The Paris Blog: Paris, France Expat Tips & Resources » Books on Paris

Paris vs. NYC

Laurie — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:21:55 +0000

How fabulous is this? Two images (click to enlarge) from a book full of such visual wit. Click here for more examples of work from the book Paris vs. New York: A Tally of Two Cities.

An Expat Writer in Paris

Paris Imperfect — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:18:18 +0000

Originally from Montreal, Lisa Pasold is a writer and journalist who now divides her time between Paris and Toronto.

She’s published two books of poetry (with a third forthcoming), a novel (with a second in the works), and written for numerous newspapers, magazines, and guidebooks including Time Out, Fodor’s, The Globe and Mail, and more.

In advance of her October 4 talk on travel writing at the American Library in Paris, I caught up with Lisa to get the inside scoop on writing, revising, and her many adventures abroad.

How does the city of Paris itself influence you as a writer?
Paris is a good city for writers. People care about literature here and support wonderful independent bookshops. And the media actually discusses serious books as well as the bestseller airplane ones! I love the uproar Sarkozy caused by criticizing Mme de Lafayette’s 1678 novel La Princesse de Clèves—considered one of the first psychological novels, a great very readable classic. I can’t imagine another country where people would immediately organize public readings of the novel to protest their president’s ignorance! I didn’t move to Paris to become Ernest Hemingway—I think I’d rather be Colette, she seems to have had more fun—but the legacy of expat writers has inspired me and given me a sense of possibility.

Can you talk about how you approach deep revisions? Is it in this phase that you learn in fact what it is that you have created – and how to strengthen that vision?
Revising lets me get further into the world I’m trying to create in the work. Journalism has been a great discipline, because it taught me to get on with the job, to not be precious about the work, to believe in the process of revision. I’m someone who rarely gets it right the first time, and I’m constantly fascinated by how much a piece of writing can change.

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Paris is Her Cream Puff

Ann Mah — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 03:31:22 +0000

The new book PastryParis, by Susan Hochbaum, is perfect for those who love Paris and pâtisserie (that is, tout le monde). As the book’s subtitle says, “in Paris everything looks like dessert.” Author and graphic designer Susan Hochbaum has cleverly juxtaposed the city’s sweetest treats with its iconic architecture, landmarks, and urban and artistic details. From gas caps to the dome of Sacre Coeur, nothing has escaped her sugared lens. But the book isn’t merely empty calories! In the back is a pastry guide, providing les bonnes adresses (+ telephone numbers and métros) for all the models pictured.

Susan will speaking in Paris at WH Smith on October 20, and signing copies of her delightful book. For more details, or to learn about other signings in the New York City area, visit her website.

Benefit Book Sale

Secrets of Paris — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:51:32 +0000

Paperbacks are only 1€ and hard covers are 2€. They have books in every category, with tons of general fiction, young adult, and parenting. Be sure to tell your friends about this great way to get inexpensive books, meet other people in the English-speaking community, and support SOS Helpl, an English-language confidential help line.

To donate books in good condition, drop them off Saturday, October 22, 12-4pm or Sunday, October 23, 12-4pm at the same venue as the sale: Orrick Law Offices, 31 ave Pierre 1er de Serbie, 75016. Metro: Alma Marceau or Kleber.

Paris Secrets Revealed!

