D. in medieval French history at Cambridge, stumbled across this little-known episode described in a historical dictionary.

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English, for example, is famously a muddle of German, Norse and medieval French.

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Even the word tennis has French origins from the medieval era, derived from the tenez, from the verb tenir, to hold.

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As a young chef, self-taught, he had devoured cookery books of every kind: medieval, Japanese, Italian, all the French masters.

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Highlights include the medieval city of Courmayeur, Italy, and the famous French ski resort town of Chamonix, plus quaint alpine villages in Switzerland.

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On the border of Spain, with the great spiky Pyrenees mountain range as backdrop, the Midi-Pyrenees is an area characterized by magnificent architecture, medieval villages, river valleys, rolling farmlands, and food that is fabulous as only the French can deliver.

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