Into a Paris Quartier: Reine Margot's Chapel and Other Haunts of St. Germain

by Diane Johnson

Book Overview

As a child, Diane Johnson was entranced by The Three Musketeers, dashing 17th-century residents of the famous romantic quartier called St.-Germain-des-Pr s. Now, the paperback edition of her... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0792272668
• ISBN13: 9780792272663
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: National Geographic Society
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

This book is marvelous--a must for visiters to St. Germain des Pres

This book is absolutely marvelous! Especially for those who travel to Paris and like to stay in the St. Germain des Pres district, as I do. Ms. Johnson gives many informative bits of info on this area in Paris. It's an absolute delight to read!

Don't be fooled by the cover!

This book is a very personal walk through the history of the area where the author has lived in Paris. It has loads of historical and architectural information - wonderful reading.

This is not a guidebook...

...in the standard sense, so I can see why the other reviewers were disappointed, if that was their expectation. Tourists should buy Fodors or other some such reference book if they were hoping for logistical data. I stayed at a flat on rue Bonaparte a few years ago, and loved the neighborhood's beauty and sense of history. After reading this book, I understand why I was so enthralled. Diane Johnson has done all the library and museum detective work so that we can understand her historic neighborhood. I only wish I had had the book with me so I could read it in the cafe, then go see each address and building she refers to. Tales told with a witty humor and historic appreciation, this is a great book for any francophile, as well as for Paris adorers.

Seeking Direction

After reading the previous reviews upon completing the book, it occurs to me first off that National Geographic should probably be much more informative about the parameters and aims of its Directions series, and it should do so right on the jacket or book cover. Doing so would serve both the reader and the Directions authors well. Those who have given the book the harshest reviews probably would have self-selected themselves out of its reading pool if they had understood that the book consists of a long personal essay about the topic described in the title. It is neither guidebook, nor history book, nor a book of character sketches, nor a story narrative, nor any other such thing; nor, apparently, was it ever intended to be any of these things. However, the readers who have expressed their displeasure with the book obviously expected the book to be one or more of those things, as their reviews make clear in their enumeration of the book's perceived flaws. It would seem their expectations rendered those readers incapable of stepping back to understand what the publisher and author clearly intended the book to be. Simply put, complaining that a personal essay is "so much from the author's own point of view" is pretty silly; of course it is - that's exactly what a personal essay is supposed to be! Personal essays are at least as much about the person writing the essay as they are about the stated topic of the essay. The reader can and should expect to read about the author and what the author thinks. Beyond that, personal essays can be linear (if the person writing the essay is a linear thinker); they can just as easily be rambling, diffuse, tangential, etc. They can be interesting or not. And they can be anything at all in between. One previous reviewer says it nicely: The book is indeed, first and foremost, a conversation (albeit a one-sided one) with the author before it is anything else. Some personal essayists, like people generally, are better conversationalists than others. So, while there is no point in reading the book unless one has an interest in the area of Paris known as Saint-Germain-des-Prés, that's the easy part. The real issues are, first, whether the prospective reader cares to read personal essays at all, and second, whether he or she will like Johnson's particular style and substance as a personal essayist. As to the first issue, if you don't like the personal essay, don't bother to read the book, no matter how much you are interested in Saint-Germain. Just don't do it. You'll be a much happier person that way. As to the remaining issue, for those who do like the personal essay. As a "conversationalist" in writing, I found Johnson to have some annoying traits, some of which correspond to some of the criticisms voiced in the previous reviews. First, every time she wonders about some historically verifiable fact or event (and she does so often enough), I found myself saying, "Well, why didn't you just

A colorful, leisurely stroll around a Parisian neighborhood

In her novel LE DIVORCE, which was made into a feature film, Diane Johnson tells the story of two sisters from California who find love and adventure in the City of Light. This transatlantic tale mirrors in some ways the real-life experiences of Johnson, who for years has lived in both San Francisco and Paris. Aside from inspiration for her fiction, Johnson's affinity for the French way of life is the basis of INTO A PARIS QUARTIER. The quartier of the title is St.-Germain-des-Prés, the sixth arrondissement of Paris, the district that has hosted some of history's most famous figures --- royalty, philosophers, artists, writers, musicians, and other illustrious folk. St.-Germain is also the location of Johnson's Parisian home, an apartment at 8 Rue Bonaparte, a stone's throw from where the painter Edouard Manet was born and the writer Oscar Wilde died. How did Johnson come to be living part-time in Paris? "For the thousandth time, I reflect on why I myself am here, an unexpected fate," she tells us. She accompanied her husband on a business trip to Paris; they fell in love with the city and found themselves "settling in." Fate may have had something to do with her residing in Paris, but Johnson also credits Alexandre Dumas with playing a role. Her connection to St.-Germain "started in childhood, thousands of miles away" when, at the age of nine, she discovered Dumas' books at a local library in Moline, Illinois. "That is where Paris and I start," she says, "with my childhood reading of THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, LA REINE MARGOT, and, above all, THE THREE MUSKETEERS. Was it this early passion for Dumas that preordained that I would someday live five minutes walk from where the real d'Artagnan lived, almost on the spot where the Musketeers fought their duels, and, above all, where the romantic queens of legend, Marguerite de Valois, then Navarre, and Anne of Austria actually trod, four centuries ago?" Johnson's nonfiction narrative is not to be confused with a guidebook. "To recount the rich history of this quarter, describe the abundant details of its architecture, try to convey its beauty, suggest its meaning to others, mention the fascinating characters who have lived here --- all this defies brevity; some principle of selection was called for," she writes. Instead, INTO A PARIS QUARTIER is "a subjective account of the things" that Johnson encounters in her daily life in St.-Germain. One of those things is the Chapel of Praises. Built by Marguerite de Valois (la Reine Margot), the first wife of King Henri IV and the subject of one of Dumas' books, the chapel is visible from Johnson's kitchen window. Even a walk to buy groceries conjures up ghosts from the past, allowing Johnson to illustrate how this quartier's rich history continues to intersect with modern-day St.-Germain --- a place where a Louis Vitton boutique is as much a fixture as a restaurant that has served patrons since the 17th century. Whether recounting the history of a queen,