Completely revised and updated, Rick Steves' Paris 2007 includes opinionated coverage of both famous and lesser-known sights; friendly places to eat and sleep; suggested day plans; walking tours and trip itineraries; clear instructions for smooth travel anywhere by car, train, or foot; and Rick's newest "back door" discoveries. America's number one authority on travel to Europe, Rick's time-tested recommendations for safe and enjoyable travel in Europe have been used by millions of Americans in search of their own unique European travel experience.

    Wander the lavender fields of Provence, climb the Eiffel Tower, and bite into a perfect croissant: with Rick Steves on your side, France can be yours!Inside Rick Steves France 2018 you'll find: Comprehensive coverage for planning a multi-week trip to France Rick's strategic advice on how to get the most out of your time and money, with rankings of his must-see favorites Top sights and hidden gems, from Louvre and the Palace of Versailles to neighborhood restaurants and delicate macarons How to connect with local culture: Stroll through open-air markets in Paris, or bike between rustic villages and local vineyards Beat the crowds, skip the lines, and avoid tourist traps with Rick's candid, humorous insight The best places to eat, sleep, and relax over a vin rouge Self-guided walking tours of lively neighborhoods and museums Vital trip-planning tools, like how to link destinations, build your itinerary, and get from place to place Detailed maps, including a fold-out map for exploring on the go Useful resources including a packing list, French phrase book, a historical overview, and recommended reading Over 1,000 bible-thin pages include everything worth seeing without weighing you down Annually updated information on Paris, Chartres, Normandy, Mont St-Michel, Brittany, The Loire, Dordogne, Languedoc-Roussillon, Provence, The French Riviera, Nice, Monaco, The French Alps, Burgundy, Lyon, Alsace, Reims, Verdun, and much more Make the most of every day and every dollar with Rick Steves France 2018. Planning a one- to two-week trip? Check out Rick Steves Best of France.

    During his lifetime he was a bourgeois-baiting visionary, and the list of his known crimes is longer than the list of his published poems. But his posthumous career is even more astonishing: saint to symbolists and surrealists; poster child for anarchy and drug use; gay pioneer; a major influence on artists from Picasso to Bob Dylan.

    Based on a host of recently available letters, memoirs, and manuscripts, it sheds new light on Proust's character, his development as an artist, and his masterpiece 'In Search of Lost Time' (long known in English as Remembrance of Things Past). The biography also sets Proust's life in the decadent artistic and social context of the French fin de sihcle and the years leading up to World War I. The glittering Parisian world of which Proust was a part was also home to such luminaries as Anatole France, Jean Cocteau, and Andri Gide. William Carter brings this vibrant social world to life while he explores the inner world of Proust's intellectual and artistic development, as well as his most intimate personal experience. Carter examines Proust's passionate attachment to his mother, his deep love for the scenes of his youth, his flirtation with Parisian high society, his complicated sexual desires, and his irrevocable commitment to literary truth and shows how all these played out in the making of his great novel. In the book's abundance of detail, its we

    Intrigued by its simple sign—Desforges Pianos—he enters, only to have his way barred by the shop's imperious owner.Unable to stifle his curiosity, he finally lands the proper introduction, and a world previously hidden is brought into view. Luc, the atelier's master, proves an indispensable guide to the history and art of the piano. Intertwined with the story of a musical friendship are reflections on how pianos work, their glorious history, and stories of the people who care for them, from amateur pianists to the craftsmen who make the mechanism sing. The Piano Shop on the Left Bank is at once a beguiling portrait of a Paris not found on any map and a tender account of the awakening of a lost childhood passion.

    The accompanying book reveals, in the form of letters, notes, small books, and drawings, their subsequent exchange of ideas on color*an visual odyssey that ranges from Matisse's blue to the blue of Yves Klein; from industrial brown anti-rust paint to Joseph Beuys' Braunkreuz, from mysterious cave paintings to Byzantine gold leaf. Unprecedented and engaging, aesthetically stunning and intellectually enlightening, I Send You This Cadmium Red both explores new OEays of seeing' and provides a key to understanding the work of these two artists.

