Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Paris [Paperback]

Alec Lobrano (Author), David Applefield (Author)

Book Description

Series: Irreverent Guides | Publication Date: April 9, 2004

Looking for a travel guide that goes where other guides fear to tread? One that rides roughshod over ad-copy puffery to smartly deliver the real scoop on a destination's sites and attractions? One that dares to be honest, hip, and fun? Look no more. Frommer's Irreverent Travel Guides are wickedly irreverent, unabashedly honest, and downright hilarious, and provide an insider's perspective on which attractions are overrated tourist traps and which are the secret gems that locals love. You'll get the lowdown on restaurants, lodging, and shopping, and even find out what the locals think of you. "Like being taken around by a savvy local," said the New York Times. "Hipper and savvier than other guides," concurred Diversion magazine. Never shy about confronting the issues, the Irreverents are guides to real travel in the real world.

The City of Lights has never been viewed with more humor, honesty, and style than it is in Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Paris, which presents the insiders' Paris, blemishes and all. Get the lowdown on where the real artists hang out, where to find atmospheric and affordable bistros, and how to uncover treasures in the city's famous flea markets. Find out how the French smoke and drink their way through meals and still look tr?s stylin'. And what's behind this mass lovefest for Jerry Lewis anyway? No other travel guide so deftly and wittily deconstructs the French penchant for posturing; on the other hand, no other guide offers such incisive takes on the old-fashioned 19th-century heart that beats beneath all that attitude. With Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Paris, you'll have the smartest, funniest, hippest companion guide to a complex and magical destination.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Full of solid, insider information with just the right amount of cynicism."
–Travel Savvy magazine

Are you tired of cliché-ridden guidebooks packed with promotional fluff? Then move over to the IRREVERENT GUIDES–the travel series that no tourist board would dare to recommend.

Look inside for the lowdown on:

• Where to stay if you’re allergic to gilt and cherubs
• The chefs everybody’s talking about
• Tourist-free neighborhoods and secret gardens
• The best places to part with your money, from magasins to markets
• How to stand a chance of getting into a fashion show or a hot club
• Coping with surly waiters, aggressive dragueurs, and the famous French hauteur

About the Author

Each Frommer's guide is personally researched and thoroughly updated by a single author or a small team. Our guides have a fun, intensely personal voice and a real person's judgments you can trust. Alec Lobrano is a food, travel, and style writer based in Paris. He is the European Contributing Editor for Departures magazine and writes for a variety of other magazines and newspapers, including the International Herald Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine, and Town & Country.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Frommers; 5 edition (April 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764543008
• ISBN-13: 978-0764543005
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 4.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,103,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Is it irreverent if they have to explain that it's irreverent?, March 17, 2006

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Gotta pay yer dues if ya wanna sing the blues... (Claremont, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Paris (Paperback)

This book isn't nourishing, but it provides a certain short-lived fun. I wouldn't go as far as "guilty pleasure" fun, as it isn't that naughty or silly, and it certainly doesn't have the quality of a song from your teen years, in that it is possible, quite possible, to get it out of your head; it's more on the order of that annoying kid in your freshman dorm who couldn't stop wisecracking. You snicker, but it's just not particularly useful. My sense is that this book gives you the illusion of being an insider without actually giving you anything particularly clever, to say nothing of anything that you wouldn't get from another more conventional guide-book. It's not a bad book, and the information is correct as far as it goes, but you will get more real scope for your outsider attitude from a close reading of the mainstream Frommer's, and even more from the Eyewitness guides.

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, but Amazon is not shipping the latest edition., July 9, 2004

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"redfj40" (Salt Lake City, UT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Paris (Paperback)

The picture on their website is missleading. It is correct for the latest edition, but they sent me the older, out-of-date volume. It was difficult to get a refund, 'cause they insisted that the edition they sent me was as promised. And, only reluctantly, refunded my return postage. Buy.com has the correct volume.