Prologue: Two love affairs -- pt. I. THE MIDDLE AGES: CATHEDRALS AND FORTRESSES. Saint-Denis: The monarchy and the gothic cathedral ; Laon: eraly gothic ; Chartres: the high gothic cathedral at Chartres ; The coronation ceremony at the cathedral of Reims ; The Louvre: a late-12th century fortress ; Angers: Blanche of Catile's early 13th century fortress ; Sainte-Chapelle in Paris ; Vincennes: a fortress of the Hundred Years War ; Joan of Arc: 1429 and the end of the Hundred Years War at Orléans ; Rouen: Joan of Arc and Monet -- pt. II. THE RENAISSANCE. CITIES AND CASTLES. Tours: the rebirth of cities after the Hundred Years War ; Blois: a 16th century Renaissance château ; Francis I and the Renaissance at Fontainebleau ; Henry IV in Pars: The Hôtel de Sens, the Place des Vosges, and the Luxembourg Gardens ; The Siee of La Rochelle and the End of the Reformation in France -- pt. III. THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. 17th CENTURY FRANCE. Magical Vaux-le-Vicomte ; Versailles ; The secret castle of Maintenon -- pt. IV. THE COMING OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. PARIS IN THE 18th CENTURY. Parisian sights: Palis-Royal, Hôtel Carnavalet, Hôtel de Soubise, École Militaire, the Panthéon, Place de la Concorde ; The Petit Trianon of Madame de Pompadour and Marie-Antoinette ; The Conciergerie -- pt. V. THE EMPIRE AND RESTORATION: THE BOURGEOIS CENTURY. Napoleon as Consul at Malmaison ; Napoleon at Compiègne ; The Restoration (1815-1848) at Chantilly Coda: my favorite emperor and me.