The Rough Guide Paris

Rating:
Summary: Great Help to the Tourist
Review: I found this guide to Paris an invaluable companion on my first trip to the city. Its detailed maps of the different quarters and breezy commentary was a great supplement to the simpler, heavily illustrated "Eyewitness" Guide I also used. The Rough Guide goes into greater detail, and has a lot more historical background, without being exhaustive like the famous "Blue Guide" series. It also has a good summary of the history of the city. The writing is winningly opinionated in places (declaring, for example, that the late 19th century realist paintings in the Musee D'Orsay are 'indigestible'), but doesn't seem demand that you agree with it. Maybe Paris just makes people opinionated in matters of taste. I'd recommend it for anybody who wants more than the tourist surface, but who doesn't want to be overwhelmed with too much background.

Rating:
Summary: Very rough guide
Review: Multiple misplaced Metro stations (e.g., Porte Maillot, Miromesnil), buildings (e.g., Ministre de l'Interieur) and hotels (the one I stayed in) made this map useless - I spent about an hour in total walking the wrong way because of such mistakes on a map that claims to have been "thoroughly researched on the ground".
The tough waterproof paper is good; in fact it's essential as the manner in which the map is folded is so awkward you will come close to tearing it every time you use it.
I'd recommend a map book; even the crude maps in the Lonely Planet guide are better than this.

Rating:
Summary: This was the best map we could have had!
Review: We went to many bookstores looking for a map of Paris. MY parner and I were going for the first time ever and had no clue what to expect. We went for 6 days and 5 nights. We thumbed thru about 100 different maps in total and purchased this one based on 3 things: it showed the street we were staying on, it divided the country into arrondisements (different districts) and it showed all the tourist spots!

The map was easy to read and through all our fighting over it and folding and unfolding, the map stayed in tact! It's also waterproof!

It was so worth the money! We got lost once when we travelled far off the map. But it really is the best map out there! We are keeping it for our next visit!

Rating:
Summary: This was the best map we could have had!
Review: We went to many bookstores looking for a map of Paris. MY parner and I were going for the first time ever and had no clue what to expect. We went for 6 days and 5 nights. We thumbed thru about 100 different maps in total and purchased this one based on 3 things: it showed the street we were staying on, it divided the country into arrondisements (different districts) and it showed all the tourist spots!

The map was easy to read and through all our fighting over it and folding and unfolding, the map stayed in tact! It's also waterproof!

It was so worth the money! We got lost once when we travelled far off the map. But it really is the best map out there! We are keeping it for our next visit!