In one of the most inventive travel books in years, Ina Caro invites readers on train trips that depart from Paris and transport us back through seven hundred years of French history. Whether taking us to Orléans to evoke the miraculous visions of Joan of Arc, to Versailles to experience the flamboyant achievements of Louis XIV, or to the Place de la Concorde to witness the beheading of Marie Antoinette, Caro animates history with lush descriptions of architectural splendors and tales of court intrigue. Organizing her destinations chronologically from twelfth-century Saint-Denis to the nineteenth-century Restoration at Chantilly, Caro appeals not only to the casual tourist but also to the armchair reader of Peter Mayle's
A Year in Provence. Caro's passion for and knowledge of France - its soaring cathedrals, enthralling history, and sumptuous cuisine - are so impressive that
Paris to the Past promises to become one of the classic guide books of our time.
Ina Caro, author of the best-selling
The Road from the Past: Traveling through History in France, received her master's degree in history, with a concentration in medieval history, after studying at Columbia and Long Island Universities. She holds an honorary doctorate from the CUNY Graduate Center. She has also worked as sole researcher on the award-winning biographies of
Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro, to whom she is married. She and her husband have traveled extensively throughout France by train and car, studying its history at the sites where it occurred.
