John Baxter is an Australian writer, journalist, and filmmaker. He is the author of The Golden Moments of Paris, Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas, The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris, and We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light.
Coco Chanel spent her teens during the late 1900s in a convent,
where she learned the useful trade of dressmaking. This experience
provided the foundation for the legendary French couturier's famed
suits and "little black dresses." Chanel's story is just one
chapter in the book Chronicles of Old Paris: Exploring the Historic
City of Light. This fascinating read contains twenty-nine chapters,
each including a brief story, photos, illustrations, and often a
map of the area of the city where the tale took place. While this
is a nonfiction book, it reads like fiction, whereby the reader
journeys through Paris at different times in its history, through
the stories of famous people and places. "Elle Est Partie! The
Theft of the Mona Lisa" tells of the theft of the iconic painting
from the Musee de Louvre in August, 1911. While the painting was
ultimately found and the thief caught, the details of the heist and
the mystery surrounding possible copies of the painting sold for a
fortune make for a fascinating read. Marie Antoinette, wife of King
Louis XVI, and infamous for telling her starving subjects, "Let
them eat cake," was apparently innocent of that remark, according
to Baxter. Was she also innocent of the many other wrongdoings for
which she was accused and eventually executed in 1793? Many such
stories have mysterious endings. In each of these short, punchy
thumbnail sketches, readers learn about people in Paris but also
about its history over the past several centuries. Marcel Proust,
the Marquis de Sade, Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine, in addition
to well-known and not so well-known authors, painters, architects,
and courtesans, are among those presented. Who knew that the
notorious guillotine was named after its designer, Dr.
Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a curiously staunch opponent of capital
punishment? At the end of a chapter on Jean Moulin, leader of the
French resistance against the Nazi occupation, a page is devoted to
memorials to Moulin. It tells where Mo
Continuing the publisher's series (after James Roman's Chronicles
of Old Las Vegas), Baxter (The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A
Pedestrian in Paris) gives travelers quick insights into the
colorful history of Paris. There's something here for everyone,
from artists (Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, surrealism, and the artist
community of Montmartre) to history buffs (the Resistance) to
writers (George Sand and Ernest Hemingway) and musicians (Django
Reinhardt and Josephine Baker) to monarchy enthusiasts (Marie
Antoinette) and architecture fans (Eiffel Tower, Opera Garnier).
Each chapter gives a brief history of the subject matter and a
short list of related sites, plus a small map that includes subway
stops, though the lack of footnotes and references limits this
book's use for a history report or research paper. The end of the
guide includes walking tours by neighborhood for those looking for
a more traditional, geographic approach. VERDICT A fun,
supplemental travel book for those seeking to go beyond the
traditional tourist spots an additional guide is necessary for
basic travel information. Sara A. Miller, Atlanta-Fulton P.L.
Syst.---Library Journal
This lovely, gorgeous and intelligent book examines the Paris of
old and not so old, with its many fascinating figures and tales.
Included in the short but insightful chapters are Marie Antoinette,
whom author John Baxter calls misunderstood; the famous Paris
Commune; the man behind the Eiffel Tower; Henri Toulouse-Lautrec,
Maurice Utrillo and other painters of the bohemian community of
Montmartre; Paris and the Beat Generation; and the new wave films
of Godard and Truffaut. Also here are Marcel Proust, Coco Chanel,
Ernest Hemingway and Josephine Baker. Baxter describes detailed
walking tours of the area surrounding the Paris Opera and the
adjacent grand boulevards of Paris. He also includes the seedy but
always fascinating Pigalle neighborhood and its Moulin Rouge dance
hall, which is, Baxter notes, an expensive cabaret/restaurant and
still features the can-can. There are the charming if touristy
Montmartre; the crowded Latin Quarter and Notre Dame; the
Saint-Germain-des-Pres neighborhood, once the haunt of jazz
musicians, philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and members of the
Lost Generation; the Luxembourg Gardens; artsy Montparnasse; and
the Eiffel Tower. In addition to its fascinating details, the book
is lavishly illustrated.---Chicago Tribune
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