Paris - the city of love, the city of romance and the city of some very fine books set amongst its cobbled streets with the aroma of freshly baked bread awakening your senses.
Book worms will know about the highlight of any visit to Paris - Shakespeare and Company across the Seine from Notre Dame - both literary sites in their own right. Best not to visit the bookshop first though as you’ll never leave and see the rest of the city!
Sit back and relax as we take you on a visit to Paris, literary style!
The Little Paris Bookshop
“With all due respect , what you read in the long term is more important that the man you marry”When a book contains these words then you just know it’s going to speak to you. Monsieur Perdu works in a book barge - a literary apothecary and possesses a rare gift for sensing which books will soothe the troubled souls of his customers.
From this bookish Paris we are then taken on a journey to Provence. Along for the ride is a novelist, Max Jordan – who is escaping from the publicity surrounding his best selling novel . The pair of them travel along the canals and waterways of France and giving out literary advice, literary cures all in search of Jean Perdu’s lost love. There’s even a visit to Cuisery, the town of books itself...
Back to Paris now however and the search for the truth in Tasmina Perry’s latest novel, The Last Kiss Goodbye.
The Last Kiss Goodbye
A photo of a last kiss is all that remains from a love affair. Years later when an archivist finds this photo, she is curious to find out about who has been captured in this one moment in time. Her journey takes her far and wide. This is a real story of love and the challenges and obstacles that sometimes get in the way.The sixties were just as swinging in Paris as they were elsewhere. Rosamund and Dominic spend time here with each other enjoying each other as well as the city’s literary heritage with visits to Les Deux Magots where Sartre and his contemporaries would sit and talk. The world here is an exciting one on the edge of something big. Times are a changing and the memories created here are some that Rosamund will savour for years to come.
Now, a visit to Paris would not be complete without a peek into its fashion world and one of the best books to evoke the sense of the fabrics, and the passion woven into the dresses is Natalie Meg Evans’ The Dress Thief:
The Dress Thief
1930s: This is a stunning, sumptuous and silky journey back in to the heyday of the Paris fashion scene and an insight into the copyists - those people who effectively stole the designs of the big fashion houses by drawing them and sketching them up so they could make cheaper copies quicker and more effectively.The 1930s were a time of change in the city of lights and this book not only takes you into the heart of it all, but shows you it through the eyes of an ambitious but naive young girl who is drawn into the copyists world. Outside of Paris, war is brewing but the danger in the city is also high. Many people working in the shadows of society, working undercover in plain sight. This novel is really sumptuous and rich in detail - you’ll never forget this insight into the city.
Paris is a city we all know and love and one well represented in fiction. These three books I hope will allow you to see a new and different side to the city and realise its many hidden charms, its rich history and its iconic link with books.
Paris for me is one of my favourite literary cities for the many books set there - ranging from crime ones set in the underbelly - the city has catacombs with skulls! to the rainy cobbled streets streaked with blood in other novels. The three books above however show you the nicer side to the city - armed with a cheese and ham baguette, a plate of snails and a glass of something bubbly, can you imagine reading these on location? Can you? What was that bump? Have you fainted?
With many thanks to Rachel for inviting me on her very special and great weekend jaunt to the city I love!
About the booktrail
We at the booktrail aim to share our love of books and travel by mapping out all the locations within books so you can take them with you and see the city in a new literary style! It’s amazing what you see when the author is your tourist guide and the characters too!
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Thank you so much The Booktrail for a fabulous literary look at Paris. And I know that these books, plus the ones I am featuring this weekend, barely break the surface of the depth of books set in this wonderful city.
3 lovely Paris reads, gotta put 2 & 3 on the wish list ;)
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