The Paris Mapguide
by Michael Middleditch

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Book Reviews of The Paris Mapguide

Book Review: Very Useful But Could Be Better
Summary: 4 Stars

To me, the most important thing a map guide could do is get me from Point A to Point B without too much time-wasting confusion in between. Where all the map guides fail is by not including good bus maps. The Metro is great, but you see only the dark underside of Paris; whereas a trip along Bus #69 will take you from the Eiffel Tower past the Louvre and Hotel de Ville through the Marais and Menilmontant to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. A comparable trip along the same route underground would involve one more more of the dread "correspondances," which are underground commuter rat races up and down stairs, ramps, and escalators to distant transfer points.

This guide actually tries to suggest the different bus routes by including widely dispersed little red numbers which are impossible to follow closely. If you really have to use the bus, you'd have to print the "plans de quartier" and bus routes from the RATP's website .

We had a whole sheaf of these route and quartier maps with us, so we enjoyed Paris to the utmost, taking the Metro only on Sunday and evenings, when the bus service winds down.

One additional gripe: It would not have been terribly difficult to include taxi stations, as the Michelin maps do.

Despite my criticisms above, the mapguide is excellent, but not that much better than the other two I mentioned. And I realize it would be much more difficult to do justice to bus routes (as they are so changeable), but the opportunity is there to make it a great guide.

Summary of The Paris Mapguide

Paris Books

• Subjects > Travel > Europe > France > Paris
• Reference & Tips > Reference