Books for Paris

I%26#39;ll be in Paris a few days next summer, and I%26#39;m looking for suggestions of books to read about the social history of Paris or a great novel I have missed. I have a thorough art/music background and am fairly solid in the poltical history area, so feel pretty covered there. Something about the history of the food markets, city planning, architecture....

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Some of my all-time favorite books situated in Paris are the three %26quot;Josephine%26quot; books by Sandra Gulland. (%26quot;The Many Lives %26amp; Secret Sorrows of Josephine B%26quot;, %26quot; Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe%26quot; and %26quot; Last Great Dance on Earth%26quot;) The first book begins in the Caribbean where Josephine was born and raised but she was sent to Paris when she was in her early teens and remained there most, if not all, of her life. The books detail the streets of Paris, the leaders of that time, her life and loves, her friendships, her passion for fashion, sense of decor, etc... You will get to read about what it was like to live during the Revolution - Josephine was actually jailed for part of it. Not too long after that, she became the Empress of France and lived in the Louvre Palace with Napoleon. In short, all three books are superb and will totally put you in the mood for Paris.

Because of the books, I visited Malmaison which was Josephine%26#39;s final home in paris with Napoleon. It is an exquisite Chateau in the Paris suburbs - not too far from La Defense - which is available to visitors. Check out its website for directions and hours.

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Try %26quot;Paris in a Basket%26quot; by Nicolle Aimee Meyer %26amp; Amanda Pilar Smith , ISBN 3-8290-4624-3

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How about The Seven Ages of Paris by Alistair Horne. It%26#39;s a very readable, interesting history. Some years ago, I whiled away an afternoon in Luxembourg Garden on a warm, sunny fall afternoon reading this one. I remember I ate a whole box of Laduree macarons that afternoon...

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One more recommendation: %26quot;Paris to the Moon%26quot; by Adam Gopnik. It is quick but interesting reading.

Here is a snippet of the book%26#39;s review on Amazon.com:

%26quot;In 1995 Gopnik was offered the plush assignment of writing the %26quot;Paris Journals%26quot; for the New Yorker. He spent five years in Paris with his wife, Martha, and son, Luke, writing dispatches now collected here along with previously unpublished journal entries. A self-described %26quot;comic-sentimental essayist,%26quot; Gopnik chose the romance of Paris in its particulars as his subject. Gopnik falls in unabashed love with what he calls Paris%26#39;s commonplace civilization--the cafés, the little shops, the ancient carousel in the park, and the small, intricate experiences that happen in such settings. But Paris can also be a difficult city to love, particularly its pompous and abstract official culture with its parallel paper universe. The tension between these two sides of Paris and the country%26#39;s general brooding over the decline of French dominance in the face of globalization (haute couture, cooking, etc... as well as the economy, are running deficits) form the subtexts for these finely wrought and witty essays.%26quot;

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That%26#39;s funny, jemimagold, I found Paris To The Moon annoying. It%26#39;s sitting in my nightstand unread. I realize that many people really did enjoy it, so don%26#39;t go by me.

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Great suggestions, thanks so much. I start looking them up!

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I%26#39;m currently reading a book called %26quot;Sixty Million Frenchmen Can%26#39;t Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Hate the French%26quot;. I certainly do not hate the French, but I am enjoying the book. Give it a try.

Also, there are some good books by Polly Platt and by an author with the last name of Roquefort (like the cheese). The books by those authors really deal with social/cultural issues. All very good.

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