As someone who ate lavender honey just because it is French, this book is a delight for both senses and future bucket lists. It takes you on a ride through France's history and gastronomy and enchants your senses with flavors and (great) facts. For someone who loves France this book is like a little treasure. Prepare a notebook or a new document to jot down fascinating places for your first or next visit. This book is also a nice gift if you have a francophile friend.

I really enjoyed this book. The author made the history of France come alive, using the backstories of food, drink, and food customs as entry points into French history. Where was this book when I had to take Western Civ in college? I've studied European history in school, but this book was much more readable and enjoyable. I actually learned more history in this book than from studies in college. The book cuts through much of the political dramas and brings a relatable tone to French history. Recommended for history majors, past and present, and those who love all things French.

"A Bite-Sized History of France" provides a feast of Francophile and culinary history served up in easily digestible morsels. Not only do you learn how certain foods and drinks and phrases came to be, you are also introduced to the French history occurring around the food. This book fills the trivia banks on numerous fronts - world history, food, drink, folklore, colloquialisms and more.

I plan to purchase a copy of this book for my sister who teaches World History & AP Euro History - many of the tidbits shared in this book would make for fun extra seasoning to her modules and lessons.

Free ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is available on July 10th.

Don't sit down to read this book without a good glass of wine and a nice cheese board in front of you! I got hungry just reading the introduction. This is a delicious bit of French food history, and would be the perfect book for a foodie, or anyone who loves accessible history.

What a delightful Gallic gastronomic adventure! I loved the history—completely engaging, written with humor and insight. Some of the anecdotes left me with my mouth watering, others, not as much, but rarely have I so enjoyed learning about another culture. These petite pieces have sold me on France. I’ll be updating my passport tout de suite!

An extremely well-researched, comprehensive book on European gastronomy tied in with the French's. Although I acknowledge the necessity of certain historical backgrounds for the reader to fully understand the particular food's timeline from emergence to present-day position, I found the ratio of history and food to be unbalanced: too much history, too little food. I enjoy reading about a dish/food's story but this had more feudal history than I'd have found entertaining.

If you're a history-buff, this is perfect for you. If you're more into the food, this is still a good, comprehensive book on the topic but you might need to wade through all the backstories to get to the fun parts.

The French history food buff will sink their teeth into a buffet of gastronomy information! The authors have done a remarkable amount of research. We follow society's , specifically the French's, love affair with.food through out history. From B.C. through the Gaultic period, Napoleon, the Kings and including who lays claim to the simple French fry, learn about Cognac - known as the liquor of the Gods.. The reader may though find themselves in an overload of facts.

I have been reading this book for a little over a week now. I finally finished it last night, and I enjoyed it quite a lot. It isn't the type of book you sit down and read cover to cover, but it works well as an in between type of read. It was packed full of interesting facts and anecdotes about the history of France and its gastronomy. From Roquefort cheese to the wines of Bordeaux (and everything in between). It was a delightful read and one that made me want to rent a car and take a foodie trip tout suite!

This was a fun book for history- and food-lovers alike. The French-and-American author couple go from pre-Roman times right up to the present, regaling us with lots of mini food histories, collisions of culture, and who-knew? moments.

Food often served as class markers, nobles disdaining root vegetables in the Middle Ages, for instance, since that's what the peasants had to eat. At least they could plant a variety of root vegetables. By the 18th century, the poorest classes might get 95% of their daily calories from whole-grain bread--hence their furor when bread ran short.

The Crusades introduced sugar to Europe. Louis XIV was autopsied at death and found to have a stomach "three times larger than that of a normal adult," into which he had shoveled astounding amounts of food. "J'ai la patate!" ("I've got the potato!") might be said by a French person feeling fine. Alternately, if he thought something only so-so, it might be "half fig, half grape" (mi-figue, mi-raisin).

If you're looking for a book to give your French teacher or family Francophile, this would be a great choice.

Food and French history and how they connect. Roman era to the present. The history of France's most important foods and wines from cognac to croissants to champagne and oysters and wars. Fascinating book.

This is more of a read a bit here, read a bit there, kind of book. The history is interesting and the way food has influenced and been influenced by France's history is intriguing.

Culinary and national history pair like cheese and wine in this lovely read. Each chapter is easily digestible, yet also informatively packed, and they all open up separate but equally fascinating doors into France's long past and rich food history. Every part makes for a delightful mental meal of its own, and one can read through this one single snack-sized section at a time just as easily as they can enjoy it in large banquet sized pieces.

To put it a little more succinctly - I would definitely consider this food history at its best.

This is a great concept for a book, and the authors have hit on several things I adore: France, food and history. I think readers may enjoy the chapters as occasional "bites," but in my attempt to read the book cover to cover I found my mind wandering. The emphasis on short chapters means that the authors treat devastating events like the Spanish Inquisition as a two-sentence aside. I just can't recommend the book, as much as I wanted to.

