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Thrust into the unlikely role of professional "literary walking tour" guide, an expat writer provides the most irresistibly witty and revealing tour of Paris in years.
In this enchanting memoir, acclaimed author and long- time Paris resident John Baxter remembers his yearlong experience of giving "literary walking tours" through the city. Baxter sets off with unsuspecting tourists in tow on the trail of Paris's legendary artists and writers of the past. Along the way, he tells the history of Paris through a brilliant cast of characters: the favorite cafés of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Joyce; Pablo Picasso's underground Montmartre haunts; the bustling boulevards of the late-nineteenth-century flâneurs; the secluded "Little Luxembourg" gardens beloved by Gertrude Stein; the alleys where revolutionaries plotted; and finally Baxter's own favorite walk near his home in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
Memoirist, biographer and translator Baxter (Von Sternberg,2010, etc.) turns his sensuous walking tours of Paris into the written word, with gratifying results.
The author does what he does best—short chapters that explore some engaging nugget of Parisian culture or history, in a pace and voice that are both gentle. Goaded by a friend to put his voluminous knowledge of Paris to use as a walking-tour guide to literary and other artistic haunts, he accepted the challenge and found a calling. Baxter enjoys amusing and being amused, and he has pocketfuls of colorful background stories that create atmosphere. He is of the Henry Miller school—give him the boulevards known for sex and crime, food and drink, the opium dens and the absinthe bars, the art galleries selling salacious photographs—and he pulls it all off with an air of charm and calm. On his tours, the plans are open-ended; he digresses as needs be, perhaps into a story about how the lock to his house broke when he was about to leave for Christmas Eve at his relatives', or the curious interlude with a performance artist claiming to have known Marlene Dietrich. Readers can feel his elation at being out and about, experiencing the antique weather in the small passageways, cruising down Haussmann's sidewalks, dropping into cafés famous and obscure and exploring anything Hemingway. He is theflâneur's flâneur: "Visitors didn't wanttheirParis. They wantedmine. Plenty of time when they got home to read Flaubert or a history of the French Revolution. What they wanted now was to reach out and touch the living flesh—to devour and be devoured."
Walking through Paris with Baxter is really what bien-être is all about.
Anonymous
Posted Sat Jan 21 00:00:00 EST 2012
What a joy. A delightful view of the City of Lights. Reading this book will slow you down as you walk togeather with the author. We will always have Paris!
9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Wed Sep 05 00:00:00 EDT 2012
Take a stroll or two with John down streets you will always remember whether you visit Paris or now in your lifetime. You will feel certain you have been there after reading this book.
6 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Sun Jul 08 00:00:00 EDT 2012
I am not sure I can really give this an adequite review, having read it only once. There is so much to think about, so much alien to my experience, having not seen Paris from this view. This book must be read and longed over, and over again, much as one would do with a lover.
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Sun Mar 24 00:00:00 EDT 2013
The book is definitely an inspiration for people who wants to travel to Paris. The descriptions of the place in this book are truly inspiring and could be enticing for people to go pack up and then travel to Paris right away. Paris is different in many ways and people can be affected and mesmerized by its beauty. No wonder the author has done a good job describing it through this book.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Sun Sep 28 00:00:00 EDT 2014
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Posted Sun Sep 29 00:00:00 EDT 2013
There
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Sun Aug 04 00:00:00 EDT 2013
I bought this when I was planning a trip to Paris and wanted to read a lot of books about paris. I found this to be a bit boring.
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Posted Tue Apr 02 00:00:00 EDT 2013
Hey.
0 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Thu Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2013
Marching to greece.
0 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Wed Dec 28 00:00:00 EST 2011
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Overview
Thrust into the unlikely role of professional "literary walking tour" guide, an expat writer provides the most irresistibly witty and revealing tour of Paris in years.
In this enchanting memoir, acclaimed author and long- time Paris resident John Baxter remembers his yearlong experience of giving "literary walking tours" through the city. Baxter sets off with unsuspecting tourists in tow on the trail of Paris's legendary artists and writers of the past. Along the way, he tells ...