Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light

Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light
by David Downie

Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light
Our Price: $40.00
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $9.39 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: David Downie
Photographer: Allison Harris
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-09-01
ISBN: 0976925109
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Transatlantic Press

Book Reviews of Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light

Book Review: Paris, Paris reviewed
Summary: 5 Stars

I found this wonderful review of "Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light" on the web. It is by noted author John Baxter.

What creaks and smells? Rattles and groans? Is misty, wind-swept and blisteringly hot, sometimes all in the same day? Can murmur seductively, but from time to time shriek, or moan in ecstasy? Is exasperatingly disinclined to admit one to intimacy, yet, just as it does, can transform itself with a swirl and a flash into a new creature, utterly unrecognisable?
Give up?

The answer is Paris - or at least the Paris on which David Downie lifts the curtain in his book PARIS, PARIS. JOURNEY INTO THE CITY OF LIGHT.

Lifting the curtain (in some cases before the people inside expect it) is very much what this book is about. While Downie tips a respectful nod to the city of cordon bleu cuisine, the Louvre and Orsay museums, the shops of the grands boulevards and the boutiques of his own quartier, the old Jewish ghetto of the Marais, he's more interested in what's happening behind those façades.

The chic Place de Vosges, for instance. What's it really like to live in those 17th century hotels particuliares and to look down on the cafes under the colonnade where movie stars take coffee and fashion models prowl? Well, for some, not much fun, since many tenants inherited their homes generations back, and can't or won't renovate. Persuading one to invite him in, Downie describes being "led from floor to sagging floor by the pavilion's unwashed, unshaved, ornery owner, who scowled out of the broken windowpanes and cursed his inheritance. `You think it's beautiful', he shouted over and over, `you like the view? I hate it here. I hate it!"

Downie's Paris differs fundamentally from the Paris glimpsed by the tourist. He watches with a mixture of astonishment, amusement and dismay as the city, responding to the seasons, to political fashion, and to waves of prosperity and recession, shifts and changes like the living creature it is. A café can close at the beginning of August as Parisians flee to the country, to re-open on their return with its old varnished wood and velour interior replaced, not by steel and glass, but by another kind of varnished wood, a differently coloured velour, and nothing to suggest both haven't been there for a century. There are even paints that recreate exactly the yellow-brown of a ceiling stained by decades of smoke from unfiltered Gauloises Bleus. Names too can change with the fortunes of a district. One café in our arrondissement closed as "Le Mandarin" , to reopen as the more subtly snob "Le Mondrian" . Downie quotes a Parisian telling a friend, "If you come back to Paris in two years, you won't recognise it" ; something we've all said - except that he was talking in 1608.

One could not hope for a more authoritative introduction to the city on the Seine. Helped immeasurably by the atmospheric photographs of Alison Harris, Downie guides us through a Paris where, as in the real world, art shares a bed with money, and history and politics co-mingle with myth and romance. He demonstrates that plus ca change... The more this city changes, the more it stays the same - which is what makes Paris, and this book, so exhilirating. Don't leave home without it.
PARIS, PARIS. JOURNEY INTO THE CITY OF LIGHT

Summary of Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light

A collection of 30 witty, irreverent, perennial essays about Paris by the acclaimed author and journalist David Downie, a longtime Paris resident.

France Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in France Books
Amex Tg Paris R4 (American Express pocket travel guide series) ImageAmex Tg Paris R4 (American Express pocket travel guide series)
by INTL
Hungry Minds Inc,U.S.; Published: 1991-02-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.50
Brittany (Berlitz Travel Guide) ImageBrittany (Berlitz Travel Guide)
by Inc. Berlitz International
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1985-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.95
Price in other shops: $6.95
Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Paris (2nd ed) ImageFrommer's Irreverent Guide to Paris (2nd ed)
by Heidi Ellison
Frommer; Published: 1998-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.00
Price in other shops: $12.95
In and Around Paris (World Traveller) ImageIn and Around Paris (World Traveller)
Macmillan USA; Published: 1986-07-03; Paperback; Book
All-In-One Paris and the Riviera (American Automobile Association All-in-One Series) ImageAll-In-One Paris and the Riviera (American Automobile Association All-in-One Series)
by Mill House Associates
Collier Books; Published: 1989-07; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops: $12.95
Collins French Phrasebook and Dictionary (Collins Gem) ImageCollins French Phrasebook and Dictionary (Collins Gem)
by Collins UK
HarperCollins UK; Published: 2009-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.37
Price in other shops: $7.95
London Knowledge Atlas (Street Atlas) ImageLondon Knowledge Atlas (Street Atlas)
by Collins UK
HarperCollins UK; Published: 2006-06-01; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops: $11.95
France Coast to C?ote ImageFrance Coast to C?ote
by Michael Little, Rita Little
HarperCollins Publishers; Published: 1986-01-06; Hardcover; Book
Collins Independent Travellers Guide to Provence and Languedoc (Collins Independent Travellers Guides) ImageCollins Independent Travellers Guide to Provence and Languedoc (Collins Independent Travellers Guides)
by John Ardagh
HarperCollins Publishers; Published: 1990-03-08; Paperback; Book
French Toast: An American in Paris Celebrates the Maddening Mysteries of the French ImageFrench Toast: An American in Paris Celebrates the Maddening Mysteries of the French
by Harriet Welty Rochefort
Thomas Dunne Books; Published: 1998-11-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.90
Price in other shops: $19.95
Similar Books and other products
Frommer's Paris 2012 (Frommer's Color Complete) ImageFrommer's Paris 2012 (Frommer's Color Complete)
by Joseph Alexiou, Lily Heise, Sophie Nellis, Kate van den Boogert, Meg Zimbeck
Frommers; Published: 2011-09-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.50
Price in other shops: $19.99
Streetwise Paris Map - Laminated City Center Street Map of Paris, France ImageStreetwise Paris Map - Laminated City Center Street Map of Paris, France
by Streetwise Maps
StreetWise; Streetwise Maps; Published: 2011-04-01; Map; Book
Best price: $3.94
Price in other shops: $7.95
Walks Through Lost Paris: A Journey Into the Heart of Historic Paris ImageWalks Through Lost Paris: A Journey Into the Heart of Historic Paris
by Leonard Pitt
Shoemaker & Hoard; Published: 2006-05-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.03
Price in other shops: $24.95
Quiet Corners of Paris ImageQuiet Corners of Paris
by Jean-Christophe Napias
Little Bookroom; Published: 2007-10-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.51
Price in other shops: $14.95
Paris Was Ours ImageParis Was Ours
by Penelope Rowlands
Algonquin Books; Published: 2011-02-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.05
Price in other shops: $15.95
The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris ImageThe Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris
by John Baxter
Harper Perennial; Published: 2011-05-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.51
Price in other shops: $14.99
Stuff Parisians Like: Discovering the Quoi in the Je Ne Sais Quoi ImageStuff Parisians Like: Discovering the Quoi in the Je Ne Sais Quoi
by Olivier Magny
Berkley Trade; Published: 2011-07-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.86
Price in other shops: $15.00
Little Black Book of Paris, 2012 Edition (Little Black Books (Peter Pauper Hardcover)) ImageLittle Black Book of Paris, 2012 Edition (Little Black Books (Peter Pauper Hardcover))
by Vesna Neskow
Peter Pauper Press; Published: 2011-10-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.14
Price in other shops: $14.95
Parisians' Paris ImageParisians' Paris
by Bill Gillham
Pallas Athene; Published: 2008-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.40
Price in other shops: $23.95
The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City ImageThe Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City
by David Lebovitz
Broadway; Published: 2011-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.19
Price in other shops: $14.00