France

A never-before-told story of Virginia Hall, the American spy who changed the course of World War II, from the author of Clementine....

The definitive biography of the great soldier-statesman by the New York Times best-selling author of The Storm of War....

From the massively popular podcaster and New York Times best-selling author comes the story of the Marquis de Lafayette's lifelong quest to protect the principles of democracy, told through the lens of the three revolutions he participated in....

The classic account of the Allied invasion of Normandy....

A witty exploration of the facts and legends surrounding some of the most popular French foods and wines by a French cheesemonger and an American academic, A Bite-Sized History of France tells the compelling and often surprising story of France from the Roman era to modern times....

Bernard Cornwell combines his storytelling skills with a meticulously researched history to give a riveting chronicle of every dramatic moment from Napoleon's daring escape from Elba....

May 1940: The world is stunned as Hitler's forces invade France with a devastating blitzkrieg aimed at Paris. Within weeks, the French government has collapsed, and the City of Lights, revered for its carefree lifestyle, intellectual freedom, and liberty, has fallen under Nazi control....

Father of the novelist Alexandre Dumas, Alex Dumas has become, through his son's books, the model for a captivating modern protagonist: The wronged man in search of justice....

In 1632, an entire convent in the small French village of Loudun was apparently possessed by the devil....

In 1940, France fell to the Nazis and almost immediately the German army began a campaign of pillaging one of the assets the French hold most dear: their wine....

D-Day, June 6, 1944, and the 76 days of bitter fighting in Normandy that followed the Allied landing, have become the defining episode of World War II in the west - the object of books, films, television series, and documentaries....

A celebration of 25 years of Provençal living - of lessons learned and changes observed - with his final book, Peter Mayle has crafted a lasting love letter to his adopted home, marked by his signature warmth, wit, and humor....

The story of Napoleon has been written many times. In some versions, he is a military genius, in others a war-obsessed tyrant. Historian Adam Zamoyski cuts through the mythology and explains Napoleon against the background of the European Enlightenment and what he was seeking to achieve....

The gripping true story of the “duel to end all duels” in medieval France that pits a knight against a squire accused of violating the knight’s beautiful young wife....

Peter Mayle personally recounts the pleasures and frustrations of Provençal life--sharing in a way no one else can, the unique and endearing culture that is Provence....

In the 1970s, Paris fashion exploded like a champagne bottle left out in the sun. Amid sequins and longing, celebrities and aspirants flocked to the heart of chic, and Paris became a hothouse of revelry....

One hot Monday morning in 1976, Albert Spaggiari engineered the European crime of the century. A bank president in Nice, France found his vault welded shut—from the inside. Spaggiari and his gang of 20 men had dug a 25-foot tunnel from the city's sewer system into the bank....

In Montparnasse begins on the eve of the First World War and ends with the 1936 unveiling of Dalí’s Lobster Telephone. As those extraordinary years unfolded, the Surrealists found ever more innovative ways of exploring the interior life....

From one of the truly preeminent historians of our time, this is a landmark book chronicling the French Revolution....

France has influenced the course of history in Europe and the world for centuries....

A lively and deeply researched group biography of the figures who transformed the world of art in bohemian Paris in the first decade of the 20th century....

In A New World Begins, Jeremy D. Popkin offers a riveting account of the revolution that puts the listener in the thick of the debates and the violence that led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a new society....

The captivating story of the family behind the Cartier empire and the three brothers who turned their grandfather’s humble Parisian jewelry store into a global luxury icon - as told by a great-granddaughter with exclusive access to long-lost family archives....

Is Paris Burning? reconstructs, in meticulous and riveting detail, the network of fateful events - day by day, moment by moment - that saved the City of Light....

Heiress to the nearly 40-billion-dollar L’Oréal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt was the world’s richest woman and the 14th wealthiest person. But her gilded life took a dark yet fascinating turn in the past decade. At 94, she was embroiled in what has been called the Bettencourt Affair....

France: An Adventure History is a profoundly original and endlessly entertaining history of France, from the first century BC to the present day, based on countless new discoveries and thirty years of exploring France on foot, by bicycle and in the library. Beginning with the Roman army’s first recorded encounter with the Gauls and ending with the Gilets Jaunes protests in the era of Emmanuel Macron, each chapter is an adventure in its own right. Along the way, listeners will find the usual faces, events and themes of French history.

John Lackland was born to King Henry II and Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitane in December, 1166; he was the youngest of five sons. However, he unexpectedly became the favored heir to his father after a failed rebellion by his older brothers in 1173. He became king in 1199, though his reign was tumultuous and short. After a brief peace with Phillip II of France, war broke out again in 1202 and King John lost most of his holdings on the continent. This led to conflict upon his return from battle. Buffeted from all sides, King John was pushed in 1215 to sign the Magna Carta.

From 768 to 800, Charlemagne, also referred to as Charles the Great, was king of the Franks, king of the Lombards, and emperor of the Romans. Charlemagne combined many Western and main Europe at the time of the Early Middle Ages. Since the fall of the Western Roman Empire three centuries before, he was the first acknowledged emperor to rule from Western Europe. The Carolingian Empire is the name given to Charlemagne's broadening Frankish world. Antipope Paschal the Third later canonized him. 

