Parler Paris Newsletter, Paris France

Books About Paris and France

In Alphabetical Order by Author Then Title

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Paris Reflections
by Christiann Anderson and Monique Y. Wells

Paris Reflections takes the reader on six walking tours through historic districts of Paris where the African-American presence has been prominent. The authors have assembled a vast amount of information about the lives and works of many of Paris's most prominent African Americans, and all who walk the city's neighborhoods with Paris Reflections in hand will become intimately familiar with the stage and exact locations upon which so much of the area's vibrant African-American history has played out. Each walk is accompanied by a clear and detailed map that will help the reader easily navigate the intricate streets and buildings of the City of Light.

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Van Gogh Walks
by Priscilla Bain-Smith

Whether traveling to Paris or staying home dreaming about it, this book is for you. Each page offers an insider’s insight into Vincent’s life and the Paris he knew . Over 80 full-color photographs track Vincent’s movements around the city and let you see first-hand places dear to him. You’ll also read about people he knew or knewabout, and see their homes and studios too!

Priscilla Bain-Smith, art historian, artist, and free-lance photographer, spent several years researching Vincent van Gogh and his life in Paris, Auvers-sur-Oise, and Arles. A former college professor, Ms. Bain-Smith has created these walking tours which combine her love of Paris with her love of art history, in this case, concerning Vincent van Gogh.

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A Place in the World Called Paris
by Steven Barclay
Illustrated by Miles Hyman
Forward by Susan Sontag

Paris--with its subtle moods, elegant charm, and sensual allure--inspires writers and visitors like no other city. A Place in the World Called Paris, now in a beautiful paperback edition, collects the twentieth century's most distinguished authors writing on the unique facets of the City of Light. This anthology of more than 170 short excerpts from fiction, poetry, essays, and memoirs presents fresh and unexpected views of Paris: Franz Kafka on riding the Metro; Truman Capote on visiting Colette in her apartment in the Palais-Royal; Jane Kramer on Parisian style; Claude Debussy on the Luxembourg Gardens; E.B. White on the Liberation; and Maya Angelou on Paris nightlife. With an evocative foreword by Susan Sontag, and atmospheric charcoal drawings by Miles Hyman, this is a treasured volume for anyone who remembers Paris, from literature, or from their own walks along the Seine.

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One Thousand Buildings of Paris
by Kathy Borrus, Jorg Brockmann (Photographer), James Driscoll (Photographer)

Perhaps the most picturesque of all international cities, Paris is the quintessential walker's paradise, with architectural delights down every winding street. It is the city of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, of the Louvre and Montmarte. But, within its 20 concentric arrondissements are many surprises too, from glass office towers to jewel-box mansions to massive public buildings. The monuments, private houses, museums, hotels, and myriad other structures that make up the widely various neighborhoods of Paris have been captured here as never before, by photographers Jorg Brockmann and James Driscoll.

Each of the 1,000 photographs is accompanied by detailed and informative text recounting the history, significance, and the current state of each building. There are also neighborhood maps and fascinating sidebars and appendices, all adding up to an unprecedented view of a uniquely beautiful city that has captivated the imagination of world travelers for centuries.

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Hello France! A Hotel Guide to Paris & 25 Other French Cities, $50-$90 (45-90 Euros) a Night for Two Hello! Budget Hotel Guides)
by Margo Classe

“We can't think of any book series that does the trick better than Margo Classe's Hello! series of guides to inexpensive hotel rooms in France ($50-$99), Spain ($50-$99), Italy ($50-$99) and Britain & Ireland (50-99 pounds).” — Arthur Frommer

Paris is our middle name! Hello France! A Hotel Guide to Paris includes a special section to good-value restaurants written by Adrian Leeds from the Insider Paris Guides (http://www.insiderparisguides.com).

