Novels and history books about Languedoc and France |
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| That Sweet Enemy |
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Price: £21.25
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This tome of nearly 700 pages of text about the relations between Britain and 'that sweet enemy, France' (a phrase from a sonnet by Sir Philip Sidney) is like a huge pudding stuffed with goodies: I have rarely read a history book whose brilliance is sustained over such an immense time-range - from the reign of Louis XIV to that of Jacques Chirac. The authors - the husband an Englishman, his wife born in France - handle the story with skill, and efficiency, and they frequently employ a joyous felicity of phrase to point up differences and similarities between England and France. |
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| The Discover of France |
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Price: £9.49
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Less a history, more a biography, informed by Robb's extraordinary on-the-ground research in which he uncovers the folkloric history of a country that is widely misunderstood. Robb peers into the soul of his subject with the background of literary biographer, and is not just entertaining but learned. Robb reveals that contemporary regional identities (Catalan, Breton, Provençal, etc.) that some suggest take France back to its past are actually imagined. Robb reveals the roots to be less regional than minutely local. As late as the 19th century, Frenchmen outside the mushroom of Paris could barely communicate with one another.- Jonathan Miller, Caux |
| Instructions for Visitors: Life and Love in a French Town (Paperback) |
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Price: £5.16
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Instructions for Visitors is about living and loving in a village in a beautiful part of the world and it describes this admirably and poetically. However, Stevenson has also convincingly conveyed, sometimes enigmatically, the sense of an inner journey that people who travel and who seek to find new lives also experience en route. -- Christina McLoughlin |
| The French Century: An Illustrated History of Modern France |
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Price: £13.96
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An outstanding one-volume history of modern France that is informative, wise, entertaining, well-written, and highly enjoyable. With great skill, Moynahan spins political, cultural, and social history into a single continuous thread. |
| Labrynth |
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Price: £4.99
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'The author has combined an ingenious adventure story with a wonderfully detailed account of the historical background of the Languedoc ... the result is entirely compelling and full of incidental pleasures.' - Christina Koning, The Times |
| A Piano in the Pyrenees |
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Price: £5.16
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Inspired by breathtaking views and romantically dreaming of finding love in the mountains, Tony Hawks impulsively buys an idyllic house in the French Pyrenees. And here, he imagines, he will finally fulfil his childhood fantasy of mastering the piano, all the while overlooking spectacular views as the troubles of the world pass by unnoticed. Tony's hopelessly ill-prepared stumbling into the world of overseas home ownership is perhaps best read as a useful manual of how not to go about buying a house abroad. |
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| C'est La Folie |
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Price: £5.96
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In early 2004, Michael Wright said a fond farewell to his comfortable South London existence and, with just his long-suffering cat for company, set out to begin a new life. His destination was 'La Folie', a dilapidated 15th century farmhouse in need of love and renovation in the heart of rural France... He never intended to write a book about it, but the readers' response to his column in the "Daily Telegraph" inspired him to write what is far more than just another account of living la belle vie in France. |
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| Narrow Dog to Carcassonne |
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Price: £4.85
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Terry Darlington and his wife Monica are retired and spend a lot of their time cruising the canals on their narrowboat. They decide to take their boat on an epic voyage from their home in Staffordshire to Carcassonne in the south of France. Terry Darlington tells the story of their journey in his own unusual and entertaining style. This is his account of how narrowboats came into being. |
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| ABOUT THE CATHARS: |
| The Cathars: The Most Successful Heresy of the Middle Ages |
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Price: £6.97
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Catharism was the most successful heresy of the Middle Ages. The Cathars taught that the world is evil and must be transcended through a simple life of prayer, work, fasting and non-violence. They believed themselves to be the heirs of the true heritage of Christianity and completely rejected the Catholic Church and all its trappings, regarding it as the Church of Satan. Alarmed at the success of Catharism, the Church founded the Inquisition and launched the Albigensian Crusade to exterminate the heresy. Martin recounts the Cathars' story and the myths associated with them. |
| The Yellow Cross: The Story of the Last Cathars 1290-1329 (Paperback) |
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Price: £7.67
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In the 13th century, a group of heretics in southwest France, the Cathars, became a serious threat to the Catholic church. In several waves of repression, thousands of Cathars were killed. Yet so ardent was their faith that, early in the next century, the Cathars rose one last time. Using the breathtakingly detailed and uniquely extant documentation from this period, and drawing on his intimate knowledge of the last Cathars' tracks and hiding places, many of which survive to this day, René Weis tells the full story of this gripping historical episode. |
| The
Da Vinci Code |
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Price: £4.89
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Dan
Brown masterfully concocts an
intelligent and lucid thriller
that marries the gusto of an
international murder mystery
with a collection of fascinating
esoterica culled from 2,000 years
of Western history - with much
of the action based in cathar
country in Languedoc. |
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| The
Perfect Heresy: The Life and
Death of the Cathars |
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Price: £7.19
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Inspired
by his travels in France, Canadian
historian Stephen O'Shea's tale
of Languedoc's Cathars and their
destruction is empathetic, evocative
and sometimes refreshingly witty.
The book's recreations of the "medieval
phantasmagoria" of siege
warfare are superb at bringing
the medieval world alive. |
| The Treasure of Rennes-Le-Chateau: A Mystery Solved (Paperback) |
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Price: £6.72
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In 1885 Berenger Sauniere was appointed priest of Rennes-le-Chateau, a tiny village in the south of France. It is said that he found a fabulous treasure, or was guardian of an amazing secret about Jesus Christ. Many authors have written about the mystery, each adding their own interpretation to an ever-deepening whirlpool of fantasy. Bill Putnam and John Edwin Wood have now published a serious study of Rennes-le-Chateau. They come to firm conclusions about mystery and reveal the real source of Sauniere's wealth and the true nature of the Priory of Sion. |
| The Cathars: Dualist Heretics in Languedoc in the High Middle Ages |
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Price: £27.54
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This study is the first comprehensive history of the Cathars. It addresses major topics in medieval history including heresy, orthodoxy and the Crusades as well as providing a history of the social and political history of Languedoc and the rise of the Capetian dynasty. A fascinating study of the development of radical religious belief and its violent suppression. |
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