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read historical fiction to find out ‘what it was like back then’ so much as to get a fresh look at who we are now. And if I want to take another look at who I was then? All I have to do is remember what I was reading.” I do not adhere to the belief seemingly so prevalent at many periodicals today that unless a book or online source is utterly au courant it isn’t worthy of a reader’s time. I strongly believe that my books should evoke a sense of history and emphasize context, which has become increasingly important in today’s world. Reading a biography, a cookbook, a memoir, and a work of history, or reading a novel, a guidebook, and a photography or art book provides travelers with context.

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Sprinkled throughout this book I have included the brief observations of a number of visitors to Paris and northern France—ranging from friends and colleagues to notable Francophiles such as Judith Jones, Mark Greenside, Mireille Guiliano, Steven Barclay, Barbara Fairchild, and Molly Wizenberg—describing their favorite sites or experiences from their visits. There are also interviews throughout the book, with Ina Garten, Suzy Gershman, Alexander Lobrano, and Patricia Wells, among others.

An “A to Z Miscellany” appears at the end of the book. This is an alphabetical assemblage of information about words, phrases, foods, people, themes, historical notes, and personal favorites of mine that are unique to Paris and France. Will you learn of some nontouristy things to see and do? Yes. Will you also learn more about the better-known aspects of Paris? Yes. The Eiffel Tower, a little neighborhood park in the twentieth, the Canal Saint-Martin, Notre-Dame, a perfect café crème, the Musée d’Orsay, Chartres Cathedral, Versailles, Giverny, and the experience of being the only tourist in the local bistro are all equally representative of Paris and its surrounding regions. Seeing and doing them all is what makes for a memorable visit, and no one, by the way, should make you feel guilty for wanting to see some famous sites. They have become famous for a reason: they are really something to see, the Eiffel Tower included. Canon number eighty-four in Bruce Northam’s Globetrotter Dogma is “The good old days are now,” in which he wisely reminds us that destinations are not ruined even though they may have been more “real” however many years ago. “ ’Tis a haughty condescension to insist that because a place has changed or lost its innocence that it’s not worth visiting; change requalifies a destination. Your first time is your first time; virgin turf simply is. The moment you commit to a trip, there begins the search for adventure.”

Ultimately, this is the compendium of information that I wish I’d had between two covers years ago. I admit it isn’t the “perfect” book; for that, I envision a waterproof jacket and pockets inside the front and back covers, pages and pages of accompanying maps, lots of blank pages for notes, a bookmark, mileage and size conversion charts … in other words, something so encyclopedic in both weight and size that no one would want to carry it, let alone read it. I envision such a large volume because I believe that to really get to know a place, to truly understand it in a nonsuperficial way, one must either live there or travel there again and again. Just as Henry Miller noted that “to know Paris is to know a great deal,” it seems to me that it can take nothing short of a lifetime of studying and traveling to grasp Paris. I do not pretend to have completely grasped it now, many years later, nor do I pretend to have completely grasped the other destinations that are featured in The Collected Traveler series, but I am trying, by continuously reading, collecting, and traveling. And I presume readers like you are, too. That said, I am exceedingly happy with this edition, and I believe it will prove helpful in the anticipation of your upcoming journey, in the enjoyment of your trip while it’s happening, and in the remembrance of it when you’re back home.

Tous mes vœux pour un bon voyage!

FRANCE

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