    General Koenig, the commander of the Free French and the Foreign Legion in North Africa, and his two thousand troops had been surrounded for fifteen days and nights by Rommel's Afrika Corps. Outnumbered ten to one, pounded by wave after wave of Stuka and Heinkel bombers, the general and his men seemed doomed. Though their situation was hopeless, they chose to reject the Desert Fox's demand for surrender. Instead, one moonless night, the French made an audacious and suicidal bid for freedom by charging directly through the German lines. Leading the way was Susan Travers. The only woman ever to serve officially in the French Foreign Legion, there was the indomitable Englishwoman, speeding across the minefields of 'no man's land' directly towards Rommel's deadly Panzer tanks, her foot hard on the accelerator, doing her job: driving the general's car. That it was leading two thousand men in one of the great military exploits of the Second World War, the legendary mass break-out from Bir Hakeim, that it would see her hailed as the heroine of the night and eventually earn her both the Military Medal and the Legion d'Honneur, was not on her mind as the night exploded around her and German artillery lit up the desert sky. Her only thought was this: she was trying to save the life of the man she loved."Tomorrow to be Brave" is the story of Susan Travers's extraordinary life, from her privileged childhood in England through her rebellious youth partying her way across interwar Europe, to her rash decision to join the Free French forces at theoutbreak of World War II. In search of adventure -- and a break from her stifling upper-class world -- she could never have dreamed the pivotal role she would play. From her part in the North African campaign through her time after the war serving in the French Foreign Legion as a regular officer -- the only woman ever to have achieved this -- there was enough adventure and passion, heartbreak and heroism, to fill a hundred lifetimes. This, in her own words, is her story. It is a tale of exceptional courage against overwhelming odds and of an epic love affair played out against the backdrop of war as she risked everything for the country -- and the man -- she loved.

    Chronicles the life & death of the Cathar movement, led by a group of heretical Christians whose brutal suppression by the Catholic Church unleashed the Inquisition.

    verso.

    In spite of missing her best friend, Charlotte becomes enchanted with France and records her colorful experiences in her journal. She makes new friends, plants a garden, learns to speak French, and even attends the wedding of Monsieur Monet's daughter!Illustrated with beautiful museum reproductions and charming watercolor collages, Charlotte in Giverny includes a French glossary as well as biographical sketches of the featured painters. This delightful journal of a young girl's exciting year will capture readers' imaginations and leave a lasting impression.

    Here are tomb paintings and sarcophagi from the Valley of the Kings, devotional altarpieces expressing the religious fervor of the Middle Ages, and masterpieces by Giotto, Raphael, Leonardo, Rembrandt, Rubens, Delacroix, David, Vermeer, and Ingres.The Louvre also contains photos and historical drawings of the architectural development of the fortress-turned-palace-turned-museum, as well as an engaging account of French history that helped form one of the most spectacular collections in the world.

    Helena, Napoleon Bonaparte has been remembered as either demi-god or devil incarnate. In The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, the first volume of a two-volume cradle-to-grave biography, Robert Asprey instead treats him as a human being. Asprey tells this fascinating, tragic tale in lush narrative detail. The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte is an exciting, reckless thrill ride as Asprey charts Napoleon's vertiginous ascent to fame and the height of power. Here is Napoleon as he was-not saint, not sinner, but a man dedicated to and ultimately devoured by his vision of himself, his empire, and his world.

    Why did Hitler turn against France in the Spring of 1940 and not before? And why were his poor judgement and inadequate intelligence about the Allies nonetheless correct? Why didn't France take the offensive earlier, when it might have led to victory? What explains France's failure to detect and respond to Germany's attack plan? Skillfully weaving together decisions of the high commands with the confused responses from exhausted and ill-informed, or ill-advised, officers in the field, the distinguished diplomatic historian Ernest R. May offers many new insights into the tragic paradoxes of the battle for France.

    Photos.

