This book celebrates the creative energy of the Renaissance in France, the vibrant spirit that produced its masterworks of architecture, the decorative arts, painting, and drawing. The reader is taken on a journey through Parisian churches and provincial towns, celebrated chateaux and manor houses - and at each stop, encounters treasures of France's artistic heritage, all created during one of its most magnificent eras.

Featured are the renowned chateaux of Chambord, Fontainebleau, Beauregard, and Chenonceau, among many others, as well as the Palais du Louvre in Paris. The more than 200 photographs commissioned specially for this volume present in addition many extraordinary examples of decorative sculpture, as well as enamels, ivories, metalwork, stained glass, and tapestries, all associated with these historic sites.

A rich array of related paintings, drawings, and illuminated manuscripts, gathered from many museum collections, adds to the volume. Throughout the book, detailed historical commentary is provided by two distinguished scholars: Ivan Cloulas, curator of the French National Archives and author of an important volume devoted to the chateau of Chambord; and Michele Bimbenet-Privat, chief curator of the National Archives and an authority on European decorative arts.