“There is never any ending to Paris, and the memory of each person who
has lived in it differs from that of any other. Paris was always worth
it, and you received return for whatever you brought to it…”
Ernest Hemingway, in A Moveable Feast
Ernest Hemingway, in A Moveable Feast
Paris is an easy city to fall in love with. It is also an easy city to fall in love in. (apparently, I like ending sentences with prepositions these days) All those strolls along the Seine, long lunches over a bottle of Bordeaux and accordion cadences make Paris an ideal setting for prose. La belle ville seized Hemingway. It transformed Victor Hugo. It shaped George Sand. It delightfully confounded Mark Twain.
There are as many books about Paris, set in Paris, in praise of Paris as there are baguettes in Paris. Here is a melange of my top favorite Paris books, some fiction, some not. These are the pages I turn when I need to mentally jet away to the city of lights:
Pink Frenchie,
ReplyDeleteI like "Paris, My Sweet", a memoir by Amy Thomas. She's a New Yorker obsessed with "le chocolat" who is transferred to Paris. Previously, she'd written "Le Tour de Chocolat," the most widely downloaded article on the NY Times.
I also like Le Marriage and Le Divorce by Diane Johnson. I like ANY novel by Diane Johnson.
Although not a novel, I LOVE Carrie Bradshaw's bittersweet soujourn in the City of Light, where she loses one love and finally gets Monsieur Big.