Author(s): Jean-Christophe Napias

Travel Guides

There are almost 200 entries in the addictive Everything About Paris (or almost), a witty and sophisticated treasure trove of facts, histories, lists, records, quotations, and miscellaneous oddities that go well beyond trivia to include significant cultural enlightenment and a below-the-surface glimpse of what it means to be Parisian. Among the thousands of facts that most certainly haven't been assembled in one place anywhere else: Street names on the original Paris monopoly game of 1930 (with the colors, so we all can recognize them) that have been changed in the 2015 edition - and to what and why; the number of brothels, massage parlors and "places of pleasure" listed in a 1922 guidebook; Andre Breton's suggestions, published in the 1933 edition of Surrealism magazine, of statues that should be erected in Paris, and where, including Alice in Wonderland, Jonathan Swift, Freud; streets and locations whose original names were associated with Germany - and so were changed after WWII-and their current names; famous poisonings that occurred in Paris; eight ways to recognize a Haussmann building; a list of all the bookstores and record shops in the 1963 guide Julliard that have now disappeared; and, mottos of the five greatest educational institutions in Paris. It also includes: the criteria for designation as a Palais hotel; a short explanation of the Parisian chant of disillusionment: "metro, boulot, dodo"; former locations of the guillotine; addresses of the ten vineyards within the city limits; the date they were planted, their acreage, the type and amount of wine produced annually; playstation games set in Paris; how to tap Paris in Morse code; how to say Paris in sign language; and, ten vintage aperitifs to order in bistros; and, imaginary Parisian streets that appear in novels. It also covers: fines charged for municipal infractions (from feeding pigeons [35E] to appearing nude in a public place [35,000 E and imprisonment]); the history of the bikini, the cobblestones, the rooftops, and the trashcans of Paris; exploits staged at the Eiffel Tower from 1891 through 2010; and, innovative (unadopted) ideas proposed through the years to improve the quality of life in Paris: shut down museums and put the paintings in bars, turn churches into housing for the poor, and more...and that's just for starters.