Join us for a mooch around Paris when we review The Most Beautiful Walk in the World.
Beautiful Walk – the blurb
In this enchanting memoir, acclaimed author and Paris resident John Baxter recounts his year-long experience of giving literary walking tours through the city. Along the way, he tells the history of Paris through a brilliant cast of characters and their favorite haunts: the cafés of Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Joyce; Picasso s underground Montmartre dives; the bustling boulevards of the late-19th century flâneurs; the secluded Little Luxembourg gardens beloved by Gertrude Stein; and finally Baxter s own favorite walk near his home in Saint-Germain-des-Prés
How things are done
I’ve read a few books now on a similar theme – a foreigner, usually literary, settles in Paris with a native and then provides their observations of life in the City of Light. I’ve loved everyone of them and Beautiful Walk had all the hallmarks – the French’s obsession with food, of how things are supposed to be done and Paris’ magnificent past. Baxter works as a tour guide around Paris and this coupled with the fact he is an author was a marriage made in heaven.
Know you Toklas from your Tolkein
Baxter is clearly a lover of art and literature and waxes quite lyrically about artists and writers galore. The only thing was I hadn’t heard of a fair few of them. Sure Hemingway and Fitzgerald but I confess I wasn’t overly familiar with Rudolf Nureyev, Robert Bolt, Jean Cocteau or James Wood. The anecdotes are interesting but to me it was just a list of names, I had no interest in the people he was referring to. I must stress this is no fault of Baxter, and if you know that Jean Cocteau was a french poet, novelist, filmmaker and all round arty person who died in 1963 you will do OK.
I easily took to the non artist recollections – the Empire of Death, the Brasserie Lipp and the Metro Stations were true highlights, but the overall arc could have done with a teeny bit more structure. More of a beginning, middle and end if you like.
When in Paris
If you love Paris, as a lot of people do, Baxter’s Beautiful Walk fits the bill. Just make sure you know your onions to get the most out of it. You could also try We’ll Always Have Paris or Almost French