The Most Beautiful Walk in the World

The Most Beautiful Walk in the World

A Pedestrian in Paris

John Baxter

Sample

Buy for US $13.99

Find sponsored access on the HotSpot Map

Description

Thrust into the unlikely role of professional "literary walking tour" guide, an expat writer provides the most irresistibly witty and revealing tour of Paris in years.

In this enchanting memoir, acclaimed author and long-time Paris resident John Baxter remembers his yearlong experience of giving "literary walking tours" through the city. Baxter sets off with unsuspecting tourists in tow on the trail of Paris's legendary artists and writers of the past. Along the way, he tells the history of Paris through a brilliant cast of characters: the favorite cafés of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Joyce; Pablo Picasso's underground Montmartre haunts; the bustling boulevards of the late-nineteenth-century flâneurs; the secluded "Little Luxembourg" gardens beloved by Gertrude Stein; the alleys where revolutionaries plotted; and finally Baxter's own favorite walk near his home in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

Genres

FranceEuropeTravelHikes & WalksSpecial InterestEssays & Travelogues

Pages320

Released2011

LanguageEnglish

PublisherHarperCollins

ISBN9780062092052

SellerHarperCollins

About the author(s)

John Baxter has lived in Paris for more than twenty years. He is the author of four acclaimed memoirs about his life in France: The Perfect Meal: In Search of the Lost Tastes of France; The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris; Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas; and We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light. Baxter, who gives literary walking tours through Paris, is also a film critic and biographer whose subjects have included the directors Fellini, Kubrick, Woody Allen, and most recently, Josef von Sternberg. Born in Australia, he lives with his wife and daughter in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood, in the same building Sylvia Beach called home.

Reviews

“One of the smartest nonfiction titles for summer reading ... Baxter tracks both the city’s history and the many celebrated figures who have savored the art of walking in one of the world’s most beautiful capitals.” — Christian Science Monitor

“A lovely book ... Full of unexpected pleasures ...Parisians claim that walking walking around Paris is an art form in itself, and Baxter proves them right. — Chicago Tribune

“A man with a great appreciation of what makes Paris tick.” — Newsday

“We are the beneficiaries of John Baxter’s considerable, vivid love for the expatriate life in Paris. ... The Most Beautiful Walk in the World is as close as a reader can get to the feel of a languid spring walk along Baron Haussmann’s boulevards.” — Los Angeles Times

“Anyone who loves Paris and loves to walk will feel this book was written just for them. ... Charming.” — USA Today

“A splendid memoir ... Reading The Most Beautiful Walk in the World is the next best thing to a Paris vacation.” — Boston Globe

“Fabulous . . . the perfect companion for anyone inspired to hop over to France after seeing Midnight in Paris” — NPR.org