France Books

Since I started modeling wwii sceneries a couple of years ago I have been looking for books like this one. It contains the exact amount of information anyone needs to recreate an accurate scene of one of the units in the book. Even more, I am working on a project to recreate the course of action of one of the units described in the book, the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion. In this book I found pictures taken during the jump into the provence and it helped me to make a fairly accurate map of the path these paratroopers followed during the war. I never thought I'ld find a book with this kind of info anywhere. Like said in other reviews, it is well worth the money.

In his latest offering, De Trez has gotten away from showing his impressive collection, and added an incredible amount of period photos. This volume is almost 3 times the size of either of his previous ones. Tons and tons of photos, organized by unit are here. Of course, there is more of his collection but in a much nicer ratio. An excellent research tool for collectors and historians.

My father was a member of the Task Force Headquarters and made the invasion of Southern France so I bought a copy of the book for his birthday as a special surprise. He spent several days pouring through the pages looking at pictures of people he knew and place he experienced. I had no idea that this book was so thorough and informative with so many veteran's first hand accounts. As a military historian, I was overwhelmed with the sheer volume of information and images crammed into this book. I can honestly say that this book was well worth the money!

This is a beautful book with photos of gorgeous countryside. Owen Franken has a keen eye for accentuating the aesthetics in an already stunning environment.

This fabulous book absolutely transported me! The incredible text beautifully complements the photos. You can almost smell the thyme and feel the soft sea breezes... A fantastic book!

a delightful little book of pretty photos of provence.a very nice memory for those who forgot their camera and a nice source book for those who want to return to provence and see place and things one might have missed.

I used this book on my first trip to Paris,and it was a valuable resource to pick how to spend our time. The maps were also very helpful in getting around the maze that is the Paris streets.

I bought both Paris and London 2008 books for my upcoming trip to Europe, and I enjoy both. The guides are easy to read, tell you how to make the most of your time at various locations, tell you how to get to where you want to go and provide a variety of eating and shopping locations for all budgets.

Fodor's Paris 2008 has everything the average vacationer would need to experience France from the inside out.
Here is a detailed index of what this book has to offer:

-Clothing size, weight, distance, liquid volume, and temperature conversions inside the front cover
-Detailed table of contents
-"About This Book" page which tells you how to read and use the information in the book
-General information about Paris such as cleanliness, diversity, and the general attitude of Parisians
-Paris Planner which includes information on what to wear, when to go, and transportation
-Detailed and easy to read maps of Paris and it's arrondissements
-Detailed lists and descriptions of Paris's top attractions
-Fun things to do in Paris with kids
-Great Itineraries
-Where to eat
-Where to stay
-A selection of gorgeous color photographs
-Word of Mouth from Fodor's online forums
-Detailed information about nightlife and the arts
-Shopping
-Free stuff to do in Paris
-Books and movies of Paris
-Vital vocabulary words
-Information and advice on traveling such as travelers insurance, booking, rental cars, guided tours, emergencies abroad, electricity, money, taxes
-A folded tear out map of Paris
-Map of Paris's Metro system on the inside of the back cover

I would recommend this book to anyone considering visiting Paris on vacation, anyone moving to Paris, or the average Joe who wants to learn more about the most romantic city in the world. It has everything you want to know about Paris.

I have been a fan of Georgeanne Brennan's writing and recipes ever since I picked up a copy of France: The Vegetarian Table several years ago. This book about Provencal cooking had exactly the same effect on me. Apart from being charmingly designed, it is well thought-out, organized into chapters based on typical Provencal ingredients (olives, certain herbs, cheeses etc) and so beautifully written that one is nearly transported to the South of France as one cooks. I have tried numerous recipes from this book and have never been disappointed with a single one: they have all been wonderful. They are uniformly precise and simple to follow. Georgeanne Brennan has a superb sense of cooking with what is to hand, following the availability of seasonal produce, and focussing on abundant fresh vegetables and herbs. This book is a total treat. I think it is one of the best books on cooking of this region since Richard Olney's efforts...

