France Memoir

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.

The most celebrated general in history, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) has for centuries attracted eminent male writers. Since Thomas Carlyle first christened him “our last Great Man”, regiments of biographers have marched across the same territory, weighing campaigns and conflicts, military tactics and power politics. With Napoleon, Ruth Scurr, one of our most eloquent and original historians, emphatically rejects the shibboleth of the “Great Man” theory of history, instead following the dramatic trajectory of Napoleon’s life through gardens, parks, and forests.

The Man in the Iron Mask has all the hallmarks of a thrilling adventure story: a glamorous and all-powerful king, ambitious ministers, a cruel and despotic jailor, dark and sinister dungeons - and a secret prisoner. It is easy for forget that this story, made famous by Alexandre Dumas, is that of a real person, Eustache Danger, who spent more than 30 years in the prison system of Louis XIV’s France - never to be freed. This narrative brings to life the true story of this mysterious man and follows his journey through four prisons and across decades.

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?

Jean Antoinette Poussin, the woman who would become known as Madame de Pompadour, was a middle-class girl of uncertain parenthood who became one of many in a long line of King Louis XV’s mistresses before she died at the age of 42. While none of that stands out on its own when it comes to French history and royalty, historians have labeled her “no ordinary king’s mistress.... She made and unmade ministers, she selected ambassadors, she appointed generals, [and] she conferred pensions and places."

Paul Johnson's book is a refreshing return to a concept whose time has come once again: the Great Man theory of biography. It serves as "the greatest possible refutation of those who hold that events are governed by forces, classes, economics, and geography rather than the powerful wills of men and women". Napoleon truly was the Great Man of his age, a towering and terrible genius who managed to conquer the Continent.

In the early 18th century, 80 years prior to revolution, France went wild for stocks and bonds. Mechanics dropped their tools and tradesmen closed their shops. There was but one profession, one employment, one occupation for persons of all ranks, from peasant to prince. And that profession was speculating in stocks. This is the story of John Law, the adventurous Scotsman played chance against an entire nation.

Catherine et Jean-Pierre ont vécu au cœur de la Soule, l'une des sept provinces du Pays Basque (trois en France, quatre en Espagne), dans un village baptisé Viodos, à côté de la ville de Mauléon, 5000 habitants, connue depuis longtemps pour sa production de sandales, et fameuse naguère pour son équipe de rugby, opiniâtre et courageuse. Ils ne sont jamais sortis de ce petit territoire et il me semble qu'ils y ont été heureux. En tout cas, à leur façon, ils ont été tous les deux de formidables soldats de Mai 68. Catherine était ma maman. Jean-Pierre était mon papa.

In The Food and Wine of France, influential food writer Edward Behr investigates French cuisine and what it means, in encounters from Champagne to Provence. He tells the stories of French artisans and chefs who continue to work at the highest level. Many people in and out of France have noted for a long time the slow retreat of French cuisine, concerned that it is losing its important place in the country's culture and in the world culture of food. And yet, as Behr writes, good French food remains very, very delicious.

Something unimaginable occurred from 1764 to 1767 in the remote highlands of south-central France. For three years, a real-life monster, or monsters, ravaged the region, slaughtering by some accounts more than 100 people, mostly women and children, and inflicting severe injuries upon many others.

This is the incredible true story of the greatest spy you’ve never heard of - as told to the author by the woman herself. At the outbreak of World War Two, Nancy Wake’s glamorous life in the South of France seemed far removed from the fighting. But when her husband was called up for military service, Nancy felt she had just as much of a duty to fight for freedom. By 1943, her fearless undercover work even in the face of personal tragedy had earned her a place on the Gestapo’s "most wanted" list.

Comtesse Valtesse de la Bigne was painted by Édouard Manet and inspired Émile Zola, who immortalized her in his scandalous novel Nana. Her rumored affairs with Napoleon III and the future King Edward VII kept gossip columns full. But her glamorous existence hid a dark secret: She was no comtesse. She was born into abject poverty, raised on a squalid backstreet among the dregs of Parisian society. Yet she transformed herself into an enchantress.

Do you want to learn more about the great military leader Napoleon Bonaparte, but don’t have time to read huge, long biographies? Then let The History Journals take you on an hourly history tour of his life. Regardless of which version of Napoleon is to be believed, evil dictator or inspiring military leader, or perhaps more likely, somewhere between the two, this journal will look at his truly fascinating and eventful life.

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.

En 1987, Franz-Olivier Giesbert publiait une biographie de Jacques Chirac, éclairage documenté et percutant sur le plus imprévisible des hommes politiques français. Depuis cette date, Giesbert n'a cessé d'enquêter, d'observer, de prendre des notes sur la conquête du pouvoir par Chirac et sur ses deux mandats. Il livre ici le récit complet de vingt années d'une vie au cœur de la politique française, dont douze à la présidence.

Married for political reasons at the age of fourteen, Marie Antoinette was naive, impetuous, and ill-equipped for the role in which history cast her. From her birth in Vienna in 1755 through her turbulent, unhappy marriage, the bloody turmoil of the French Revolution, her trial for high treason during which she was accused of incest, and her final beheading, Marie Antoinette's life was the tragic tale of disastrous circumstances colliding.

Between 1796 and 1815, the continent of Europe was held in thrall by one of the most remarkable personalities of modern times, a man whose name was on the lips of every man, woman, and child: Napoleon Bonaparte. Certainly, one would have to go back to the time of Charlemagne to find his equal on the field of battle, in the halls of diplomacy, or in the courts of jurisprudence.

Can two Americans really become French? Val and Keith turned their lives upside down when they quit their jobs to begin a part-time life in Provence. But they wondered: Can we fit in? And maybe become French ourselves? There’s more to becoming French than just learning the language. If you want the inside scoop on la belle France, you won’t want to miss this delightful book!

A major biography of the Marquis de Lafayette, French hero of the American Revolution, looks past the storybook general and selfless champion of righteous causes who, at the age of 19, volunteered to fight under George Washington, casting aside fortune and family (from one of France's oldest families; his ancestors served in the Crusades and alongside Joan of Arc) to advance the transcendent aims of liberty and justice.

In 1785, a sensational trial began in Paris that would divide the country and captivate Europe. A leading Catholic cardinal and scion of one of the most distinguished families in France stood accused of forging the queen's signature to obtain the most expensive piece of jewelry in Europe: a 2,800-carat diamond necklace. Where were the diamonds? Was the cardinal innocent? Was, for that matter, the queen?