Armchair Travel to France

France also has a national holiday with fireworks and parades in July. Bastille Day, celebrated on July 14th, commemorates the storming of the Bastille in 1789. By the late 18th century Bastille was little used as a prison and was scheduled to be demolished. The fortress had come to be associated in the minds of the people with the harsh rule of the Bourbon monarchy. During the unrest of 1789, a mob approached the Bastille to demand the arms and ammunition stored there, and, when the force guarding the structure resisted, the attackers captured the prison, releasing the seven prisoners held there. The taking of the Bastille signaled the beginning of the French Revolution.

This summer there are so many books published about the French - French living, French charm, French cinema, French history, walks in Paris, train rides in France, Americans in France, and of course, the language.

La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life by Elaine Sciolino: Sciolino attempts to demystify the art.
French Cinema by Charles Dazin: Key personalities and episodes in the history of French cinema.
Paris to the Past: Traveling Through French History by Train by Ina Caro: Twenty-five one-day train trips from central Paris.
The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris by John Baxter: The Paris of Hemingway, Stein and Fitzgerald.
When the World Spoke French by Marc Fumaroli: Portraits of foreigners (from Catherine the Great to Benjamin Franklin) who conversed and corresponded in French.
To Burgundy and Back Again: A Tale of Wine, France, and Brotherhood by Roy Cloud: Two brothers get a true taste of the wine import market.
The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, 1830-1900 by David McCullough: The lives and experiences of Americans drawn to Paris a century before Hemingway & Co. called it their home.

And new novels about France:

Beneath a Starlet Sky by Amanda Goldberg
Enough About Love by Herve Le Tellier
French Leave by Anna Gavalda
Hector and the Secrets of Love by Francois Lelord
Never Any End to Paris by Enrique Vila Matas
The Last Time I Saw Paris by Lynn Sheene
Madame Tussaud: a Novel of the French Revolution by Michele Moran
The Paris Wife by Paula Mclain
The Philosopher's Kiss by Peter Prange
The Provence Cure for the Broken-hearted by Bridget Asher