num_pages: 381
description: I'd rather go to France with Ina Caro than with Henry Adams or Henry James.Peter Prescott Newsweek In one of the most inventive travel books in years Ina Caro invites readers on twenty-five one-day train trips that depart from Paris and transport us back through seven hundred years of French history. Whether taking us to Orlans to evoke the miraculous visions of Joan of Arc to Versailles to experience the flamboyant achievements of Louis XIV or to the Place de la Concorde to witness the beheading of Marie Antoinette Caro animates history with her lush descriptions of architectural splendors and tales of court intrigue. Organizing her destinations chronologically from twelfth-century Saint-Denis to the nineteenth-century Restoration at Chantilly Caro appeals not only to the casual tourist aboard the Metro or the TGV but also to the armchair reader of Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence . Caro's passion for and knowledge of Franceits soaring cathedrals enthralling history and sumptuous cuisineare so impressive that Paris to the Past promises to become one of the classic guidebooks of our time. 6 maps
language: English
title: Paris to the Past: Traveling through French History by Train
publisher: W. W. Norton & Company