In "Dancing with De Beauvoir", Colin Nettelbeck explores the powerful synergies between jazz and the French. This authoritative cultural history not only recalls influential performances and recordings. It teases out the threads of artistic collaborations and rivalries, revisits influential meetings, love affairs and friendships, and explores tensions in US-French relations, to show how jazz has helped shaped modern French culture. Stylishly illustrated with rare black-and-white photographs, this is a book for anyone who has ever fallen in love with France, and wondered why.