There was such a Sunday atmosphere that it was almost nauseating. Maigret liked to claim, half serious, half joking, that he always had the ability to sniff out Sundays from the depths of his bed, without even having to open his eyes.
--Georges Simenon, Mon ami Maigret (Penguin, 1949, translated by Shaun Whiteside)
In one of the longer Maigret novels he travels to the island Porquerolles, off the southern coast of France where a man named Marcellin had mentioned Maigret's name shortly before he was killed. Maigret is accompanied by Inspector Pyke of Scotland Yard, who has come to France to study Maigret's method. Of course Maigret has no special "method; " he just digs everywhere until he eventually comes up with an answer. Porquerolles is full of suspects, those who have come by boat from other countries and have ended up staying indefinitely, struck by "polquerollitis," an affliction of the quiet and slow pace of the island.
There is much drinking of wine and beer as Maigret gradually interrogates all of Marcellin's friends and is fortunate enough to talk to Algae, the woman who runs the post office where everyone on the island goes to make phone calls. Algae listens to most of the phone calls and is able to give Maigret enough information about them to help him track down the killers. Maigret even rediscovers Ginette, who was Marcellin's girlfriend whom Maigret had helped get into rehab, and they become friends.
Maigret and Mr. Pyke took the Comoran at five o'clock and Ginette was on it, as well as Charlot and his dancer, and all the tourists who had spent the day on the beaches of the island.
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