Walks Through Lost Paris: A Journey Into the Heart of Historic Paris

by Leonard Pitt

Book Overview

Between 1853 and 1870, hundreds of streets and thousands of buildings were demolished in Paris. Much of the city's history was lost as the Medieval and Renaissance quarters crumbled. When Leonard Pitt... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1593761031
• ISBN13: 9781593761035
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Interesting and detailed pictorial history

This is a book you need to spend some time with, looking at the pictures and digesting the text. The author shows pictures of "then and now," but with painstaking analysis. I found it riveting and sad. It shows the old Paris, and the new cleansed Paris; a lot was lost in the transformation. I will take it along with me next week to view in person some of the small streets and intersections he highlights, trying to envision what it must have looked like 100 or more years ago.

Absorbing history of the city and its development

Whether one takes the recommended walks or just reads the words, this is a great little book, full of wonderful then and now photos (I especially like the photo of the people in the boat on Rue Jacob during the flood of 1910--see the hats!) and interesting discussions of how Paris came to be what we see today, how sections of the city were saved by those who loved them, and how other sectors were changed and updated. I have a number of walks-around-Paris books, some written for Parisians themselves, and I think this is the best and most interesting. It entertained my husband when he recently spent a week in the hospital. It is not especially touristic, and not a book for those dropping in for a day or two to see the highlights of Paris. This is a book to wallow around in. I found the English version first, but will look for the French, as I'm suspicious of translations.

A wonderful resource for advanced Parisian visitors

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.

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!

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!