The coming of the Renaissance

The French invasion of Italy in 1494 brought the ideals and aesthetic of the Italian Renaissance to France. This form of art and architecture reached its peak under the reign of François I, a true Renaissance prince who invited not only Cellini but also Leonardo da Vinci to his court at Amboise in the Loire Valley. The Renaissance lasted roughly from 1500 until 1630.
New political and social conditions encouraged aristocratic residences to be filled with sunlight, tapestries, paintings, and music. Adaptations of Gothic architecture, mingled with strong doses of Italian Renaissance, were applied to secular residences more suited to peace than to war. This is particularly evident at Azay Le Rideau, one of the loveliest of the Loire châteaux. Begun in 1518, its Italian influences are clearly visible, and it is obvious that this castle was built for pleasure living — not as a fortress to protect its inhabitants.
The artists of the School of Fontainebleau blended late Italian Renaissance style with French elements when redecorating the Château de Fontainebleau. Foremost among Renaissance châteaux in France is the Château de Chambord in the Loire Valley. Launched in 1519, it is the largest château in the Loire Valley and was the abode of the likes of Henri II and Catherine de Médici along with Louis XIII. Renaissance architectural features relied on symmetry and a sense of proportion, with steeply pitched roofs often studded with dormer windows projecting from their sloping roofs. Classical capitals such as Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian came back into vogue.

The Gothic cathedral: Awe of the Middle Ages

Of far more interest to the average visitor is the coming of the French Gothic style to all the land. This late medieval period, roughly from 1100 to 1500, still centered on the church, where artisans created stained glass, statues, choir screens, and elaborate, dramatic facades. Gothic figures were more realistic than Romanesque ones but still highly stylized, with exaggerated gestures and features.
The wide Gothic churches and cathedrals included a choir, a circular ambulatory, radiating chapels, pointed arches that carried more weight than rounded ones, clustered (rather than monolithic) columns, cross vaults, and ribbed ceilings. Wide, soaring windows are the most salient Gothic advance. In a Romanesque church the space would have been devoted to thick stone walls. The new Gothic design required the addition of exterior flying buttresses to support the weight of the very heavy roof and ceiling.
In this book, we preview some of the greatest achievements of the Gothic era, none more glorious than the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame in Paris with its flying buttresses, rose windows, and gargoyles. For stained glass, Saint-Chapelle, near Notre-Dame, is reason enough to fly over. Of course, the 150 glorious stained-glass windows of the Cathédrale of Chartres are another great blooming of this art form.
When the 14th-century papal schism encouraged many bishops of Europe to recognize Avignon instead of Rome as the legitimate seat of the papacy, this capital of Provence became a virtual building site. A fortress was required that would also be a palace, and the Gothic Palais des Papes fit the bill.

Romanesque architectural form

The classical Roman period, in time, gave way to the coming of an architectural form called Romanesque (it wasn’t known as that back then). This roughly covers the period from 800 to 1100, its rise coming about because of the growing religious power of the church at this time.
The earliest manifestations are thick-walled fortresses that served as refuges during times of invasion. At first these structures were not embellished, relying on load-bearing rounded arches and windows for ornamentation.
By the end of the period, around 1100, the facades and interiors of some churches were being covered with sculptures designed to highlight architecture instead of separate works of art. Many pieces of Romanesque sculpture are solid, rigid, unyielding, and lifeless, yet the capitals of the columns often are charming and decorative. Bas-reliefs, especially those depicting the Last Judgment, came into vogue. Reliefs enveloped column capitals and were used to adorn tympanums — arched spaces over doorways or portals. To see the true remains of the Romanesque style, you’d have to go into remote France, beyond the province of this guide. A prime example would be the Abbey of Fontenay in Burgundy.

France in 20th Century and Beyond

World War I (1914–18) was devastating for France. The worldwide economic depression that followed severely weakened the government while Germany gained power under the charismatic and acquisitive Adolf Hitler. France declared war on Germany in 1939, following the Nazi invasion of France’s ally, Poland. In 1940, the German army invaded France; the French army rapidly collapsed, and the Germans occupied the country. The period called the Collaboration is one of France’s most shameful. The government was transferred first to Bordeaux and then, under the Nazi-approved President Pétain, to Vichy. French General Charles de Gaulle refused to accept the armistice with Germany and Italy and broadcast a call for resistance from London on June 18, 1940. However, everything changed on June 6, 1944, when thousands of Allied troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and exiles from the invaded nations landed on the wind-swept shores of Normandy in the D-day invasion. Brilliant Allied military maneuvers led to the eventual surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945.
After the war, the Fourth Republic was set up in 1946. Insurrection in France’s African and Asian colonies caused huge problems for the government. After suffering great losses, France withdrew from most of its colonies, including Indochina in 1954 and Algeria in 1962. In 1958, General de Gaulle returned to power with the Fifth Republic. In May 1968, university students joined with workers in uprisings that paralyzed Paris, spread through the country, and led to de Gaulle’s resignation in 1969. Georges Pompidou became president in 1969, followed by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in 1974. In 1981, the left came to power with the election of François Mitterrand, the first Socialist president since World War II. Mitterrand served two terms and bestowed on Paris famous grands projets such as the Louvre pyramid, Opéra Bastille, and Grand Arche de la Défense.
During the past decade, France has been heavily involved in the development of the European Union, the 12 countries that have banded together with a single currency and no trade barriers. In 1993, voters ousted the socialists and installed a conservative government that’s headed by Jacques Chirac as president. A decade of bombings, strikes, and rising unemployment all faded into the background on December 31, 1999, as Paris’s salute to 2000 with spectacular fireworks over the Tour Eiffel was one of the world’s most spectacular celebrations. In the postmillennium, political headlines in France have centered on its continuing deterioration of relations with its former ally, the United States. The problem centers on Iraq. Most French people bitterly resent the war in Iraq and were extremely critical of George W. Bush during his first four years in office.
On another, more ominous note, attacks against Jews in postmillennium France reached their highest level since World War II. An increase in anti-Semitic acts coincided with heightened tensions in the Middle East. Jewish schools, temples, and cemeteries were attacked. Late in 2005, decades of pent-up resentment felt by the children of African immigrants exploded into an orgy of violence and vandalism. Riots began in the suburbs of Paris and spread around the country. Throughout France, gangs of youths battled the French police, torched schools, cars, and businesses, and even attacked commuter trains. Rioting followed in such cities as Dijon, Marseilles, and Rouen. Horrible incidents were reported, including a woman on crutches who was doused with flammable liquid and set fire. Most of the rioters were the sons of Arab and black African immigrants, Muslims living in a mostly Catholic country. The reasons for the protests? Leaders of the riots claimed they live “like second-class citizens,” even though they are French citizens. Unemployment is 30 percent higher in the ethnic ghettos of France.

