Wandering Paris: A Guide to Discovering Paris Your Way [Paperback]

Jill Butler (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Be your own guide to discovering Paris!

Expert Jill Butler suggests fourteen themed days of exploration from water adventures to flea market excursions, nighttime events, bakery tastings, and more. With the author's personal recommendations and insights, you'll navigate the city like a native.

Comb the best markets for treasures old and new. Try a different wine every day. Or find hidden architectural wonders off the beaten path. This pocket-size guide, complete with charming illustrations, is the ideal companion for a unique sojourn in the City of Lights.

About the Author

Artist/Author Jill Butler first moved to France as an overworked and exhausted New York career gal in search of a change of lifestyle and the experience of a different culture. Paris seemed the ultimate challenge. With a bit of school French she plunged in, made friends, and found her Paris. Ultimately, Butler spent fourteen years living and learning all things French while working as a designer and freelance illustrator and showing her fine art collages in Parisian and Normandy galleries.

Butler has authored and illustrated two other books, Paintbrush in Paris and Rendez-vous with France. The latter is a point-and-pronounce guide to traveling, shopping, and eating in France--the perfect accompaniment to Wandering Paris.

From her studio in the Connecticut River Valley, Butler designs French-inspired tabletop products. Her collection can be viewed at www.jillbutler.com. She also teaches art and art marketing while never letting her passort rest idle.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Globe Pequot; 1st edition (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762738049
• ISBN-13: 978-0762738045
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 6.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #92 in Books > Travel > Reference & Tips > Tourist Destinations & Museums

More About the Author

I write because I can't not write. I've always had a pen in my hand and have journaled my whole life. "Create the Space You Deserve" came out of my journals during the time I was divorcing and moving back to the US from Paris, France. I knew I needed to create a new life and to restart from zero. The what I wanted and how to eventually create it came from this writing...My tools, steps, approach and motivation are the first four chapters..followed by the tour of the cottage I eventually created. This is not about cottage design, it is however, about how we arrive at what we want for our lives, and how we choose to live at home and in the world. It is these spaces we create that supports and nests us.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "I learned to love Paris by instinct and by following what appealed to me visually.", November 30, 2005

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wandering Paris: A Guide to Discovering Paris Your Way (Paperback)

The French have a word for instinctively following where your interests lead and Wandering Paris is written with an eye to that very independence and curiosity. Certainly, no decision should ever be undertaken until after your first cup of coffee; then, the exploration du jour should be based on weather and your energy level. Armed with a few icons throughout the pages (information, maps, metro stations and a simplified vocabulary), any willing visitor can absorb the extraordinary sights of Paris in a series of suggested one day excursions guaranteed to bring the intrepid tourist into the bustling Paris streets: water bars, swimming pools, famous landmarks, flea markets, artist's haunts and outdoor cafes, a city of surprises waiting to be discovered. Accompanied by fanciful watercolor illustrations, this small book fits easily into a carry-bag, at your fingertips whenever inspiration strikes. This guide is designed by an author/artist who loves the idiosyncratic city, life bubbling below the surface, beyond the obvious charm of the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre, the secrets of the streets revealed.

This is an insider's tour, with fourteen themed adventures that include Paris nightlife, shopping the French way, patisseries, neighborhood bars, museums and more. Whether on foot, metro, bus or taxi, Paris is a city of endless adventure, appealing to the impulsive, the romantic and the curious. These suggested outings are staggered to allow for the most enjoyment, i.e., a shopping excursion may be followed by a leisurely day in the park, a journal close at hand to chronicle your thoughts. Whether picnicking, strolling the boulevard or watching the city blink to life at nightfall, this little guide is infectious in its enthusiasm, from the charming illustrations throughout, a list of gifts to take home and enterprising daily outings to the appendix of helpful sources. Wandering Paris is an adventure all its own, an invitation to Paris, your way. Luan Gaines/ 2005.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tour Guide with an Artistic Flare, June 17, 2007

By 

Janaki Green "RejaJoy" (Omaha, NE United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wandering Paris: A Guide to Discovering Paris Your Way (Paperback)

This book was a pleasant surprise, with the artwork alone being worth the purchase! My husband and I are planning a trip to PARIS in August, and are learning all we can that will make it enjoyable. I thought in the stack of books I already had on Paris that I had a map of the neighborhoods called "arrondissements" but couldn't find ANY until I opened Jill's "Wandering Paris" which had just arrived. I found a very colorful map of the arrondissements right in front! It got better from there. I want to swim while in Paris although my husband, who was there for a week in 2000, said there aren't any places to swim. Well, Jill points out that "Public swimming pools are abundant in Paris, and some are exceptional." She writes that you can even "Go to the beach along the Seine." ... "you'll find sand, palm trees, umbrellas, rollerblading, bikes and Pétanque plus a swimming pool..." In his defense, he was there in DECEMBER! ha! We're also learning FRENCH, and Jill provides an abundance of vocabulary words WITH a pronunciation guide for each. For the night life, we had no idea that Friday is "Friday Night Skate", "rollerblading by night on escorted journeys through the city". We can't take all of our books with us on this trip, but Jill Butler's "Wandering Paris" is going with us for sure! [We're going to buy her other book as well! Rendez-vous with France: A Point and Pronounce Guide to Traveling, Shopping, and Eating

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I wish I'd known . . ., December 12, 2005

By 

Cecily Brunelle "Cecily B." (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wandering Paris: A Guide to Discovering Paris Your Way (Paperback)

This charming book reminds us that a great part of the joy of Paris is found by taking time to wander. It's of great value to reorient those of us who no longer know the city as well as we did when we and it were younger.

In her illustrations, Jill translates the austere grandeur of Paris into colorful, intimate depictions of local detail, taken from the very real places she writes about.

I wish I'd read Wandering Paris before my last trip to Paris, from London, on the Eurostar, just for Sunday afternoon, just to remind myself. I'd have gone to the Sunday market, instead of taking an earlier train home.