Thrust into the unlikely role of professional "literary walking tour" guide, an expat in Paris provides the most irresistibly witty and revealing tour of the city in years.
In this enchanting Paris memoir, acclaimed author and long-time 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. This love letter to French culture 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.
This is the Paris you can’t find in a guidebook, a city best explored on foot, where every cobblestone has a story:
- A Pedestrian in Paris: Learn why the only way to truly experience the city’s magic is on foot, leaving the tourists and their maps far behind.
- The Lost Generation’s Haunts: Retrace the steps of literary legends, from the favorite cafés of Hemingway and Fitzgerald to the gardens beloved by Gertrude Stein.
- An Expat’s Journey: Share in the witty, enchanting, and often hilarious experience of a writer who accidentally becomes a professional tour guide in his adopted city.
- Hidden History: Explore the corners of the city most visitors miss, including Picasso’s Montmartre hideouts and the alleys where revolutionaries plotted their next move.