Download or read book Life in the French Country House written by Mark Girouard and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2001-04-12 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A perceptive and witty 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 servant's quarters, 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.