    From the Howl obscenity trial to the invention of the cut-up technique, Barry Miles's extraordinary narrative chronicles the feast of ideas that was Paris, where the Beats took awestruck audiences with Duchamp and Celine, and where some of their most important work came to fruition--Ginsberg's "Kaddish" and "To Aunt Rose"; Corso's The Happy Birthday of Death; and Burroughs's Naked Lunch. Based on firsthand accounts from diaries, letters, and many original interviews, The Beat Hotel is an intimate look at an era of spirit, dreams, and genius.

    The Complete Encyclopedia of Soccer is a celebration of the sport, describing the history, organization, legendary players, clubs, notable coaches and stadium, as well as providing in-depth information on the major competitions and highlighting the laws and tactics as they have evolved over the past 130 years.

    The action-packed narrative includes Syria, Iran,Afghanistan, Tibet, China and Cambodia.

    Together with the great cathedrals, these remarkable medieval buildings embody the profound mastery of architecture that blossomed in 12th- and 13th-century France. Architecture of Silence is the first book in English devoted solely to these exquisite structures, which draw tens of thousands of visitors of all nationalities each year.The power and beauty of these sacred buildings and ruins, renowned among architects and designers for their austere, almost minimal design and construction, come alive in David Heald's luminous tritone photographs. The text by Terryl N. Kinder, the world's leading scholar on the subject, offers a clear introduction to the history and architecture of the early Cistercian monks, who built the abbeys nearly 900 years ago.

    ● In-depth pieces that illuminate such treasures of the City of Light as the bridges on the Seine; Parisian train stations; cobbled streets and hidden gardens; the peculiarities of the French language; the delights of French bread, chocolate, and wine; and much more.● Enticing recommendations for further reading, including novels, histories, memoirs, cookbooks, and guidebooks.● An A–Z Miscellany of concise and entertaining information on special shops, hotels, and museums not to be missed; French phrases and customs; boat trips on the Seine; Jewish history; antiques; spas; tips for shopping; and the most romantic spots in Paris.● Recommendations for excursions to Chartres, Fontainebleau, Burgundy, Brittany, and Champagne.● More than 150 photographs and illustrations.

    She tells the story of her love affair with France and French food in terms of real people and places.

    An essential compendium of the letters of Marcel Duchamp, the father of modern art in the twentieth century.

    Filled with information on where to go and what to do, this insider's guide is as practical as it is dazzling.

    The book also surveys the various practices of individual artists in the making, signing, exhibiting and selling of impressions.

    Winner of the National Book Award for Marcel Proust, a sweeping examination of Proust's life and works, Shattuck now offers a useful and eminently readable guidebook to Proust's epic masterpiece, and a contemplation of memory and consciousness throughout great literature. Here, Shattuck laments Proust's defenselessness against zealous editors, praises some translations, and presents Proust as a novelist whose philosophical gifts were matched only by his irrepressible comic sense. Proust's Way, the culmination of a lifetime of scholarship, will serve as the next generation's guide to one of the world's finest writers of fiction.

    Born into the financial bourgeoisie that was a world apart from the royal court, the beautiful Jeanne Antoinette nonetheless fulfilled this prophecy by becoming Madame de Pompadour, the most famous and influential mistress of Louis XV. In this sumptuous biography, Evelyne Lever traces the enduring friendship between the monarch and his favorite, and the far-reaching implications-both personal and political-of their relationship. Pompadour was devoted to Louis XV, and her contribution to the culture of the age was significant: she was an outstanding singer and actress, entertaining the King and the court in impressive stage productions, and was a longtime patron of the visual arts. She commissioned paintings by Boucher, Nattier, Van Loo, La Tour, and Pigalle, and she formed friendships with many of the philosophers and writers of the period, including Fontenelle, Crebillon, and Voltaire. In effect, she was France's minister of culture at a time when no such position existed. But she was loathed for her role in France's disastrous military losses, and was the victim of persistent court gossip and intrigues. This vibrant biography sheds new light on the talented and resilient woman who influenced, for better and worse, the fate of a nation.

