French History: A Captivating Guide to the History of France, Charlemagne, and Notre-Dame de Paris

Captivating History is offering three of their books about the Franks and Charlemagne, Notre Dame Cathedral, and the History of France. The French have a rich history and these are three very interesting aspects of that history.  Jason Zenobia reads this history of France without a stutter or a stammer over the fascinating array of French and other names.HISTORY OF FRANCE --In 1940, a group of boys found the Lascaux cave paintings. There was human life in Gaul 15,000 to 17,000 years ago. Large people migrations traveled across Gaul before and after the arrival of the Romans.Captivating History highlights some of the most important people to affect Gaul/France, such as Vercingetorix, Charlemagne, Joan of Arc, and the French kings, particularly Louis XIV. Through Louis XIV's excesses and the kings that followed him, the reader gets a good understanding of the causes and activities of the French Revolution. Of course, a chunk of the book covered Napoleon and his wars. Napoleon had a profound effect; he ended the French Revolution, created the Napoleonic Code of Laws (used in Louisiana to this day), and changed feudal Europe in several ways with his emphasis on freedom and social equality.The Industrial Revolution did not start in France but they quickly jumped on the bandwagon because of the increased prosperity. There was a revival of French arts and culture because of the stability in the country. As Germany formed into a single country and suddenly emerged as an aggressive country in Europe, France worried. Then, the author showed how World War I began. But I found most interesting to be the analysis of France between the wars.  The final chapters dealt with World War II and its aftermath. I vaguely remember Charles de Gaulle; he was much more important than I ever dreamed. The photos and maps helped explain some of the discussions. However, "Illustration 55: Oradour-sur-Glane, France" was the most evocative. The city sits as it did on the date following the massacre of 600 civilians by the Germans. This book concentrates on the highlights and major points of French history.CHARLEMAGNE -- Charlemagne is a difficult man to categorize because he was all over the map with his accomplishments and efforts. Although not the first ruler of the Carolingian Dynasty (he was the third), he was a strong ruler and conqueror who was often called the Father of Europe. He ruled for 47 years and spent much of that time conquering rebelling tribes and regions. However, he also worked to stabilize the currency, encouraged reading, and competent administration. He also changed the relationship between kings and the Catholic Church. He became a protector of the Catholic pope. For this, he was eventually crowned as Holy Roman Emperor.   NOTRE DAME --  The story begins with the fire of April 15, 2019. Then, the majestic beauty that is this ancient church seems to step back and allow her mind to wander -- through her great and glorious past. Then the story returns to the fire. However, in the previous chapters, the author has explained why Notre Dame means so much to Parisians, the French, and the world. She is a symbol of hope. Beautifully written and read.

Wow! There is a lot of information in this three part book bundle.. This book covers ancient France, The Vikings, Romans, and many names that you will recognize- Napolean, Joan of Arc, Charlemagne. Notre-Dame de Paris is also covered in this set of books. I learned more than I learned in my history classes in school. This is really worth reading to learn more about France, its history and its impact on the world.

The best that can be said of this book is that it is very much a kind of History for Dummies.