Eleanor of Aquitaine is a controversial figure in history. Many have referred to her in a different light. Some with some opinions, others with others. Today, you will learn more about those and get as many facts straight as possible.

Marie Antoinette was the last queen of France. After eight years of marriage, her position at court improved when she started bearing kids. Nonetheless, she ended up out of favor amongst the people, with French "libelles" accusing her of being inefficient, promiscuous, holding sympathies for France's nemeses—specifically her home Austria—and having invalid kids. Her credibility was more tainted by the phony claims surrounding the Diamond Necklace Affair. At the time of the revolution, she was called Madame Déficit because of her elegant spending and enmity toward monetary reforms.

While some might think of the war as being a continuation of the feudal tradition of knights and peasants, the Hundred Years’ War revolutionized Western European warfare, and it truly helped to usher in the concept of nationalism on the continent. In England, it is remembered as a period of grandeur and success, even though the English lost the war and huge swathes of territory with it, while the French remember it as a strategic victory that ensured the continued independence of France and the denial of English hegemony.

The painting of her on the battlefield with only one breast covered and holding a flag is probably one of the most famous paintings from European history. Many people have heard of Joan of Arc, but only a few know what she did or how her life was. Joan of Arc is a French heroine who was venerated as a saint for her role in the Lancastrian part of the Hundred Years' War. Joan said she saw visions of archangels and saints telling her to support Charles VII and free France from English supremacy late in the Hundred Years' War. She is one of France's nine secondary tutelary saints. 

Launched in the 1880s by the first baron, the Empain industrial empire spread from Belgium and France to span more than a dozen countries. When Baron Édouard-Jean “Wado” Empain took over, he further expanded the company, became a key player in France’s nuclear sector, and, by the mid-1970s, was one of the country’s most powerful business leaders - a self-described “master of the universe”. Wado’s vertiginous rise caught the eye of Alain Cailloll, a small-time gangster who had grown up in a wealthy family before embracing a life of crime. 

In this haunting memoir that reflects on the Holocaust and its legacy, award-winning author Sandell Morse discovers stories of bravery and resistance enacted during WWII in Southern France. In the course of six years at a writing residency in France, during which she met with survivors and historians, she painstakingly pieces together the puzzle that had been beguiling her over the years: What was the real story of the French Jews under the Vichy government during The Second World War?

One hot Monday morning in 1976, Albert Spaggiari engineered the European crime of the century. A bank president in Nice, France found his vault welded shut—from the inside. Spaggiari and his gang of 20 men had dug a 25-foot tunnel from the city's sewer system into the bank, where they spent a weekend cooking meals, drinking wine, and clearing millions of dollars in gold, jewelry, gems, and cash. Here is the breathtakingly compelling story of Spaggiari, his “sewer gang,” and the most daring, outrageous theft of the 20th century.

Frеnсh Revolution started in thе year 1789, leading to a ѕеriеѕ of еvеntѕ ѕtаrtеd bу thе middle сlаѕѕ. The people rеvоltеd against the сruеl regime of the monarchy. The Frеnсh Revоlutiоn рut forth the idеаѕ оf libеrtу and fraternity, as wеll as еԛuаlitу. Although thеrе were innumerable саuѕеѕ аnd reasons for thе French Rеvоlutiоn, a fеw are thе mаin culprits. In this audiobook, you'll learn about the the Declaration оf thе Rightѕ of Mаn, the wоmеn’ѕ mаrсh on Vеrѕаillеѕ, the rеvоlutiоnаriеѕ of 1789, and more.

We are endlessly fascinated by the French. We are fascinated by their way of life, their creativity, sophistication and self-assurance, and even their insistence that they are exceptional. But how did France become the country it is today, and what really sets it apart? Journalist and historian Peter Watson sets out to answer these questions in The French Mind, a dazzling history of France that takes us from the 17th century to the present day through the nation’s most influential thinkers. 

In the darkest months of the Second World War, Churchill approved what seemed to many like a suicide mission. Under orders to attack the St Nazaire U-boat base on the Atlantic seaboard, British commandos undertook 'the greatest raid of all', turning an old destroyer into a live bomb and using it to ram the gates of a Nazi stronghold. Drawing on official documents, interviews, unknown accounts and the astonished reactions of French civilians and German forces, The Greatest Raid recreates in cinematic detail the hours in which the 'Charioteers' fought and died.

You may have heard of Lourdes, a town in France where millions of people go every year, either as a tourist to take pictures or see what the hype is all about, or real believers who think that the town has a sanctity to it and can somehow cure them, help them, or inspire them through divine means. Whatever the reason for the many visitors is, it is undeniably an interesting historical heritage, something worth exploring. To be precise, Lourdes is a small market town nestled in the Pyrenees' foothills.

An important chapter in history is that in which the Catholic Church was being questioned by the commoners. People were standing up against tyranny and illogical rules. They had had it with hypocrisy and double standards. The abuse in the church wasn’t representing the text in the Bible. Too much corruption had crept into the clergy, or so the narrative went about across the entire European continent.