Vive la France!

A delightful exploration of France's quirky, literary, and culinary heritage. From absinthe and catacombs to former French soccer player Zinedine Zidane, Eatwell leaves no stone unturned, taking readers off the beaten path to explore the kind of information that gets missed in guidebooks and 'official' information sources.

Paris in the fifties by Stanley Karnow
A year in Provence by Peter Mayle

With the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815, the next two centuries for France would be tumultuous. Critically acclaimed historian and political commentator Jonathan Fenby provides an expert and riveting journey through this period as he recounts and analyzes the extraordinary sequence of events of this period from the end of the First Revolution through two others, a return of Empire, three catastrophic wars with Germany, periods of stability and hope interspersed with years of uncertainty and high tensions.

When the King took flight by Timothy Tackett

The stories of American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others who spent time in Paris between 1830 and 1900, pursuing knowledge that would help them excel in their careers, including Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in America, author James Fenimore Cooper, pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk, medical student Oliver Wendell Holmes, and many others.

The age of Napoleon by Alistair Horne