Customer Reviews

The Little Black Book of Paris 2009 (Travel Guide) (Little Black Books (Peter Pauper Hardcover))

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found this book on a shelf in a Parisian rental apartment. What a great discovery!! Of all the general tourist guides to Paris that I've read over the yrs, this is the at the top--clear, great info and suggestions not found in other guides, very lightweight which makes carrying it easy, a convenient elastic to bookmark. I love its size and information.
While I don't care if I look like wahat i ma--a tourist-fFor those who are somewhat afraid of looking too obviously like a tourist, this book is so small and discreet, youcould be perusing anything !
Hopefully it will eventually be released in a 2008 or 2009 edition, although its suggestions are quite current (i.e. restaurants, tour sites, etc) and extrememly useful in the 2006 edition.

Thank you, Vesna Neskow!

Beautiful little book that gives you the basics. The recommendations are mid to high end so don't expect lonely planet suggestions. The book also has a complete set of maps of the city as well as the Metro map. It is also very small, like a moleskine notebook, so it can easily fit anywhere. It's an elegant gift for anyone going to Paris, whether it's the first time or return visit.

I chose this book over the others based on the reviews...

Pros
-a 'by area' guide book
-easy to carry around town

Cons
-almost no detail for most recommendations
-maps are too small and on too many different pages (made it hard to walk from one area to the next)

Overall...this book was just ok. If you buy this make sure to also buy a more detailed guide book.

This is a review of the Kindle edition.

This book is adequate; a listing of the sights of Paris, some advice, some maps. There is, after all, only so much any guide book can do. This one meets the standard.

But the Kindle edition is not ready for prime time. The text is lifted from the print edition and this is not always appropriate. "Green symbols indicate Where to Stay." Kindles don't do green. Further the maps are unreadable. Even worse, each map is followed by pages or lists of what the numbers on the map mean. "5. Eiffel Tower" Wonderful, but the map is useless.

So you click on "5. Eiffel Tower" and what happens? Nothing. There is no link to the discussion of Le Tour. I suppose the publisher could not be bothered. In the same way, there is a long but useless index. Find the name of your hotel and click on it, and nothing happens.

The Table of Contents does work, but you have to know to access it through the Menu option on the Kindle.

A guidebook on the Kindle could be so useful. Darn shame about the transfer from print to electronic form. I may very well return this kindle edition. It is that disappointing.

Just got back from Paris. Loved this book. It even impressed the tour directors! I left it with them because they needed an english version of a tour book. I have family going to London soon and will be purchasing the London city book for them.

I ordered this because I didn't have it; I have just about every other Paris travel guide on the market since I take a group of people over every year. This one is OK. The size is good for tucking into a purse or large pocket. I like the 10 individual fold-out maps with areas (attractions, restaurants, etc. coded on them). The general information is short and sweet. Having a larger, overall map somewhere would have been helpful. Still, the price is good, and I bought these for all my 20 travelers this year. They seem to have found it useful.

Earlier I had pruchased another book in this series - "Little Black Book of Rome", which I found to be informative and useful.
So with much anticipation I purchased the Paris version. Unfortunately, it is so superficial and lacks anything more than the most basic information as to make it nearly worthless.
Save your money and get one of the hundreds of better guide books on The City of Lights.

This book did not assist me in the planning process, but I carried it with me my entire trip and refereced it all the time! It's small size and fold out maps with tons of points of intrest were VERY VERY helpful while wandering around Paris!

I was excited taking this Kindle edition with me to France. But the book was not optimized for Kindle at all. The maps with which the author begins each chapter, and which are used to identify by number each site and shop/restaurant, are impossible to make out on my 6" Kindle. It would, it seems to me, have been easy to optimize the book for Kindle, allowing for larger scale maps and allowing for hotlinks (clicking on the restaurant, etc. might lead to the relevant map). As is, learning that, say, "No. 22" in chapter 5 is the restaurant at which one wishes to dine is useless since one can never examine the relevant map to see where "No. 22" actually is. Finally, the list of places at the end of the book is quite complete, but has no hotlinks to the main text. This is uselesson a Kindle -- why not link it to the relevant text as is done with the Table of Contents.

Sorry, but this book is not really made for Kindle in its current manifestation.

Book is small which makes it handy for traveling, but the maps are also small, too small to be of much use. We always had to refer to bigger maps. We did find a great place to stay that was mentioned in the book.