Myths And Legends

France is often imagined through beauty: vineyards, markets, cathedrals, châteaux, lavender fields and elegant villages.

But old France has always had shadows.

Myths And Legends: The Folklore Of France is an atmospheric journey through the country's hidden folklore, where serpent-women build castles, death carts pass through Breton lanes, fairies dance among ancient stones, White Ladies wait beside bridges, dragons haunt rivers, werewolves stalk moonlit fields, bells ring beneath the sea, and the Devil loses bargains to clever villagers.

Inside this richly evocative folklore collection, you will discover:

Mélusine, the serpent-woman of the tower.

The terrifying Beast of Gévaudan.

Brittany's korrigans, death carts and drowned-city legends.

Cathedral gargoyles, dragons and sacred monsters.

The Tarasque of Provence, tamed by Saint Martha.

French werewolves and the loup-garou tradition.

White ladies of roads, rivers, bridges and châteaux.

Charles Perrault's fairy-tale France includes Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, and Bluebeard.

Joan of Arc: between documented history and national legend.

The Wild Hunt, devil bridges and old crossroads bargains.

Haunted châteaux and restless noble families.

Sacred springs, healing wells and miracle stones.

Mountain spirits of the Alps and Pyrenees.

Sea legends of Normandy and Brittany.

Witches, curses, village fear and mischievous lutins.

Written in accessible British English, this book blends folklore, cultural history, landscape writing, ghostly atmosphere and lightly sceptical commentary. It treats old stories with respect while asking what they reveal about fear, memory, grief, faith, humour, landscape and the human need to explain the unknown.

Perfect for readers who enjoy mythology, folklore, ghost stories, fairy tales, Gothic history, haunted travel writing, regional legends and the strange borderland between fact and belief.

France has always been beautiful.

Its folklore shows that it has always been haunted.