In this well-conceived and beautifully written cookbook/memoir, Ms. Brennan transports her readers to a rural and rugged area of France that lies only an hour north of the glamorous Côte d'Azur. She offers an enticing collection of workable recipes both traditional and nontraditional, intertwining them with a treasure trove of personal reminiscences and invaluable information on foodstuffs. A pleasure to read as well as to cook from.

Also recommended: "Madeleine Kamman's Savoie."

This is really a wonderful cookbook. The recipes are delicious, and whenever ingredients would be hard to find in the U.S., Brennan talks about more-readily available options and how they change preparation. Even better, though, are the descriptive essays that precede each section in the book. Brennan describes how the food fits into the culture of Haute Provence. It's not only pleasant reading, but you learn how the natives mix flavors, so you can begin to develop recipes on your own that have provencal flavors. I'm sorry to see it currently unavailable, so snap it up used if you see it!

The absolute BEST book I've ever read on France and the French. Enthusiastic though unbiased, extensive and extremely well-documented but never dry or boring, lively but not too "journalist-like", this is an absolute must-read for whoever has an interest in this fascinating - though sometimes hard to grasp - country. Readers will likely understand France better thanks to this book. A real masterpiece. The author's knowledge of France (its history, famous authors, historians, politics, cultural patterns) is simply astonishing.

deep, unbiased, well researched in all aspects of the review. Written with excellent litterary talent, the book, although extensive, is never boring. One of the best I have ever read about the French and their country.

As an American in France I am particularly interested, andreasonablyknowledgeable about, works on france. I found Bernstein's book to provide an accurate and lively portrayal of a subject which is all too often romanticized or written about in a condescending way.

So far, I have spent only 2 weeks 'motoring' through France and the only negative thing I can say about this atlas is that some of the pages are torn from heavy use. It looks like the 2000 version is hardcover, which may help eliminate this problem. I wish Michelin would come up with a binding method that would allow me to remove and replace pages. Then it would be perfect. As for examples of how one uses this atlas .. Last September I was in France and for the first time I had torn up my tour books and brought only the relevant sections. After arriving in Chamonix, I realized this was not worth a 2 night stay (thanks, Rick Steves!), so I decided on a last minute detour to Burgundy. Forunately, I had this atlas and my Michelin Red Guide (with it's indespensible town and city maps and suggested sites). Sitting in my car, I planned my route for the next 2 days, which included stopovers in Tournus (a little difficult to find a room) and Beaune (no problem finding a room). Since I had no textual guidebooks for Burgundy with me, I bought a Green Guide in Tournus. With this guide and my trusty atlas, I easily planned a drive through the Burgundy countryside and visits to a chateau, abbey, wineries, and panoramic viewpoints. I drove into and out of Beaune and Dijon without any problem. Besides using the atlas for navigation, I also have used it to find spectacular and often unexpected viewpoints and scenery in locations as varied as the Corniche roads between Nice and Monaco, the Gorges of Verdun/Lac de Ste Croix, perched villages in the Luberon, very green farmland in the Indus River Valley, ruined/untouristed castles overlooking Colmar, a moving WWI battlesite and cemetary (Le Linge) in the Vosges. This atlas is for travellers who want their trips between destinations to be as unforgettable as the destinations themselves.

Spent 1 week last summer touring around in central France with a car, my girlfriend as the navigator sitting right next to me reading this atlas. She could told me, by following the details on the atlas, when there should be a road junction on left or right hand side, or there going to be a round-about a head. Even on the smallest D road or a tiny village. Just one sentence in summary, this Michelin atlas is INCREDIBLE!

We took this along with us on our first trip to France and used it to drive from Paris to Provence. I cannot say how detailed this map is, even better than any map of the US I have ever seen. In one collection it shows everything from major highways to single lane dirt tracks last used by goat farmers.

What a great book! Beautiful illustrations, fantastic recipes and much interesting info about the various areas of France. Reading it is like taking a trip. My son used a lot of the info from the book when he had to write a report on France in school.

This book looks at French cooking by region. It gives a bit of history for each region and insight into the region's cuisine.

There are pictures of many of the dishes to aid in preparation and the recipes are solid.

If you enjoy reading cookbooks, this is definately one worth getting.