    The story Mark Ford tells about Roussel's life and work is at once captivating, heartbreaking, and almost beyond belief. Could even Proust or Nabokov have invented a character as strange and memorable as the exquisite dandy and graphomaniac this book brings to life?Roussel's poetry, novels, and plays influenced the work of many well-known writers and artists: Jean Cocteau found in him "genius in its pure state," while Salvador Dalí, who died with a copy of Roussel's Impressions d'Afrique on his bedside table, believed him to be one of France's greatest writers ever. Edmond Rostand, Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, Michel Foucault, and Alain Robbe-Grillet all testified to the power of his unique imagination.By any standards, Roussel led an extraordinary life. Tremendously wealthy, he took two world tours during which he hardly left his hotel rooms. He never wore his clothes more than twice, and generally avoided conversation because he dreaded that it might turn morbid. Ford, himself a poet, traces the evolution of Roussel's bizarre compositional methods and describes the idiosyncrasies of a life structured as obsessively as Roussel structured his writing.

    Dramatized by William Shakespeare in Henry V, the Battle of Agincourt changed the course of the Hundred Years War and Britain’s relationship with her longtime enemy, France. In a remarkable work commemorating the 600th anniversary of arguably the most iconic military engagement of the medieval era, a wide range of experts examine the battle in its political, cultural, and geographical contexts, detailing strategies, tactics, armor, weapons, and fighting techniques while exploring the battlefield experiences of commanders and ordinary soldiers alike. In addition, this all-encompassing study offers deep analyses of many artifacts and aspects of the battle and its aftermath that have rarely been covered in other histories, including medicine and hygiene, the roles of faith and chivalry, the music of the times, and the experiences of women.

    The book ends with President Mitterand's retirement, an epochal event that marked the severing of France's last link with the Vichy government and the Fourth Republic.

    This is a comprehensive biography of the French composer Gabriel Faure for the general reader, placing his work in the context of his times.

    The book focuses on the construction of social institutions, treating gay activist organizations and their relation to post-1968 French feminism, gay ghettos in French cities, the gay press, the impact of AIDS on political identity, and the renewed militancy of the 1990s. While acknowledging the influence of America’s gay liberation movement on the French situation, the author emphasizes the differences arising from the fact that homosexuality has not historically been criminalized in France as it has been in the United States.The book is divided into four parts. Part I, “The Revolution of Desire (1968-79),” which examines the activism of the early post-1968 gay liberation movement, is preceded by a historical summary that traces French cultural, political, and social attitudes toward homosexuality. It also explores the relations between the movements for gay and women’s liberation in their various incarnations. Part II, “The Time of Socialization (1979-84)” describes the development of gay ghettos and the dissemination of gay institutions (media, countercultural venues, bars, baths, and the like). The pivotal year is 1981, which saw the advent of François Mitterrand’s government, with its pro-gay policies, as well as the first tracking of AIDS in the United States.Part III, “End of the Carefree Life (1981-89),” deals with initial reactions in France to the AIDS epidemic, reactions that included the realization of its ubiquity, first with the death of Michel Foucault in 1984, and then with the media spectacle of Rock Hudson’s death in 1985. The author describes the French government’s response to the epidemic, the role of French medical researchers in searching for the causes of the infection, and the development of Aides (meaning helpers), a social, medical, and political-action group dedicated to raising public and personal awareness of AIDS. Part IV, “The Time of Contradictions (1989-96),” focuses on the changing social institutions of homosexuality in the 1990s: the development of ACT-UP, based on the American model, in France; the campaign to promote safer sex; the integration of seropositive individuals into the homosexual community; and the acceptance of homosexuality almost as a given. The book concludes with a thoughtful epilogue on the integration of minority communities into French society.

    Color and b&w illustrations.

    Explore the fascinating world of the manatee and learn what you can do to keep this gentle giant of the rivers and sea from vanishing from our planet forever.The Crown Publishing Group has made a contribution to the Save the Manatee Club, adopting manatees for each member of its sales force.

