Paris

This book is a fascinating window into the Paris of the inter-war period. Written in 1942 by a well-known journalist of the time, the book contains the reminiscences of Elliott Paul, an American who chose to call a neighborhood in a little back street of Paris home for some 17 years. In the first part of the book, Paul paints a picture of the neighborhood and the characters who populated it. The second part of the book describes the changes to his neighborhood as Europe began to descend into war, and the book finishes with Paul's despair as he thinks over all that was lost to him and to France once the Second World War finally broke out in earnest.

I found the first part of the book most compelling. Yes, it may be historically interesting to read later about how the political events of the time were interpreted by an American living in Paris and by his French friends, but it is the day-to-day details of life in Paris during the 1920s that remain fascinating today. After reading this book, I began to get an inkling at how un-developed France was compared to the general standard of living we expect and find today throughout Europe. From Paul's descriptions, living conditions in Paris in the 1920s were comparable to those found in many developing countries today. In his hotel, for example, the toilet facilities consisted of what some call today a "Turkish toilet", with one shared squat toilet for the entire floor, with only a partition door for privacy. Milk was adulterated before being distributed door-to-door in unwashed bottles by a buxom teenager. There was no central heating in the homes of ordinary people, and those who couldn't afford a small coal stove in their rooms for heat warmed themselves by rubbing their skin with cat-fur mittens, purchased at the local pharmacy. Women had not yet been granted property rights. They couldn't own or sell property or bank accounts, and they weren't even allowed to travel without written permission from their husbands or fathers. Looking back today, it's incredible to think how much French culture has changed. I wonder what Paul would think of modern French culture if he could experience it again- -what changes would he approve of, and what would he find distasteful? No doubt, as an outsider, Paul probably formed a few inaccurate hypotheses about French culture, but he lived long enough in the country and neighborhood to discover some truths as well. And as an outsider, he found them interesting enough to write about. It is only because they were written down that they survive at all- -they are just too far removed from modern realities to even be conceivable today. This is a great written record of Paul's experiences, and well worth reading.

What both the reviews currently featured fail to mention is that Elliott Paul has a keen eye and a keen wit. He writes with warmth and affection, but also a journalist's detachment. His writing style is in keeping with the street and the characters he brings to life so vividly. And although he is dealing with a world long gone, if you've been to Paris, even now, you'll recognise it in his pages. This book is one of the most perceptive and delightful travel books I've ever read. One example of Paul's gems: in one chapter he explains that 'Belgian pate' means pate that's half rabbit and half horse, that is, one rabbit to one horse. Several chapters later he informs us that there were no Italians in the neighbourhood since Italians and Serbs don't mix, "and when they do, the Italian has as much chance as a rabbit up against a horse in a Belgian pate" - I love that line and how it sums up so succinctly a whole array of rich rivalries.

Before getting into the body of my review, I want to clear up a fairly common misconception. The only thing that the movie, THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS, has in common with Elliot Paul's book is that they share the same name. The movie was based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald entitled, "Babylon Revisited."

I wonder what Elliot Paul would think if he could see today's incarnation of his beloved rue de la Huchette where the action of the book is centered. Before the second World War, when Elliot made it his home, it was a poor street of "mom and pop" businesses, small apartments, a laundry that doubled as a bordello, a third class hotel or two, a few small cafes and, most of all, a place where one sat out on the stoop and visited, or debated, with his neighbors until the wee hours. Not a very high class neighborhood and certainly not a place that had any attraction for tourists.

That portion of the Left Bank that includes the rue de la Huchette is called the Latin Quarter because of its proximity to the Sorbonne University. At one time it really was a place where the students hung out, but no more. Because it has become so touristy, the students have moved their extracurricular activities a few blocks away. I get the feeling that every tourist bus passing through Paris includes in its itinerary a walk down the two or three blocks that comprise the street. Every other door leads into a small restaurant and in front of each is a hustler enticing you to come in for dinner and to have a free "aperitif." If you know where to eat, or are lucky, you can get a good, reasonably priced, meal there. The street is always lively and crowded.,

Paul's rue de la Huchette, as I described it above, was a world, or at least a war, away from what one experiences today. He became such a part of the neighborhood that he was always called on to arbitrate neighborhood disputes. One young girl, Hyacinthe, fell in love with him while she was still a pre-teen, wrote him very adult sounding love letters, and even as an adult still adored him.