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A Year in the Merde
By Stephen Clarke

Review From Publishers Weekly

Take a self-assured Brit with an eye for the ladies, drop him in the middle of Paris with a tenuous grasp of the language and you have Clarke's alter ego, Paul West, who combines the gaffes of Bridget Jones with the boldness of James Bond. Hired to oversee the creation of a French chain of British tearooms, Clarke, aka West, spends nine months—the equivalent of a French business year—stumbling his way through office politics à la française. Clarke's sharp eye for detail and relentless wit make even the most quotidian task seem surreal, from ordering a cup of coffee to picking up a loaf of bread at the boulangerie. Luck is by West's side as he moves into a stunning apartment (with his boss's attractive daughter), but he has to be careful where he steps, as he finds he "began to branch out from literal to metaphorical encounters of the turd kind." Between conspiring colleagues, numerous sexual escapades (he deems French porn "unsexy" since "Being French, they had to talk endlessly before they got down to action") and simply trying to order a normal-sized glass of beer, West quickly learns essential tricks to help him keep his head above the Seine. Originally self-published in Paris, Clarke's first book in a soon-to-be-series is funny and well-written enough to appeal to an audience beyond just Francophiles. Agent, Susanna Lea at Susanna Lea Associates. (May) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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The Riches of France
by Maribeth Clemente

Whether you're a shopper, a browser, or a traveler with a love of all things French, this is your one-of-a-kind guidebook to the culture of regional France represented by the products and centuries-old craftsmanship of each region. At prices lower than what you would pay in Paris or the United States, you'll find endless treasures as you tour boutiques, small factories, artisans' workshops, and wineries and distilleries.

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The Riches of Paris
by Maribeth Clemente

Long considered the epitome of all that is chic, glamorous, and desirable, Paris is every shopper's dream. But even the most indefatigable shopper is sure to be overwhelmed by the embarras de richesses. In The Riches of Paris, Maribeth Clemente shares her insider's knowledge of the choicest boutiques, restaurants, wine cellars, and auctions to help you find endless treasures. Whether you're looking for designer fashions, Limoges china, the finest perfumes, the best Bordeaux or just browsing, The Riches of Paris is an indispensable guide for making your visit to Paris enjoyable and unforgettable.

At last, a fresh take on a country that no one can seem to understand.
The French smoke, drink and eat more fat than anyone in the world, yet they live longer and have fewer heart problems than Americans. They take seven weeks of paid vacation per year, yet have the world’s highest productivity index. From a distance, modern France looks like a riddle. But up close, it all makes sense. Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong shows how the pieces of the puzzle fit together.

Decrypting French ideas about land, food, privacy and language, the authors weave together the threads of French society—from centralization and the Napoleonic code to elite education and even street protests—giving us, for the first time, an understanding of France and the French.

Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong is the most ambitious work published on France since Theodor Zeldin’s The French. It goes beyond Adam Gopnik’sParis to the Moon to explain not only the essence of the French, but also how they got to be the way they are. Unlike Jonathan Fenby’s France on the Brink, the authors do not see France in a state of decline, but one of perpetual renewal.

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Paris, Paris: A Journey into the City of Light
By David Downie

Paris, Paris is a refreshing compilation of tales of a city I have visited many times. Each essay is packed with interesting tidbits about Paris neighborhoods and sites. Next to it's well written insight, the thing I would say to recommend this book is that I didn't want to skip through as I do most travel books. I particularly liked the piece on Pere-Lachaise, and the way I got to weave through 350 years of monuments in the time it took me to drink one cup of coffee. Jay Smith (Berkeley, California)

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Words in a French Life
by Kristin Espinasse

When Kristin Espinasse fell in love with a Frenchman and moved to his country to marry and start a family, the former French major began a lifelong lesson in French language and culture that her schooling could never have taught her. When her young children began learning the language, she found herself falling in love with all things French, all over again.

Based on her popular blog www.french-word-a-day.com, where subscribers can sign up to receive an email teaching them one French word daily, this heart-warming collection from an American in Provence is as charming as it is practical.

Steeped in French culture, but experienced through American eyes, I hope you will find Words in a French Life to be a delight to armchair travelers, Francophiles, and even the Frenchman in America.

