"Il lui semblait que certains lieux sur la terre devaient produire du bonheur, comme une plante particulière au sol et qui pousse mal tout autre part." - Flaubert.
"to her [Emma] it seemed that certain places on earth must produce happiness, like the plants that thrive in a certain soil and are stunted everywhere else." (p.38, Penguin classic)
This idea, which Flaubert places in the mind of the foolish young Emma - only two pages he has mentioned her passion for Lamartine, a poet he did not respect - but perhaps it is not such a silly idea. Flaubert presents Emma's dissatisfaction with the calm and peace of her existence as a misunderstanding of happiness: "it seemed quite inconceivable [to her] that this calm life of hers could really be the happiness of which she used to dream". It is Emma's dangerous restlessness which propels her forward into trouble.
Lawrence Durrell championed the idea of spirit of place, and it is everywhere in his writing from Justine to Caesar's Vast Ghost.
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