Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [72]
Picasso’s Paris: Walking Tours of the Artist’s Life in the City, Ellen Williams (Little Bookroom, 1999). This sister volume to the Impressionists guide above is equally appealing, and it’s not just for first-time visitors. As Williams notes, “Following in the footsteps of this one extraordinary inhabitant can reveal entirely new aspects of the city even to those familiar with it.” Picasso lived in four neighborhoods in Paris—Montmartre, Montparnasse, Étoile, and Saint-Germain-des-Prés—and happily, as Williams discovered, most of his Paris still exists today. The four museums in Paris that display his work are included in this volume. As with the Impressionists guide, this one also has a red ribbon marker, a thoughtful touch for walkers who want to easily mark a page while looking around or stopping for a vin ordinaire.
Secret Paris: Walking Off the Beaten Track, Jacques Garance and Maud Ratton (Jonglez, 2007). I bought this in Paris and in North America it’s probably available only online, but wherever you see it buy it tout de suite! This slender paperback is filled with things to see in Paris that, almost exclusively, do not appear in any other book. Take, par example, the first arrondissement: until I picked up this book, I had never even heard of the strange image of Napoléon at the Colonnade de Perrault at the Louvre, the Galerie Dorée of the Banque de France, or the Colonne Médicis on the rue de Viarmes … not to mention the Cercle Suédois, the Swedish club where Alfred Nobel created the Nobel Prize in 1895 and where you can, twice a month on Wednesdays, see the desk he sat at and have a drink in rooms that overlook the Jardin des Tuileries … or the commemorative plaque of the Texas embassy at the corner of rue de Castiglione and Place Vendôme (the state of Texas established its own embassy in Paris after it gained its independence from Mexico in 1836 and before it became a U.S. state in 1845). This book is an eye-opener and a gem.
Walks Through Napoléon & Joséphine’s Paris, Diana Reid Haig (Little Bookroom, 2004). I bought this book because of the affection my daughter has for Napoléon—as she’s only eleven, she’s not quite an expert (yet). But when we were in Ajaccio, on the island of Corsica, we visited Napoléon’s childhood home and saw statues aplenty of him—so many that Alyssa began referring to him as “you know who.” I thought the book would be fun and interesting for her, and indeed it has proven to be so. The four walks detailed here—and the itineraries for Malmaison and Fontainebleau—are wonderful for me, too.
If you prefer guided walking tours, here are a few that I highly recommend:
* Context Travel (contexttravel.com) offers very in-depth walking tours for small groups (no more than six) of “intellectually curious travelers.” The walks are led by scholars and specialists in such fields as archaeology, art history, cuisine, urban planning, history, environmental science, and classics. What initally drew me to Context was its stated mission, which sounds very compatible with The Collected Traveler: “We are committed to the character of the city—its built environment, cultural heritage, and living fabric.” Just a few of the company’s Paris tours are Paris by Riverboat, Louvre French Masters, Modernist Architecture, and Marais Mansions; there are family walks specifically geared to kids as well. Context, based in Philadelphia, offers equally terrific tours in eleven other cities, including Athens, Istanbul, Rome, Venice, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.
* Isabelle Hauller, a conférencière officielle and docteur en histoire de l’art, has tours listed on the Paris Balades Web site (parisbalades.com/hauller). Her tours are in French, and she sends monthly e-mail updates of her offerings so you may