Gustave Flaubert called the Loire the most French of French rivers. It is the longest river in France and the most varied in scenery and moods. Martin Garrett follows the Loires course through cities and countryside, tracing its dramatic history from the days of feuding warlords and barons to the battles of 1940. Looking at the wide range of literature, art and architecture created along its banks, he considers work that ranges from Du Bellay and Balzac to Virginia Woolf, from Renaissance palace builders to Le Corbusier.