Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on
bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
Adventures on the Wine Route, A Wine Buyer's Tour of France
by Kermit Lynch
A delightful and warmly anecdotal book, highly recommended for anyone touring the wine regions of France. Lynch brings the domains and appellations of French wine to full-blown life, and his portraits of the grand personalities who make the wine are priceless.
Cathedrals and Castles, The Cathedral Builders of the Middle Ages
by Alain Erlande-Brandenburg
This pocket-size encyclopedia of the art, architecture and culture of the Middle Ages features hundreds of drawings, color illustrations and a brief chronology.
Michelin Green Guide Alsace, Lorraine, Champagne
by Michelin Travel Publications
A guide to Alsace, Champagne and Vosges in the classic Michelin style.
The Age of the Cathedrals, Art and Society 980-1420
by Georges Duby
French scholar Duby, writing very accessibly, describes both the great cathedrals and the philosophical, religious, and political climate that enabled them to be built in this classic.
Wine and War, The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure
by Donald Kladstrup
This thrilling account of how the vintners of France saved their crops -- and their bottles -- as the Nazis approached, focuses on the activities of five winemaking families in Burgundy, Alsace, Champagne, Bordeaux and the Loire Valley.
A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance, Portrait of an Age
by William Manchester
Organized into sections on the Renaissance, Reformation and Discovery, Manchester's popular history evokes in vivid detail the great figures and daily life of the 16th century, including Henry VIII, Magellan, Borgia, da Vinci and Martin Luther.
A Traveller's History of France
by Robert Cole
This fast-moving survey covers the conquests of ancient Gaul through the heady days of revolution to modern times.
The Food of France
by Waverly Root
An evocative and beautifully written survey of French food. First published in 1958 and revised in the mid-1970s, the book covers the important regions of French cuisine by dividing them into domains of Butter (northern France), Fat (Alsace) and Oil (the south).