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Paris Stories
by Mavis Gallant, Michael Ondaatje

Mavis Gallant is an undisputed master of the short story whose peerless prose captures the range of human experience while evoking time and place with unequaled skill. This new selection of Gallant’s stories, edited by best-selling author Michael Ondaatje, gathers the best of her many stories set in Paris, where Gallant has long lived. Here she writes of expatriates and locals, exile and homecoming, and of the illusions of youth and age, offering a kaleidoscopic impression of the world within a world that is Paris. "A master of the short story who breaks every rule of the form." — Booklist "Her fiction, never fooled into trying to keep up with history, will last a long time." — The New York Times Book Review

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French Spirits
by Jeffrey Greene

A House, A Village and a Love Affair in Burgundy...An American renovates a house in France! But what's new here is that the house is in the Burgundy town of Rogny. The region of La Puisaye, with its swamps and murky woods, lacks the immediate attraction of Provence or Normandy. The American builder is celebrated poet Greene and his companion, Mary, a renowned scientist currently at the University of Paris. After finding nothing fit for their taste or budget in better-known Burgundian towns, the author's real estate agent leads them to remote Rogny. Reconstruction efforts center on the town's presbytery, abandoned by the church and its previous owner and ripe for restoration. Friends of the last priest to occupy the grounds and town tradesmen make up the cast of characters, whom Greene makes into neither caricatures nor odd rustics. As always, reconstruction absorbs more time and money than the author had anticipated. The property takes on sentimental significance when Greene and his companion decide to get married there and their families descend on the little town. So attractive the place becomes that Greene's mother emigrates from America. Mark Knoblauch Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Cave Life in France: Eat, Drink, Sleep
by William Glover, Aprille Glover (Illustrator)

Cave Life In France is a charming and humorous account of an American couple's move to France and their encounters with the people of the French countryside. It is a story of wine, food, and unforgettable characters in deep France. It is also a journal of the the problems of moving to a foreign country where the language, customs and culture make life difficult but always interesting. This is a must read for anyone interested in life in the French countryside.

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True Pleasures: A Memoir of Women in Paris
by Lucinda Holdforth

Meet the dazzling women of Paris: from Colette to Nancy Mitford; Marie Antoinette to Coco Chanel; Madame de Stael to Pamela Harriman; Napoleon’s Josephine to Edith Wharton. Rule-breakers and style-setters, demimondes and diplomats, these women were utterly diverse, yet all shared one common passion — Paris, the world’s headquarters of femininity.

At a turning point in her life, Lucinda Holdforth journeys to Paris and takes a very personal tour through the lives, loves, and losses of its celebrated women. She evokes the city’s incarnations from Louis XIV through the French Revolution, two world wars and the Paris of the new millennium. As she walks in their footsteps, she draws inspiration from the fascinating women who created and nurtured the world’s most civilized city. Sophisticated, witty, and intelligent, this entrancing travelogue will seduce and inspire every woman in search of her own true pleasures.

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The Great Paris WalkPack
by Carole and Geoffrey Howard

The Great PARIS WalkPack is the ultimate user-friendly guide to walking in five different Paris neighborhoods. It contains five individual full-color foldouts that are easy to read, easy to carry, but impossible to forget.

The five walks cover both well known landmarks like Notre Dame, the Pantheon, and Sacre Coeur, and also many of the little-known squares and small streets on the Right and Left Bank that make Paris Paris.

Each walk tells you where to go and what you're looking at, while providing interesting and lively background anecdotes. With beautiful photographs and an impossible-to-get-lost neighborhood map, it's the next best thing to having your best friend (who knows Paris inside and out) walking by your side.

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Invitation to France
by Jim Humberd, Emmy Humberd

"Our travels in France have been a thoroughly enjoyable experience--truly, it's an exciting and beautiful country. The towns we've visited, the sights we've seen, the people we've met! This is a story of what we saw, and where we saw it during our nine trips to France. It's a composite of all our trips--nearly 160 nights, spent in over 100 different places.
The purpose of our book is neither to boast about, nor to celebrate our travels. Whether traveling in a car, a train, or in an arm-chair, the reader will become acquainted with the wonderful people they will meet, and the fascinating places they may visit as they travel through the enticing country of France."

"The title, Invitation to France was carefully selected. A vacation should not be a destination, it should be the journey. We have been able to travel with the idea that "it has been here for many years, and if we miss it this time, it will still be here the next time we are in the area." Relax and Enjoy. This book suggests 'Why Not Travel' thousands of other books try to tell you 'How to Travel.'"

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The French Riviera
By Ted Jones

The sunlight and the calm of the French Riviera have drawn countless writers into its embrace: the Cote D'Azur has provided inspiration and setting for some of the greatest literature of the nineteenth and twentieth century. The French Riviera offers a literary tour of the region, covering the lives and work of all the writers who found inspiration there--from Graham Greene and W. Somerset Maugham who spent their lives there, through those writers whose work it dominates such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Guy de Maupassant, to those who simply lingered there. Ted Jones' encyclopedic work covers them all, including Louisa May Alcott, Hans Christian Andersen, J.G. Ballard, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, and W.B. Yeats.

