Although not a novel, a wonderful book is The Road from the Past, Traveling through History in France by Ina Caro. She is an historian, the wife of biographer Robert Caro. The book is listed as Travel/World History..it is a type of historical travelogue, starting south & moving northward, following the flow of French history - <BR>Provence/Roman, Languedoc/medieval, Dordogne/100 years war, Loire Valley & Ile de France. I read it before a trip to France; then when I returned, I re-read parts of it on the sites/areas I visted since I could now envision more fully many aspects of what she was explaining & describing.