This is a DNF for me. The writing is very pretentious and it's been impossible for me to get into or enjoy this book.

Allman is an engaging writer and his biography of his life in rural France, outside of the metropolis of Paris and away from the hurly-burly of other major tourist destinations, is a relaxing book.

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

So who doesn’t want to buy a centuries-old mansion on a picturesque hilltop in the south of France, fix it up, befriend your neighbors, and spend years soaking up the culture and history of the region? Also, eat the food and drink the wine? T.D. Allman, an award-winning American foreign correspondent, did just that. And then, when he realized he was now the most senior resident in Lauzerte, he wrote a memoir-like history of the town, the region, his house, and his place in it.

In France Profound: The Long History of a House, a Mountain Town, and a People is an engrossing history of France Profonde, the southern part of France geographically distant from the capital, culturally distinct, and yet never quite able to escape Paris’ influence.

The timeline proceeds mostly chronologically from the Middle Ages to the present. Allman gives emphasis to history-changing people and events–those that are important to the story he’s telling. He centers the tale on what was formerly known as the province of Quercy, but is now the department of Lot and part of the department of Tarn-et-Garonne. It’s fascinating to see the history of France unfolding from the perspective of this off-the-beaten-track part of the country. Most interesting to me were the chapters on Count Raymond VI and Count Raymond VII of Toulouse and the Albigensian Crusade. Allman’s agnostic view of the various religious wars makes a case for their pointlessness. But the long history of the region’s involvement in all the successive wars showed the importance of the area in all major European conflicts.

The author uses his 800-year-old house as a metaphor for the timelessness and the changes of the area. Initially, the town was isolated and known for its beautiful medieval appearance. Allman points out that the medieval touches were recent, which is disillusioning. But the geography and culture of the region were more resistant to change and to fashion. I think I was as sorrowful as he was to watch the life of the town move down the mountain (in order to provide for more convenient car parks) and suffer the influx of chain stores and fast food places.

Looking up the author when I finished the book, I was sad to see he died in May. This book was published posthumously. But what an incredibly full life he led!

For fans of memoir, French history, and France in general, this book is recommended. It’s a bit lengthy and I found some of the digressions slow-going, but overall, it’s a beautiful book.

T.D. Allman saw much in his life pursuing his work as an author, journalist and historian. He interviewed leading figures such as Yasser Arafat and Boris Yeltsin and broke stories about the CIA's secret war against communists in Laos. In France Profound, is Allman's posthumously published reflection on the house he bought on a whim and its storied history and location in rural France.

The house was first constructed sometime in the 12th century, but has had many changes over the centuries, just as the town of its home, the French mountain village of Lauzrete has been changed. Allman's narrative follows the id of interest jumping through time and subject, sometimes guided by occurrences in the house or Lauzerte or the history of France.

It is also a work steeped in the mortality of humans and the legacy one can leave. Allman speaks of the different kings and power seekers as they crossed this region in hopes of glory or wealth, but some only had fleeting success. One interesting factoid is the regional governmental structures is one of the few surviving decisions of Napoleon.

There is also the everyday concerns of owning a house, dealing with mother nature, maintenance or war with local wildlife. There is a lot of content, but not always linked in the clearest of fashion. While some of the recent past is explored, especially with the changes to village life with the increasing accessibility of roads and vehicle travel, much like the house, In France Profound is steeped in the past.

Recommended to readers of history, micro-histories or rambling travelogues.

This is the kind of book that I really enjoy! History, told through the eyes of a particular area, this being of a 800 year old house in a small village of France. The author purchased the house, and through hard work and years of effort, has pieced together a story of what the house has "experienced". The people, the events, everything that, if the house could have eyes and talk, it could tell us. It's a fascinating way of looking at history, not through a giant lens encompassing entire nations and such, but just how the events affected the people and homes of the village.
I wish that I could find many many more books like this. I would love to read this perspective on many different small areas!

T. D. Allman bought an old house in southern France and then wanted to understand what history it had seen. He reviews the history that passed through (or rolled over) his home town of Lauzerte and the region around it.

I particularly appreciated the jaundiced eye with which he viewed the popes and potentates who repeatedly devastated the region. As he points out, mostly the Christian European crusaders killed other Christians and never really had much impact on the Muslim overlords of the places the said they wanted to "take back" from the "infidels." It turned out that it was more fun, profitable, and straightforward to just pursue whatever heretics the pope or the king in Paris invented and pointed their soldiers at. He portrays the 'national heroes' Richard the Lionheart and St Louis of France as the actual losers they were, dying young while achieving virtually nothing of meaning. He also has no use for the English, in the form of the pseudo-expats who buy real estate in France and then do everything they possibly can to avoid having anything to do with French people or the French language. While he has the typical outlier's resentment of the arbitrary hegemony of the government in Paris, he truly esteems the ordinary folks who operate the businesses he patronizes every day.

He reserves his esteem for pragmatic figures like Philippe Auguste of France and the counts of Toulouse, who saw their first responsibility as engineering the survival of themselves and their subjects, megalomaniac popes be damned. When possible, he highlights the local heroes who contributed to the survival of their towns from the 13th century to World War II, through pragmatic avoidance of conflict rather than by flinging themselves into doomed operations where they were bound to die.

The only thing missing for me, as I am fascinated by old houses, is the actual house (or as he calls it, my House). I wanted to know its history as a house, not as an observer of what happened around it, and what it is like to own it. But that isn't the book he wrote.

If you are interested in France at all, this book will fascinate you and keep you reading through what can at times feel like a series of history lessons.

"In France Profound" by T.D. Allman offers a captivating glimpse into the rich tapestry of history woven within the ancient stones of Lauzerte, a mountain village in southwestern France. Through the lens of his 800-year-old house, Allman explores the melodramas of humanity spanning from the paleolithic to the post-modern era, all etched into the village's landscape. From his window overlooking the Place des Cornières, where daily life unfolds amidst operatic performances and local produce markets, to the view of the Pyrenees, where centuries of dynastic struggles and geopolitical conflicts have shaped the region's destiny, Allman vividly portrays the interconnectedness of Lauzerte to broader historical events. Through elegant prose and keen observation, he brings to life the enduring spirit of Lauzerte and its surrounding communities, offering readers a poignant reflection on the relentless march of history and the timeless lessons embedded within its walls.

One of the very best of books about France that I have read in a very long time! Author T.D. Allman has purchased a home in the village of Lauzerte France (Provence/Occitane) and has lived there on and off (mostly on) for a number of years. Long enough to give us the long view of the growth and development of this once medieval village to the modern age. Like another great book of this sort, Ina Caro's "The Road from the Past", he delves into the extensive history of the village and the surrounding villages from earliest times, the customs, the people and conflicts in a way that is engaging and with a critical eye. He takes us on his travels through the region and his commentary is always illuminating. He is a marvelous writer and certainly knowledgeable with regard to his subject matter. I enjoyed this book very much, will purchase it upon publication and refer it all those interested in France & French history.
Highly recommended for Francophiles and history buffs!

While interesting, I was lost most of the time as my background and history of the French geography is pretty much nil. Still though, if you like history and such it is well written and if you have some background in the area you would like this and would recommend. sadly just not what I was looking for.