image – vicki archer
‘Worth walking for’ is the dedication that John Baxter writes to open his narrative and guide to walking in Paris. That was enough to have me turning pages all weekend… The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris is Baxter’s memoir to the City of Light, it’s his personal walking tour, his anecdotes and his discoveries along the way… It’s Midnight in Paris but better…
‘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.Paris, by custom and design, is a pedestrian’s city—each block a revelation, every neighborhood a new feast for the senses, a place rich with history and romance at every turn. The Most Beautiful Walk in the World is your guide, par excellence, to the true, off-the-beaten-path heart of the City of Lights.’
Jeanne, my lovely friend from Collage of Life, generously gave me this book last week when we met for lunch… She knew that I would adore John Baxter’s work… the subject matter, a fellow Australian author and an expat… What’s not to love?… Every opportunity this weekend I have been immersed…
This one is a must to read and one for the bookshelves… Thank you Jeanne… xv