Laurie — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:51:51 +0000

Good news: I’ve got your rentrée all sorted out. Well, not me—the folks behind My Little Paris have. The French equivalent of Daily Candy, the girly site and daily newsletter on little-known restaurants, shops, spas, services, and cultural institutions, has just published a book of its greatest hits—in English. My Little Paris: The Best Kept Parisian Secrets arrives very soon in bookshops, just in time to make your fall fabulous—socially, cerebrally, and style-wise. Among the gems it has unearthed (that have escaped even this humble blog) are a bar where you can have a cocktail created and named after you and a pool you can rent out just to yourself by the hour. It tells you where to get movie-set furniture, clothing made from scraps collected from the haute couture houses, and a pedicure performed by hungry fish. But the best pieces in My Little Paris are not about getting and spending. Did you know that you can have the mayor of the 18th arrondissement “non-marry” you and a companion? Or that a bar regularly features patrons reading classic poetry aloud? Sure, the guide prints raves of hipster institutions such as the concept shop Merci and the dead-stock novelty emporium Tombées du Camion. But most of the book is made up of unknown quirky delights of modern Parisian life, such as a service that photographs your apartment and turns the images into a coffeetable book. This succinct, well written, and beautifully illustrated guide is the best vehicle to becoming an instant insider in the City of Light.

The Enduring Allure of Paris Expats

Beth Arnold — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:39:12 +0000

Exile’s Return: A Literary Odyssey of the 1920s was first published in the U.S. in 1934, then revised and expanded in 1951, and has been republished regularly since then. What is the allure? Why do generations of Americans keep reading it? For one, Mr. Cowley has taken his own personal journey as a member of The Lost Generation, who Americans fell in love with nearly 100 years ago, and explains the forces that drove them to Paris and then sent some of them back home. He writes about his and others’ individual motivations, social influences, and the culture, both in the United States and in France, that culminated in the marvelous poetry and prose that came from this period, as well as mediocre work that hasn’t survived.

One fact remains constant: Our love affair with The Lost Generation continues. We Americans see these writers and artists as courageous and curious, artistic, open-minded, passionate, undisciplined, and rowdy–even a bit bohemian for taking a walk on the wild side by dropping out of the New World to experience and explore the Old World, which seemed much less inhibited and exotic than the Puritanical United States. World War I had literally blown their world apart, and the end of it gave these young people a window of time and opportunity to step though. They were used to a level of adrenalin and excitement that they intended to funnel into new literary explosions.
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Lucien–the Better Bonaparte?

Laurie — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:52:14 +0000

What a soap opera! Napoleon and the Rebel, a bio on the emperor’s younger, more handsome, more cultivated, and arguably smarter brother Lucien, is is juicy love story full of inside scoop on the Bonaparte clan, which fought amongst itself while Napoleon took Europe, one country at a time, in the early 19th century. Though Lucien was a capable orator and a leader in the new republican France–saving his brother’s butt on several occasions–he gave up political life in order to stay with the woman he loved. The real-life tale is similar to that of Edward VIII, the Brit who abdicated to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. In Lucien’s case, it was not marital history or nationality that made Alexandrine de Bleschamp an undesirable among the Bonapartes. It was that Napoleon–who decreed that all marriages in what he dubbed the “consular dynasty” be approved by himself–wanted Lucien to marry a member of European royalty in order to strengthen his empire. (So much for the republic…) It didn’t help that Napoleon once had an unrequited crush on Alexandrine. This page-turner benefits from Lucien’s detailed memoirs, offering a crystalline view of life in the First Republic.

David Downie’s Paris

Lost in Cheeseland — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 21:58:33 +0000

Many books have been written about or taken place in Paris, some of which have been thoughtful and original, well-constructed stories while others have been egregiously clichéd and overtly illusory, recreating the same scenes we’ve read and seen previously. You know the themes – strangers from different worlds meet and fall in love on the Pont des Arts, a country bumpkin becomes cultured, well-intentioned foreigners stumble into the French administrative hole yet find their shining light at the end of the tunnel with the help of charming and dapper Parisians and a culinary novice finds their life calling in the heart (kitchen) of the gastronomical capital. But few are able to depict the simultaneously whimsical and anachronistic image of Paris with words as so many have done with a camera or paintbrush.

David Downie, a San Francisco native whose curiosity for his adopted city has yet to wane after twenty-five years, has deftly woven thirty-one vignettes on the neighborhoods, characters and daily life of Paris with irreverent humor and elegant descriptions. In Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light, Downie offers insight to feed both the Paris of our imaginations and the Paris that has hitherto remained unknown.