He describes a scene when, after a long absence, he returns, and, as soon as the word gets out that he's back, he finds himself the guest of honor at the party to end all parties. Everyone buys him drinks but no one allows him to reciprocate. Sometime during the celebration he passes out. The next morning, not knowing how he got there, he wakes up in one of the two front rooms in the hotel, rooms normally reserved for "couples in a hurry." Because the room was free and the gesture so generous, he doesn't complain about the bed bugs.

This wonderful street and these people that Paul loves and brings to life for us are destroyed by the Nazi occupation of Paris during WW II. The saddest moment of the book comes near the end of the war when Hyacinthe, now grown up and become a famous actress, dies as a result of asphyxiation caused by a charcoal burner that she and her mother were using to keep warm during the cold Paris winter. Her death which, like all the events in the book is a true event, is symbolic of the end of an era in Paul's life and of the life of a more innocent Paris.

I think that I might have liked Paul's rue de la Huchette better than the present one. If you read THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS, I think that you might feel the same.

"Left Bank" was a wonderful find! I love thrillers and Colgrove's book didn't disappoint. It took about eight pages to hook me. The author writes in such a visual style that you can easily picture yourself in France.

This one has everything I want in a thriller: Suspense, Sex, Exotic locales and an involving plot filled with great characters.

Paul Manning is an appealing, action-oriented character who is stuck in an impossible situation. I lost track of time whenever I sat down to read about his dilemma. When reading "Left Bank", I was transported to the streets of Monaco and Paris along with Paul Manning. The ending was great and I want more!

David Colgrove takes us to the darker side of the "City of Lights" in this interntional thriller. The suspense builds upon itself from the first chapter until the last page. From beginning to end, this plot driven, involving, psycholological and political suspense read, is a page turner! If you enjoyed Nelson DeMille's latest, great book, "The Lion's Game,", you are the reader who will love running with Paul Manning through the streets and alleys of Paris.

This wonderful little book makes a good companion for whichever Paris guidebook you plan to carry. It not only lists many interesting Cafes to visit, but also gives interesting background information on the famous writers and other celebrities who once hung out in them. It gives you an excuse to visit parts of Paris you might not otherwise visit. Great book.

I stumbled across this little gem a few days before my wife finally dragged me to Paris in 1991. Lucky for me! Thanks to this work, we have come to love Paris, especially the Left Bank. Away from the tourist throngs, the reader can people watch and sip for literally hours reflecting upon Hemingway at the Brasserie Lipp, Picasso at the Cafe de Flore, Shirer at the Brasserie Balzar and so much more. It is truly amazing to me that these places still function just as they did 75 years ago and more. I considered myself a well educated and well traveled person, but this small volume has opened up a world that I knew about but never fully appreciated before and has made Paris one of my favorite vacation spots. To heck with the Louvre, this is what Paris is all about!

This is the first book to take to France with you (or to give to a friend who is going). The history is brief, but it goes back two centuries.

Ms. Paris writes with the immediacy of a novelist and the analytical qualities of a philosopher. She is clearly enormously intelligent, well-read, introspective, synthetic in the best sense, and probing. I would not call her analysis of the experiences of memory and history optimistic; on many levels, it is starkly cynical. I would call it fascinating and deep, not only from the many interviews she did but from the background research that informs them. Her treatments of Germany, Japan, South Africa, the United States, the Balkans, and the issues of UN tribunals and international criminal jurisprudence are balanced, percipient, and compelling. She is a voice for dogged determination in the process of incrementally improving our species and its approach to conflict, against the culture of silence and looking the other way, against atrocity with impunity. Read her. Find motivation in her stories. Then act as best you can to further a better and different world. Humanity is, and always will be, a work in progress. Ms. Paris contributes mightily to an appreciation of the costs, tradeoffs, and nuances that entails.

