Paris: The Collected Traveler : An Inspired Anthology and Travel Resource

by Barrie Kerper

Release Date: 26 September, 2000

Edition: Paperback

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The Best Guide

I always have a difficult time finding a travel guide that I like. Some are little more than lists of monuments and other must-see attractions; some are better catagorized as historical surveys of a place. Very few give me a sense of what a place is actually like - and that is the strength of the Collector Traveler, Paris.

This guide takes the unusual route of researching previously published articles and stories, colating them into themes, citing references and listing bibliographies. The editor of the guide, Barrie Kerper, is a keen researcher and for the small price of the guide, you can benefit from her efforts. For instance, besides the usual notations of the famous Michilin starred restaraunts of Paris, there are articles here about the best places to buy bread in the neighborhoods, or the best ice cream. The point is, traveling does not have to be about draining your bank account, but about living like the locals, even if only vicariously.

I am a notorious and obsessive planner; before going on a long-anticipated trip, I start doing my research. I plan site-seeing routes, shopping trips, where to dine, and where to people watch; but what I cannot plan is what the destination will be like, what my response will be to all the scenes around me. The Collected Traveler gives me more insight into the reality of Paris than any I have ever read. And true to form, I am starting to obsess over all the new things I have learned. One thing I know for certain is that this book will travel with me when I go to Paris.

Great little book on Paris

This is a great little book on the City of Paris but it is not the kind you read through once and then leave on the shelf. You will probably want to read parts of it at first and then keep returning as your interests and perspectives change. It won't be very useful as a guide book and will be enjoyed most by those who have already been to the City of Lights and loved it (who wouldn't love Paris?). What Kerper has done is compile a number of articles from just about everywhere and publish them in a single book. I didn't count them but there's a great big bunch of them. All of them are well written and some are by well-known writers ... James Baldwin and Saul Bellow, to name just a couple. All are done with the idea of bringing you closer to the spirit of Paris or to reveal a specific dimension of the city's inner life that may not have been so obvious to the reader. The arrangement is by theme, and before you get to the articles there are 74 pages of practical information that is, frankly, a lot better than what you find in some guide books, and it is all arranged alphabetically from accommodations to yellow pages. If you like having books with heart and soul (and maybe some wine and cheese) in your personal library, don't miss this one.