No comments about A Year in the Life of Kew Gardens.

No comments about The Best Vintage, Antique and Collectible Shops in Paris.

1 comments about Historic Paris Walks (Codogan Guides: Historic Walks S.).

1. Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (9/06)
   
   Being extremely familiar with Paris, I always look forward to new books on this utterly fascinating city, partly to bring back memories and partly to pick up new ideas on where to go on my next visit there. "Historic Paris Walks," edited by Leo Hollis, certainly worked out in both aspects, although with substantial reservations.
   
   Consisting of a series of 10 walks, the book takes you on meandering walks through Paris, starting with the "Many Origins of Paris" and continuing with walks tied to certain parts of the history of Paris. Each walk gives you a starting and an ending point as well as the distance of the entire walk in both kilometers and miles. It introduces you to the sights along the way, as well as the people, events and ideas linked to the era as well as the area. The little black-and-white map at the beginning of each chapter gives you an idea of the area that it will cover and each chapter starts with a short introduction of the walk, which then continues with the step-by-step instructions and descriptions.
   
   At the beginning of the book there is a 16 page photo essay by Tim Mitchell, which certainly gives some color to the book, but would have probably been much more useful if interspersed with the text in the appropriate chapters.
   
   As fascinating as this book is for somebody who already knows Paris, I found it quite confusing for a possible first time visitor. The lack of a comprehensive map of Paris as well as tiny print on the maps of the walks would hardly make it handy as a walking companion for somebody who is still finding his or her way around the city. The absence of a comprehensive map also makes it difficult to decide which walk to take next and how they might be connected. Although the step-by-step directions are quite precise, I would have found it useful to be given some measure of how far to go in a particular step, either in terms of distance and time. "Continue on the rue Princesse, then take a left onto the rue du Four and walk until you arrive back at the rue Bonaparte. Turn right and head north, crossing the Boulevard St. Germain." As detailed as this description is, I fear that I'd spend more time looking at the street signs than at the sights if I were to follow it precisely. An estimate of how long each of the walks might take would also be useful for somebody who'd want to plan their day better.
   
   The description of the sights along the way is often minimal in some parts of "Historic Paris Walks," but I found the commentary on the people and events shaping the city very enlightening and often delightful. The part that I liked best by far was the added "Information" in each chapter, listing the author's favorite eating places, opening times and changes, bookstores and recommended further reading. It would be worth to buy this book just for the information compiled in those sections.
   
   I would definitely recommend this book for a savvy traveler who is already familiar with Paris as well as any armchair traveler who needs more food for thought. Any first time visitor to Paris would be better served with an ordinary guidebook and a good map of Paris, unless they have the luxury of a really long stay in Paris ahead of them. As for myself, I plan to take "Historic Paris Walks" with me on my next visit for sure.

No comments about Paris Metro Handbook.

No comments about Michelin Montargis/Auxerre/Dijon, France Map No. 65 (Michelin Maps & Atlases).

3 comments about The Rough Guide to Paris Map (Rough Guide City Maps).

1. I found this guide to Paris an invaluable companion on my first trip to the city. Its detailed maps of the different quarters and breezy commentary was a great supplement to the simpler, heavily illustrated "Eyewitness" Guide I also used. The Rough Guide goes into greater detail, and has a lot more historical background, without being exhaustive like the famous "Blue Guide" series. It also has a good summary of the history of the city. The writing is winningly opinionated in places (declaring, for example, that the late 19th century realist paintings in the Musee D'Orsay are 'indigestible'), but doesn't seem demand that you agree with it. Maybe Paris just makes people opinionated in matters of taste. I'd recommend it for anybody who wants more than the tourist surface, but who doesn't want to be overwhelmed with too much background.



2. We went to many bookstores looking for a map of Paris. MY parner and I were going for the first time ever and had no clue what to expect. We went for 6 days and 5 nights. We thumbed thru about 100 different maps in total and purchased this one based on 3 things: it showed the street we were staying on, it divided the country into arrondisements (different districts) and it showed all the tourist spots!

