Through twenty-five one-day train trips, the author describes outings spanning seven hundred years of French history, including Orléans, Versailles, Place de la Concorde, and Saint-Denis.

Prologue: Two love affairs -- PT. I. THE MIDDLE AGES: CATHEDRALS AND FORTRESSES. Saint-Denis: The monarchy and the gothic cathedral -- Laon: eraly gothic -- Chartres: the high gothic cathedral at Chartres -- The coronation ceremony at the cathedral of Reims -- The Louvre: a late-12th century fortress -- Angers: Blanche of Catile's early 13th century fortress -- Sainte-Chapelle in Paris -- Vincennes: a fortress of the Hundred Years War -- Joan of Arc: 1429 and the end of the Hundred Years War at Orléans -- Rouen: Joan of Arc and Monet -- PT. II. THE RENAISSANCE. CITIES AND CASTLES. Tours: the rebirth of cities after the Hundred Years War -- Blois: a 16th century Renaissance château -- Francis I and the Renaissance at Fontainebleau -- Henry IV in Pars: The Hôtel de Sens, the Place des Vosges, and the Luxembourg Gardens -- The Siee of La Rochelle and the End of the Reformation in France -- Pt. III. THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. 17th CENTURY FRANCE. Magical Vaux-le-Vicomte -- Versailles -- The secret castle of Maintenon -- Pt. IV. THE COMING OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. PARIS IN THE 18th CENTURY. Parisian sights: Palis-Royal, Hôtel Carnavalet, Hôtel de Soubise, École Militaire, the Panthéon, Place de la Concorde -- The Petit Trianon of Madame de Pompadour and Marie-Antoinette -- The Conciergerie -- Pt. V. THE EMPIRE AND RESTORATION: THE BOURGEOIS CENTURY. Napoleon as Consul at Malmaison -- Napoleon at Compiègne -- The Restoration (1815-1848) at Chantilly Coda: my favorite emperor and me.