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Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings
by Amy Kelly
A spirited, meticulously researched chronicle that recreates the life and world of Eleanor of Aquitaine in 12th-century Europe. A Harvard University Press Classic, first published in 1950.
Love and Revolutionary Greetings: An Ohio Boy in the Spanish Civil War
by Laurie E. Levinger
Follow the story of a boy name Sam Levinger who travels to Spain in 1937 to join the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Based on letters home to his mother, this story will captivate and educate it's readers of the American involvement during the Spanish Civil War.
The Road from the Past, Traveling through History in France
by Ina Caro
Time travel through France by way of its finest castles, chateaux, cathedrals and monasteries. This unusual travelogue is an invaluable companion for traveling in Paris, southern France, the Dordogne and the Loire Valley, combining personal observation with large doses of well-presented history.
Footprint Focus Guide Barcelona & Catalunya, Includes Andorra & Eastern Spanish Pyrenees
by Mary-Ann Gallagher
This slim Footprint guide provides up-do-date listings of eateries, lodging places, maps, as well as activities, sites and nightlife. The handy "Essentials" section also has useful advice on getting to and around Barcelona & Catalunya.
Romanesque Churches of Spain: A Traveller's Guide
by Peter Strafford
A perfect companion for travellers, by leading Times journalist Peter Strafford. With its ten maps and arrangement by region, the book provides a stimulus for the exploration of wild and remote areas that are unfamiliar to many people, especially across the Pyrenees and in the mountainous areas of Aragon,
The Frost on His Shoulders
by Lorenzo Mediano (Lisa Dillman translator)
In the 1930s, in an isolated valley of the Pyrenees Mountains, an aging teacher reconstructs a bloody and tragic event that seemed destined to remain forever hidden behind a wall of silence
Languedoc-Roussillon Map
by Michelin Travel Publications
A detailed regional map.
Montaillou, The Promised Land of Error
by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Barbara Bray (Translator)
This absorbing, candid and marvelously detailed portrait of daily life in 13th-Century Languedoc was a French bestseller. It's based on the 600-year-old transcript of heretic interrogations by Bishop (later Pope Benedict XII) Jacques Fournier of Pamiers. 30th Anniversary Edition.
Barcelona
by Robert Hughes
A Longitude favorite, this big, thoroughly enjoyable cultural history of the city touches on architecture, art, religion and literature from Roman outpost to today.
Hot Sun, Cool Shadow
by Angela Murrills
In this mouthwatering travelogue interspersed with classic recipes, Murrills shows the allure of Languedoc and the slow food movement. Charmingly illustrated by her husband, Peter Matthews.
Cadogan Guide Languedoc-Roussillon
by Dana Facaros, Michael Pauls
Based themselves in southwest France, Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls cover the sweep of the Mediterranean from the Rhone Valley to the Spanish border in knowledgeable detail.
The Catalans
by Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian's bitingly funny novel of Dr. Alain Roeg, who returned home to a family in crisis, beautifully evokes Saint-Feliu, the town in Languedoc ("French Catalonia") where O'Brian made his home.
Homage to Catalonia
by George Orwell
Orwell's portrait of the Barcelona uprising and the spirit of a city at war is a classic, an observant and heartfelt report from the streets.
Catalonia, A Cultural History
by Michael Eaude
A literary, cultural guide to the art, architecture, traditions and history of Catalonia.
The Perfect Heresy: The Revolutionary Life and Spectacular Death of the Medieval Cathars
by Stephen O'Shea
An insightful review of a difficult subject - the Albigensian Crusade - and the tragic, bloody history of the Cathars,
France, A Traveler's Literary Companion
by William Rodarmor (Editor)
This collection contains literary gems from all corners of France--not just Paris--by a select group of 20th-century French writers from Colette to Simenon.
A Most Holy War, The Albigensian Crusade and the Battle for Christendom
by Mark Gregory Pegg
As talented a writer as he is a historian, Pegg never loses sight of the drama of grand expeditions, heroic sieges and the panoply of village insurgents, kings and crusaders in this rousing tale of the battle for Christendom.
Inquisition and Medieval Society
by James Buchanan Given
A professor of history, Given draws on the ideas of Marx and Foucault in this schoalrly analysis of the papal inquistion in medieval Languedoc.
Paris to the Pyrenees
by David Downie
David Downie's spirited book is haunted by the Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix and the Gallo-Roman forebearers of modern France. On ancient trails through the forests of the rugged Morvan, they continued across the celebrated wine country of Burgundy and the centuries-old Via Podiensis on the Way of Saint James.