    We learn how they reflected, in their decoration and organization, the manners and mores of their occupants--how the different rooms were lived in, how changes in taste accommodated the waxing and waning fortunes of the aristocracy (and then the bourgeoisie), how design and architecture evolved to serve changing lifestyles and values. The grim fortified donjons of old developed into the extravagant towers in which late-medieval seigneurs lived in luxury and splendor. In the time of Francis I and his successors, the romance of chivalry infused with Renaissance culture: the pageantry of balls and masques in the grande salle, the cultivation of privacy in richly decorated cabinets and galleries. In the ancien régime, the château offered intimate conversations in seventeenth-century alcoves, amorous encounters in Louis Quinze boudoirs, the pleasures of private theatricals, and the refined social life of the salon. After the Revolution, the noblesse returned to its medieval roots, but brought old values up to date with plush upholstered sofas, potted palms, and parks in the English manner. Seriousness was diluted by the extravagant entertainments of the Belle Epoque, and in our own time nostalgia combines with a dogged fight for survival.Mr. Girouard is as a marvelous guide to "downstairs" as he is to "upstairs," showing us how the kitchens operated, how the stables were organized, how the servants were provided for, as well as how developments in lighting, plumbing, and water supply affected everyone's comfort and customs. He has explored scores of French houses, as well as the letters and diaries, inventories, and books of etiquette that give us an intimate sense of what it meant to inhabit a French country house.For everyone who has visited or dreamed of the French countryside, this endlessly appealing book will bring to life that storied place and its people.

    Roger was only nine years old when the German army invaded and occupied Dijon, France, his home town. He struggles to understand food rations, and fellow citizens who become traitors or resort to prostitution. At age 13, he becomes a junior agent performing reconnaisance missions for the French resistance. While vividly describing World War II, A Garden of Thorns is ultimately Roger's (and France's) story of survival, endurance, and recovery.

    Anne Curry's startling history recreates the campaign and battle from the perspectives of the English and the French. Only now, through an in-depth investigation of the contemporary narrative sources as well as the administrative records, and through a new look at the terrain where the battle was fought, can we come to firmer conclusions on what exactly happened, and why. This book, based on years of painstaking research and reflection, makes clear the genius of Henry V as a military leader, and the strengths and capabilities of the English army which he commanded. There can be no doubt of the desire of the French to resist him and to protect their homeland from his invasion. The French fought bravely and to the death. So what went wrong for the French? This question, and many more, are answered in this lively new history.

    It is a city that is able to enjoy the past but relish modernity; a city whose New Bridge is 400 years old; a city where you can see the brash modern severity of La D

    Describes the events preceding, during, and following the American Revolution, from the Stamp Act in 1765 to the signing of the treaty in Paris in 1783.

    But French food goes beyond ratatouille and reputation. It has a beating heart that you'll discover in the crowds of Marseille markets, Bordeaux wine cellars and within this book. Whether you crave the creamiest goat's milk cheese or want to create your own crepes, this guide shares the secret ingredients behind France's culinary culture. an exploration of the regions and their specialities an extensive guide to wines and wine regions shopping the street markets of Paris tasting truffles, terrines and foie gras the definitive culinary dictionary, a quick reference glossary and useful phrases for every food & drink occasion tantalising photography and recipes

    Whether grandiose or miniscule, highly manicured or exuberantly untended, these gardens are a secret treasure seldom seen by the visitor to Paris. This book reveals some 50 gardens, all created with passion by their owners, often in collaboration with well-known landscape designers. Each proprietor discusses the conditions in which the garden was created, the constraints and the problems that were encountered, and explains why the final design and plantings were chosen.

    Describes Charles Martel's rise to power in medieval France and his involvement in the development of the feudal system.

    This book is invaluable for GCSE preparation and for individual revision at A Level.