Erna Paris has done something very important: gone behind the scenes of the usual historical process, and met with people directly affected by the horrid events in Nazi Germany, Hirohito's Japan, apartheid-era South Africa, Vichy France and the disintegrated Yugoslavia. It's a personal history, but it works perfectly, because she asks the right questions and pursues the truth among the legends and fairy tales we have been told about these homicidal, genocidal regimes.

If you're fed up with the usual 'names and dates' types of history, and the 'just so' stories they convey, dig into this book. You're sure to be surprised at every turn. Seriously, you can't go wrong, if you're looking for an insight into how history is rewritten to fool us.

Having just caught the author on C-SPan2, I was motivated to comment on this very important book. Paris, a Canadian, has made a career out of examining, often with great inisght and sensitivity, the impact of tragic historical events on future generations within afflicted generations and she doles out her compassion equally to the children of victims as well as to the children of oppressors who seem to carry a blood-guilt down through the generations. Her specialty has been covering and analyzing the impact of WWII but this book covers that ground and more in the area of Slavery, Apartheid, The Rape of Nanking and more. Her conclusions are much what you'd expect but that's no reason to avoid this book. The strength in her writing is conveying a very personal involvement with her subjects, permitting us as readers to get to "know their pain" (to use an overemployed but apt phrase) and see all the survivors as human in their frailty and in their need to find some way to live with the past. She shows us that there is an entire range of coping mechanisms in dealing with atrocities from total official denial as in Japan to spasms of grief as in Germany. In between are nations just beginning to acknowledge their painful pasts and trying to find their own way of putting those memories to rest while still keeping the message of past lessons. She stresses the need for a system of Justice to bring out the truth or nontruth of events so that groups of people can know and accept the truth. I feel she makes an accurate case that where this no accounting, there is very little healing. I found most fascinating her description of her meeting with a Hiroshima survivor and what that revealed about a specific culture predicting how a nation might choose to react to discussions of the past. This is a fine effort and one worth handing to any Highschool age student who is far too young to have experienced any fallout from the tragedies discussed. In light of all the World War II Revivalism going on and with HBO's upcoming BAND OF BROTHERS dealing with the European theater, this work would make a nice supplemental reading requirement.

Never have I read a collection of works which so effortlessly transported me to the author's world. Evocative and easy, his poetry is an escape. Reading his words I suddenly find myself in Tuscarora, or sitting outside at a restaurant table daring the storm to come....
I look forward to this poet's next collection!

It's about your cowboys, real or imagined, and the holes a spur can cause in your heart.Jason Tinney has captured the barren earth that is all we are when you take away the frill. Got a guy who needs a Christmas/ Hannukah or Birthday present that will open his eyes? Slip this into his back pocket.

Dr. Sheila Dunnells

Jason Tinney's poems are a whirlwind of complicated moments, defined by the colorful insights that make them so. It's clear from the start that we will get everything we need to know and nothing we don't. This plainspoken poet has a tricky way of being intimately sincere and elusive at the same time, leaving us desperately panting for more. This is the new american-man-poet in its most alluring form.

I started this book and couldn't put it down..The main character is admirable and strong. The theme is thought provoking and includes romance, mystery and intrigue. I highly recommend it.

When I first read the publisher's description of this novel, I was afraid it would be depressing, but it's not. It's a great story about an unforgettable set of characters whose voices kept returning to me after I finished it. And the future world seems so possible . . . as if it's just a heartbeat away. A great read, and a fast one. Highly recomended!

Once again Louise Marley presents us with a timely subject and nudges us to consider the possible outcome of fanaticism. The Maquisarde begins with an act of terror which is so easy to identify with after 9/11! Ebriel Serique is a fully-realized character who leads us through an emotional journey of loss, grief, rage, and finally a search for justice. Underlying all of Ms. Marley's stories, as in this one, is the reminder of how precious a resource are our children. A good, thought-provoking read!

