2 comments about Above Paris: The Aerial Survey of Roger Henrard.

1. These gorgeous black and white images are so beautiful and vivid. These beautiful photo's shot from the fifties to the early seventies just jump off the page. You see some great Parisian buildings no longer extant, like Les Hales, or you see buildings like the Orsay train station in a state of disrepair before it was rescued and reinvented as the Orsay gallery. Paris is layed out so perfectly, it lends itself so well to arial photography. If you love Paris or appreciate amazing photography then you will want this in your collection. High recommended.



2. 
   Roger Henrard (1900-1975) was an industrialist, pilot and photographer. He flew over Paris in a single-engine plane and took thousands of pictures, many of them incredible pictures. Henrard used a high-speed plate camera to systematically document the city. This book selects 350 beautifully printed duotones from that collection organized by themes such as neighborhoods, the Seine, major buildings, the roads. Maps at the beginning of each chapter orient the reader, and Jean-Louis Cohen provides excellent captions and instructive essays, all in English.
   
   Henrad wrote UN ENRAGÉ DU CIEL ("THE FLYING MADMAN") (which has not been translated into English) describing his reconnaissance pilot experiences during World War II and why he explored Paris from the sky. Henrard was director of a factory of photographic instruments in 1930 and developed an aerial camera, which he started to use himself after learning to pilot a plane. His first flying observatory was a high-winged single-engine aircraft designed in 1932 --- a Farman 402, with a 120-horsepower Lorraine engine. Henrard called this plane an "optical and mechanical laboratory," using his own aerial camera system to take his photographs. He obtained a permanent flight permit from the Air Force and was able to devise a rigorous all-weather photography system.
   
   In 1948 he continued his flights in a Nord 1203 Norécrin (a low-winged aircraft derived from the Messerschmitt Bf 108), in which he installed the rapid cameras that he would continue to use for his aerial photography until 1972, three years prior to his death. In the preface to UN ENRAGÉ DU CIEL a wartime companion and novelist Jules Roy describes how the photographer used his "mechanical retina":
   
   "In cramped conditions and with the sun at his back, he takes his photos with all the precision of a fighter pilot performing a snap roll or a bombardier landing his crate in a vineyard. He calculates itinerary and arrival time, always picking out some makeshift airfield on which to crash should his only engine fail. Over Paris, for example, he is more or less sure of always being able to make a crash landing--on the Seine between two bridges, on lettuce and spinach plants at Gennevilliers, on the Vincennes rifle range, or on the glass roof of Gare de l'Est. And why not on the terrace of the Galeries Lafayette?"
   
   When Henrard took the photographs in this book, the city was still contained within the fortified walls built by Adolphe Thiers in 1845. Today's maps and city guides still show that asymmetric polygonal form. Henrard circled the city tirelessly, taking photographs by the thousand and surveying that classic shape and some of the encroachments of the city into the areas outside the walls.
   
   Henrard was not the first photographer to capture Paris from a flying machine. But his techniques were more rigorous and his artistic eye created great beauty while preserving cartographic accuracy. I've walked for at least 500 miles through the streets of Paris on business and pleasure trips over the years. It always seemed barricaded and crammed together from the sidewalk, brought alive from time to time with pockets of open space along the boulevards and near the Seine.
   
   This book gave me an entirely different vision of the city, and the essays made my imagination soar. This is a picture book with a brain and a soul.
   
   Robert C. Ross 2008

No comments about Hip Hotels: Paris (Hip Hotels).

No comments about Ruins of Paris (Reaktion Books - Topographics).

4 comments about Frommer's Memorable Walks in Paris (Memorable Walks).

1. I took a group to Paris and used this book as my bible. All the books have the basic facts, but this one takes you down the side streets the other books pass by. I also like to tell all the tales of the city from the factual to the gruesome. This book helped me do that. If you're looking to explore Paris beyond just the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre you'll adore this book!



2. The Frommer's book has many walks in popular areas, with interesting and not overwhelming historical, architectural, snacking, and sightseeing notes. Especially good for the first or second-time visitor, or someone who needs a refresher course on Paris.



