Paris

If you are an avid Francophile like myself, there can be no question; BUY THIS BOOK! In all of my years of searching for information on the history of Paris, this is positively the most informative and meticulous work I've seen yet. Every conceivable aspect of Parisian life, past and present, is fully covered, from Neolithic settlers to Jacques Chirac. The layout of the book is straightforward and functional, and includes a complete year-by-year timeline describing all of the important events in Parisian history. The dictionary section provides a detailed summary of pertinent people, objects, events, and cultural issues. This book is written in French and, as yet, has not been translated into English, so a good knowledge of the French language is necessary to read it. I wholeheartedly recommend this book, and gratefully thank the author, Alfred Fierro, for his admirable dedication to this outstanding work. Formidable, monsieur, formidable!

I hope Maurice Druon lives -- and writes -- forever.

Reality meets history at the hand of a master writer in each of Druon's books. This one is the story of the growth of Paris from its beginning before Roman times as an island village to Louis VIII and the archives of St. Louis. We can only hope he will write another volume to bring the story up to the modern megalopolis we know as the City of Light.

The story told here is amazing but it is the writing that brings it to life and attaches the reader firmly to the page. The fortunes of the city waxed and waned over the centuries.

After the death of Charlemagne, for example, "Apart from the sounds of commerce, and the ringing of coin from the mint which the emperor had authorised, there was silence on the banks of the Seine, a sort of historical torpor. The awakening was to be bloody."

After that awakening a respite, then the Norsemen came, "...at Easter, 843, 120 Danish ships attacked Paris. The people fled into the country; the city was sacked, and when the ships left they were down to the gunwales under the weight of booty. Among much else, the Norsemen carried away the splendid bronze roof of Saint-Germain-le-Dore....Paris received another visitation at Christmas 856, and several churches lost their roofs."

The story of Paris is the story of kings and saints, men and women who lived adventure, faced destiny and either gave in to or changed history. "Great men do not make history," Druon writes, "but it needs them, and history cannot be made without them."

Too many histories are drab dates and dull records of events. Druon shows us the exploits and achievements of history and the men and women who acted and reacted to affect the way it all turned out.

"Paris was to grow longer, but concentrically, like a tree. As we count the years in the section of a tree, so we can measure ring by ring on successive maps of Paris, the work of the centuries, history's cold winters and the rich summers of prosperity."

I give this book my highest recommendation. I can't imagine anyone, young or old, educated or uneducated, not enjoying it to the fullest. No matter who you are, how well you know or do not know Paris, you are in for a real treat.

Also, if you can find copies of his ACCURSED KINGS books -- about the kings of France, do so! They are the best written and their stories make the Plantagenets and the British monarchy look like a bunch of easy living wimps.

Anything by Maurice Druon is a winner.

This is a truly fantastic book. It is written in George Sand's fourth period of creativity and emphasizes on what it means to be a man. G. Sand stresses on the qualities of human nature, but she does not criticize them on the surface. She shows what would happen if people accept them.

It is worth reading for anyone who feels they do not know what they want to do with their lives!

I buy way too many travel books and I am quite often disappointed. This book far exceeded my expectations. I have not yet used it "on the ground", but plan to on my next visit to Paris. The destination descriptions are clear and interesting, the walking/training directions are simple and clear. And the author gives just enough suggestions for cafes/restaurants to make it interesting. If you've only got 5-7 days in Paris, don't leave Paris! If you've got more time than that, buy this book and plan a day trip so you can say you visited not only Paris, but France as well.

I have rated this book as a five star special only because I guess it was written for a very specific reader.

First, the book is divided into three main sections, by month, from October to December, and based on the title, it's Paris 1941, during the German occupation.

The main characters, Simone and Nicole, two young Parisienne women who are being kept by men for their own distinct resons and wants. Nicole is single and is having an affair with Bernard Duchene, the husband of Simone, while Simone is having affairs with a never ending litany of German soldiers....neither of the women know each other. The oddest thing is that these two women are doing the 'horizontal two step' only because they really really like it, not because of any greater good for the resistance or money or fear or basically anything except that they really really like it!

Why is this book odd, well, first I'd be highly surprised to learn that the author is anything but a true blue German. The book is written with meticulous, and I mean meticulous care in describing exactly what we see, where we are, what the characters are wearing, and abnormal descriptive detail to the exact loaction of hands and body parts. For every scene and even the auther takes a page or two to describe exactly what we see...

Simone has a thing, and I mean a big thing, for German uniforms and leather boots, and I thnk that if you were wearing one of these uniforms she'd be open to do anything, particularily if you keep the uniform on. Simone also has numerous mastubatory experiences on a soldiers boot, dreaming of Hitler ... and so on

That brings us to the second main thing in that the book contains a full and detailed description of at least 10 pages of all the German military uniforms.... ranks and insignias. To make matters even better, Simones' husband, Bernard, has a factory that, can ya believe it, wants to manufacture German uniforms, and, since Bernard is sleeping with Nicole, heck he doesn't even know his wife has a thing for the uniforms .... WOW

What concerns me the most is that I actually finished this book, HMMMMM, but, all that notwitshtanding this book are not what I would generally read but it is so specifically wierd (in my mind that is) that it deserves five stars for those of you that may be into it ....

This game is fun and entertaining. It took us about 2.5 hours to play. It requires imagination, cleverness and semi-lies. We all had a lot of fun. We had never played it before but caught on to the game within a few minutes. You role-play your part, impart clues and try to figure out the murderer while pretending to be dining in a train car during World War II. It was so much fun we're going to buy one of the other How to Host a Murder games. It's most fun to see how the others in the group dress up.

i enjoyed this immensely. it was an engaging narrative of the 3rd and 4th books.

Here's a review in Haiku:

Travel far away
With no money and no time
In your home you'll stay.

Okay, so it's terrible Haiku! But don't let that stop you from enjoying this terrific guide to famous cities. If security fears or plain old lack of time and money have kept you from visiting your dream destinations lately, this book offers a great solution.

The author does a thourough job of helping you enjoy travel right in the comfort of your own home.

She accomplishes this by:

--giving a detailed description of the destination
--highlighting its architecture, customs, traditions
--listing local foods and recipes on how to prepare them
--showing inexpensive ways to quickly decorate a room to "feel"
like your destination of choice.

Get the book, and you can take your first "trip" this weekend.

I'm a parenting facilitator and I think this book is an absolute must for all parents. In fact they should be made to read it before they even decide to have kids.

The writers obviously have a deep understanding of themselves and their relationships.

It really explains how we interfere with the process of our children's natural intelligence with our unresolved childhood pain.

It's not particularly theoretical and deals with self-evident facts and feelings in any given situation.

This one tells us much about Gurdjieff, and by the way, much about the kind of student he attracted, people like Bennett--who might be one of the most gullible men who ever lived (he was later duped out of his estate by some other even more phony guru, as documented in Madam Blavatsky's Baboon). For all his brilliance, even in old age G. was very crafty, manipulative and superstitious, as revealed here (he thought the caves at Lascaux were painted by Atlanteans!). Also, the quality of the Bennetts' writing really sets this apart from some other books in the genre; it is compulsively readable.