City Walks: Paris: 50 Adventures on Foot (Cards)

~ Christina Henry de Tessan (Author) "Take the picturesque rue de Bievre, crossing the Pont de l'Archeveche onto the Ile de la Cite, the island where Paris first took shape in..." (more)
Key Phrases: Pont Neuf, Beaux Arts, Left Bank (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Paris is a perfect city to explore a pied, and this deck is designed for just that. On each card you'll find an illustrated map and -- on the flip side -- insider info on where to eat, drink, stop, and shop. With these 50 self-guided walking adventures you can explore historic sites, from the Arc de Triomphe to the Musee du louver, as well as uncover lesser-known gems, from open-air markets and intimate cafes to small museums with world-class art. Choose any card, and Paris is yours for the taking.

Product Details

• Cards: 50 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (July 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811838439
• ISBN-13: 978-0811838436
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 4.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #68,618 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 Pick a card and have an adventure!, October 15, 2004

By	Colleen M. Schneider (San Lorenzo, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My husband and I received these walking cards as a gift before our first trip to Paris. The cards are are larger than a deck of cards-I believe about 4x6 and have a map on one side and then a walk on the otherside, which starts at the top with a description, followed by the Metro stop that you will need to get off on to start your adventure. The card then lays out your walk, including sites to see, (both on the beaten path and off), cafes or restaurants to visit and areas of interest. Each card leads you back to the closest metro stop.

We found these cards very useful, both in planning our trip, by reading the cards and finding the areas that interested us most, to choosing cards before each day started to tuck into our pockets so we had our information with us.

I used these cards in conjunction with the DK Eyewitness guide, and was able to make a list of sites to see, and then looked through my pack of cards before leaving on the trip and coordinating the sites with the cards that matched each site we hoped to see. That way, I could easily choose, say the Louvre for my adventure that day, and next to the site, was my corresponding card #. This worked very, very well and allowed us to plan our trip with a minimum of hassle. The cards are also available for the city of New York, and when I plan a trip there I plan to buy the cards for that site as well.

These cards are fantastic and I highly recommend them to use in conjunction with the DK Travel guides.

Pick a card and have an adventure!!!!!

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rockin' Walks, January 3, 2006

By	H. Seiferth "48park" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought these cards just before my first trip to Paris in December. My thoughts and a few lessons learned:
1) How to use the cards is a small challenge -- to use them most successfully, you need to have a compass to make sure that you don't start off in the mirror-image, or upside down direction. It took a couple of course corrections before we got on track with the first walk we tried. That said, the level of detail on the maps was very good - far better than some of the maps the tourist outfits handed us where we sometimes found ourselves "off the map". The street numbers are accurate, the landmarks are solid, the visual scale and detail of the maps line up very well in comparison to what you'll actually encounter when walking the streets. If the map says street A is 3 streets up and at a 30 degree angle, it generally is.
2) I needed to plan out with some detail which cards to use beforehand because they're kind of awkward to work with when you're out and about. Carrying around the whole box all the time didn't seem very practical. You can't exactly quickly flip through for the card that covers any landmark you might happen to find yourself at either. I typically decided where I wanted to go ahead of time, and then looked around for the corresponding card(s) at the hotel and put those in my pocket.The cards are very durable -- for hanging out in my pocket, they showed little wear and didn't bend much at all.
3) The suggested stops, shops and activities were, in my opinion, very thoughtful and interesting. My companion, however, was a little cynical and assumed that the sites listed were the ones that paid the most to get on the cards. I don't know if he's right, but for instance, I did note that the cards suggest a lot of cafes by name - they do not suggest many/hardly any restaurants and those they do mention, like Brasserie Lorraine, seemed to be objects of visual interest (the oyster display and lobster tanks) rather than menu endorsements. I will say, having made a winter trip to Paris, that the walking tour season is a little lackluster. Some of the things the card recommends (like eating a leisurely meal outside) seemed a little more plausible when the temperatures climbed out of the single digits.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoy the City of Light that much more, August 2, 2007

By	M. J. Yuan "mel_yuan" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I didn't get this box of walks until my second visit to Paris and now would make a point of buying these cards for any holiday destination.
Choose 3 walks (they generally all form a daisy chain) and make a day of it.
Easy to follow maps without over-burdensome commentary. Who wants to spend their nose in a book while walking? A few highlights per walk that you can make your own, or skip.