From TLS, a review of books on Versailles. From TNR, a review of The Information Master: Jean-Baptiste Colbert's Secret State Intelligence System by Jacob Soll. A review of A Revolution in Taste: The Rise of French Cuisine 1650-1800 by Susan Pinkard. The Puritanical French: A review of The Secret Wife of Louis XIV: Francoise d'Aubigne, Madame de Maintenon by Veronica Buckley (and more). A review of Eccentricity and the Cultural Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Paris by Miranda Gill. Lauren Elkin reviews Gilded Youth: Three Lives in France’s Belle Epoque by Kate Cambor (and more). A review of Chaque pas doit etre un but by Jacques Chirac. Eric Martone (Stony Brook): In the Shadow of Rousseau: Gender and the 2007 French Presidential Elections. France without illusions: The French president vowed to take on dictators everywhere — has he now given up on human rights entirely? "Anti-intellectual" Sarkozy provokes left by honouring Albert Camus, accused of point-scoring. Guy Sorman on the twilight of France’s republican aristocracy. A review of Ethnicity and Equality: France in the Balance by Azouz Begag. From FT, a review essay on France. In a move that will have da Vinci, David, Ingres and Michelangelo rolling over in their graves, McDonald's is opening a restaurant below the famous I.M. Pei pyramid at the Louvre. Bonjour tristesse: Why are the French so prone to suicide? In France, a new generation of women says non to nude sunbathing. Asterix books are still being published, but should they be? (and more and more) Did you hear the one about the lady who married the Eiffel Tower? No, really.
