows how deeply food is intertwined with politics, society, and history in France. Pantel takes us to familiar and unfamiliar places, from a hedonistic yoga retreat in Brittany balancing Crémant glasses on our heads, to reflections on motherhood and colonialism over Pain au Chocolat and Cannalé cakes. She explores societal decline with lobster in Houellebecq’s favorite Paris restaurant and discusses ongoing unrest with the Merguez, the Yellow Vest sausage, and the nuances of political culinary nationalism. 

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  • Publisher: Rowohlt Berlin
  • Release: 13.05.2025
  • ISBN: 978-3-7371-0218-6
  • 224 Pages
  • Author: Nadia Pantel

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Buchcover von THE CAMEMBERT DIAGRAM – A Different Portrait of France: Ein etwas anderes Frankreich-Porträt
Nadia Pantel THE CAMEMBERT DIAGRAM – A Different Portrait of France
Portrait von Nadia Pantel
© Anne Backhaus
Nadia Pantel

Nadia Pantel , born in 1982, studied history and German studies in Freiburg, Berlin, and Krakow. From 2018 to 2022, she was a correspondent in France for the Süddeutsche Zeitung , living in Paris and traveling across the country. During this time, she wrote her successful column La Boum about her Parisian life. Since 2022, she has been a reporter for Der Spiegel , continuing her coverage of France and also writing about Central and Eastern Europe. She has received several awards for her journalistic work.