James Blake has visited France on numerous occasions over the years, firstly when he hitch hiked to La Rochelle in the 1980's, and then in the 1990's on the way to Spain via Beunne and then returning from Morocco, The Western Sahara and Spain in the 2000's via Toulouse and Paris, but James didn't take his first photographs of the country until 2016, when he visited Calais, Lille and Paris.

In 2017 and 2018 James returned to the south of France visiting Cerbere, Perpignan, Narbonne, Toulouse, Nimes, Avignon, Aix-En-Provence, Marseilles, Cassis, Sanary-Sur-Mer, Bandol and Toulon.

James' book on France certainly isn't as comprehensive a book on a country as large as France should be (it would take hundreds of visits to complete that) but it does hopefully show some of the things James saw and show some of the character of the country. To James it seems in a way that France is a country of two halves, a medieval Gothic north and a Mediterranean Roman south, and even though an expensive country to visit, certainly one of the most inspiring especially if you are a town planner. There can be few cities more rewardingly laid out than Nimes for a visitor to experience. And for a lover of Figurative Sculpture few countries have so much fine art on public display as France. France certainly is an inspirational country to see.