Cool Paris

The writer Graham Robb, the acclaimed biographer of Balzac, Rimbaud and Victor Hugo published in 2007 “The discovery of France”.

His new book “Parisians, an adventure history of Paris” tells the story of Paris through the lives of its most colourful citizens. These include spies, scientists and businessmen as well as photograpers, philosophers and prostitutes that are part of Parisian mythology.

The book begins at the dawn of the French Revolution, and ends a few months ago. There are also some excursions to the medieval and prehistoric past.

It traces the spread of the city from the island in the Seine that was the home of the Paris tribe to the mushrooming suburbs that inspire more fear today than when they were patrolled by highwaymen and wolves.

Reading this is an adventure, one which will turn even the briefest trip to Paris into a tumble through time.