No comments about TASCHEN's Paris.

1 comments about Cool Restaurants Paris (Cool Restaurants).

1. I would love to review this book, if I could only get it! The website says it is "in stock" but the shipping date when I ordered it was December. I have seen it in stores, so it isn't as if it hasn't been released. Very suspect.

No comments about Paris Black & White 2009 7X7 Mini Wall Calendar.

2 comments about Artists in Residence: A Guide to the Homes and Studios of Eight 19th-Century Painters In and Around Paris Paperback with slip case.

1. I was so disapointed with this book when I got it. I wanted some ANALYSIS and scholarship in conjunction with the photographs...but NO, there was NONE TO BE FOUND. The reproductions are nice and if you just want something to look at fine...get the book. However, if you actually want to read a book about french studios this is not the book to buy.



2. 
   I'll agree with the previous reviewer concerning this title's arty status, and then some -- this is the most delicious mini-coffee-table book/slipcase combo I've come across in years of book reselling. But the demand for heavyweight art-crit action is misdirected.
   
   The book's subtitle says "A Guide," and that's exactly what it is, via glorious photos of interiors with atmospheric introductory texts; repros of a typical work or two; and shots of the surrounding countryside -- PLUS complete information concerning: how to get there and where to stay; walking tours of the areas and other local tours of interest; and where to eat nearby. It even has a bibliography -- quite a satisfying package in 143 pages!
   
   If you love French art and plan to be around Paris, just grab yourself a copy of this title, plan your pilgrimage, and GO -- then do the art-crit thing afterwards....

No comments about Paris Pocket Map and Guide (Eyewitness Pocket Maps & Guides).

No comments about AUTHENTIK / Chic Paris (Authentik).

No comments about Walking the Da Vinci Code in Paris: Decoding the City and the Book.

No comments about Atlas routiers : Paris pratique par arrondissement.

No comments about Paris 2009 Calendar.

3 comments about Travelers' Tales Paris: True Stories (Travelers' Tales Guides).

1. Nearly evenything in this book reads like rehashes of uninspired Paris tourist brochures. Even the three hatchet jobs contributed by Jan Morris and Herbert Gold (the insufferable, execrable, and virtually unreadable Gold contributed two) are derivative and unoriginal instead of witty and daring, as they were, no doubt, intended.

   Apparently it is virtually impossible to see Paris with one's own eyes. At least if you're an Anglo-Saxon foreigner. Major portions of the city have been, effectively, laminated and generously greased by the native French so as to slide foreign tourists through, and out, with the minimum of muss and fuss.

   And the editors seem to think that by excluding any significant mention of the Eiffel Tower that they are providing a novel and fresh take on Paris. But this constitutes a very feeble effort, at best.

   And apart from all the airy-fairy poetical musings that travel seem to provoke in travel writers, Paris also fills writers with cloying smugness. As the most extreme example, the one selection I could not finish was by someone called Lawrence Osborne, and it described Turkish baths. His mentioning of a "veritginous loss of toxicity" in the first, very long, paragragh was the last straw for me.

   On the upside, there are one or two glimmers of humanity and immediate, unpretentious life in these selections. But not nearly enough to justify ploughing through all 300 pages.




2. i have enjoyed many of the travelers' tales books and the paris edition was no exception. it is a great companion to a regular old run-of-the-mill guidebook if you're preparing for trip to france.



3. Francophiles will find much to love about TRAVELERS' TALES PARIS. "Imagine leaving this world without ever having seen Paris," the editors observe in the Introduction to this fascinating collection of Paris-inspired essays. "For those who have been there, the thought is unthinkable. For those who haven't yet had the chance, the thought is a reminder that their lives will be impoverished until they go, for Paris is the center of the civilized universe, the capital of the Western world, a city of transcendent beauty, which belongs to everyone" (p. xix).
   
   Paris is the ultimate travel destination for Francophiles, lovers, flirters, thinkers, and cafe sitters, and for good reason. The thirty-six essays collected here reveal that Paris is as much a place as a state of mind. Paris means something different to everyone. "There may be no city more uplifting to the human spirit. It is a place to explore the dimensions of yourself or those of someone you love--to walk and talk, to argue about life, to sit and contemplate the events of human history which have played themselves out here on these streets, on the banks of this river (p. xx).
   
   Organized into five Parts; the "Essence of Paris," "Some Things to Do," "Going Your Own Way," "In the Shadows," and "The Last Word," TRAVELERS' TALES PARIS immerses its reader in the rich diversity of Parisian culture and the French mind, including, French existentialism, the twenty-volume French encyclopedia of Paris's 20 arondissements, Vie et Histoire, the Latin Quarter's literary and philosophical past, the Louvre, the Paris Catacombs ("Death's Kingdom"), the Turkish Baths, the Concierge tradition, and French strippers.
   
   One caveat emptor, however: this collection of is an updated edition of PARIS: TRUE STORIES OF LIFE ON THE ROAD (Travelers' Tales Guides)(April 1, 1997).
   
   G. Merritt