France Memoir

Chief minister to King Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu was the architect of a new France in the 17th century, and the force behind the nation's rise as a European power. Among the first statesmen to clearly understand the necessity of a balance of powers, he was one of the early realist politicians, practicing in the wake of Niccol Machiavelli. Truly larger than life, he has captured the imagination of generations, both through his own story and through his portrayal as a ruthless political mastermind in Alexandre Dumas's classic The Three Musketeers.

Journalist Maximillian Potter uncovers a fascinating plot to destroy the vines of La Romance-Conti, Burgundy's finest and most expensive wine. In January 2010, Aubert de Villaine, the famed proprietor of the Domaine de la Romance-Conti, the tiny, storied vineyard that produces the most expensive, exquisite wines in the world, received an anonymous note threatening the destruction of his priceless vines by poison - a crime that in the world of high-end wine is akin to murder - unless he paid a one million euro ransom.

Ragnar Lothbrok was a legendary warrior who left a legacy among the Vikings like none other. Today's popular TV show may have popularized Ragnar's story, but the real facts are not very well known. Discover the truth behind this Viking warrior and the rich history of the Vikings.

When Simon Kuper left London for Paris in his early thirties, he wasn't planning to make a permanent move. Paris, however, had other plans. Kuper has grown middle-aged there, eaten the croissants, seen his American wife through life-threatening cancer, taken his children to countless football matches on freezing Saturday mornings in the city's notorious banlieues, and in 2015 lived through two terrorist attacks on their neighborhood. Over two decades of becoming something of a cantankerous Parisian himself, Kuper has watched the city change.

The profoundly inspiring and fully documented saga of Joan of Arc, the young peasant girl whose "voices" moved her to rally the French nation and a reluctant king against British invaders in 1428, has fascinated artistic figures as diverse as William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Voltaire, George Bernard Shaw, Bertolt Brecht, Carl Dreyer, and Robert Bresson. Was she a divinely inspired saint? A schizophrenic? A demonically possessed heretic, as her persecutors and captors tried to prove?

A daredevil pilot in the famed 352nd Fighter Squadron, the author of this remarkable memoir bailed out of his burning Mustang two days after D-Day and was launched on a thrilling adventure on the ground in Occupied France.

Einhard served Charlemagne, king and Holy Roman Emperor, for 23 years. From that experience, combined with his in-depth research, Einhard penned this biography of Charlemagne in the style of Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars. Because he felt indebted to Charlemagne, Einhard wrote in a partial tone, exalting the man’s achievements and overlooking certain unflattering details about his life. Despite this, historians regard The Life of Charlemagne as an important historical account that, while not far-reaching, is largely reliable.

Bronx-born top turret-gunner Arthur Meyerowitz was on his second mission when he was shot down in 1943. He was one of only two men on the B-24 Liberator known as Harmful Lil Armful who escaped death or immediate capture on the ground. After fleeing the wreck, Arthur knocked on the door of an isolated farmhouse, whose owners hastily took him in. Fortunately, his hosts not only despised the Nazis but had a tight connection to the French resistance group Morhange and its founder, Marcel Taillandier.

No leader of modern times was more uniquely patriotic than Charles de Gaulle. As founder and first president of the Fifth Republic, General de Gaulle saw himself as "carrying France on [his] shoulders." In his 20s, he fought for France in the trenches and at the epic battle of Verdun. In the 1930s, he waged a lonely battle to enable France to better resist Hitler's Germany. Thereafter, he twice rescued the nation from defeat and decline by extraordinary displays of leadership, political acumen, daring, and bluff, heading off civil war and leaving a heritage adopted by his successors of right and left.

One hot Monday morning in 1976, Albert Spaggiari engineered the European crime of the century. A bank president in Nice, France found his vault welded shut—from the inside. Spaggiari and his gang of 20 men had dug a 25-foot tunnel from the city's sewer system into the bank, where they spent a weekend cooking meals, drinking wine, and clearing millions of dollars in gold, jewelry, gems, and cash. Here is the breathtakingly compelling story of Spaggiari, his “sewer gang,” and the most daring, outrageous theft of the 20th century.

Raised in a lush suburb of 1920s Paris, Noor Inayat Khan was an introspective musician and writer, dedicated to her family and to her father’s spiritual values of harmony, beauty, and tolerance. She did not seem destined for wartime heroism. Yet, faced with the evils of Nazi violence and the German occupation of France, Noor joined the British Special Operations Executive and trained in espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance. For crucial months of the war, Noor was the only wireless operator in France sending critical information to London.

En 2017, Christian Prudhomme fête ses dix ans à la tête du Tour de France. L'occasion pour lui de revenir sur son parcours et son histoire d'amour avec le Tour de France en nous livrant de nombreux secrets et anecdotes sur cette course mythique et mondialement connue.

A little over 10 years ago, Janine Marsh and her husband gave up their careers in London to chase the good life in the countryside of northern France. Having overcome the obstacles of starting to renovate her dream home - an ancient, dilapidated barn - and fitting in with the peculiarities of the locals, Janine is now the go-to expat in the area for those seeking to get to grips with a very different way of life. In this book, Janine regales us with the delights and dramas of a year attempting to live the rural idyll.

Pourquoi tant de peine - de détresse même - associée au sentiment de l'amour? L'état amoureux peut nous faire rapidement passer de l'extase sublime à la douleur profonde, du bonheur à la folie, de la bonté à la méchanceté et à la jalousie lorsqu'il nous échappe. Mais du point de vue spirituel, quel est le vrai sens de l'amour? Quelle serait la vraie nature du sentiment amoureux?

Zinédine Zidane est le Français le plus célèbre au monde, mais qui est-il vraiment ? Un être secret qui cultive la discrétion, un homme adulé qui se préserve et protège les siens, une star au destin exceptionnel qui reste un type normal. A travers dix-huit années d'échanges et de confessions exclusives avec le joueur devenu entraîneur.

Plongez dans l'histoire captivante des affaires criminelles qui ont marqué la France avec cette série audio incontournable de 13 histoires. Découvrez les sombres secrets de l'affaire Jean-Claude Romand, suivi de près par le terrifiant Landru, tueur en série notable... Plongez au cœur de l'énigmatique affaire Patrice Alègre et explorez les horreurs commises par Thierry Paulin, le monstre de Montmartre, et Yoni Palmier, le tueur de l'Essonne. Frissonnez en découvrant l'étrange Docteur Petiot et suivez le mystère de la disparition de la joggeuse Alexia Daval.

De la femme malheureuse en amour à la reine de France : le plus grand succès biographique de Stefan Zweig. Traduction entièrement révisée par Olivier Mannoni, et préface de l'historien Antoine de Baecque, spécialiste du XVIIIe siècle.

As far as the public knew, Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE) did not exist. After the defeat of the French Army and Britain's retreat from the Continent in June 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill created the top-secret espionage operation to "set Europe ablaze". Of the many brave men and women conscripted, two Anglo-American recruits, the Starr brothers, stood out to become legendary figures to the guerillas, assassins, and saboteurs they led.

Marie Antoinette's dramatic life-story continues to arouse mixed emotions. To many people, she is still 'la reine mechante', whose extravagance and frivolity helped to bring down the French monarchy; her indifference to popular suffering epitomised by the (apocryphal) words: 'let them eat cake'. Others are equally passionate in her defence: to them, she is a victim of misogyny.

My story my memoirs / love a cup of tea / love tea rooms / a story of the rock music world / love films / a story of the fashion world / love reading / of being an author / love music / my family and Glasgow history / most of all love you Family / look l am an author / most of all my story