When Ludwig Bemelmans encounters the dashing yet penniless Comte de St. Cucuface aboard a Paris train, he is swept into a deliciously absurd adventure through 1950s France. Under the Count's mischievous tutelage, Bemelmans assumes the role of a German prince, hoodwinking strangers with impeccable manners and effortless charm.
Together, the unlikely duo embark on a run of outlandish escapades, living lavishly on nothing at all. They dine in grand hotels, commandeer Rolls-Royces, outwit restaurateurs and enchant American millionaires with fantastical tales of their aristocratic pasts.
Brimming with quick wit and enlivened by charming illustrations, How to Travel Incognito captures a France suspended between fading elegance and the glitter of the new. Fictionalising Bemelmans's own improbable exploits, it's a reminder that the best journeys let us become someone else entirely.