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Living, Studying, and Working in France: Everything You Need to Know to Fulfill Your Dreams of Living Abroad
By Lorin David Kalisky and Saskia Reilly

The essential book on how to make a life in France.

More than 90,000 Americans live abroad in France, making it home to one of the largest expatriate communities in the world. This is a savvy and insightful book full of hard-earned advice on how to make the most of your experience in France.

Following in the footsteps of the successful Living, Studying, and Working in Italy, this guide will help Americans grow into French culture and help them feel at home in a country famous for its cultural and social particularities. The authors, two Americans who have spent extensive time in France, provide detailed information ranging from health care procedures in France to how to put together a résumé (known as a CV in France). With material on networking, employment opportunities, choosing the right study program, and navigating the French Internet, this is the essential guide for anyone who wants to live, study, or work in France.

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Chasing Matisse
By James Morgan

Discoveries
By Susan Salter Reynolds
Los Angeles Times
Sunday, March 20, 2005

Isn't it fabulous, one sneers, trapped in the ides of March, rabbit-eyed before tax season. Following his dream to live in France, how simply fabulous for James Morgan. Maybe the "Chasing Matisse" author could join Peter Mayle and Frances Mayes and all those other happy expatriates on the travel shelf. But wait. There's another message in the best of these books: Check the path you're on. Check it frequently. Measure it against your dreams. Factor in the risk of not following your dreams the way you might any financial risk.

"The creative life is a wonderful life, which is why it pays so poorly," writes Morgan, who, at age 45, with a new wife and two daughters at college, decided to sell the family home in Little Rock, Ark., and follow the trail of his favorite painter. "Coming of age in middle age," he calls it, and the whole process, uprooting relationships and shedding possessions, takes a level of courage that many other books in this genre gloss over. Morgan and his wife travel to Matisse's native Picardy region, to Collioure at the foot of the Pyrenees, to Nice and Vence, and to Morocco.

From the gray December skies of northern France to the brilliant sunsets of the French Riviera, Morgan is clearly refreshed and inspired by the colors Matisse made famous: "I dreamed that night of a marvelous green," he writes from Morocco. "The sky was green, the sea was green, the mystery of life was tinted a deep and disturbing shade of sea foam."

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In a Paris Moment
By Meredith Mullins

This beautiful book was a recent gift and I've had difficulty putting it down since unwrapping it. The photographs are brilliant and engaging, as one would expect from an elegant art/photography book, but there is much more to behold. And to "be held" for that matter. There is something soothing about the cover's stock and the rich paper on which each page is printed. Just holding the book feels good to me and flipping through the pages offers an unexpected comfort that keeps me wanting more. Strange as it may sound, this book to me is about feeling -- both physical and emotional.

Part of the experience is how Ms. Mullins so masterfully fashions a tapestry of striking visual appeal, thought-provoking human interest and dialog, and clever anecdotes. Her writings are not only amusing, but they are the kind to which practically everyone can relate. Anyone visiting Paris and attempting to converse with the locals surely must go through the same mental gymnastics and second-guessing as depicted in "Zen and the Art of the Taxi Ride." I remember all too well just how daunting it was to select the correct phrasing and verb conjugations to fit in and make sense. Or who hasn't, whether in the City of Lights or some obscure shop elsewhere, accidentally bumped into something and feared that it would be discovered? Her "Fallen Sheep" tale makes me laugh every time I reread it, and feel connected to it in an eerie and unknown way as if something parallels my own past.

It's been years since I've seen Paris, but enjoying this book takes me back as if it were only yesterday. The author's quotes, stories, and black-and-white slices of time indeed capture Paris moments, but in their uniquely personal way, they beckon the viewer/reader to connect. To connect with the places, to connect with the emotions, to connect with the people. I heartily recommend this stunning rendition of true 'joie de vivre' to anyone who has been to Paris or wishes to visit, and to those of us who long for that ultimate connection to our own moments that transcend language and time, but that show us who we are and what we can become if we pay attention.

