When T. D. Allman purchased an 800-year-old house in the mountain village of Lauzerte in southwestern France, he aimed to find refuge from the world’s tumults. Instead, he found that humanity’s most telling melodramas, from the paleolithic to the post-modern, were graven in its stones and visible from its windows.

Indeed, the history of France can be viewed from the perspective of Lauzerte and its surrounding area, just as Allman, from one window, can see Lauzerte unfold before him in the Place des Cornières, where he watches performances of the opera Tosca and each Saturday buys produce from “Fred, the Foie Gras Guy;” and from the other side facing the Pyrenees he surveys the fated landscape that generated many of the events giving birth to the modern world. The dynastic struggles of Eleanor of Aquitaine, he finds, led to Lauzerte’s remarkably progressive charter issued in 1241, which even then enshrined human rights in its 51 articles. From Eleanor’s marriage to English king Henry II in 1154 dates the never-ending melodrama pitting English arrogance against French resistance; in 2016 Brexit demonstrated that this perpetual contretemps is another of the vaster conditions life in Lauzerte illuminates. Allman chronicles the many conflicts that have swirled in the region, from the Catholic Church’s genocidal campaign to wipe out “heresy” there; to France’s own 16th-century Wars of Religion, which saw hundreds massacred in the town square, some inside his house; to World War II, during which Lauzerte was part of Nazi-occupied Vichy.

In prose as crystalline as his view to the Pyrenees on a clear day, Allman animates Lauzerte and its surrounding communities—Cahors, Moissac, Montauban—all ever in thrall to the magnetic impulse of Paris. Witness to so many dramas over the centuries, his house comes alive as a historical protagonist in its own right, from its wine-cellar cave to the roof where he wages futile battle with pigeons, to the life lessons it conveys. “The onward march of history, my House keeps demonstrating, never takes a rest,” he observes, pulling us vividly into his world.

“In France Profound is a familiar tale of the foreigner in search of the good life abroad, but Eat, Pray, Love this is not. There is little eating and no praying here, and even the love is leavened with rage when the English move in nearby . . . Adopting what French historians call la longue durée, the ‘long view,’ Allman detects deep and enduring patterns in the fabric of everyday life. His perspectives are grand, the history deep, the narrative conversational and enthusiastic.”—Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal

“A mountain view of history in France. When journalist Allman bought an 800-year-old house in Lauzerte, a mountain village in southwestern France, he found himself steeped in the tumultuous history of the region, which he recounts with zesty enthusiasm in a combination of memoir, historical narrative, and travelogue . . . An engaging, richly detailed tale.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Sumptuous . . . The most penetrating aspect of Allman’s narrative is his exploration of how his relationship with the town has altered his perception of what history is and how it moves, which often takes a wry turn, as when he explains that his ‘paella man’ exemplifies an ancient ‘noblesse oblige.’ This enthralls.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[Allman’s] writing is often brilliant, warm, and clever. The stories of present-day Lauzerte are, by turns, gripping and amusing; the details of Allman’s routines and the people of the village are touching and edifying. The historical portions emphasize brutal incidents and people . . . Best suited for fans of Allman’s work, along with readers intrigued by a little-known French town, the author’s 800-year-old house, and the book’s contemporary elements. This will appeal to readers who enjoy Martin Walker’s Bruno, Chief of Police mystery series as well.”—Library Journal 

“Having purchased a house in the hills of central France, the late investigative journalist T. D. Allman employs his spirit of inquiry in laying out life in the hilltop town of Lauzerte . . . Allman brings history up to the present in this posthumous publication, discussing contemporary England’s spurning of continental Europe. Allman’s history is intriguing, compelling, and full of novel insights.”—Booklist30.00