Having moved to Paris from the States myself, I rate "Paris Inside Out" as one of the two most helpful books on my bookshelf. The other would be Polly Platt's "French Or Foe?" Platt's book gave me vital information on understanding French culture and how things work here in general. Applefield's book gave me technical information on how things work specifically - laws, processes, names, addresses, etc. I have read it countless times and still continue to refer to it even now that I'm well settled.

I especially appreciated Applefield's attitude on moving to France. Whereas other books I've read have been pessimistic (or completely dismissive) about the chances of Americans finding work in Paris, Applefield remains positive. He explains the obstacles involved, then brainstorms up a multitude of ways that it could be possible. Other books might take a tone of exasperation when talking about dealing with French bureauocracy or laws, but Applefield greets them with determined enthusiasm. Anything is possible so long as you understand how things work and keep the right attitude. Applefield has the right attitude and it easily rubs off on you.

This book also goes beyond other books in that explains more than just how to rent an apartment and get the telephone plugged in. His "insider tips" teach you how to get plugged into Parisian life, as well. He gives you pointers on finding the Paris arts scene, sports scene, French language schools, cooking classes, and a number of other things that help you build your new life here.

The book has only a couple of minor shortcomings. First, even though this Sixth Edition was completely revised, some of the addresses and phone numbers given in it are already out of date. Applefield makes up for this, however, by keeping the website that accompanies the book (www.paris-anglo.com) more up-to-date. Definitely check the website before wandering off in search of an address.

I also found the sections on getting a visa/carte de sejour to be a good overview, but not enough specific information. The book gives lists of documents that might be requested, but little more information than this. (e.g., What should an "attestation d'hebergement" say? How much money do you need for "proof of financial resources"? What exactly do you need your insurance company to state? What's involved in the medical visit?) Applefield states that these rules and processes change too often to detail them fully in the book. However, I doubt that they change more often than any of the other specific information he gives.

Overall, if you are planning to live in France for more than a couple of weeks, "Paris Inside Out" is essential reference material and even a fun read.

Now in a completely updated and expanded sixth edition, Paris Inside Out by David Applefield (an American writer who has been living and working in Paris for almost twenty years) is a thoroughly "user friendly" and comprehensive resource for finding housing; getting a job; studying in a university, exchange program, or language school; or simply becoming immersed in French culture, society, vocabulary; arts, and cuisine. Paris Inside Out is particularly recommended for its "insider" tips for such newcomer survival skills as how to use the phones, computer and online needs, accessing health care, and even banking information. If you are planning a trip to Paris for business or pleasure, whether for a weekend, or a summer season or a year 'round adventure, then begin your planning by getting a copy of David Applefield's Paris Inside Out!

Let's just say, I don't even like to think what would have happened if I hadn't had this book when I moved to Paris. The format and writing makes it a pleasure to read. People ask me about living in France and I just tell them to read this book. I wish there were one like it for Strasbourg!

Shelley Rice's superb PARISIAN VIEWS is a stimulating collection of essays on aspects of 19th century photography in Paris, especially during that period of time in which Baron Haussmann was in charge of gutting medieval Paris and rebuilding it as the city we know today. Like a flaneur, the essays range almost randomly over a host of subjects, overlapping to a great deal in the end, but not having a particular or central thesis that permeates them all.

The photographs themselves are both beautiful and profoundly disconcerting. I found myself looking at particular photographs for extended periods of time. One in particular that troubled me was an 1838 photograph by Daguerre of the Boulevard du Temple, one of the first ever made. Because of the long exposure time, despite the boulevard's being an extremely busy street, only a single individual is visible, and he only because he was standing at a boot black to have his boots polished. Otherwise, we see an eerily deserted street, devoid of people. One of the earliest photographic images of a human being in history, if not the earliest, and the man himself was utterly unaware of his historic moment. Many of the photographs in the book inspire reflections along these lines.

Rice's book should be of interest to individuals interested in a variety of subjects: history, the development of photography, art, city planning, and cultural criticism, to name but a few. The focus of the book is not narrowly restricted to any one subject, as the wide-ranging bibliography will demonstrate.

