Customer Reviews

The Cafés of Paris: A Guide, Second Edition

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The book, "Cafes of Paris," offers American tourists the cheapest and, I believe, the most entertaining and comfortable way to experience Paris, especially with the weak U.S. dollar. You can sit in a coffee shop for hours - reading and enjoying Paris street life - all for the price of a cup of coffee. Inexpensive lunches can be shared with friends in the cafe's casual atmosphere. The book is extremely well organized for the sight-seer; cafes are indexed by tourist attraction and arrondissement with the nearest metro stop and the price of a cup of coffee available at a glance. And if you aren't going to Paris, read the humorous anecdotes, descriptions of the decor, and the literary history of cafe life for a vicarious mini-vacation. Revised in 2000, prices have gone up but the richness of Paris cafe life will never be out of date.

This book is mostly about cafes of the past. Very interesting reading if you're a fan of Sartre, Hemmingway, etc., & the book has plenty about those writers' cafe haunts & habits. But there's not much about what these cafes are like today or what modern cafes are the big literary hangouts.

I first had the pleasure of reading the Cafes of Paris guide book just last year as a young woman travelling to Paris for the first time. Since the book was written by my high-school English/Spanish teacher, Christine Graf, the greatest Spanish/English/French teacher of all time, it naturally was a masterpiece!! I recommend that everyone buy this book because she is forced to make her living as a school teacher, and the book is truly wonderful and has vital information for anyone who ever travels to Paris or dreams of travelling to Paris(the city of lights!!!)