19 best books about France to read before you visit

"City of Darkness, City of Light" is the story of two women who are driven to join the French Revolution. Claire Lacombe and Pauline Leon both come from poor families, but their lives take very different paths.

Claire is an actress whose theatre group performs at lavish homes for aristocrats; Pauline is a laundress who works for those same nobles.

When they see the stark disparity between their lives and those of their wealthy employers, they become determined to change society.

From Anthony Doerr, the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning author of Cloud Cuckoo Land, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious instant New York Times bestselling work of historical fiction All the Light We Cannot See is about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo.

A historical and cultural guide revealing the French approach to land, food, privacy, language, and more and how globalization led France to become one of the unlikeliest influential countries in the world.

The French drink, smoke and eat more fat than anyone in the world, yet they live longer and have fewer heart problems than Americans. They work 35-hour weeks and take seven weeks' paid vacation each year, yet they are the world's fourth-biggest economic power. So how do they do it?

There’s never been a book about food like Let’s Eat France! A book that feels literally larger than life, it is a feast for food lovers and Francophiles, combining the completist virtues of an encyclopedia and the obsessive visual pleasures of infographics with an enthusiast’s unbridled joy.

Here are classic recipes, including how to make a pot-au-feu, eight essential composed salads, pâté en croûte, and blanquette de veau.

The perfect gift for the Francophile in your life, this book features photographs of Paris arranged by color. From a blue bicycle against a fence to an orange café chair, from a weathered white door to a bright red fire hydrant, these sumptuous images capture the distinctive details of one of the world's most romantic cities.

An ode to art and design, Paris in Color will surprise and delight those who love art and design as well as Paris!

France has a long and storied history, from its earliest days as a Roman colony to the present. In this classic history of France, eminent historian J. M. Roberts traces the country’s development from Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul in the first century BC to the end of World War II.

He covers both French history and that of France’s colonies and territories around the world, including Canada, India, Algeria, Vietnam and modern-day Haiti.

A Bite-Sized History of France is a thoroughly original book that explores the facts and legends of the most popular French foods and wines. Traversing the cuisines of France's most famous cities as well as its underexplored regions, the book is enriched by the "authors' friendly accessibility that makes these stories so memorable" (The New York Times Book Review).

This innovative social history also explores the impact of war and imperialism, the age-old tension between tradition and innovation, and how food has been used to express political dissent.