Customer Reviews

Paris Passions: Watching the French Being Brilliant and Bizarre

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"Spicer, a kind of cultural James Bond, slides in and out of the bistros and salons of French society as easily as 007 quaffs a martini ... a delightful book."
-- Jim Bittermann, CNN's Senior European Correspondent

"How to love Paris: the handbook."
-- Jacques Rigaud, longtime President of Radio-Television Luxembourg (France)

"Keith Spicer is a master painter who reveals deep truths behind misleading appearances. He describes the strange customs of Paris natives -- sometimes with impertinence, always with humor, and above all with a constant tenderness."
-- Henri Pigeat, former CEO of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency

"What a surprise, and how in every way delightful! I'm enchanted by everything about Paris Passions -- its appearance no less than its contents."
-- James Eayrs, professor emeritus, Dalhousie University

"Parisian aperitifs: a lively, quirky celebration of the City of Light... vintage Spicer: torrential, urbane, self-absorbed, smart, scattered and completely mesmerizing... you'll never get bored... a lively and clever celebration of Paris that uses humor and wry observation rather than cliché..."
-- Doug Fischer, Ottawa Citizen

"...a rollicking and fascinating look at all things French mined from a lifetime of interest."
-- Nelson Wyatt, Canadian Press

"I must confess that (being unfamiliar with [Spicer or his] work, and a skeptic by nature), I didn't expect such an intelligent, yet accessible and amusing, and finely written book. There is depth and breadth and poetry - and truth."
-- Susan Rosenberg, buyer, Brentano's bookstore, Paris

"I devoured this book with great joy, and with many reflections and questions sparked by the author's style and formidable knowledge of people and things. Coming from a friend of our country, his sometimes cruel but always lucid diagnosis forces us [French] to ask if we correspond to his descriptions"
-- Pierre Braillard, senior executive, International Institute of Communications (Paris)

"Canadian and ex-pat journalist provides a whimsical guide to his many passions in Paris. Both thoroughly accessible and exhaustively thorough, the book places Spicer's journey through Paris and its surrounding suburbs within a global and historical context. With a reporter's wry eye for viewing life sans rose-colored glasses, he seamlessly segues between newspaper column-like sections on gastronomy, parks, architecture, seasonal festivals, historical figures, socialism, taxes, health care, sports, fashion, art, music, film, flirting, ghetto riots, the European Union, "Omnipresident" Sarkozy's love life and various other little-known people and places equally fascinating for being drawn in such exquisite detail. Though photos are included, they pale in comparison to Spicer's enthusiastic, visceral descriptions. However, several typos and printing errors prove distracting, and the last chapters concerning politics and the EU are so jam-packed that they could be the beginnings of another book. But these are minor quibbles, for the work is well-infused with a mind-grabbing celebration of its subject. Even the poetic flourishes fall into humor before cliché. At the Marais, "Parallel ghettos of the mind get along just fine here," while Le Salon "is the setting for France's enduring self-image as a nation of peasants, indeed a people that thinks it invented eating." Even as the author lightly ribs on French narcissism, coming down a bit harder on the country's knee-jerk reactionary leftist politics, his enduring romance with France shines through when discussing such things as the "hazards" of Paris, which include cholesterol and sunburn, and the fact that you may fall in love with "somebody, or anybody, or everybody." Though Spicer discovered the City of Lights over half a century ago, he doesn't fail to recapture why he fell in love in the first place. Contagious exuberance will make you want to give this beloved city a first glance or a second, or even third, chance."
-- Kirkus Discoveries

Discover, or rediscover, Paris through Keith Spicer's elegant and seducive prose. He loves Paris - and the French - but he remains true to the French say: "qui aime bien châtie bien". A must-read book before your next trip to the Ville Lumière. All 72 vignettes are entertaining but I particularly enjoyed the vignettes on the Place des Vosges, the relationship between coffee, philosophy and flirting, and the effect rugby has on France's women.

A francophile for over 30 years, I looked forward to reading this book. I found it to be a disappointment. For a book that has the words "watching" and "bizarre" in the title, I expected far more pictures of the fun and everyday activities one can observe in Paris. There were very few of those, they were in black and white and not one that couldn't have been your or my vacation picture. Some of the anecdotes were amusing but none were standout. Overall, this was not worth the price. This is the first time I have ever returned a book to Amazon.

I read this book on my trip to Paris. It took almost 14 hours to travel there due to flight delays so I read most of it at the airport and on the plane. Nobody took any notice of it.

I read several books to prepare for my dream vacation and first visit to France, but this one provided the most insight into the present day culture. Since the media in the United States keep us completely in the dark about life in other countries, you really need to go out of your way to learn anything about France. "Paris Passions" definitely fills this need.

If it weren't for the language barrier, social networking could provide contact with the French. The British, Australians, Canadians, and Americans are increasingly interacting online but the French remain a mystery.

I've been to France twice... about two weeks per trip. Because of the delicious, long meals... and many afternoon 'vin degustation'... my French was passable on day 14. But I never reeeely understood this complicated country.

Until now. Merci Monsieur Spicer for your wit, wisdom and clear perspective of the 'Brilliant and Bizarre' French. From food to champagne to a Labour Code that strangles entrepreneurs and clogs the streets with students and leftists who really need those jobs. From art & fashion to walking down the Seine before the sun can see you. And serious stuff... like those hillarious, eclectic and transformative historical characters... France's role in the world today.... and politics. Head scratching, 'what are they thinking?' politics. And I will be paying more attention to 'Sarko', if only to get a glimpse of his wife.

On the next visit I will feel much more at home because... well, I've seen behind a few doors and under a few covers because of Spicer's book. An illuminating and entertaining read.

As I read Paris Passions, all I wanted was to pick up the phone and book a flight to Paris. Delightful, charming, funny, and full of interesting information. Spicer is a master at making the reader smile while learning why the French are Brilliant and Bizarre.