PhotoBooks France

Ingram: Here is a wonderfully fresh and evocative look at one of France's great institutions--the cafe. Marie Francis Boyer showcases the legendary Parisian cafes--where some of the world's most celebrated philosophers, poets, and painters gathered--and also explores cafes whose architecture and decoration are part of the French heritage.

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As sweet as raspberry ripple, as tempting as popcorn. Welcome to the seductive pictures of Pierre et Gilles. Again and again they show people in kitschy scenarios against a background of flowers and hearts. When they are not snapping portraits of the well-known--most of whom are close friends like Marc Almond or Nina Hagen--and not-so-known, they photograph themselves.

Bizarre, and full of obscure significance, the photographs are reminiscent of stills from film melodramas. They are always colourful and presented with beguiling polish. They plunder the repertoire of historical presentation as though they were leafing through a collection of fabrics, and assume identities as though they were part of a mail-order catalogue.

Now the latest and most comprehensive collection of the works of these two photographers can be presented to the public--in a format designed by the artists themselves. In matt skin-colour, with a golden edging, the embossed cover is reminiscent of a quilted counterpane and promises a cuddly experience within. Once between the covers one can frolic at will in a soft, artificial world of pictures. This saccharine collection of kitsch encompasses all aspects of homosexuality and offers them in an appetising form even to those who abhor them. A straight challenge is issued to all readers to participate--at least with their eyes--in this unbridled celebration of a life beyond guilt and expiation.

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Explores the beauty of the French regions of the Dordogne in 258 color photographs that reveal the lush vegetation of the northern crescent, the red grapes of the Bergerac vineyards, the truffles of the southeast, the abbey of Branto+a3me, and the charming village of Hautefort.

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Celebrated for its fine wine and elegant cuisine, Burgundy is an area of outstanding architecture, charming villages and small towns. This volume pays tribute to Burgundy's history and devotion to the fine arts and crafts of good living. It includes a map and travellers' guide.

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Usually associated with splendid Renaissance châ teaux and historical monuments, the Loire valley is in fact a place of even greater interest than the image of popular perception. The Loire River itself is the longest in France and passes through a succession of landscapes, many of them of a richness that proves this is truly "the garden of France." And there is variety too, reflected in the buildings and settings of the beautiful villages so stunningly illustrated in this book. Traveling west, James Bentley and Hugh Palmer take us first to the communities around Orléans, the villages of the Loiret and Cher départements. We then progress to the lands around Blois and Tours, where, it is said, the purest French is spoken. Here begin the villages with the great chateâ ux, such as Chambord, Cheverny, and Azay-le-Rideau, reached by long roads lined with poplars or lying beside the banks of one of the many tributaries of the Loire. The slopes here are frequently vine-clad, producing the delicious white wines that make such a fine accompaniment to the traditional fish cuisine of the region. And finally we arrive at the villages around Angers and Nantes where willow-lined rivers divide a landscape of quiet opulence, and green fields alternate with market gardens growing vegetables, flowers, and fruit. Over thirty villages of the Loire valley are described and beautifully photographed in this book, which is completed by special sections on wine and food and abbeys and churches. As with all the volumes in The Most Beautiful Villages series, there are appendices listing the most important sites, markets, hotels, and restaurants. 275 color illustrations.

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France still sets the standard for beautiful living. Whether it is the bohemian lifestyle of the Parisian artist or the grandeur of a medieval chateau, there is a romance and elegance associated with the French that people the world over seek to emulate. LA VIE EN ROSE takes readers on a grand tour of homes that perfectly capture the essence of French living. Gerard Depardieu escapes the rigors of his busy celebrity life by retiring to his country retreat in Anjou; Parisian decorator AgnËs Comar inhabits a spectacular apartment surrounding a wild garden courtyard; and the Comte Jacques de Crussol d'Uzes and his wife open the doors of their ancestral home--a castle in the South of France. Lavishly illustrated with 180 color photographs, LA VIE EN ROSE is sure to inspire readers to recreate a piece of France in their own homes.

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Here are 50 of the most beautiful villages in a country famous for its rural architecture and small towns. They have been selected for their situation in a picturesque landscape, for their authentic state of preservation and for their sheer beauty and ambience. 400 photos.

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"The meaning of art is not authenticity but the expression of authenticity," wrote the Hungarian-born photographer Gyula Halász, better known as Brassaï, whose unflinching yet deeply sensual portraits of the seamier side of Paris nightlife during the 1930s and 1940s summon up an era when decadence and desperation ran side by side. Brassaï's curiosity about his subjects and the originality of his approach highlight the depth of his identification with Paris, his adopted city. The son of a professor of French literature, Brassaï had first visited the city at the age of 5; later, in the early 1920s, he returned to make it his home after completion of studies in fine art in Budapest and Berlin. Settling in the bohemian arrondissement of Montparnasse, mixing with artists and writers, Brassaï took up photography "in order to capture the beauty of streets and gardens in the rain and fog, and to capture Paris by night." He lures us into the smoky, highly charged world of clubs and cafés, where nicotine-stained lovers in cheap clothes become impossibly desirable through the camera's lens. Streets, stairways, and canals are moodily lit; even a man rummaging for food in a rubbish bin takes on a cinematic aura. Yet Brassaï's photographs contain a strange mixture of seediness and resilience that ultimately triumphs over any false notions of glamour. He depicts scenes of poverty and its trappings--alcoholism, prostitution, violence, hunger. The chaotic social whirl of 1930s Paris dies down to the quiet suffering of a city under occupation, with its two great literary lights, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, sitting out the war, stony-faced in the Café de Flore. Accompanied by extracts from Brassaï's own writings, contemporaries such as Henry Miller, and essays from other contributors, and containing 308 images, Brassaï is a fine testament to an artist whose images of one city have proved so enduring. --Catherine Taylor, Amazon.co.uk

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Normandy is a vast region of open country and woodland, stretching from the limestone plateau of the Pays de Caux in the northeast to Mont-St-Michel and the Cotentin peninsula in the west, where the villages anticipate the sturdy architecture of Brittany, and to the hills of the Perche Normand in the south, a famous horse-breeding region. It is also a coastal land of towering cliffs and sandy beaches, imbued with a poignant sense of momentous historical events and punctuated by delicious villages—some fashionable resorts, others still working fishing communities like Barfleur, the most beautiful of which are illustrated in this book. The land is crossed by rivers along the banks of which stand many gems of villages, such as the exquisite Bagnoles-de-l'Orne in the south, and Clécy in Calvados at the heart of the Suisse Normande. Normandy is also famous for the good things in life: a varied vernacular architecture, a rich cuisine derived from local produce (this is Camembert and Calvados country), and strong associations with the arts. Claude Monet created his famous garden in the village of Giverny in the valley of the Seine. The village of Lyons-la-Forêt, known for its traditional half-timbered houses, was home to Maurice Ravel. And no survey of the beautiful villages of Normandy would be complete without coastal Étretat, surrounded by towering cliffs and associated with Monet, de Maupassant, and Courbet. In addition to the accounts of over thirty of the most picturesque villages of Normandy, this beautiful book also includes special sections on the churches, châteaux, harbors, and coastline. An essential addition to the best-selling Most Beautiful Villages series, it is completed by a guide to the most important sights, markets, hotels, and restaurants. 200 color illustrations and photographs.

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Darling of the Paris fashion scene and leading exponent of French graphic design Laurent Fetis is highly acclaimed for his insidious, modern take on 60s/70s Yellow Submarine psychedelia, liberally splashing monochrome, organic expanses, and dozy, moustachoid gentlemen in two-piece suits across posters, magazines, and album covers.

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