A book that makes a perfect companion volume is the one that Rice credits with inspiring the initial work on this book: Marshall Berman's ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS INTO AIR, which traces developments in modernism in the past two centuries. All his chapters are exciting and riveting, but one of the finest is the one on Haussmannization, both in Paris and elsewhere, in places like New York with the work of Robert Moses. In addition to Berman, the ghosts of Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin hover over many of the pages in the book.

I am Ms.Rice's student from Bogazici University in Turkey. I have read a couple of chapters of this book yet, however only that much was enough to take my attention and keep me going on. The things that normally we know nothing and do not really wonder much about is presented in a way that would attract intention from both proffesional and amateur readers. Its language is a little bit difficult but the content is very interesting. It is very obvious that a real amount of effort has been put in creation of this book.

Rice produced a fascinating study of Parisian photography in the age of Haussmannization, when artists predicted and hundreds of thousands literally watched their familiar Old Paris uprooted and its sites of historic memory obliterated one by one. The book makes a nice contrast to T.J. Clark's The Painting of Modern Life in its sensitivity to the worldview of the historical agents themselves. Whereas Clark sees in modernist paintings a failure of Parisians to recognize the ongoing class struggle and the embourgeoisement of the proletariat, Rice pays more attention to the actual discourse of mobility, loss of unity, fragmentation of meaning, and a sense of loss of self in this constantly changing "soulless" city. Its inhabitants are alienated in time as much as in space, and the one most sensitive to this change (Baudelaire) acknowledges the degree to which urban space has come to inject social meaning in his most private and intimate affairs: love. The book equally deserves high praise for its beautiful and moving prose. Plus, it has plenty of fun pictures! Rice, without a doubt, lives and breathes the world of the people she depicts. It is the most enjoyable and powerful book I read in this entire school year, and for a grad student in history at Berkeley, that says a lot!

If you are looking for a picture book of Parisian interiors to inspire your decorating, this will work very well. I am constantly searching for books like this--which are full of illustations of those interior details which seem to be uniquely Parisian. Every page is illustrated with photographs and includes just enough commentary to keep it interesting without getting descriptively heavy. This is definitely a pictoral reference/beautiful parlour table book.

I don't actually own this book; I found it by chance in my college's art library. Instantly, I fell in love with it's straight-forward photography. I have been renewing it for two months, and it has given me boundless inspiration for decorating my new apartment. This book is a jewelbox of decor and interior style. The full-page spreads offer tantilizing shots of the personal apartments of Parisian society-- both of the known and unknown; of large dimensions and of miniscule-- expousing beautiful decor that only a Parisian could pull off. Junk shop havens, classical boudoirs, catch-all collecting dens, and the odd moderne loft-- each interior is a true joy to see. Read, view, and enjoy and be inspired.

As a creative director, I've found this book to be very inspiring. Great photographic studies of Paris' most stylish homes (some owned by the famous, some are not) drip from these pages. Huge full-page and sometimes double-page images, printed on nice thick semi-matte stock, draw you right in. Like her book on Provence, its a great escape into another world. If you are a student of the esthetic, you will love it! PS. The cover is coffee-table ready too.

Marie dreams of being a ballet dancer, but cannot follow her dream without a sponsor. This book was neat because Marie could do some dancing, and had a big surprise at the end (I think the best books have a surprise at the end!)

I loved this book from the very first page on! Marie has a tranquil life in bussling Paris, France. Her day consists of helping her parents in the family Cafe and Pension(pahn-SYOHN) or boarding house. Then meeting with Madam Gabrela for her dance lesson. Or, at least, that's how it used to be... Now, the streets of Paris are begining to fill with rebels, the air is filled with the whispers of Revolution. Change is in the wind not just for France, but for Marie personally. Some very important people begining to weave into Marie's life, giving her an idea that just might help with the Country's poverty problems. I absolutly loved this book! It provided such a vivid picture of France and her people, at such a difficalt time in it's history. This book taught me not only about France's Revolution, but parts of it's lanuage as well. Try it. You'll love it!

Marie is really cool! An invatation to dance s the beginning of her adventures! The best part was the suprise at the end! I think you'll like it!