Rating: 
Summary: Beyond the Ordinary Walking Guide
Review: If you want to discover Paris beyond the traditional tour book, cliched image, then this is the book for you. With 30 original walks, the author, a native Parisian, leads you t hrough the well known (and some of the lesser known) districts of the City of Light. Unlike traditional walking tour guides, which only offer the route (and nothing else), this book details the route while pointing out buildings and areas of historical interest.
Every route is clearly marked with a starting point, ending point and distance. A good feature of this guide is that the author points out the changes in the street names--goodness knows how many a walker has gotten lost because the Rue du Temple suddenly became something else.
The only shortcoming of this book (or any walking guide, for that) is how the walker has to constantly carry the book with them. A good suggestion is to write out the itinerary on a separate piece of paper, then check all the references when you get back to the hotel.
If you love walking and exploring, than this is the book for you. Just be sure to pack a good pair of walking shoes.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful way to wander around Paris
Review: My girlfriend and I took about 10 walks from this book. Some of the walks were incredible in the detail you could see in an afternoon or morning walk. The walks on the Left Bank were most interesting, the historical references could have occupied the whole trip. The Passage walk north of the Louvre was kind of a bore. The Marais walk including the shops on the Vielle de Temple would have been an incredible shopping trip if money was no object, we saw one flower shop which had a suspended ceiling full of dryed flowers. Great book if you have the time to spend really getting to know Paris
Rating:
Summary: Informative and interesting, but a sometimes not clear
Review: This book is a must for anyone who enjoys seeing a city on foot, and Paris is a city that is best seen on foot, in all weathers. Each tour includes a map as well as an approximate time and suggestions for places to stop for a bite to eat. They are also cross-indexed by topic, e.g., museums, historical, shopping, and even by length of walk. Some of the tours dovetail so that if you are still energetic at the conclusion of one, you can begin another. Contrariwise, if you only want to see part of a tour, you can begin in the middle or, using the map, skip parts.A couple of caveats: First, it is best to read each tour once through before starting, otherwise you might find yourself back-tracking because you missed a turn and, some people might prefer to move a little more quickly, omitting some of the detail. Second, every now and again, it appears that something is missing, e.g., in the Assemblee Nationale, Concorde, and Opera tour, at the top of page 116, there is reference to a house in which Proust lived while he wrote A la recherche du temps perdu; however, the number (102) does not agree with any of the streets in the area. After backing up and trying several times, we finally gave up on that one. Those, however, are small points. Overall, the book is very interesting and very informative.
Rating:
Summary: Informative and interesting, but a sometimes not clear
Review: This book is a must for anyone who enjoys seeing a city on foot, and Paris is a city that is best seen on foot, in all weathers. Each tour includes a map as well as an approximate time and suggestions for places to stop for a bite to eat. They are also cross-indexed by topic, e.g., museums, historical, shopping, and even by length of walk. Some of the tours dovetail so that if you are still energetic at the conclusion of one, you can begin another. Contrariwise, if you only want to see part of a tour, you can begin in the middle or, using the map, skip parts. A couple of caveats: First, it is best to read each tour once through before starting, otherwise you might find yourself back-tracking because you missed a turn and, some people might prefer to move a little more quickly, omitting some of the detail. Second, every now and again, it appears that something is missing, e.g., in the Assemblee Nationale, Concorde, and Opera tour, at the top of page 116, there is reference to a house in which Proust lived while he wrote A la recherche du temps perdu; however, the number (102) does not agree with any of the streets in the area. After backing up and trying several times, we finally gave up on that one. Those, however, are small points. Overall, the book is very interesting and very informative.
Rating: 
Summary: I love this book!
Review: This book is so well organized and helps the bedazzled tourist focus. I am a true francophile, and the use of "themes" plus maps is so helpful. I'm going to do some walks completely, and some walks partially. I've lived in Paris before, but there are still areas I've overlooked. This book will get me oriented, once and for all.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific resource!
Review: This is an excellent book!! We used it not only to guide us on walking tours, but as a quick historical resource. The pictures are nice as well. Our tours took us lots longer than the book said, but we did aa lot of looking and picture taking!! We would buy a book like this for any city we visited if it were available by this author.
Rating:
Summary: A fabulous way to see Paris -- the real Paris
Review: This is by far the best guide book available for Paris. I lived there as a student, yet with this book I discovered new streets and sights on a daily basis. The historical references were excellent -- I took the walk through the area where I once lived and learned some fascinating stories about buildings I used to walk past every day. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
|
