I forgot that I started reading Is Paris Burning - I suppose that I should get busy and finish it....

Happygoin, yes, I read a synopsis, but Monsieur Perdu's still in France, right? Good enough for me. Actually, maybe better in some ways. Called ..."a love letter to books", I'm looking forward to it.

It is definitely that, MmePerdu. I think you'll like it!

The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Simenon's Maigret series is being reissued in trade paperback. You can find other works by him in used bookstores or on Alibris or hpb.com, etc. And a good bit of his non-Maigret literature is published by the NYRB imprint.

Just about each of Alan Furst's books takes place in Paris at some bloody point except Dark Voyage. And there's this: http://magazine.fourseasons.com/trav...n_fursts_paris

The Count of Monte Cristo
The Three Musketeers
pick a Hugo
etc.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0061791083/...=IUX5XZDNEZCSC

The Hotel on Place Vendome but the amazon page has a couple others that are very good. I gave you a mix of Novels.

HIKRCHICK,

I would heartily recommend the above suggestions:

Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky (set during German occupation, WWII)

A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway (non-fiction)

A very old one, also during WW2 : Is Paris burning (Paris brule-t-il), depicting the insurrection and the subsequent liberation of Paris in summer 1944.

Also, have you seen the Woody Allen flick MIDNIGHT IN PARIS? That should really get you folks in the mood. Great scenery and a cute story. I would also suggest taking the PARISWALK "Hemingway Walk" which has become hugely popular after the film.

Enjoy Paris....

If you want fiction with a strong dose/perspective of the history of Paris, try Paris: A Novel by Edward Rutherfurd. I just started reading it last week ahead of my trip in two weeks. It's HUGE (my copy is over 800 pages), and a bit dense, but very interesting and keeps adding ideas of things to see / places to stroll.

Three Musketeers is a classic, and very Paris oriented. Count of Monte Cristo equally fun, but set in a myriad of places (although the climax occurs in Paris).

Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities is also a classic, set during the French Revolution. A modern telling of that time period is Hilary Mantel's A Place of Greater Safety (not IMO as good as her books on Thomas Cromwell).

Nonfiction with an Americans in Paris perspective besides Hemingway - The Greater Journey by David McCullough. Great research and well written, even though it's nonfiction it moves like fiction.

The first few chapters of Hemingway's <i>The Sun Also Rises</i> paints a portrait of the city as indelible as that in his <i>A Moveable Feast</i>.

Another older one: Seven Ages of Paris by Alistair Horne. Another excellent read.

Some great suggestions here. Balzac books set in Paris are wonderful. I just finished "The Nightingale", about the Nazi Occupation era. There are so many to read.

Loved "Little Paris Bookshop" but only the first few chapters were in Paris.

Here's a good list:

Paris I love you, but your bringing me down
Paris Letters
Seven Letters from Paris
Lunch in Paris
A Paris Apartment
Paris: a love story
Paris Architect
Claude & Camillle
The Chocolate Thief
The Chocolate Kiss
The Chocolate Touch
My Paris Dream
The last time I saw Paris
Almost French
Paris my sweet
Buying a piece of Paris
Secrets of Paris

Look them all up on Amazon books and read a little of each story.
These are all memiors or those who have lived there or fiction---fun in a delightful setting. I loved walking the streets with all of the characters and remembering places that we have enjoyed.
I could probably come up with more as it's a favorite location of mine.

Adding a few:

The Day of he Jackal

The Damned Kings of France....a series of seven books.

The way of he Tumbrils, Paris at the time of the French Revolution, many places remain unchanged.

Not fiction but John Baxter's books on Paris are wonderful.

A perfect delight to read, Nancy Mitford's two Paris set novels: The Blessing and Don't Tell Alfred.

Pere Goriot is one of the best novels you could ever possibly read.

It is a literary masterpiece.

Another: Therese Raquin by Zola. This novel shocked all of Paris when it was published.


Thin

Yet another Cara Black mysteries recommendation.

SS

Hi, you wrote, regarding your last visit to Paris:

"I'm sure a lot has changed in the past 30 years!"

Funnily, I was just reading the new David Downie book, called A Passion for Paris, and he wrote that "“the real Paris is of the mind, so it doesn’t exist and can’t age.” There is a fun truth to that. You might like reading his book, which is non-fiction in the vein of the Stones of Florence, not a crime series.

http://us.macmillan.com/apassionforparis/daviddownie

Plus, it often takes the form of a literary walking tour through the streets of Paris, so if you read some of these novels by classic French authors, the book identifies the houses and cafes where those authors wrote their books, and how they viewed these streets.

David Downie's collection of essays, "Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light" is also well worth reading.

Not non-fiction, but "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier" by Thad Carhart is wonderful. It's a memoir written by an American who's living in Paris and finds an amazing world of people and music in a neighborhood storefront.

Another goodie: Time Was Soft There...about the author's time in residence at the Shakespeare and Company bookshop.