From the author of Hidden Gardens of Paris, The Streets of Paris is Susan Cahill's wonderfully unique guide to present-day Paris following in the footsteps of famous Parisians through the last 800 years. For hundreds of years, the City of Light has set the stage for larger-than-life characters—from medieval lovers Héloïse and Abelard to the defiant King Henri IV to the brilliant scientist Madame Curie, beloved chanteuse Edith Piaf, and the writer Colette. In this beautifully illustrated book, Susan Cahill recounts the lives of twenty-two famous Parisians and then takes you through the seductive streets of Paris to the quartiers where they lived and worked: their homes, the scenes of their greatest triumphs and tragedies, their favorite cafes, bars, and restaurants, and the off-the-beaten-track places where they found inspiration and love. From Sainte-Chapelle on the Ile de la Cite to the cemetery Pere Lachaise to Montmartre and the Marais, Cahill not only brings to life the bold characters of a tumultuous history and the arts of painting, music, sculpture, film, and literature, she takes you on a relaxed walking tour in the footsteps of these celebrated Parisians. Each chapter opens with a beautiful four-color illustration by photographer Marion Ranoux, and every tour begins with a Metro stop and ends with a list of "Nearbys"—points of interest along the way, including cafes, gardens, squares, museums, bookstores, churches, and, of course, patisseries.

This is the first major study in English of the reign of Philip Augustus who ruled France from 1180 - 1223. Outshone for posterity, by his flamboyant contemporaries, the Angevin family of Henry II and his feuding sons, Philip was in fact far more successful than any of them, astutely playing them off against each other and recovering for the French crown their vast estates in Northern France including Normandy itself. As well as reasserting the power of the Capetian monarchy, he was also leader of the Third Crusade. Drawing together all the threads in the life of one of France's most forceful rulers, this new study offers a study of the nature of monarchy in late medieval Europe as well as an insight into a subtle and secretive personality.

Two of the most notable figures from the Middle Ages–the volatile, brilliant Abelard and the equally brilliant Heloise–became the parents of their son Astralabe before Abelard’s infamous, brutal castration. The couple spent the rest of their lives as monastics, in each other’s orbits if not in shared presence, as they became movers in the glittering monastic world of the early twelfth-century France. What happened to their strangely named Astralabe? Astralabe: The Life and Times of the Son of Heloise and Abelard rescues the “lost son” from footnotes and fiction and attempts to tell instead the story of a real man living in Europe in the twelfth century. This book assembles the references to Astralabe, provides background in the history of France and Switzerland, uncovers Abelard’s relationships with his family, with the ruling house of Brittany and more, and most importantly draws together all that is known of Astralabe.

Britain's premier historian on France from Caesar to Mitterrand - to coincide with the centenary of the Entente Cordiale A century after the Entente Cordiale ended centuries of war and enmity between France and Britain, and two hundred years after the coronation of Britain's deadly enemy, Napoleon Bonaparte, as Emperor, Alistair Horne contemplates two thousand years of France. The Entente Cordiale meant different things to the signatories. For France it meant, quite simply, the certainty at last of an ally who would counter-balance the dread power of Kaiser Wilhelm II's vast and menacing Reich on her doorstep. For Britain the Entente signified an end to centuries of conflict with France, but it also meant inevitable involvement in a major European war. The modern rift over the Iraq war has emphasized once again that a slim channel of water may be all that separates the countries physically, but in temperament, in attitudes, in life generally -- and, particularly, in history itself -- the differences remain fundamental, and intense.

Napoleon is one of history’s most fascinating figures. But his complex relationship with Rome—both with antiquity and his contemporary conflicts with the Pope and Holy See—have undergone little examination. In The Caesar of Paris, Susan Jaques reveals how Napoleon’s dueling fascination and rivalry informed his effort to turn Paris into “the new Rome”— Europe’s cultural capital—through architectural and artistic commissions around the city. His initiatives and his aggressive pursuit of antiquities and classical treasures from Italy gave Paris much of the classical beauty we know and adore today.Napoleon had a tradition of appropriating from past military greats to legitimize his regime—Alexander the Great during his invasion of Egypt, Charlemagne during his coronation as emperor, even Frederick the Great when he occupied Berlin. But it was ancient Rome and the Caesars that held the most artistic and political influence and would remain his lodestars. Whether it was the Arc de Triopmhe, the Venus de Medici in the Louvre, or the gorgeous works of Antonio Canova, Susan Jaques brings Napoleon to life as never before.