Since recently learning how to speak French, a friend brought me this book so I could also cook French cusine. A Culinary Journey has not only guided me in preparing some wonderful dishes, but it has been very educational. Some of the value added offerings of this cookbook are that all the dishes are spelled out in both French and English, which helps to write the menu for when your French friends come for dinner. The book also provides maps that indicate what are commonly grown or raised foods in the region. There are historical tid bits that explain where and why the foods have become a common way of eating and tradition. Additionally, this book if filled with hundreds of breathtaking photos of not only the dishes you will be preparing, but of the all the regions in France. If you never wanted to visit France, you will after reading and cooking with this book. Bon appetite

This book is a MUST for anyone interested in how history is interpreted and recorded. Francis Yates was a force unto her own in the field of historiography, meaning the techniques, theories and principles of the writing of history. Dr. Jones, a historian in her own right, should be congratulated for her research on Yates' belief in "the creative interaction of religion and culture in the life of Western society" and her seminal contributions to the field of interdisciplinary historiography. "Historical Inebriation" is the title of one of the chapters and it is, ultimately, what Jones so competently offers her readers.

Frances Yates and The Hermetic Tradition, by Marjorie G Jones. A review by David Frango. Title of the review: The Imaginative Catholic. Rate: 5 stars.

David Frango is the author of two books: The Ghost on the Brooklyn Bridge and The Quantum Enzyme Code: The Woman who Discovered the Cure for AIDS. The Quantum Enzyme Code won the 2006 ForeWord Magazine award for best Science Fiction. Both his books are available on Amazon.com


