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Espionage, so far, is not a theme that has captured the French imagination. It has clearly been monopolized by the Anglo-Saxon world, whose representations of espionage are legion in novels, films and TV series, although the theme has been a source of inspiration for a few French copies or pastiches of original works. A recent series, Le Bureau des légendes, seems to be an exception to the lack of appetite for spy characters in French fiction. Our analysis of the original picture it gives of the world of French intelligence aims to help understand the reasons for this intriguing gap in French fiction.