France Before 20th Century

Clovis I (reigned A.D. 481–511) is considered the first king of France, though his influence was strongest in the north of the country. He converted to Catholicism, united territories, and selected Paris as the capital. Charlemagne came along a couple hundred years later, reigning (A.D. 768–
814) over an area that extended from the Baltic to the Mediterranean seas and included parts of France, Germany, and Italy. Now here was a king the people could rally behind, a great general and bold ruler. The pope in Rome crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor in 800, giving a spiritual legitimacy to his rule. These times were good for scholarship and the arts. France and Germany didn’t become separated until 843, when Charlemagne’s grandsons — Louis, Lothair, Pepin, and Charles — split the kingdom. Charles the Bald got France. He and Louis united against Lothair by taking the Oath of Strasbourg, the first known document written in French and German instead of the usual Latin. Charles, who ruled over a region whose borders resembled the France of today, developed a complex feudal system.
In 1066, William, duc de Normandie, known in history as William the Conqueror, began a campaign to conquer England, and the Bayeux Tapestry in Normandy tells the dramatic tale. In 1152, Eleanor of Aquitaine stirred things up again between France and England when she divorced the king of France (Louis VII) and married the king of England (Henry II), placing western France under English rule. War between the two countries continued on and off for hundreds of years. During the Middle Ages, the Catholic church was a powerful force in France. Holy men preached the Crusades in the 12th and 13th centuries, inciting armies of men to journey to foreign lands in the name of the church. These so-called holy armies set off to conquer lands for the Holy Roman Emperor.
Throughout the next 700 years, five dynasties held the French crown and built the monarchy into one of Europe’s most powerful. Of these kings, several stand out for their achievements in bringing about the France of today. An especially long and fruitful reign was that of Louis IX (1226–70), called St-Louis. During his reign, Ste-Chapelle and Cathédrale Notre-Dame were built on the Ile de la Cité in Paris. The arts of tapestry weaving and stone cutting flourished.
Philippe IV (the Fair), who reigned from 1285 to 1314, was instrumental in France gaining its independence from the pope in Rome. Philippe had a French pope elected, Clement V, who transferred the papacy to Avignon, where it remained from 1309 to 1378. For a brief period, two popes — one in Rome and one in Avignon — jockeyed for power. Rome eventually won out. In 1348, the bubonic plague, called the Black Death, wiped out a third of Europe’s population. Meanwhile, the Hundred Years’ War between France and England waged from 1337 to 1453. ruling consulate, but, by 1802, he was made First Consul for life. In 1804, Napoléon crowned himself emperor and his wife, Joséphine, empress as the pope looked on. The following year, he was crowned king of Italy. By 1808, having occupied Vienna and Berlin and having invaded Portugal and Spain, Napoléon seemed on his way to conquering Europe and brought great pride to the French. But after his disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1814, he abdicated and was exiled to Elba. Napoléon returned to power the following year and was defeated at Waterloo on June 18, 1815. After that defeat, Napoléon was deported to the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic and died there in 1821. The monarchy was restored with Louis XVIII (1814–24) and then Charles X (1824–30). In 1830, Louis-Philippe I, descended from a branch of the Bourbons that had ruled France on and off since the 16th century, was called king of the French, not king of France, under a more liberal constitution, but he was forced out of office in 1847. During these politically tumultuous but fairly prosperous years, Victor Hugo, Stendhal, and Honoré de Balzac wrote great novels. In 1848, Napoléon’s nephew, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, was elected president of the Second Republic. In 1852, he assumed the title of emperor as Napoléon III and, with the help of Baron Haussmann, designed Paris’s grand boulevards. In July 1870, a dispute over a telegram escalated into France declaring an ultimately unsuccessful war on Prussia. As a result of the military defeats and invasion of France by Prussia, Napoléon III was removed from office. The period of 1875 to 1940 is known as the Third Republic. Meanwhile, on the cultural scene, the artists known as the Impressionists scandalized the French Academy and forever changed art. And, in 1889, at Paris’s Universal Exposition, the Tour Eiffel was unveiled. Many Parisians hated it at first, but now it’s the universally beloved symbol of Paris.