Frances Yates and the Hermetic Tradition is a biography of an English Woman historian born in the 1899. The heroine, a product of a strongly middle-class late Victorian family, as a young girl became an advocate for using literature as insight for interpreting history. The Yates family, solidly new middle-class in a time of rising merchant wealth, were observant Anglicans. And like most intellectuals of that period, they objected to certain social aspects of the Anglican church. For this reason Yates and her family sought spiritual revival in a mystical Catholicism which Yates herself described as "imaginative."
But the thematic essence of the book (Yates' gradual awakening to the Hermetic Tradition) comes to us in flashing insights into the mind of Ms Yates, spread throughout the entire length of the work as laid out by author Marjories G Jones. Reading the captured anecdotal thoughts of Yates, the real meaning of the Italian Renaissance is perceived as happening because some of the principal intellectuals of that period embraced Hermeticism: a spiritual blend of empirical science and a sort of Wiccan-like magic. For this reason the portion of the title, " Tradition," could be misleading, since as we gather data on this rather nebulous , yet mystical and historically pivotal principle known as Hermeticism, we come to realize it more as an inspirational Pythagorean force guiding certain historical figures of the renaissance in their acts of creation and thought.
Given Ms Yates' predilection for imaginative Catholicism and for her recognizing Italy as the focal point of all that is mysterious and magical about European culture, it is of no surprise that at an early age she should become magnetized by the founding father of modern (and by modern we mean the Hermetic Tradition as giving the start for the emergence of Modern Scientific European man ) Hermeticism, Giordano Bruno. Captivated by his "chestnut brown hair" and the fact that he spent a good part of his life in London, spreading Hermeticism, which, in due time, would even influence the works of Shakespeare. The Tempest, whose hero, Prospero, embraced a hermetic fusion of math and magic, was a perfect literary example for the spread of Hermetic Tradition to England. As for Giordano Bruno, it was in the year of our Lord 1600, in the Piazza Dei Fiori in Rome, that the handsome chestnut brown haired priest was burned at the stake by the inquisition.
And it is at this point where we can come to understand Hermeticism as seen through an unorthodox interpretation of history by Yates: that he was not burned because of his acceptance of the Copernican view of the solar system (the church by then completely accepted heliocentricity), but because at that time in history Catholicism was split between two conflicting views of theology: The NeoPlatonics and The Aristotelians. NeoPlatonism got their wisdom from Plato, via the ancient Hellenic cult of the Pythagoreans. The Pythagoreans received metaphysical light as they would pursue the study of mathematics and numbers by employing rationalism: in the ratios of harmonically plucked strings, our bodies, minds and spirits can come to reflect a cosmic mathematical musical aura. But this Platonic blend of matter and spirit was something the Aristotelians, who were positivistic, found offensive. According to Positivism authentic knowledge is based on sense experience, gotten through a strict, empirical scientific method, no mystical strings attached.. We can easily see the drama of NeoPlatonism and Aristotelianism as the classic conflict in Christendom where rule would either be spiritual or temporal.
The book does not detail the mechanics of the Platonic Bruno's death by pyre, as we know how Savonarola piqued the wrath of the Inquisition by his bonfire of the vanities in the mid 1400's. And so we are left to wonder what concrete criminal act Bruno could have done to outrage the Aristotelian inquisitors. Nevertheless we can contemplate along with Bruno himself and of course Yates, as we read the professionally presented insights of the hermetic tradition as seen through the magical prose of this gifted woman historian. For example, Yates on Rosicrucian Enlightenment, which was Hermetic in its outlook: "The subject is.....concerned with a striving for illumination, in the sense of vision, as well as for enlightenment...in intellectual or scientific knowledge." And that Hermeticism [which reminds the author of this review of Emily Dickinson] is like, "The Alone communing with the Alone." Yates realized great scientists of the late renaissance to be essentially Hermetic when she wrote Newton's mechanical universe was, "substituted for the psychic life of nature as the principle of movement, understood objectively instead of subjectively." This statement on Newton also expresses her [Yates'] historical belief clarifying the different perspectives of a scientist, such as Newton and a Renaissance magus, such as Bruno. For the magician "wants to draw the world into himself," while the scientist, "externalizes and personifies the world." Yates' Hermetic tradition was also pivotal to the emergence of modern scientific European man, as gathered from her book on Rosicrucianism where she says, " A religious movement using alchemy to intensify evangelical piety...including ...research and reform in the sciences."
The conflict of matter and spirit comes out in the last chapter of the book, Historical Inebriation," when in Budapest Hungary Yates lectures, "Newton, Descartes, Leibniz are still...within the enchanted world. Perhaps it was Darwin who discovered Man is not descended from...ancient Magi but from Apes." In this same chapter Dobbs, a colleague of Yates, wrote in a scholarly publication that she brilliantly emphasized matter-spirit relationships in her unorthodox interpretations of history.
Today, Physicists verify experimentally by a double-slit experiment that there is a strange wave/particle duality to sub-atomic particles. According to modern physics a particle is a material thing because it can be precisely located. And a wave is spiritual since a particle acting as a wave has the ghostly property of being able to be many places at once! And any historian of math will tell you that Pythagoras's cult of ratio and cosmic harmony forms the basis of modern Fourier Analysis, which today is indispensible in the development of new technologies.
Indeed, modern science does prove Yates to be absolutely correct: that matter and spirit is indeed the driving force of historical interpretation and the advent of modern technological man.

Marjorie G. Jones tackles the life of Frances Yates, intellectual historian and literary critic with aplomb!
Jones is in her element as she presents the reader with a unique picture of an intrepid female Renaissance scholar "who saw history in creative and unconventional ways" and travelled in fascinating academic circles
Absorbing and elegant, this is an apt tribute to a pioneer, whom we might never have met without Jones' meticulous research and excellent use of Yates' journals.
BGR

Bruce's controversial thesis is that it was France and not Britain who was the main American ally during the First World War. French generals such as Joffre supported an independent American force while the British wanted the American forces to be assimilated into the British army. According to Bruce, the French trained the Americans in the techniques of trench warfare and use of artillery. Bruce believes that all American operations in the closing days of the First World War were based on close cooperation by the French army such as supporting the Americans by protecting their flanks, providing artillery support, and using planes to spot German army formations. Plus the French and not the British supplied the AEF with its weapons such as tanks and artillery peices. I would reccomend this book to anyone intereted in a controversial thesis about the clost days of the First World War and Anglo-French relations.

In the preface of his book A Fraternity of Arms Robert Bruce asserts that his intention is to refute a popular image "so widely held in America, of a historically acrimonious relationship between", (Bruce, xiii) the United States and France. Indeed Bruce's account of Franco-American cooperation is well documented, vividly expressed and covers the social, political, and military aspects of this relationship.

