Curiosities Of Paris: An Idiosyncratic Guide To Overlooked Delights...

This absorbing compendium is an essential addition to the library of the armchairtraveler and fl neur alike. Lavishly illustrated with 800 color photographs, thisfact-packed treasury leads readers through the streets of Paris and, by pointingout unique locations and architectural oddities, as well as utilitarian objects whosefunctions have long been obscured with the passage of time, reveals a previouslyunnoticed city. Organized by subject-fountains and wells; centuries-old shop signs; vestiges ofwars and ancient Egypt; hotels of legend; civic measurement devices; traces ofrites and superstitions; remarkable trees; sundials and meridians; equestrian Paris;romantic ruins; unusual tombs, stairways, and passageways; religious relics; mosaics;public barometers and thermometers; and hundreds more urban elements andanachronisms-this delightful guide deepens the reader's knowledge and appreciationof Paris through the centuries. In the introduction to her unusual encyclopedia of the Parisian streetscape, DominiqueLesbros writes, "a city is nothing if not a vast cabinet of curiosities." Entrez!The book also includes three themed walks (along the city's ancient walls, in thesteps of Quasimodo, and through the French Revolution), as well as an index ofstreet names.