Showing titles in France

The eighteenth century was a time of cultural friction: individuals began to assert greater independence and there was a new emphasis on social equality. In this surprising history, Lynn Hunt examines women's expanding societal roles, such as using tea to facilitate conversation between the sexes in Britain. In France, women also pushed boundaries by becoming artists, and printmakers' satiric takes on the elite gave the lower classes a chance to laugh at the upper classes and imagine the potential of political upheaval.

Si je n'avais pas été français, j'aurais tant aimé l'être ! Il y a tellement à écrire sur ce peuple. Parce que les français sont capables d'inventer le cinéma, la voiture, la radioactivité, mais également le soutien-gorge, le croque-monsieur, la poubelle et le dentier. Un pays vu comme celui de l'amour et dont les mots "voulez-vous coucher avec moi ?" sont les plus prononcés par les étrangers.

Nous avons tous appris un jour que Clovis était le premier des rois de France. Qui sait qu'en Allemagne, il est considéré comme un roi allemand ? De Saint Louis, on garde l'image d'un grand souverain, rendant la justice sous son chêne. On ignore qu'il imposa aux Juifs de porter l'équivalent de l'étoile jaune. Jeanne d'Arc est la grande héroïne du Moyen Âge. Pourquoi a-t-on oublié toutes les autres ? Nombreux sont les Français qui s'intéressent à notre passé, nombreux aussi ceux qui se désolent de mal le connaître.

Les Grands Discours de Guerre de Napoleon Bonaparte (1779-1821), interprétés en français par David Serero.

The story of Nostradamus is tougher to determine than one would have ever imagined. By the end of this audiobook, you will have hopefully been able to piece together some of the answers to the questions you have about the individual known simply as Nostradamus.

Born in 1927, Nicole Braux's earliest recollections occur in the French city of Nancy, where her father owned and operated a hotel and restaurant. Her charming reflections paint a picture of a romantic culture still wounded by the First World War. Nicole was 12 when her father was recalled into the reserves in 1939. Within months, she watched German troops invade. "We peeked above the window sill and saw them...Our imaginations hadn't exaggerated; they looked as evil, it not more so, than we'd expected!"

It is late in the evening of 18th June, 1815. The scene is a coaching inn on the road between Charleroi and Brussels in what is now Belgium. For 100 yards either side of the road men are strewn, dead or dying. These are Napoleon's elite Imperial Guard, three battalions of which had retreated towards the inn at the end of the battle. With the rest of the Armee du Nord streaming past him, Napoleon had taken personal command. Yet before long even these grizzled veterans had joined the rout. Now he too has left the field, fated to head for Paris, captivity, exile and an early death.

Today, it is difficult to imagine a living room without a sofa. When the first sofas on record were delivered in 17th-century France, the result was a radical reinvention of interior space. Symptomatic of a new age of casualness and comfort, the sofa ushered in an era known as the golden age of conversation; as the first piece of furniture designed for two, it was also considered an invitation to seduction. With the sofa came many other changes in interior space we now take for granted: private bedrooms, bathrooms, and the original living rooms.

Dans une évocation gorgée de couleurs fortes et de furieuses sonorités, Philippe de Villiers fait revivre Clovis et lui donne la parole. Le roi fondateur dévoile les épisodes les plus intimes, les plus secrets, de ses enfances, de ses amours, de ses chevauchées. Ce livre audio éclaire d'un jour nouveau le mystère de sa conversion, rétablit la vérité sur la date de son baptême.

History is often concentrated into short bursts of change, with long periods of shifting before and waves of alteration afterwards. Nowhere is this more obvious than the thirty year interregnum between the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. In this period, three figures stand tall; Pitt, the elder stateman who saw the need for genuine constitutionalism; Burke, the consummate parliamentarian, speaking for the glory of empire; and Robespierre, the legendary and controversial frontman of the French Revolution.