This package comes in three sections.The first part recounts the history of France from before the bronze age to the late 20th century from a neutral, but French-leaning, perspective. France was fist occupied by prehistoric man nearly 15000-17000 years ago (caves at Lascaux). The early inhabitants’ stories are told through archeological evidence and legend up until the beginning of the Common Era (CE). Rome occupied much of France through the 6th century CE and the area’s history reflects their influence. After the Romans left, the biggest impact on French evolution is told through the stories of the major figures of their respective times; Vercingetorix, Charlemagne, Joan of Arc and King Louis XIV. In the background of the second millennium are the ongoing conflicts with England across the English Channel and around the world as the ‘voyages of discovery and colonization’ come to pass. 20% of this section is spent on providing details of the French Revolution and another 20% on Napoleon’s rule. France’s central roles in both World Wars I and II and the events precipitating them are nicely summarized. The book’s ‘Conclusion’ is actually a succinct summary of the happenings after WWII, rather than an overarching summation, although there is a short wrap-up.There are numerous illustrations and maps throughout the book which help the reader understand the discussions. The Author also takes time to debunk many misconceptions brought about by television and film inaccuracies.The Second portion chronicles the history of one of France’s most famous kings, CHARLEMAGNE. It covers the times leading up to his assuming the position as king and what happens to his heirs until the blood line is ended. Charlemagne was not only an important figure to France, he essentially unified what today is known as Europe, the largest holding of any ruler at the time. During his 47-year reign, he was continually expanding his empire, with very few setbacks. He was not only an excellent battlefield commander; he was also an excellent leader. He standardized the currency, architecture and education systems in the lands under his control. He also brought Christianity to the people.While it sometimes gets confusing when the past is retold to place events in context, this is an excellent summary of the life and times of a man who many know his name, but not the details of his story.The third section covers the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, France. The building sits on a site that has had religious connections since the beginning of the Common Era (CE). A previous 600-year-old church was leveled to provide the space for the current building which took 200 years to build and has stood for over 900 years. The cost to raise the structure is estimated to be around 1 Billion dollars in today’s value. No wonder it has become a national icon and a defining symbol of Paris and France. During its existence, it has been renovated and updated several times for various reasons. There have also been times when it did not serve as a church. It has been the site of many important secular events, such as the crowning of Napoleon as emperor. It was fortunate in not being in any major battle zones during WWII, but in recent times has been attacked by pollution. Alas, in 2019 an accidental fire caused major destruction, but many of the relics were saved. Again, 1 Billion dollars has been pledged to restore Notre Dame to its former glory. This book chronicles it’s entire history, and it’s importance as a symbol for many causes.

Enjoyed these books, you'd not go wrong purchasing these if you want to have an understanding of revolution, Charlemagne the Great and the spectacular Notre Dame.

I was excited to read this as I’m finding it hard to find a book with good coverage and overview of ALL of France’s history, not just the Revolution. My family date back to at least 1000 AD through the Normans and Burgundians.Forget it. This book doesn’t delve into anything at all deeply, focusses too much time on the Revolution, to the detriment of all the rest of France’s amazing history.It’s also very cheaply printed on what feels like laser paper, and all images are very poor reproductions of unintelligible detail with no overview or “big picture” sense of historical times or events. Worse, there are many images so poorly cropped, far too dark with little contrast, and obvious computer screen captures, that I’m definitely convinced these are “desktop published” but the authors’ kid who is taking a software learning course online & printing these off in the family rec room! France’s history is so rich, with so many potentially visually stunning places, artifacts, buildings, locations and architecture, but the incredibly lousy and incredibly limited choices in black & white only to illustrate this book looks like the pimply teenaged kid who laid this out and their amateur parent author wouldn’t even stretch to paying any cheapo stock image services for a single quality image. Not that the “design”, lack of expert image editing, and cheapo print quality in black & white would have done quality images any justice, anyway.I was excited to see how extensive the historic subjects of the Clearly Captivating series titles range, but will never bother to pick up or but a copy of any of their books again.I recommending the series to my local library to consider buying for history buffs and amateur researchers like me to read before I got my copy of this in the mail. Imagine my embarrassment to have to call them after I got this to completely grovel & tell them to tear up my recommendation and to forget I even suggested it to them. Ugh!

I knew the book was going to be more a survey of French history, not a detailed accounting, but they leave out large periods. They barely mention the Capetian and Valois dynasties, and seem to only give only a couple paragraphs to the French Wars of Religion. These were the areas I was most interested in. They go from Charlegmagne to Joan of Arc, around 500 years skipped over. They do give a few pages to William the Conqueror and Harold Godwinson, which to me is more key to English history than French. I think it would have been better to cover medieval/renaissance France in that space if they had to choose. They also have several paragraphs here and there comparing real history to depictions in tv/movies, such as Braveheart and Vikings. Again, given that they skip so much else, their decisions to give this space boggles my mind. I will give credit that what they do write about, is well written and entertaining. If you want something that just focuses on some key figures and is easy to read, but skips a lot in between, then this is the book for you. But if you want a solid survey of French history looks elsewhere. I was tempted to keep it for the separate manuscripts on Charlegmagne and Notre-Dame, but given they miss so much in the French History part, I have dubious trust that it's not the same for the other two as well. I'll be returning it, dissapointed.