Paris Made Easy: The Best Walks and Sights of Paris (Open Road Travel Guides) (Paperback)

by Andy Herbach (Author) "Paris is the most fabulous city in the world, not because of the Eiffel Tower or the Champs-Elysees, but because there's simply no other place..." (more)
Key Phrases: Closed Mon Admission, Eiffel Tower, Closed Sun (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Steers readers beyond iconic sights to ... overlooked treats." -- San Francisco Chronicle, March 6, 2005

Little time to read or plan? Well, then all you need is to get yourself this guide. -- Journal Francais, January 2005 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Like Open Road's series of foreign language menu-readers, our new compact, lightweight travel guides are for those travelers who already know where they're staying and don't want to lug around a huge book during the day. With a sprinkling of restaurant selections arranged by neighborhood, our Made Easy series focuses on taking readers to the best, as well as the most different and unusual, sights and walking tours in each city. Tuck this guide into your pocket and head out for a great day of sightseeing: you'll have over 100 sights at your fingertips (from the popular Eiffel Tower to the strange Counterfeit Museum!), with insider tips on where to stop at a cafe, where to eat, interesting shops, and beautiful walks along the Seine or through the famed Latin Quarter. Attractive design features a second color on the inside. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Open Road; 2 edition (May 23, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593600631
• ISBN-13: 978-1593600631
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #692,155 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE guide to pack, April 26, 2005

By	Trish Medalen (San Rafael, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paris Made Easy: The Best Sights and Walks of Paris (Open Road Travel Guides) (Paperback)

I picked up Paris Made Easy just before a return trip to the City of Light, and I wish I'd had it the first time around! The title says it all: the content of this book, the way it's organized, and even its size made it the one guide I used day in and day out.

Do yourself a favor and leave the heavy guidebooks with the glossy pictures at home. (You're going to be seeing all those sights in person, anyway, right?) Paris Made Easy has great info on restaurants, museums, shopping, walks -- and not only the famous sights, but also some obscure yet really fun destinations that you might never discover otherwise. Good maps, too. Because it's all organized by neighborhood (arrondissement) in a compact format, I could just drop the guide in my purse, start wandering, and pull it out to find a place to eat or an interesting sight to see wherever I happened to end up. That freedom to explore made me feel much more like an insider and much less like a tourist.

The author's writing style is another plus: conversational, down-to-earth, and funny, but also very clear. (For example, I decided on the spur of the moment to venture outside Paris to visit Versailles, and a quick look at Paris Made Easy gave me such good instructions that I didn't even need to ask questions at the train station. In fact, I must have looked pretty confident, because people were asking me for directions!)

Check out the price of this book, too. With all the information you get, it's a real bargain. I can't recommend it enough!

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth in Labeling, October 10, 2005

By	Yellow Dog's friend (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paris Made Easy: The Best Sights and Walks of Paris (Open Road Travel Guides) (Paperback)

This pocket size guide really does make a trip tp Paris easy. The details by Arrondissement(district/neighborhoods)are very useful. The restaurant/Bistro tips were uniformly solid. The walks were easy to navigate and enriched strolling through Paris.The most useful guide to Paris I have seen.
A minor gripe: a sugested list of French phrases for the non-French speaker could use a phonetic guide.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Seeing Paris While Walking, April 14, 2007

By	Virginia Allain "(retired librarian)" (Poinciana, FL) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Paris Made Easy: The Best Sights and Walks of Paris (Open Road Travel Guides) (Paperback)

I prefer guidebooks that aren't just mammoth listings of everything (hotels, restaurants, sights). This compact book hits the target with its highlights and its walking tours.
You get directions, maps and commentary. Boxed notes give relevance to much that you would unknowingly pass by. Boxed in sage green are SHOPPING TIPS and ENTERTAINMENT TIPS while RESTAURANT TIPS are boxed in dark green. This covers the sights on the Island and the 20 Arrondissements plus some further afield (Versailles, Disneyland Paris, etc.).
The second part of the book details walks to take. Try the Islands walk, the Left Bank walk, the Marais walk, the major sights walk, the Montmartre walk, or some culinary walks. Sage green boxes highlight DETOURS to catch a special sight.
I wish I'd had this on my first visit to Paris which I found quite expensive and a little overwhelming.