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Promenades Dans le PARIS DISPARU
By Leonard Pitt

A Walking Guide to the Transformation of Paris

Walk through the heart of Paris with hundreds of photos, maps, and engravings in hand to discover a Paris that no longer exists.

Contents:
Preface by Alexandre Gady
Introduction
Walk 1: De Saint-Germain-des-Prés au square Viviani
Walk 2: L'ile de la Cité
Walk 3: De Saint-Germain-des-Pres au Palais-Royal
Walk 4: Le Marais
Epilogue

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The Complete Jewish Guide to France
by Toni L. Kamins

The Complete Jewish Guide to France is the only resource you need to embark on a trip through Jewish France. Travel writer and journalist Toni L. Kamins catalogs information on well-known sights and little-known treasures, such as the Marais district (Paris' celebrated Jewish neighborhood), ancient ghettos, beautiful old synagogues around the country and many other places. She includes information on transportation and lodging, plus hundreds of places to buy kosher food. Selected photographs and maps fill out the picture. Kamins also recounts the nearly two thousand years of French-Jewish history, beginning with evidence that Jews may have lived in France as early as the first century, and continuing right up to the present today.The Complete Jewish Guide to France has everything you need to know to make your trip to Frrance a success -- and to put it into a historical context that will make it even more worthwhile.

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Paeonian Paris
By Claire Kincannon

"Help! He brought me to Paris a year ago last week. Now I can't talk, tell time, or get a legal job . . ." And so begins the sometimes surprising and always amusing saga of coping with everyday Paris life for an alien from a rural Virgina village. Laugh and enjoy the journey. Claire Kincannon is a woman of many talents which she has utilized in a varying career pattern spread over the last fifty years. Artist, designer, interior architect, journalist, radio theatre critic and restauranteur, to name a few. In her mid-fifties she was swept off to Paris and the experience of a lifetime which resulted in her newest endeavor: "Paeonian to Paris". Claire Kincannon is also the author and designer/editor of poetical anthologies, "Sheets to the Wind" (pub 2000) and "Sheets for Men Only" (pub 2002).

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Paris in Mind
By Jennifer Lee

“Paris is a moveable feast,” Ernest Hemingway famously wrote, and in this captivating anthology, American writers share their pleasures, obsessions, and quibbles with the great city and its denizens. Mark Twain celebrates the unbridled energy of the Can-Can. Sylvia Beach recalls the excitement of opening Shakespeare & Company on the Rue Dupuytren. David Sedaris praises Parisians for keeping quiet at the movies. These are just a few of the writers assembled here, and each selection is as surprising and rewarding as the next.

Including essays, book excerpts, letters, articles, and journal entries, this seductive collection captures the long and passionate relationship Americans have had with Paris. Accompanied by an illuminating introduction, Paris in Mind is sure to be a fascinating voyage for literary travelers.

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On Rue Tatin
By Susan Loomis

It has been said that food defines a culture. For the French, food is an integral part of their coveted tradition, and Susan Herrmann Loomis's book On Rue Tatin embraces both. As a young, recent American college graduate, Loomis left the U.S. for France to attend one of the oldest French cooking schools, La Varenne. Her intent was to immerse herself in French cooking with the aspiration of becoming a food critic. Working as the French equivalent of an apprentice, she quickly became intimate with the ways and traditions that define the French culture, specifically its cuisine. On Rue Tatin ("On Tatin Street") is a descriptive narrative of Loomis's first several years in France, her encounters with the local people, and the bonds she formed, as well as recipes she gathered during her time there.

Following her formal culinary training, Loomis returned to the U.S. and met the man who would become her husband. After the couple's first son turned 2, they moved to France where Loomis was determined to launch her writing career focusing on unique aspects of French farming cuisine. She and her husband eventually purchased an old monastery in Louviers in the Normandy region of France. One of the more humorous and memorable stories she shares concerns the landlord of the small rental that they occupied for a year while her husband remodeled the monastery to livable conditions. During that year, the wife of the landlord believed them to be CIA agents and chose to keep a cold distance from the family. Meanwhile the French police suspected them of dealing drugs.

Every recipe featured throughout this memoir comes with an interesting, anecdotal story, and is very much representative of traditional French cuisine. Gateau au Chocolat de Mamy (or Mamy Jacqueline's Chocolate Cake) is a dense, almost death-by-chocolate confection, but served alone or with a fresh fruit coulis, it will bring a smile, as will the sweet explanation of its origin.

