France : an adventure history / Graham Robb.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 435-484) and indexes.

Ancient Gaul to the Renaissance -- The hedge -- A home in Gaul -- The invisible land of the woods and the sea -- Time machines -- Cathar treasure -- The tree at the centre of France -- Louis XIV to the Second Empire -- A walk in the garden -- Stained glass -- Bloody Provence -- How he did it -- The murder of Madame Bovary -- Miss Howard's gift to France -- The Third, Fourth and Fifth Republics -- Savage coast -- Keeping track of the dead -- Mount inaccessible -- Martyrs of the Tour de France -- La République en marche! --Demolition -- Notes for travellers -- Maps.

"A wholly original history of France, filled with a lifetime's knowledge and passion-by the author of the New York Times bestseller Parisians. Beginning with the Roman army's first recorded encounter with the Gauls and ending in the era of Emmanuel Macron, France takes readers on an endlessly entertaining journey through French history. Frequently hilarious, always surprising, Graham Robb's France combines the stylistic versatility of a novelist with the deep understanding of a scholar. Robb's own adventures and discoveries while living, working, and traveling in France connect this tour through space and time with on-the-ground experience. There are scenes of wars and revolutions from the plains of Provence to the slums and boulevards of Paris. Robb conveys with wit and precision what it felt like to look over the shoulder of a young Louis XIV as he planned the vast garden of Versailles, and the dangerous thrill of having a ringside seat at the French revolution. Some of the protagonists may be familiar, but appear here in a very different light? Caesar, Charlemagne, Louis XIV, Napoleon Bonaparte, General Charles de Gaulle. This extraordinary narrative is the fruit of decades of research and thirty thousand miles on a self-propelled, two-wheeled time machine (a bicycle). Even seasoned Francophiles will wonder if they really know that terra incognita on the edge of Europe that is currently referred to as "France.""-- Provided by publisher.