3. Paris is a perfect city to explore by foot and by public transportation. Divided into historical, artistic and literary themes, and using black-and-white maps (and no photographs), this basic-but-comprehensive guide offers eleven walking tours (each about three hours in length) that cover the city's most most interesting neighborhoods, including the intellectual Latin Quarter, artsy Montmartre, the Ile de la Cité on which Notre Dame is situated, the Marais district, St-Germain-des-Pres, and even the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, where Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, and Proust are buried. Unlike other guides, this walking guide lacks helpful information on where to catch the Metro (Paris's subway) or bus along the way, but includes reliable recommendations for places to stop and shop, eat, drink, and sightsee along the way. Having completed several of the guided walks included in this guide during a recent visit to Paris, I can highly recommend this book for the first-time visitor to Paris not interested in wandering too far off the beaten Paris path.
   
   
   G. Merritt



4. I enjoyed this guide book because of its practicality. It is small enough to carry and consult while walking. And it organizes things to see in a logical manner. Rather than going to see the Louvre you can see many interesting, notable sites on the way to and from the Louvre as well. I especially recommend this guide for first time visitors to Paris, a city I grew to love, in part due to this book's information.

No comments about The Travels of Marco Polo (With 25 illustrations in full color from a fourteenth-century manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris).

3 comments about Artwise Paris Museum Map - Laminated Museum Map of Paris, FR - Streetwise Maps (Artwise).

1. I absolutely love the Artwise maps. They are THE BEST for tourists trying to get around a city. It's a laminated tri-folding document so doesn't rip, is great in inclement weather, and not a big massive complicated folding map that is difficult to use. I was recently in Paris and it was the only thing we needed or used. It marks the location of museums and monuments, and gives their hours and general information. It also has a metro map so it was easy to either walk or ride to our destinations. We even successfully found our way to a great tiny restaurant on a small street in the Marais, which had been recommended by a friend. You Won't be disappointed with this map!



2. This is the perfect map for the Art Lover in Paris. And if it starts to rain, hello, it's water proof! Get it or regret it!



3. Artwise Paris Museum Map - Laminated Museum Map of Paris, FR - Streetwise Maps (Artwise)
   
   Wonderful but still I'm waiting for a Map of Viena from the same company I think ;that I ordered and never received!!!

3 comments about Paris.

1. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book full of insight, witticisms, and full-page photos of the City of Lights. The author speaks candidly and casually of the city as one would of a dear friend, including charming anecdotes of his days there. Mentions are made of the usual tourist spots: the Eiffel Tower, the Moulin Rouge, et cetera, but also little known spots and out of the way places. The myriad of pictures throughout the book only serves to heighten the sense of being there: you can almost feel the well-worn cobblestone beneath your feet as you stroll the streets, hear tourists and natives alike conversing en francais at corner cafes, smell the freshly baked bread from the boulangerie patisseries, and see the sunlight glinting off the Seine. A must-read for anyone who has been or simply dreams of visiting Paris.



2. Just got this book and have only been through it once. I'll go back again and again, because I'll probably never get to actually visit Paris. The aforementioned out-of-focus photos do exist but for my purposes they are not troubling. A couple of two-page spreads annoyingly place the center of attention right on the crease. But it still gets 5 stars from me. I love the writings, too.



3. As they say on ebay, Buy it now! I spotted this book in a display at Saks, tried to purchase it there, only to find that I had to buy the whole library and bookshelves that went with it. So instead of the $48k, I bought it at Amazon alone. I am a lover of all things Parisian and this book is just breathtaking. Assouline lives up to his reputation. The photos are incomparable to anything I could snap with my didgital camera on vacation last spring.

5 comments about History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology).

1. After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.
   
   However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:
   
   - the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
   - the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
   - Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
   - Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.
   
   I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.
   
   The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.
   
   It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?
   
   Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.
   
   Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).



2. We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:
   
   a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;
   
   b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;
   
   c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.
   
   Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:
   
   It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.
   
   - It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.
   
   - The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.
   
   Fomenko goes by the following axioms:
   
   - Chronology is the basis of history;
   
   - Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;
   
   - The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;
   
   - The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;
   
   - The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;
   
   - There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.
   
   Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?
   
   The Russians:
   
   Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.
   
   The Westerners:
   
   Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.
   
   The Chinese:
   
   Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.
   
   The Arabs:
   
   Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.
   
   The Divinity:
   
   Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.
   
   According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.
   
   St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."
   



3. Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.



4. I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.



5. Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3A80YKC8W7UEE New Chronology is a theory validated by astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient manuscripts that asserts: that Antiquity and Dark Ages are phantoms invented in the 16th 18th centuries. Human civilization is barely 1000 years old!
   
   New Chronology complies with the most rigid scientific standards:
   
   - It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know;
   - It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion;
   - The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically;
   
   New Chronology goes by the following basic axioms:
   - Chronology is the basis of history;
   - Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;
   - The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history are fantasy and hoax;
   - The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;
   - The closer in time is a given manuscript to the events described the less distortions it contains;
   - There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.
   
   Fomenko asserts: There was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by over two centuries of yoke and slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a trilingual state with Arabic and Turkic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that official Russian history is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scholars brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs. Their ascension to the throne was the result of conspiracy, so they charged these imported historians with the mission of making Romanov's reign look legitimate.
   
   Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate Godunov rulers and the ambitious Romanov upstarts.
   
   As Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, he successfully removes a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one: the Ancient Rome: the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the 14th century A. D., the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece.
   
   The Ancient Egypt: the pyramids of Giza become dated to the 11th to 14th century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less. The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the 11th to 15th century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone, like enormous Dendera horoscope that hangs in main entrance to the Louvre museum in Paris.
   
   He was the first one to decipher and date unambiguously all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case.
   
   English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the book "History: Fiction or Science?" portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.
   
   Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such ancient history. Period. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the 17th 18th century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them otherwise.
   
   Islam with all its key figures appears as late as 15th-16th century A. D. as a branch of proto-Christianity. This is amply illustrated by imagery of Prophet Mahomet, archangel Gabriel, Heaven and Hell of this period. In today's Islam all imagery of the things living is taboo.
   
   Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th 17th century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a proto Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian!) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.
   
   
   The history of religions according to Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the 11th century and Jesus Christ ), Bacchic Christianity (11th to 12th century, before and after Jesus Christ), Jesus Christ Christianity (12th to 14th century) and its subsequent mutations (15th to 17th) into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on..
   
   Saint Augustine was quite prescient when he said: "be wary of mathematicians,.. particularly when they speak the truth."
   
   Henry Ford once said: "History is more or less bunk!"
   
   Prominent mathematician Anatoly Fomenko not only proved it for a fact, but as true scientist tried to upgrade it into a rocket science.
   
   This book will change your perception of History forever!
   What if Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt were invented during Renaissance?
   What if The Old Testament was a rendition of events of the Middle Ages?
   What if Jesus Christ was born in 1053 and crucified in 1086 AD?
   Sounds Unbelievable?
   Not after you've read "History: Fiction or Science?" by Anatoly Fomenko, the genius mathematician.
   Armed with astronomy and computers Anatoly Fomenko turns History into a rocket science.

No comments about Fodor's See It Paris, 3rd Edition (Fodor's See It).

3 comments about Paris Discovered: Explorations in the City of Light.

1. I am not much of a writer so I will keep this review brief. All I can add is that anyone looking for a deeper insight into the City of Light should really consider this book. It is full of interesting stories and walks that will fascinate anyone with a sense of adventure and an interest in the diverse history of this wonderful city.



2. This book is clearly intended for the niche traveler of the Francophile variety. While most of it's "discoveries" are not truly arcane, they are not generally of the sort you would find in the standard Paris travel guide. For one, such as myself, however, who has been to Paris many times over the years, it did open up totally new vistas, relative to the history of that amazing city. An underground 12th century river-gate located in the basement of a modern day postoffice is hardly something that a first time casual visitor to Paris would bother to go see, but for the historian of the nitty-gritty, it is an adventure well worth knowing about.



3. This book provides excellent history information on 49 locations under 17 headings with an overall locality plan and photos and sketches of points of interest when visiting Paris; it is clearly set out in separate sections and easy to read.