Life in the French Country House

An account of upper-class French society through the centuries, showing how its setting - the "chateaux", "manoirs" and "gentilhommeries" of the French countryside - evolved in concert with their inhabitants to create a way of life admired and emulated throughout Europe.

We learn how different rooms were lived in and how their uses changed, about plumbing, lighting, heating, water supply, kitchens, stables and servants' quarters, and about the evolution in taste and decoration to accommodate the waxing and waning fortunes of the aristocracy.

Girouard quotes from letters and diaries, inventories and books of etiquette.