    Having succeeded in that epic venture, they faced the prospect of moving beyond the beaches of France.For the Germans who had failed to halt the Allies at the water's edge, the question was how to stop the enemy from further advance before it was too late.Martin Blumenson never forgets that the Allies' spectacular dash from their Normandy beachhead to the German border in the summer of 1944 was accomplished by men of flesh and blood -- and led by officers with human doubts, limitations, and determination. He shows us how war is conducted, makes us share the pressures and responsibilities of the commanders, and unforgettably opens us to the hopes and fears of the men who constantly faced the imminence of death. Here are the familiar figures, but revealed in new perspective -- Eisenhower, Montgomery, Bradley, Patton, Rommel. This is a masterly and dramatic military narrative in the great tradition -- and a moving human record of a turning point in history.

    Opera architecture.

    These finely drawn representations of provincial courtship, marriage, and domestic life have been called the closest thing in French to the novels of Jane Austen. A daughter of a distinguished Dutch noble family, she was known in her youth as Belle de Zuylen. At the age of twenty she began a clandestine correspondence with a middle-aged Swiss colonel stationed in Holland. David-Louis, Baron de Constant d'Hermenches, was a friend of Voltaire, an accomplished musician, an amateur writer, and a ladies' man. Their correspondence was one of the finest in a great age of letter-writing. It lasted fifteen years, and nearly all of it is extant. Although the two rarely saw each other, their epistolary friendship became one of great depth and scope. Their correspondence touches on a wide range of subjects: James Boswell's courtship of Isabelle, her opinions of English high society, the new smallpox inoculation, and visits by royalty. It includes firsthand accounts of the French conquest of Corsica and of Voltaire's social activism. Readers acquainted with Charriere's novels will see in these letters the same finely observed detail, epistolary style, and moral and intellectual awareness. Janet and Malcolm Whatley live in Burlington, Vermont. Janet Whatley is a professor of French at the University of Vermont specializing in the literature of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.

    PROVENCE : ART, ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE

    American History. Earth Science. Geography. Health. Space. True Books covers all this and more in photo-filled chapter books that provide a basic introduction to curriculum-relevant topics. Ideal for today's young investigative reader, each True Book includes lively sidebars, a glossary and an index, plus a comprehensive "To Find Out More" section listing books, organizations, and Internet sites. A staple of library collections since the 1950s, and redesigned with a fresh new look in 1996, the new True Books series is the definitive nonfiction series for elementary school readers.

    It takes a wide European perspective on the Normans, assessing and explaining Norman expansion, their political and social organization and their eventual decline. The Normans in Europe explores: the process of assimilation between Scandinavians and Franks and the emergence of Normandy; the internal organization of the principality with a variety of source materials from chronicles, miracle stories and chapters; the role of women and children in Norman society; and a variety of other areas.

    

    Often, they see a tall, elegant lady strolling in the park with her tiny puppy. Then, a comical incident transforms Suzette and the puppy into friends. The time and place of this gentle story is Paris in the 1870s, when many fine artists were creating the exciting approach to painting called Impressionism. As it happens, little Suzette's Uncle Edgar is one of those artists. He is the famous Edgar Degas. One day, Uncle Edgar sends an artist to paint Suzette's picture. Imagine Suzette's surprise, when the artist turns out to be the tall lady from the park! And imagine Suzette's delight when the little puppy comes with her! The result of this enchanting meeting lives on to this day in an art masterpiece. For the woman was the major American artist, Mary Cassatt. Her painting of Suzette and the little dog, known as The Little Girl in the Blue Armchair, now hangs in the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C. Among this book's many beautiful full-color illustrations is a reproduction of the story's painting.

    What can one say of Pinget, as he comes through in Miss Wright's loving translations, except that he conveys, amid much wilful murk, an impression of integrity, intelligence and power? -- John Updike. Having translated thirteen earlier works by Pinget, Barbara Wright has much to say about this important personage of contemporary French letters, and appends a useful afterword to this volume: TRACES OF INK is Robert Pinget's last published book. It came out in the spring of 1997, and was followed that summer by a colloquium in Tours celebrating every aspect of his work; this was a happy, successful occasion which Pinget much enjoyed. Only a month later, though, he had a stroke and died. It is fitting that Pinget's last work is written in a notebook form, his signature genre despite his writing of both novels and plays. Pinget helps us to stay alive and sustain our own enquiry -- Barbara Wright, (Afterword).