The book by the famous modern French historian tells about everyday life in England and France in the second half of the 12th - first third of the 13th centuries - “the core of the Western Middle Ages.” It was then that Henry Plantagenet and Richard the Lionheart, Louis VII and Philip Augustus ruled, it was then that great feats were accomplished and novels were written about the legendary King of the Britons Arthur and the adventures of the Knights of the Round Table. The valiant Lancelot and Perceval, Queen Guenievre and the fearless Gauvin, as well as other heroes of the Arthurian works, became models for knights and their ladies in the 12th-13th centuries. But to what extent did the everyday life of these people in the days of peace and war, their behavior at the feast and knightly tournament, during the hunt and in the marital bedchamber correspond to this model? The reader will learn about this by reading the book.