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 enlarge | Author: Leonard Pitt
Creator: Alexandre Gady
Publisher: Shoemaker & Hoard
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
Buy New: $12.38
You Save: $9.62 (44%)
New (22) Used (16) from $9.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 13490
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.7
ISBN: 1593761031
Dewey Decimal Number: 711.40944361
EAN: 9781593761035
ASIN: 1593761031
Publication Date: May 24, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-8 of 8 | | « PREV | | |
A wonderful resource for advanced Parisian visitors April 14, 2007
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
At last, in English! I got a copy of this years ago in Paris in French, and was hoping it would finally come out in English so I could recommend it to my friends when they visit. The photos allow you to easily follow along while you complete your individual walks - and it really helps expand your understanding of the city, it's people. and its changing social ways. It also lets you look at Paris in a completely different way -- while it points out what has changed and what is gone, it is also a wonderful volume that lets you see through fresh eyes what is still there - albeit often used very differently. One caveat - this is not a guidebook for beginners -- this is a walking tour guidebook for those who already have an extensive knowledge of Paris and its neighborhoods.
Experiencing Paris history by foot. January 31, 2007
26 out of 26 found this review helpful
Leonard Pitt lived in the heart of Paris from 1963 to 1970 while he studied mime with Etienne Decroux. During that time, he fell in love with the beauty of the city. He discovered that between 1853 and 1870, using an army of 60,000 workers, Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann demolished nearly 20,000 buildings in Paris (replacing them with 45,000 new buildings), leveled Ile de la Cite, and evicted over 100,000 residents, thereby destroying much of the city's rich medieval and Renaissance history. Derived from his own experience leading walking tours through Paris together with his studies of old maps and 19th-century photos, Pitt's guide offers detailed walks (with maps and photos) through Paris's most interesting neighborhoods designed to reveal the city's rich history and redesign: (1) from Saint-Germaine des Pres to Square Viviani; (2) in Ile de la Cite; (3) from Saint-Germain des Pres to the Palais Royal; and (4) in the Marais. Having completed each of these four walks during a recent visit to Paris (where I purchased Pitt's guide upon the recommendation of a local bookstore), I can highly recommend this book. It is not the sort of guide, however, that provides information or recommendations of where to stop and shop, eat, drink, and sightsee along the way.
G. Merritt
Fabulous photo essay of Paris then and now--finally in English! July 14, 2006
46 out of 47 found this review helpful
Leonard Pitt's book "Walks Through Lost Paris" is amazing. In it he chronicles changes made to Paris in the interest of modernization during the Haussmann era (mid 19th century) and later. The changes are documented with abundant before and after photos, allowing you to literally see for yourself how Paris has evolved over the past 150 years.
To Leonard, most of the changes he shows were regrettable, particularly those made in the 20th century. As he says, the one saving grace of Haussmann's many alterations to Paris is that he beat later rebuilders to it(!).
This book should appeal to anyone who has an interest in the unique visual appeal of Paris. The walks are very well narrated and thus should be easy for even newcomers to Paris to follow.
However, I think "Walks Through Lost Paris" will have its greatest appeal to readers already familiar with the neighborhoods Pitt describes. To them (here I include myself), it will be possible to recall the context of the modern-day photos and better appreciate the historical photos of what used to be in the same place. For the repeat visitor, Pitt's book offers a wealth of detail to form the basis of ever-deeper explorations into this stunning, historic city.
As a final note, let me add that I spotted the Parigramme book, in French, "Promenades dans le Paris Disparu" a few years ago and ever since have been looking to see if it had been translated into English. Now it has, and for that I am very grateful.
I hope you'll enjoy this book as much as I have. I've already read it twice in the last two weeks!
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