Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris

Graham Robb is one of our finest practitioners of popular geography, literally translated as “to describe or write about the Earth,” and his lush, densely detailed narratives of Paris are a delight to traverse. Parisians romps from 1750 to 2009, from the Metro tunnels to the Eiffel Tower, through eighteen fantastic, real-life stories set in France’s capital. These are stories you itch to repeat aloud—at a dinner party, on the phone to your mother, while staring into a mirror at your hairdresser. There are the notorious: Napoleon’s first sexual encounter, Hitler’s visit to the City of Lights, a glimpse of the love affair between Juliette Greco and Miles Davis. And there are the obscure: Guillaumot, the architect who constructed the catacombs to save Paris from giant sinkholes; the Black Prince, a motorcyclist rumored to have made the fastest ride ever around the city periphery; the bloody truth behind The Count of Monte Cristo.