Professor Ward-Perkins' list for his students covering the upper class rulers in the new Burgundian Gaul:

The Post-Roman Aristocracy:

Sources:

Paulinus of Pella 'The Eucharisticus'; printed at the back of Volume 2 of the Loeb edition of Ausonius (you will find it catalogued under "Ausonius"). This is an account of the experience of a South Gaulish aristocrat who lived through the Visigothic invasion and settlement.

Sidonius Apollinaris, Poems and Letters, 2 Vols (Loeb). I would particularly recommend Poems 12; and Letters I.2, III.3&9, IV.20, V.5, VII.6, VIII.9, part 5. [for Sidonius, see Harries below.]

Although not specifically Gaulish (nor specifically aristocratic), the best and most graphic account of the fall of a province is Eugippius, Life of Saint Severin, trans. Ludwig Bieler, 1965. If you have not already read it, I would very strongly recommend Eugippius. [E.A. Thompson, Romans and Barbarians, 1982, Chap.7 is a useful introduction to this text].


General Secondary:

Patrick Wormald, 'The decline of the Western Empire and the survival of its aristocracy', Journal of Roman Studies 66 (1976), 217-226.

Ralph W. Mathisen,Roman Aristocrats in Barbarian Gaul, 1993. This is very useful, and quite short.

More Specific:

John Matthews, Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court A.D.364-425, 1975, Chap.I (an important introduction to styles of aristocratic life), and Chaps.XII & XIII.

Jill Harries, Sidonius Apollinaris and the Fall of Rome, 1994. It is difficult to specify the most useful chapters: perhaps, Introduction, 3, 6, 10, 11 & Epilogue.

John Drinkwater & Hugh Elton (eds.), Fifth-Century Gaul: a Crisis of Identity?, 1992. Particularly useful, perhaps, are the following chapters: 6, 8, 9, 14, 18, 21, & 27.

Questions:

How traumatic for the local population were the fifth-century invasions?

How did the local aristocracy adapt to the realities of barbarian invasion and barbarian settlement?