What is the most amusing or surprising tidbit people may not know about the French?
Genetically speaking, they’re about as mixed and scrambled as any European population can get. Many of the notions held by certain rightwing exponents of “national identity”, especially notions based on national roots and “blood”, are amusingly ludicrous. The Francs were a Germanic tribe. The Burgundians were Scandinavian. Most of the great kings, queens, statesmen, artists, scholars and thinkers who have made France great were either of foreign or mixed stock. France is a wonderful nation of bastards!

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Literary Lounging

Maitresse — Mon, 30 May 2011 19:00:36 +0000

This Wednesday, come on along to Le Carmen for the 4th installation of the by-now legendary Book Club party, sponsored by the literary magazine A Tale of Three Cities.

What is A Tale of Three Cities? I’m so glad you asked. It’s a new arts journal, launching this summer, and devoted to showcasing the writing, artwork, and genius miscellany of Europe’s “golden triangle,” London, Paris, and Berlin. (“If we were ever to make the triangle a square, I think New York would be the choice,” says editor Rosa Rankin-Gee.) It is open to submissions– find guidelines here.

But more about the party. Having been to Chapter 3 last month, I can tell you that Le Carmen is one of those amazing spaces that you might imagine only exists in Paris if you’ve seen Moulin Rouge! too many times and have a thing for 19th century French prostitutes and absinthe. (We wouldn’t blame you if you did.) Housed in the former home of Georges Bizet, author of the eponymous opera, Le Carmen features a human-sized birdcage, room after lushly lit room of gilded mirrors and intricate mouldings, and most importantly, a top-notch cocktail bar. The jaunty threesome behind the event (Rankin-Gee, Jethro Turner and Hanna Beširević) patrol the party to make sure everyone is having a delightfully literary time.
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Gary Lee Kraut Revisited

Laurel Zuckerman — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:11:58 +0000

Laurel Zuckerman talks with Gary Lee Kraut, writer, blogger, editer–and intrepid biker about Paris.
What kind of a name is Gary Lee Kraut?
Gary was a relatively common name to give boys in the late 1950s and early 1960s, at least in New Jersey. Lee is my middle name, given to me in honor of my great uncle. Kraut is something I inherited from my father, along with a desire to be my own boss.

What is your favorite thing about winter in Paris?
Seeing the monuments and buildings through bare trees, the way people wipe the cold off their hands when they enter cafés, the wonderful down comforter that some friends gave me for my birthday two years ago, and knowing that spring comes next.

How did you get into writing travel guides?
Between the ages of 23 and 26 I traveled a lot in the U.S. and in Europe. It was during that time that I also started writing fiction. I then went to graduate school to study creative writing and received an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Afterwards I worked as a journalist in suburban New York for two years. I then came to Paris for a prolonged visit to my sister who had been sent here by her company on a two-year mission. After she left I decided to stay a little longer and later that year I heard that the New York publisher William Morrow & Co. was looking to create a guidebook to France. I sent a proposal and within a month I had a contract to write a 400-500 page guide to France. I’ve since written five guidebooks, numerous articles, short stories, essays and song lyrics. I write in lots of different forms but I’m primarily a travel writer or travel journalist. Becoming a travel writer was neither planned nor calculated but it’s no surprise that my interest in writing and travel and Paris would lead me there.

Are you ever tempted to go back?
I go back frequently. I’m a big fan of revisiting.

Apparently! You wrote a guidebook called “Paris Revisited: The Guide for the Return Traveler” and you now operate the website France Revisited. Why revisited?
I didn’t have the title “Paris Revisited” until well into writing that book. I wanted to convey the idea that it was a guidebook intended for readers and travelers who were prepared to go beyond the basics. Even though “Paris Revisited” was a fairly classic, if in-depth, guidebook, the more I thought about the idea of “revisiting” the more I was attracted to the various ways in which a place or culture or cuisine or people can be revisited or seen in a different light and how they or our points of view change over time.

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