A Tour Of French History From A Province Of Rome To The Kingdom Of France

The first thirteen centuries in France saw a new religion, a new language, new learning institutions and the beginnings of a great nation. The region evolved from an amalgamation of warring Gallic tribes to the most powerful kingdom in Europe and the secular arm of the Church of Rome. Much of these first centuries are unfairly regarded as The Dark Ages. There were, propitiously, redeeming periods of light during these times, strongly influenced by an ever-present Church and the will of extraordinary leaders. Many things we experience or hear about today and many places we visit are symbolic markers of the history of France during that period--they have been called ""lieux de memoire."" If you are not familiar with this history and these lieux, that should not prevent you from enjoying la belle France, but if you anchor your discovery in a historical context, your experience will be more profound and memorable. Hence this book.

In this 1994 book, Xavier de Planhol and Paul Claval, two of France's leading scholars in the field, trace the historical geography of their country from its roots in the Roman province of Gaul to the 1990s. They demonstrate how, for centuries, France was little more than an ideological concept, despite its natural physical boundaries and long territorial history. They examine the relatively late development of a more complex territorial geography, involving political, religious, cultural, agricultural and industrial unities and diversities. The conclusion reached is that only in the twentieth century had France achieved a profound territorial unity and only now are the fragmentations of the past being overwritten.

An “engaging, enthusiastic, sympathetic, funny” journey through French history from the New York Times–bestselling author of Absolute Monarchs (The Wall Street Journal). Beginning with Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul in the first century BC, this study of French history comprises a cast of legendary characters―Charlemagne, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Joan of Arc, and Marie Antoinette, to name a few―as John Julius Norwich chronicles France’s often violent, always fascinating history. From the French Revolution―after which neither France nor the world would be the same again―to the storming of the Bastille, from the Vichy regime and the Resistance to the end of the Second World War, A History of France is packed with heroes and villains, battles and rebellion—written with both an expert command of detail and a lively appreciation for the subject matter by this “true master of narrative history” (Simon Sebag Montefiore).