The gallows, the rack, and angry mobs are part of the menace in this horrific novel set in 15th century Paris. Quasimodo, the kind-hearted, hunchbacked bell ringer and the lovely La Esmaralda struggle to survive the brutality that surrounds them.

At last, after 165 years, the sequel to The Man in the Iron Mask... 17th Century France, two years after D'Artagnan's death: Deep beneath the Palais de Versailles, Aramis is shocked and astonished by the directives of D'Artagnan's Legacy. To follow, he must betray his honour; his King and, perhaps most damning of all, his fellow Musketeers. The Sun King will be eclipsed by darkness once more... Or can the ageing Musketeers really reunite, for one last time - for the glory of France?

In 1789 a group of sober-minded, concerned citizens set in motion a series of events which were to end up leading to the deaths of thousands of perfectly innocent persons. How did this reasonable movement of level-headed civic leaders spin out of control? At a glance, the French Revolution appears a bewildering series of political factions sweeping in and out of power, massacre and counter-massacre, terror and guillotine, and one economic crisis following another.

Few historical figures are as well known as Napoleon Bonaparte, and yet the Emperor's 10-month exile on the small island of Elba is virtually unexplored. Now, for the first time, we have a window into this critical moment when the most powerful man on earth turns defeat into one final challenge. A close character study mixed with a world-shaking drama, The Invisible Emperor will show Napoleon as he's never before been seen: as heart-broken husband, civil engineer, interior decorator, gardener and spy master.

Philippe Pétain est un sujet historique qui dépasse le personnage. Jean-Yves Le Naour, historien en spécialiste de la Première Guerre mondiale et du XXe siècle, nous présente ici la biographie du maréchal Pétain mais aussi une histoire du pétainisme. L’historien se penche sur le mythe Pétain forgé durant la Première Guerre mondiale, en tant que vainqueur de Verdun, l’enracinement du mythe durant l’Entre-deux guerres, pour aboutir au chef de l’État vénéré sous Vichy, de 1940 à 1944, quand le maréchal se pose en protecteur des Français tout en collaborant activement avec l’occupant.

In prose as crystalline as his view to the Pyrenees on a clear day, Allman animates Lauzerte and its surrounding communities—Cahors, Moissac, Montauban—all ever in thrall to the magnetic impulse of Paris. Witness to so many dramas over the centuries, his house comes alive as a historical protagonist in its own right, from its wine-cellar cave to the roof where he wages futile battle with pigeons, to the life lessons it conveys. “The onward march of history, my House keeps demonstrating, never takes a rest,” he observes, pulling us vividly into his world.

It was with horror and sadness that the people of the world opened their social media or switched on their televisions on April 15th, 2019, only to see terrifying pictures of smoke and flames roaring around one of the most iconic outlines in France: That of Notre-Dame de Paris. There is more to Notre-Dame, however than just a tragic fire. Almost nine centuries of history lie behind its weathered towers, and its history is closely interlinked with that of France and its people. Its story has rung out through the ages as one of hope and survival.

Organized by region, with one chapter devoted to Paris, Made in France takes you on a complete tour of the dazzling, artisanal legacy of France, uncovering off-the-beaten-path destinations and one-of-a-kind, hidden workshops, where everything from lingerie to chocolate is turned out completely by hand, piece by piece.

After Prussia was victorious in the Austro-Prussian War, Bismarck played a waiting game where the unification of Germany was concerned, as the joining of the southern states - initially resistant to Prussian rule, friendly with Austria, and bent on independence - would have to be overcome. What was needed was “a clear case of French aggression” toward either Prussia or the southern states. Not only would such a move by Emperor Napoleon III trigger the terms of the treaty between the German states, but it would keep the remaining world powers out of the conflict.

It is possible that no man has ever dominated a time as much as Charles the Great dominated the Early Middle Ages. It is true that the era had its kings, warriors, scholars, and religious leaders, but in many ways, Charlemagne was all of these things. He conquered land for the Franks and sent in missionaries to convert the pagans to Christianity.