Cliff hanger in France with Emily Freud
The Cliff hanger with Emily Freud
In The Cliffhanger, Felix and Emma, a bestselling writing duo, are sent to the South of France to escape a creative slump and repair their marriage. Surrounded by the beauty of Provence, the tension in their relationship threatens to unravel beneath the sweltering heat. While the locations in the novel are fictional, they draw heavily from real villages, ruins, and hidden corners of the region. Here, I share the places that inspired the novel’s settings and helped bring its atmosphere to life.
Book map of locations in Cliff Hanger
Ménerbes
Book map of locations in Cliff Hanger
Emma and Felix’s Bastide
The house in the novel sits at the top of a hill, rooted in the bastides and old manor homes that dot Provence. I pictured it in a landscape similar to the Luberon: places like Ménerbes or Bonnieux, where sun-softened stone buildings hide behind iron gates, shaded courtyards, and climbing vines. The house has long shuttered windows, flat terracotta roofs, and medieval arches half-swallowed by jasmine. Cotignac, with its sheer cliffs and dwellings carved into rock, matched the sense of dramatic seclusion I wanted for the house. I wanted the house to feel old but cared for, lived in but not overly modernised. A place that remembers, and the unsettling sense that something is just out of sight.
Book map of locations in Cliff Hanger
Sommières
The Town
The nearby town — all long lunches and evening strolls — takes its mood from places like Uzès, with its rosy stone facades and quiet squares, and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where old men play pétanque beneath olive trees. The flower boxes, faded shutters, and gentle buzz of café conversations are drawn from towns like Lourmarin and Sommières, where medieval architecture mingles with everyday life. I loved capturing that sense of timelessness, where life moves slowly. The town offers a picturesque escape for Felix and Emma as the tension builds and their dynamic shifts.
Book map of locations in Cliff Hanger
Lac de Saint-Cassien
The Lake
Later in the story, Felix and Juliette cycle to a lake tucked deep within the trees — inspired by the many hidden freshwater spots across Provence and Languedoc. For example, Lac de Saint-Cassien, with its glassy water and pine forests, shaped the feel of this place. There is something sinister mounting beneath this serene backdrop, and the gentle lapping of the water and the dappled light through the canopy offer a temporary calm before the unravelling.
Book map of locations in Cliff Hanger
Bar de la Marine in Marseille
Juliette’s Bar
Juliette’s bar is tucked away and worn in all the right ways. I took inspiration from places like Bar de la Marine in Marseille — a real dive with low lighting, peeling posters, and regulars who never give up their stool. It’s a little scruffy, the kind of place where Juliette could pour something unlabelled into a chipped glass without question. It’s both welcoming and secretive — the perfect backdrop for a character who exists slightly outside the rules.
Book map of locations in Cliff Hanger
Château de Peyrepertuse
The Castle
The crumbling castle Felix and Juliette explore is a forgotten pilgrimage site clinging to the cliffs. I drew from the ancient grandeur of Château de Peyrepertuse and the eerie remoteness of Montségur, both perched high above the land and steeped in history. Time feels warped in these places. The characters’ visit to the castle marks a turning point in their emotional journey.
The Book Within the Book
Book map of locations in Cliff Hanger
The novel Felix and Emma are working on is set far from France — in a quiet, sun-scorched suburb just outside Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Picture a neighbourhood of low-slung, southwestern-style homes surrounded by red rocky mountains and vast, cloudless skies. Life here is seasonal: mild in winter, scorching in summer. Cacti stand like silent sentinels as residents go about their routines — barbecues, football games, and the hum of mall life. In this seemingly still, all-American backdrop, their protagonists, Hanna and Sebastian, begin a terrifying story that mirrors what is happening to the pair back in France — fiction bleeding into reality, line by line.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Cliff Hanger
Twitter: @MsEmilyFreud