Bruce examines the experience of the American volunteers, including the Rockwell's, who found themselves in the Légion étrangère. Bruce points out that many of these young men wanted to fight and they wanted to find action as quickly as possible. Many of them, however wanted to serve in the regular army and found the Foreign Legion to be disappointing. They found the legion to be composed of mercenaries from many nationalities and not particularly friendly to the idealistic volunteers. Bruce points out however, that even in the face of severe disillusion Kiffen Rockwell and others still wanted to fight, but in regular French army units. Quoting Kiffen Rockwell's letter to his injured brother, "If you can get me into a French regiment, get busy, for I want out of the Legion".

Bruce provides details of the many shortcomings of the American army, especially the lack of modern heavy weapons. Chapter 4 illustrates clearly the fact that although America had tremendous quantities of natural resources and a huge industrial capacity as well, the situation was that it would inevitably be the French who would equip the American army. Bruce shows that despite heroic efforts on the part of American armaments manufacturers to build the machine guns and artillery, the allies did not have the luxury of time and could not wait for American manufacturing to come up to speed, and so the Americans would go to war with equipment that was almost exclusively French. Bruce provides as evidence a table comparing the French and British contributions of war material to the AEF during the war and in every category; the French contribution far exceeds that of the British.

Bruce provides engaging accounts of all the American engagements from Catigny the first battle in which American units play a deciding role, through Belleau Wood, the Second battle of the Marne to the Meuse-Argonne and the end of the war. He defends the Americans against those who have denigrated the American contribution to the final allied victory by quoting Ludendorf; "It was most assuredly the Americans who bore the brunt of the fighting on the whole battle front during the last few months of the war."

In the final paragraphs of his book Bruce recounts the interment of the remains of the Unknown Soldier in the tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National cemetery with moving quotes from Field Marshal Foch and Chief Plenty Coups of the Crow Nation and then points out that:
"At the bottom of the crypt, on the hallowed ground of America's Valhalla, a two inch deep layer of French soil, gathered from the battlefields of the western front where the French and American army had fought side by side, had been spread. Here the Unknown American Soldier of the Great War rests for all eternity."
With that statement, Bruce brings his book A Fraternity of Arms: America & France in the Great War, to its conclusion having made his point that despite sometimes enormous political differences that America and France share a "fraternity of arms", and though it may be dismissed and forgotten, has formed a lasting foundation for Franco-American Relations.

Bruce's thesis is that it was the French and not the British who were the main American allies during the First World War. During their period of training the American soldiers easily mixed with the French soldiers while having a diffcult time with the British. Moreover the French were the main trainers of the American forces and provided them with artillery peices, tanks, and guns. The French also were the main defenders of an independent American force while the Britih wanted to assimilate the Americans into British units. Bruce concludes his book by stating that all of the American actions in the closing phases of the First World War were heavliy supported by French infantry divisions and artillery. I would reccomend this book to anyone who wants a new and interesting perspective of Franco-American relationship during the First World War.

This book has succeeded with relatively few words what so many have failed to do with numbers, nightmarish photographs of survivors, and casts of outsized political and military personalities. In page after page the reader sees pictures of thousands of innocent children who did not know what awaited them. The size of the book alone might make one think it likely to be tedious, but after one hour of looking at the faces of happy children the reader feels emotionally drained but compelled to move through the entire book out of anger, pity, disbelief, and certainly, a feeling of outrage that the atrocities committed were done in the name of civilization, and with a perverted sense of cultural and "racial" purity driving so many people to commit such acts, by commission or omission, of unadulterated evil. The emotional impact of this book is overwhelming.

This 11.000 children deported from France, their photos, their faces, their smiles are the most moving and powerful thing I have ever seen.

Their passports, personal photos, and names -- all that remains of the over 11,000 French children carried off to the camps. This book is fragile, printed on thin paper with a delicate spine, and it is also has the strongest presence of any book I have ever read. The sheer impact of all of those young children cannot help but make the strongest among us feel sadness and loss. Much praise must go to the authors for putting so much time and effort into so many that have been forgotten.