American travel writer & European connoisseur Rick Steves is famous for his televised programs on PBS/KCET providing Americans with travel tips and guides in Europe. This small travel guide for people traveling to Paris, France in 2011 is very useful for the first-time traveler. I went to Paris for the first time last month in January, opting to take a winter trip since winter in Paris is the low season of tourism. Despite cold, rainy and sometimes even snowy weather, it's a marvelous experience and the city is completely yours, without having to deal with millions of tourist crowds. Rick Steves uses humorous and sometimes long-winded commentary but he provides you with all the basics and all the most essential and important aspects of getting around Paris. A map is provided and many black-and-white photos that I wish had been color photos. The Paris Metro system is fully detailed, as well as information on the two local airports Charles De Gaulle & Orly. Rick Steves seems to be particularly interested in serving as a tour guide even in this book, giving you dozens of historical tidbits and pointing out all the major sites in Paris: the iconic Eiffel Tower, Cathedral Notre Dame, Louvre, Musee D'Orsay, Arc De Triomphe, Champs Elysees, and the many districts such as the Left Bank, Marais, Montmartre; although for some strange and frustrating reason he doesn't cover the Opera district nor does he seem interested in giving you details about the Charles Garnier Paris Opera building, which is a beautiful and historic 19th century theater in Paris. He also focuses primarily on the more famed Left Bank and not the Right Bank, especially the Northern areas of the Right Bank, or the Eastern parts which include the Bastille/12th arrondissement and Bois De Vincennes area. I mean that are alone has the Omni sports stadium of Bercy, the largest stadium in all Paris, in which many sports events have been held since the mid 1980's when it was built. There is also the Cinematheque Francaise museum & the private Musee des Ars Forans (Museum of Amusement Parks of the 19th century. He doesn't mention La Defense area. Paris is actually quite a huge city with many suburbs all around and many hidden treasures in less touristy spots. He does mention the gorgeous parks in Paris uch as the Jardin Luxembourg, Bois De Buttes Chaumont and Parc Monceau. My favorite however is the much larger Bois de Vincennes & Bois De Boulogne. Neither park is covered by Steves who prefers the Luxembourg Gardens Park in the Left Bank. He provides us with restaurant info, cafes, hotels, and side-trips (which last about a day in tour form) like the Versailles Palace (which he goes in-depth with) the Chateaux of Vaux Le Vicomte, Fontainebleau & Chantilly, the beautiful countryside town of Giverny as well as the cathedral of Chartres. All in all, this is a very useful and concise guide book with the advantage of being small enough to fit in your travel bags and or handbag. However, you have to be a fan of Rick Steves in order to appreciate his sense of humor, his talky style and the usual narration. This is still a very good little guide and it will definitely help you if you're visiting Paris for the first time and seek only the more famous locations. There are better, longer more in-depth and detailed guide books for Paris. It's a heavily populated and large city with unending surprises and so much to see and do. Steves couldn't possibly cover everything in a tiny pocket book.
