An account of upper-class French society through the centuries, showing how its setting - the "chateaux", "manoirs" and "gentilhommeries" of the French countryside - evolved in concert with their inhabitants to create a way of life admired and emulated throughout Europe. We learn how different rooms were lived in and how their uses changed, about plumbing, lighting, heating, water supply, kitchens, stables and servants' quarters, and about the evolution in taste and decoration to accommodate the waxing and waning fortunes of the aristocracy. Girouard quotes from letters and diaries, inventories and books of etiquette.
- ISBN10 0297832751
- ISBN13 9780297832751
- Publish Date 31 October 1999
- Publish Status Unknown
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Orion Publishing Co
- Imprint Weidenfeld Nicolson Illustrated
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 288
- Language English