Paris to the Past: Traveling through French History by Train

by Ina Caro

Overview

“I’d rather go to France with Ina Caro than with Henry Adams or Henry James.”—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 Orléans to evoke the visions of Joan of Arc 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. “[An] enchanting travelogue” (Publishers Weekly), Paris to the Past has become one of the classic guidebooks of our time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393082012
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	04/16/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ina Caro, author of the best-selling The Road from the Past, is an authority on medieval and modern French history. She lives in New York with her husband, the acclaimed biographer Robert A. Caro.

Table of Contents

List of Maps xv

Prologue: Two Love Affairs 3

Part 1 The Middle Ages: Cathedrals and Fortresses

1 Saint-Denis: The Monarchy and the Gothic Cathedral 23

2 Laon: Early Gothic 48

3 Chartres: The High Gothic Cathedral at Chartres 54

4 The Coronation Ceremony at the Cathedral of Reims 68

5 The Louvre: A Late-Twelfth-Century Fortress 86

6 Angers: Blanche of Castile's Early-Thirteenth-Century Fortress 95

7 Sainte-Chapelle in Paris 111

8 Vincennes: A Fortress of the Hundred Years War 121

9 Joan of Arc: 1429 and the End of the Hundred Years War at Orléans 128

10 Rouen: Joan of Arc and Monet 142

Part 2 The Renaissance: Cities and Castles

11 Tours: The Rebirth of Cities After the Hundred Years War 157

12 Blois: A Sixteenth-Century Renaissance Château 170

13 Francis I and the Renaissance at Fontainebleau 183

14 Henry IV in Paris: The Hôtel de Sens, the Place des Vosges, and the Luxembourg Gardens 200

15 The Siege of La Rochelle and the End of the Reformation in France 213

Part 3 The Age of Louis XIV: Seventeenth-Century France

16 Magical Vaux-le-Vicomte 231

17 Versailles 244

18 The Secret Castle of Maintenon 254

Part 4 The Coming of the French Revolution: Paris in the Eighteenth Century

19 Parisian Sights: Palais-Royal, Hôtel Carnavalet, Hôtel de Soubise, École Militaire, the Panthéon, Place de la Concorde 267

20 The Petit Trianon of Madame de Pompadour and Marie-Antoinette 301

21 The Conciergerie 309

Part 5 The Empire and Restoration: The Bourgeois Century

22 Napoleon as Consul at Malmaison 317

23 Napoleon at Compiègne 319

24 The Restoration (1815-1848) at Chantilly 333

Coda: My Favorite Emperor and Me 345

Acknowledgments 351

Source Notes 353

Index 363

What People are Saying About This

Gay Talese

Ina Caro's Paris to the Past has convinced me that I must visit France again very soon, and this time I know who my guide will be. Even the most hardened Francophobe won't be able to resist Caro's charms and infectious enthusiasm for the great stories of French history. This is one of the most captivating and original travel books in years.

Doris Kearns Goodwin

It is hard to imagine a more enchanting or more brilliantly conceived book. With Ina Caro as your guide, you will fall in love with French history. Ancient castles and cathedrals come to life through her marvelous stories; biographical gems capture the lives of memorable kings and queens. But most of all, you will fall in love with Ina Caro herself—with her infectious love of history, food and architecture, her husband and life itself.

Editorial Reviews

Caro’s enthusiasm for France is appealing…
—The Washington Post

Jonathan Yardley

The French rail system makes the country and its history a day-tripper’s delight in this enchanting travelogue. Historian Caro (The Road from the Past: Traveling Through French History) recounts daylong outings from her Paris base camp to points near, by Métro, or far, by high-speed train. French architecture and civilization unfold through the buildings and towns she visits: churches progress from the first Gothic cathedral at St.-Denis to the secular temple of the Panthéon; grim medieval fortresses give way to airy Loire chateaus and splendiferous baroque palaces. Writing with a keen eye for the design and atmospherics of these places and their surroundings (especially local restaurants), Caro makes them way stations on a sprightly tour of French history, regaling readers with piquant stories of the people who built, conquered, and remodeled them. Almost despite itself, the book is a seductive evocation of the ancien régime: aristocrats were rapacious brutes, Caro allows, but she can’t resist their castles, tastes, and sexual intrigues. ("'Kill him! Here, take my garters and strangle the wretch,’" was the sentence Marguerite de Valois pronounced to one lover who murdered another.) The result is a charming, rapturous guide to la Belle France that tells you where to go—and why. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"This book is animated by love on every page: love of French history, love of ancient pageantry, palaces, and cathedrals, and love of the historian husband who accompanies her on her wanderings. Paris to the Past is guaranteed to enrich the experience of both newcomers to France and veteran travelers alike."

Ron Chernow

"Read Ina Caro's wonderful Paris to the Past, fall in love again with the most beautiful city in the world, and start packing your bags."

Robert Massie

"Ina Caro's Paris to the Past has convinced me that I must visit France again very soon, and this time I know who my guide will be. Even the most hardened Francophobe won't be able to resist Caro's charms and infectious enthusiasm for the great stories of French history. This is one of the most captivating and original travel books in years."

Gay Talese

"It is hard to imagine a more enchanting or more brilliantly conceived book. With Ina Caro as your guide, you will fall in love with French history. Ancient castles and cathedrals come to life through her marvelous stories; biographical gems capture the lives of memorable kings and queens. But most of all, you will fall in love with Ina Caro herself—with her infectious love of history, food and architecture, her husband and life itself."

Doris Kearns Goodwin

"With charming humor and easy erudition, Ina Caro’s Paris to the Past is an exuberant journey from the City of Light to the outlying monuments of its storied, glorious, peculiar, and even culinary past. Ushered from Romanesque church to Gothic cathedral, from gilded bronze doors to walled cities, from Joan of Arc to Marie de Rohan to Rochefoucauld, we travel with our companionable, piquant narrator into the vagaries and unexpected corners of time and place. This is a gem of a book— part history, part travelogue, part love affair—impossible to put down, until that is, we pack it for Paris."

Brenda Wineapple

Ina Caro . . . has spent her life studying and writing about France, and she has crammed all of her knowledge into this delightful travel guide.

NPR

A keen, if sometimes breathless guide to monarchical France and its architecture.

Wall Street Journal

[Caro] is an unabashedly enthusiastic guide. Her love for the places she visits is contagious.

Los Angeles Times

While researching her previous book, The Road from the Past: Traveling Through History in France, Caro discovered that a great deal of French history could be visited by train from Paris in 90 minutes or fewer. Her newest book is both a travelog and a history written in a conversational style, which makes for an excellent jumping-off point for any traveler interested in French history. Caro summarizes 700 years of French history and combines it with excellent descriptions of examples of architecture from each period, from well-known sites like Versailles to such gems as the cathedral at Chartres. She also recommends her favorite restaurants and lets readers know which sites are best left alone. Descriptions of train stations, metro lines, and regional transit trains are enough to get one going, but many may find an additional guidebook helpful in locating accommodations and particular stations. VERDICT While lacking hard travel details, the book combines historical information and delight in travel in a way that renders it an excellent guide for those traveling to France, whether by plane or armchair.—Sara Miller, Atlanta-Fulton P.L. Syst., Roswell, GA

Library Journal