I found this book a little hard going especially at the beginning. I was attracted to it by the Cooking, Food and Wine Tag line with History following but I would class it more as History with a sparse sprinkling of Food related items. So to my mind there was not enough from that side of things and, I suppose, I am already familiar with European History albeit from a British point of view, by the Nordic raids from the north and the Romans from the south pushing the Celts to the west. The middle ages to later history was more interesting but, after reading it on my kindle, I would probably recommend it in a book format especially as the footnotes are at the end so impossible to cross reference if one should want to. It would would also be better in book format as a dip in and out type of read as one can get rather bogged down with facts. I was amazed that America bans all those delicious French Cheeses, what a shame, get to France and sample the real thing and I doubt if you'll get sick! The authors mention about the demise of boulangeries in France but they obviously haven't come across the latest, certainly in many rural villages, baguette vending machines which are replacing the deliveries from in town bakeries.

Written by husband and wife – he is French and she is American, this book is a thoroughly entertaining caper through the history of France via the medium of cooking, agriculture and the culture of food. We all know that the France is known for being a country of connoisseurs but it might surprise you to learn how they got that way.

Historic trivia, regional peculiarities, customs and traditions are conveyed in a refreshingly congenial history. Well-researched and scrumptious from beginning to end. You’ll start to believe you are actually sitting at their dinner table chatting over a couple bottles of wine, a bubbling cassoulet, a warm baguette and some particularly smelly cheese.

This is the sort of book that will get you up out of your chair to root around in the refrigerator for something really tasty to eat. It deals with bread, and cheese, and wine, of course. How could it not? But it also gives the reader an insight into how the potato came to be so loved in France, or what fruit excites the most anticipation in the summer (It's the plum. Who knew?)

It is a history of France, seen through the lens of its culinary interests and obsessions.  We learn, for example, that Roquefort cheese is something very specific to France, and the chances of finding it in the US is slim.  Ditto French brie, which is apparently nothing like the brie we eat in the states. Much has to do with food regulations, some put in place out of (a sometimes mistaken) sense of public welfare, and others as punitive.

The Iraq war "freedom fries" kerfuffle (definitely not our finest hour) is mentioned along with the information that since frites are actually Belgian, the French didn't really much care if we changed the name out of pique. No skin off their potatoes.  And in fairness, they're not immune to rebranding themselves. During the revolution, bakers were forced to create something known as pain d'egalite, or equality bread, which was to be eaten by both high and low alike.

While not exhaustive, some of the later chapters failed to hold my full attention, suggesting that perhaps the historical survey of French eating habits might have been better served if it had been a course or two shorter.  Still, it's an amusing and informative book that will probably make you hungry.  Well worth a look.

A week ago I listened to a podcast episode of "Stuff You Missed In History Class" on Marie-Antoine Carême, the first 'Celebrity Chef'. I learned so much about the history of cooking in France in the 30 minute episode and was wondering whether there was a book out there on this very topic. Fortuitously, I came across this book on Netgalley and devoured it in just a couple of days. I was not disappointed and I learned so much more about the history of France. The links between the political circumstances and gastronomy were well drawn by the authors and was fascinating reading.

I highly recommend this book for history buffs and foodies - just try not to read it on an empty stomach. Maybe have a baguette, wine and cheese on hand.

I  received a free digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

This book has short, fun chapters that will be sure to entertain anyone interested in food and France. I am a Francophile and this was a pleasure to read.

What a charming and delightful book this is. From rustic kitchens to haute cuisine, French food and gastronomy are the best in the world. This terrific book tells the story of how French cuisine came about. Starting with the Celtic Gauls, and ending with the post WWII wrangles between France and the United States, this volume is chock-a-block with interesting tidbits about French foodways and French history.

Written by a Frenchman and his American wife, and infused with good nature and enthusiasm for the subject, “A Bite-Sized History of France” shows the centuries-long tension between Paris and the rest of France; the absorption by France of the best of foreign cuisines; and makes the case that human beings have more in common than it can look like on the surface. That the authors know and love food and food history is apparent on every page, or in my case, every pixel. One of the nice things about this book is the shortish chapters; you can dip in and out of the book as you have time, or read it in chunks; sort of like a snack or having a meal, either works.

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are,” said Brillat-Savarin, the famous epicure and gastronome. “A Bite-Sized History of France,” tells us that the French, and those of us lucky enough to also participate in their cuisine, are fortunate indeed.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, as I thought I would, because it belongs to my favourite literary subgenre: people who tell me a variety of things I don't know. I love stories, history, France and food, so this had the perfect recipe for sucess. It is amusing and entertaining, and very interesting. It is far from being an academic treatise on French gastronomy, and has no pretense for being so. It is, however, a light, fun reading that I would definitely recommend.