Books of The Times
Gaul as a Cabinet of Curiosities and Patois

From The New York Times - Published: November 2, 2007

The Grand Canyon of the Verdon, a deep, narrow incision in the Alps of Provence, is one of the great wonders of France. The Verdon River, fast and wild, races for 13 miles between sheer limestone cliffs before emptying into the Lac de Ste. Croix, a delight for thousands of kayakers, hikers and camera-toting tourists. Yet until 1905, this natural wonder, located only 60 miles from Marseille, was known only to a few local woodcutters who descended into the canyon on ropes to cut boxwood, which they carved into high-quality balls for boules. Somehow the second-largest gorge in the world managed to hide in plain sight until the age of the automobile.

THE DISCOVERY OF FRANCE
A Historical Geography From the Revolution to the First World War
By Graham Robb
Illustrated. 455 pages. W. W. Norton. $27.95.

In “The Discovery of France” Graham Robb describes a land of secrets slowly divulged, a nation in name only for most of its history, fragmented by mutually incomprehensible dialects and deeply rooted regional cultures. France, in this brilliant work of history seen from the margins, dissolves under close inspection into a vast cabinet of curiosities, an endless series of counterexamples to the myth of a culturally unified nation and people.

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