Caro is a lady after my own heart, an American who loves history and delicious food and is bored by crowds and dungeons. Her book takes you through 800 years of French history through places that are all an hour or less from Paris by train. It's a combination guidebook and history book that tells you the most interesting things to look for in each place (and she would know, since she is a historian herself). My only complaint is that there is so much history it is hard to keep track of which Louis is which, so a little timeline or something would have been helpful.