Loomis describes experiences and people with much detail, sometimes several times over, and her prose allows the reader to imagine the tempting smells and vivid colors of the countryside. You may find yourself wishing to see pictures of Loomis's home and the quaint village where she lived, but perhaps that was Loomis's intent--she wants to tempt and challenge you to experience the beauty and foods of Louviers and the Normandy region for yourself. --Teresa Simanton--(This text refers to the Hardcover edition.)

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Guide to Impressionist Paris: Nine Walking Tours to the Impressionist Painting Sites in Paris
By Patty Lurie

The traveler to France can now discover the beauty of Paris while following in the exact footsteps of well-known Impressionist painters. Guide To Impressionist Paris is a handy guidebook featuring nine walking tours to eighty famous painting sites. Museum quality reproductions of the paintings are paired aesthetically with 80 color photographs of the existing locations as they appear today. The reader can stand where the artist stood and see what they saw. The accompanying text includes easy-to-follow tour directions, informative comments about each painting and its artist, and historical information about Paris, along with nine maps to the exact painting sites. Now tourists, art lovers, and armchair travelers alike can discover the beauty of the French capital while looking through the eyes of Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Van Gogh, and other well-known Impressionists. Guide To Impressionist Paris is equally at home on the art bookshelf, as it is on the traveler's bookshelf.

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Au Contraire! Figuring Out the French
By Gilles Asselin, Ruth Mastron

What makes the French so...well, French? As a culture, the French are fiercely independent yet seductively romantic, deeply conservative yet avant-garde, dispassionately rational yet dramatically emotional.

For anyone involved in interactions with the French, whether in business or government, as a student or armchair devotee of crossing cultures, Au Contraire! unearths the often invisible cultural forces that govern behavior. Gilles Asselin and Ruth Mastron draw on their front-line experience as consultants, trainers and expatriate practitioners living and working in both countries, and on their research of dozens of professionals to offer the best and most useful analysis and advice on French-American intercultural relations. Going beyond the obvious, this bilingual and bicultural author team explores what lies behind what we see: the assumptions, attitudes, beliefs, values and patterns of thought of both cultures.

In a global world filled with international mergers and partnerships, Au Contraire! provides context and perspective on what happens when French and American people come together, at work, at home and in many other social settings; it addresses such issues as education and play, friendship and romance, politics and education. In an in-depth case study of how pharmaceutical giant Rhône-Poulenc Rorer overcame challenges to foster cross-cultural teamwork, the authors take a behind-the-scenes look at the challenges of working and managing across the French and American cultural divide. With professional guidelines for expatriate managers working in the United States or in France and a quick and useful guide to social behavior and etiquette in France, Au Contraire! provides the critical tools to effectively develop creative and appropriate responses to any situation, based on a deep understanding of the dynamics of these two cultures.

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A Writer's Paris
by Eric Maisel

The symbolic home for creative people everywhere, Paris has been inspiration for countless artists and writers. In this dynamic book, well-loved author Eric Maisel gives writers the guidance they need to take a literal or figurative soul-renewing artistic sojourn in the city of light. It:

-Shares with readers how and why to take a creative visit to Paris

-Provides logistics for those committed to a trip and inspiration for those who hunger for a taste of the expat life

-Features the expert advice of America's foremost creativity coach

Filled with lessons and anecdotes that convey the spirit of the glorious city, this book will inspire anyone to create.

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Walks Through Lost Paris
by Leonard Pitt

When he discovered that the city he lived in for many years was actually entirely rebuilt during the mid-1800s, Leonard Pitt plunged into Paris's history and began photographing what he learned had changed. Eventually, he led tours and gave lectures on the demolition and reconstruction that changed the city forever. Walks Through Lost Paris chronicles Paris's great periods of urban reconstruction through four walking tours. With a special focus on the work of Georges-Eugene Haussmann, this book provides a history of each site along with the motives behind the urban redesign and the reactions of Parisians who witnessed it. Detailed maps take you through a city whose changes were captured by photographers and artists in each stage. Hundreds of color photos, diagrams, and engravings splendidly survey the massive transformation that resulted in the Paris of today.

