Further Reading

• The French by Theodore Zeldin: This is a much-trumpeted study of national passions, peculiarities and perspectives.
• A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: A digressive and fanciful account of the author's 1765 coach tour through France and Italy.
• Travels with a Donkey by Robert Louis Stevenson: A reminder of the connection between hoofing it through remote regions and the increasing prettiness of Eeyore.
• A Little Tour in France by Henry James: This is a classic work of travel literature about France.
• Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes: A highly entertaining novel that pays homage to the great French writer Flaubert.
• The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein: Gertrude Stein memorably recounts her years in Paris.
• A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway: A portrayal of bohemian life in Paris between the wars.
• France Toda by John Ardagh: An exhaustive review of all aspects of modern-day French society.
• Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell: A penetrating and poignant look at down-at-heel Paris in the late 1920s.
• The Food of France by Waverly Root: First published in 1958, this is a very tasty - indeed, the definitive - region-by-region introduction to French cuisine.
• The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir: A pioneering work on women's position in society that helped inspire the modern feminist movement.
• Feminism in France by Claire Duchen: A reasonably contemporary exposition which charts the progress of feminism in France from 1968 to the mid-1980s.
• Citizens by Simon Schama: For the dynamics of political history, check out this influential and truly monumental work that examines the first few years after the storming of the Bastille in 1789.
• A History of Modern France by Alfred Cobban: This readable three-volume set covers the period from Louis XIV to 1962; the best of the general studies of French history.
• Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller: Along with Tropic of Capricorn, this is one of Miller's 'sexy' novels set in Paris.
• A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle: A best-selling account that takes a witty, patronising and very English look at the French.
• The Unknown Tour de France: The Curious Story of the Worl'ds Biggest Bicycle Race by Les Woodland: An alternative and often giggle-worthy slant on France's greatest cycling race.
• Le Rouge et le Noir by Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle): The story of the rise and fall of a poor young man from the provinces who models himself on Napolean. A must read classic of 19th-century french literature.
• Joan of Arc: By Herself and her Witnesses by Regine Pernoud (English translation by Edward Hyams): Letters, testimonies and trial notes from the 15th century document the meteoric rise and fall of Joan of Arc.
• Mont Blanc: Discovery and Conquest of the Giant of the Alps by Stefano Ardito: Portrays France's most magnificent mountain in all its soaring splendour. 200-odd pages of stunning photographs.

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