Product Description

Covers all the must see attractions plus insider tips on getting to know the real Paris. Includes mouth watering coverage of restaurants and food markets to thrill gourmands as well as itineraries and walking tours to help visitors make the most of their time in the City of Love.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14390 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 450 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
If you have to choose one book to take to Paris, the Lonely Planet: Paris guide will cover all your bases. Whether you're camping, planning to splurge on a chic hotel, picnicking, or set on haute cuisine, this book gives you thousands of options. Also included is a useful 12-page overview of Parisian architecture, detailed entertainment information, notes on day trips to nearby châteaux and villages, plus 20 pages of detailed city maps, including the Metro. --Kathryn True

Synopsis
Covers all the must see attractions plus insider tips on getting to know the real Paris. Includes mouth watering coverage of restaurants and food markets to thrill gourmands as well as itineraries and walking tours to help visitors make the most of their time in the City of Love.

Customer Reviews

Going to Paris ? Take this.
Took my fiance to Paris recently and bought this book for the trip.
Have always been impressed when I've taken one of the Lonely Planet guides on my travels, and this book maintained the high standards that I've come to expect from them.
Doesn't matter if you know a bit about where you are visiting or if you are completely clueless - everything you could need to know is in here.
Well written, easy to use, full of useful information, and yet small enough to fit in a coat pocket.
Highly recommend.

Recommendable for Americans, but not for Europeans
It is obvious to the European reader that this book was mainly written for American tourists in Paris. Most of the information, e.g. from the "Dos and Donts" section, is completely useless for Europeans but at least it is quite amusing. Other parts, however, are very well done: especially the "Facts for the Visitor" and the chapter about "Getting There & Away" or "Getting Around" should be of great use for any tourist. As is the chapter about "Excursions", which I can highly recommend. The maps in the appendix are helpful for the first few days; afterwards, one should better get a "Paris par Arrondisments" map which can be bought in any bookshop in Paris for a fairly reasonable price. Unfortunately, all the "Things to See & Do" are sorted by areas, not by the names of the museums or other tourist attractions, which I personally would find much more helpful. All other parts, like "Places to Eat", "Entertainment", or "Shopping" depend very much on one's personal taste; I myself prefer to find my own little brasserie or cafe while on an aimless walk through the small streets of the town rather than visiting the usual posh places. All in all, the "Lonely Planet Guide Paris" does not live up to my expectations. Other guides from the same edition are much more useful. Nevertheless, I would recommend it to American tourists, for whom it seems to have been edited. In my view, it does not deserve more than three out of five stars. For the literary interested traveller, I highly recommend the book "Walks in Hemingway's Paris" by Noel Riley Fitch.

Out of date and innacurate.
I am assessing this book on it's usefulness, on a trip to Paris, last weekend. On it's recommendation, I stayed at Le Grand Hotel Magenta near the Gare Du Nord train station. It was an absolute tip. The pillows were yellowy brown(covered by a sheet) and the sink area (no plug) had rusty exposed wiring and pipes with mounds of filthy concrete on top. The price was quite a bit more than that stated in the book, even allowing for inflation.
Finding the recommended restaurants was also a nightmare. In hindsight, booking an inexpensive Hotel on the internet would have been a much better option as we have discovered loads since returning.