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French or Foe?
by Polly Platt

Let's face it: the French have gotten a bad rap. Mention that you're considering a trip to France and everyone will warn you about rude waiters, supercilious shopkeepers, and snooty concierges who won't give you the time of day--and worse, pretend not to understand your high-school French. Not so, says Polly Platt, author of French or Foe?; "The French are generous, exhilarating friends," but they are different--wonderfully so. The trick to getting along in France is understanding the culture and learning to accept it on French terms instead of your own. Though the book is designed primarily for people who will be living or working in France for extended periods, the lessons Platt teaches about manners, attitudes, and culture are invaluable for even those visitors just passing through.

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Savoir Flair
by Polly Platt

In "Savoir Flair: 211 Tips for enjoying France and the French", she has taken numerous interesting stories or observations about an American operating in France, added a punch line (i.e., tip) and organized them into 20 chapters. What I particularly like about this book is you can read just the topics of interest if you're visiting Paris for a vacation - topics like arriving at the airports, hotels, using taxis, Métro, Cafés, French food - or you can read it all if going there on business or longer. An example of tips more oriented to those of us living in France include comments on business meals, driving, the local scene, rural living, or requesting information from the French (not as obvious as you think) - just to name a few. Mrs. Platt, an American, mixes humor with authority. She has lived in Paris for over 30 years - she knows what she's talking about; intimately. This 290 page paperback is highly recommended.

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Paris Confidential
by Elizabeth Reichert

Warren Trabant and his late wife, Jean, devoted their lives to Paris. Trabant started his career in France as a photo editor for the Marshall Plan in 1951, then became a top notch journalist, later publishing the monthly "Letter From Paris." In the late 1980s, he and Jean collaborated to write Paris Confidential, a look at Paris from the inside for those who wanted a deeper appreciation of the city than just an elevator ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

The Trabants, fascinated by the profound history, yet cynical in their aspirations, took a different view than most toward how one would best discover the real Paris. It is through their critical eyes that Paris Confidential was written.

Now almost 20 years later, young and talented Elizabeth Reichert enters the scene to shed new light on a new hip city that Trabant, now in his 80's, reflects on with mild disdain. Reichert has taken the core of Paris Confidential and raised it to a new height, by allowing those elements which are unchanged to remain untouched, adding her own insights to this ever-changing metropolis the world has fallen in love with.

I believe you will thoroughly enjoy Reichert's fresh writing style as well as her youthful eye co-mingled with the Trabants' own. And you will learn things about Paris you never expected to know...realizing the true depth of this magnanimous city.

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French Toast: An American in Paris Celebrates the
Maddening Mysteries of the French
by Harriet Welty Rochefort

A humorous tour of what living in France is really like! Peter Mayle may have spent a year in Provence, but Harriet Welty Rochefort writes from the experience of slugging it out over twenty years of living, observing and coping in Paris! From a a small town in Iowa to the city of Light, Harriet has done what so many dream of, plan on and hope to accomplish -- pick up, change your life and move to France! But, the ride comes with its share of cultural bumps, bruises and psychic adjustments. The author demystifies the French and food, money, sex, love, marriage, manners, schools, style and much more. Harriet's first-person account offers both a helpful reality-check and a lot of very funny moments.

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French Fried: The Culinary Capers of an American in Paris
by Harriet Welty Rochefort

In a style that's a cross between Erma Bombeck and MFK Fisher, Rochefort tells the entertaining story of how she, an American raised on meat and potatoes, learned to appreciate food à la française. Globalization and stadardization my menace Gallic cuisine, but not for long, if Rochefort is there to defend it.

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An Hour From Paris
by Annabel Simms

The Sunday Times, February 16, 2003
A glimpse of what Proust called a temps perdu. Ground-breaking work.

The Independent, February 3, 2003
Ile de France Profonde...relatively unknown places that you can reach by a local train ride from central Paris.

Book Description
A guide to 20 destinations in the countryside around Paris, chosen for their interest, accessibility by train and absence of crowds.

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Romantic Paris
by Thirza Vallois
photography by Juliana Spear

Romantic Paris is an invitation to join in an around-the-clock and a dream-come-true celebration of the ultimate city of romance.Written by acknowledged Paris expert, Thirza Vallois has the place at her fingertips and gives you the best of the best of romantic Paris. Vallois walks you to all the city’s treasured spots and secret corners, and provides you with a choice of fabulous places – hotels, restaurants, cafés, shops, museums, night life – that she has carefully selected to suit couples of all ages, all budgets, and as varied a spectrum as possible.