   The map was easy to read and through all our fighting over it and folding and unfolding, the map stayed in tact! It's also waterproof!

   It was so worth the money! We got lost once when we travelled far off the map. But it really is the best map out there! We are keeping it for our next visit!




3. Multiple misplaced Metro stations (e.g., Porte Maillot, Miromesnil), buildings (e.g., Ministre de l'Interieur) and hotels (the one I stayed in) made this map useless - I spent about an hour in total walking the wrong way because of such mistakes on a map that claims to have been "thoroughly researched on the ground".
   The tough waterproof paper is good; in fact it's essential as the manner in which the map is folded is so awkward you will come close to tearing it every time you use it.
   I'd recommend a map book; even the crude maps in the Lonely Planet guide are better than this.

5 comments about Eating Europe: A Meta-Nonfiction Love Story (Writing Travel).

1. A professor of creative writing sets out on his university's dime to tour Europe and deliver a promised manuscript. Unfortunately there is no manuscript, not even an idea for one really, and Volkmer and his companion -- his wife -- are bantering but not communicating. America has invaded Iraq, France is being reviled and the Volkmers, in slow meltdown, land in Provence. Eating Europe is the result; a memoir of the creative process, the renewed flowering of a marriage and a world that saw the follies of Iraq long before the rest of us. A good read.



2. If you happen to be one, then, really, what better, more necessary time to be a travel writer than now? When the current political clime has us in hock--socially, empathetically--to the wider world? When what "they're" thinking and what "we're thinking" is seemingly so dissonant. And yet we know it isn't. And what a great example is this book of what the best travel writing can do.
   
   We can only hope there was some sort of exchange program, that from Europe came someone as equally insightful, with a traveling partner as equally challenging and delightful. The nature of the sublime, the politics of the restaurant barker, melancholy, the availability of cheese; all are touched upon, and in the most poignant way possible.
   
   If Charlie Kaufman rewrote Spoorloos as a romantic comedy; if John Barth got lost, not in the funhouse but in a maze of cobblestone; if a more dashing Albert Brooks drove his Winnebago through the south of France, you'd get Eating Europe. Highly recommended.



3. High recommendations for an unusual travel book that takes the author and his wife from Amsterdam to Alsace, and from light-hearted banter to more sober reflections. Written with wit, insight, and heart, this is a very enjoyable read!



4. The prose roped me in from the beginning, even before I was able to discern what the book was about. I continued to read, for the sheer enjoyment of the pictures the writing produced. Eventually, I realized I was reading anecdotes that could just as easily been about me and one of my partners as about the author and his wife. Universal themes of relationships emerged from every chapter as I read on. Some brought back happy memories, some brought back painful memories. I substituted myself for the author and read faster and faster, in spite of the fact I wanted to make the book last. Joy of reading came from exploration of the human soul. It was the same kind of joy, from the same source, I have gotten from Dostoyevsky, and Kesey, and Helprin, and many other authors.
   
   I derived an immense amount of pleasure from Eating Europe, yet I gave it only 4 stars. I felt no resolution. Instead I felt that literary trickery had been substituted for an ending to the story. That is why I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5.



5. I purchased this book on the recommendation of a friend and got much more than I expected. The first half is a romantic romp through the French country side, with witty gastronomical observations riding the rumble seat while the relation between the lovers, Jon and Janet, occupies the driver's seat or sometimes rides shotgun. Then things get complicated as the writer's consciousness about truth duels with his need to live with the terms of his professorial position and meet the requirements of a grant, while, at the same time, he drives and loves. This exploration of romance, literary genre, and writing with conscience is, in my opinion, close to genius. While I would not call it a Provence Travel Memoir, as others have, I'd call it a great trip, worth taking.

No comments about Americans in Paris: an Anecdotal Street Guide (Americans Abroad series).

No comments about The Nantes-Brest Canal, a Brittany Guide (Red Dog Guides).

No comments about Michelin Local Map No. 340: Bouches-du-Rhone, Var (France).