Villages of France

I have owned the hardback edition of this excellent book for several years, and will be using it in a course on late medieval France in the fall of 2000. In depicting the landscapes, the buildings and the material culture of France, the book does more than most historical accounts, past and present, to explain the diversity that comprises French identity today. French identity is rooted in its medieval and early modern past. Because French villages, like the country's cities, were built in stone, and because they are inhabited today, the past is visible in people's daily lives. Churches and fortresses, manor houses and monasteries, walls and fountained market squares document France's centuries-long religious and political struggles. The mountain ridges and plateaus on which most villages are situated contrast with the valley settings of most German and English villages of Germany and England. Building materials differ as well, with the latter choosing of clay, thatch and timber. Whereas most German and English villages were devoted to agriculture and local trade, French villages were defensive, self-sufficient and isolated. Unlike other European countries, France's landscape made it vulnerable from attack, both from within France and from beyond the Alps and the Rhine, and less often, from Spain and the British Isles. Although each region of France developed different archictectural styles, France itself was unified both by its vulnerability and by it defensiveness.This book contains beautiful photographs of each of France's micro-environments as well as lucid and informed discussions of ecology and history. Although aimed at the interested reader, and perhaps intended for casual browsing, "Villages of France" enables students to glimpse the fascinating physical and human history of France.