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Around and About Paris
Volumes I, II and II
by Thirza Vallois

Volume I Arrondissements 1 - 7
From the Dawn of Time to the Eiffel Tower: The Old Territory

Volume II Arrondissements 8 - 12
From the Guillotine to the Bastille Opera: The Territory Annexed to Paris during the French Revolution

Volume III Arrondissements 13 - 20
New Horizons: Haussmann's Annexation

"I think we can safely toss all other Paris guidebooks aside. Paris is made for walking and Thirza Vallois' guides are made for Paris. There can be no higher praise than when I say they come close to the standard set of the world's greatest guide book, J. Link's 'Venice for Pleasure'... and they should soon achieve similar legendary status." William Boyd, The Spectator, 27 September 1997

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Aveyron, a Bridge to French Arcadia
By Thirza Vallois

"It all began in Paris with a riot of wisteria."

This led to a chance meeting between Thirza Vallois and Georges and Odette, and to Vallois' love affair with the stunning Aveyron, a mosaic of enchanting landscapes tucked away on the southern edge of the Massif Central. Until recently, this was France at its most quintessentially rural, sealed off from the rest of the country by a rugged terrain, anchored firmly in its distinctive identity and traditions. Today the Aveyron is a dynamic area of astonishing contrasts, where Norman Foster's cutting-edge Millau Viaduct cohabits with ancient Roquefort cheese, the former home of the Knights Templar hosts anti-globalisation rallies, and pilgrims hike the old road to Compostela while Japanese tourists enjoy contemporary cuisine at the 3-Michelin star Michel Bras. A Bridge to French Arcadia is the captivating story of a once destitute corner of France that is now singled out for its unbeatable, idyllic quality of life. More than a travel book to a unique and beautiful area, it is also a portrait gallery of the people of the Aveyron who are building bridges to the outside world. Bridges that will take you on an exciting journey and a mystical quest across the millennia. Thirza Vallois is the author of the highly acclaimed Around and About Paris series and Romantic Paris. She holds several post-graduate degrees from the Sorbonne, including the prestigious agrégation. An acknowledged Paris expert, she is also the author of the Paris Entry to the Encarta Encylopaedia and contributes to radio, television and magazines. She has also written several articles about the Aveyron for the international press.

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The Flâneur
By Edmund White

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

If a place is best known by its particulars, then Edmund White is an expert on Paris. Fortunately, he's generous with his secrets: he reveals a Paris not found in any other guide in this first book in the Writer and the City series. White's Paris is seen on foot, as a flâneur, a stroller who aimlessly loses himself in a crowd, going wherever curiosity leads him and collecting impressions along the way. Paris is the perfect city for the flâneur, as every quartier is beautiful and full of rich and surprising delights. But this is no typical tour of monuments and museums; it is much more intimate and surprising. As a flâneur of Paris for 16 years, White knows where to find the very best of everything--silver, sheets, plum slivovitz. He can tell you where to get Tex-Mex surrounded by a dance rehearsal hall, where to rent an entire castle for a party, or even where to get Skippy peanut butter. He eschews the pearl-gray city built by Napoleon and roams the places where the real vitality lives, the teaming quartiers inhabited by Arabs and Asians and Africans, the strange corners, the markets where you can find absolutely anything in this city that accommodates all tastes. White's Paris is a place rich in history with a passion for novelty and distractions. So a walk through the Jewish ghetto leads to the history of the little-known Musée Nissim de Camondo, with its impressive collection of Louis XV and Louis XVI furniture, created by a family of Jewish bankers ultimately killed in the Holocaust. White shares other favorite and obscure museums, such as the Hôtel du Lauzun, where writers like Balzac and Charles Baudelaire and the painter Edouard Manet met for long evenings of music and hashish-induced hallucinations. Reminiscences in Montmartre reach back to the thriving jazz culture created by African Americans in the years between the world wars and include stories about Josephine Baker, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin. While White may ignore Notre Dame, he has fascinating tidbits to share about kings and queens and their heirs who still fight for the throne. The variety of Paris, White remarks, is matched by the voraciousness and passion of its people. With his own remarkable flair, he reveals a thriving and alluring city where tourists rarely tread. --Lesley Reed