A Paris Year: My Day-to-Day Adventures in the Most Romantic City in the World by Janice MacLeod was a wonderful find for me at my library. Mentioned under ‘travel without going anywhere’, I decided to give this book a try and experience one of the cities I long to visit! I have read a couple of fiction books set in Paris, The Little Bookshop on the Seine being the latest one. It was a great experience to explore Paris through Janice’s eyes. Take a look at the book blurb below and then I will share the things I learned.
Part memoir and part visual journey through the streets of modern-day Paris, France, A Paris Year chronicles, day by day, one woman’s French sojourn in the world’s most beautiful city. Beginning on her first day in Paris, Janice MacLeod, the author of the best-selling book, Paris Letters, began a journal recording in illustrations and words, nearly every sight, smell, taste, and thought she experienced in the City of Light. The end result is more than a diary: it’s a detailed and colorful love letter to one of the most romantic and historically rich cities on earth. Combining personal observations and anecdotes with stories and facts about famous figures in Parisian history, this visual tale of discovery, through the eyes of an artist, is sure to delight, inspire, and charm.
Themes for Thought
Paris is a beautiful city with its name engraved in monumental historic events in time. Consider the French Revolution or Napoleon Bonaparte or the Eiffel Tower, it is not just the monuments and famous people who call Paris their home. For a writer, reader and stationary enthusiast, Paris is a special place to visit in our lifetimes. A Paris Year talks about all these things and more. Living in Paris for over a year, Janice shows us the little things that get missed in tourism brochures, the intricacies of culture and the beauty that we can only find when we spend time looking.
On Art in Paris
Paris is known to be the place where American writers would write – Ernest Hemingway and the Fitzgerald were all part of the Paris life in the 1920s. I vaguely recall watching a movie where the protagonists went back in time and hung out with all the American novelists staying in Paris. If you know the name of the movie, do let me know in the comments!
Paris is famous for its stationary as well as bookstores and cafes. What I was attracted to was the street art. Janice mentioned the artists who use the zebra crossing as their canvas and the Space Invader art around the city. From the Artist’s page:
What is the Space Invaders project about?
It is first of all about liberating Art from its usual alienators that museums or institutions can be. But it is also about freeing the Space Invaders from their video games TV screens and to bring them in our physical world. Everything started the day I decided to give a material appearance to pixelization through ceramic tiles. I first wanted to create a series of “canvases” but I soon realised that tiles were the perfect material to display these pieces directly on the walls. I then had the idea of deploying my creatures on the walls of Paris and soon after in cities around the globe. Each of these unique pieces become the fragment of a tentacular installation.
Invader
I love these little puzzles and adventures that one can have in Paris (find all locations of Invaders)!
On Fun Facts
Sprinkled throughout the book, Janice has compiled some cheat sheets about places and people.
- Did you know that there were two Napoleons? Napoleon Bonaparte was the Emperor and conqueror. The other Napoleon was the Present of France.
- Labor Day is celebrated with lilies.
- I also learned that there is a Macaron day celebrated on March 20. You can guess what everyone is lining to eat that day!
- The postal stamps in France have the drawing of a lady on it. That is Marianne and she was the figure of the French Republic. Since 1944 the president of France has chosen an image of Marianne to be featured on stamps. Learn more by reading Marianne and the Many Faces of the French Republic.
- Wednesdays are half days for school in Paris. I was fascinated to learn about elementary schooling in France. You can check it this article where a expat explains the difference that she noticed.
On Tourism
Janice gave us readers an insight into Paris and traveling that I do not have personal experience with. I don’t think I would have uncovered as many aspects of the city as she did, and her book will serve as a wonderful guide when I am finally able to go.
I also liked her comment around how tourism today is like royalty from decades ago. As travelers (with money of course), we can afford to go places, and can sometimes forget the plight of people who are unable to travel at all and have more pressing issues to address than which cafe they will explore today.
Mixing with the locals, learning their ways and how to interact with them in stores and markets as well as the history behind places and people was neat to learnt through a journal full of photographs and art. Janice has a number of little paintings in the book and sometimes I felt like I was reading someone’s scrapbook.
Overall, it was so nice to visit Paris and learn the history and artistic influences of Paris through this book! My library had it under the ‘go without leaving home’ section and it did not disappoint! With travel restrictions due to the pandemic, this is one creative way to quench the wanderlust. I hope that you enjoyed reading this review and would consider picking this book or recommend me others which will take me to cities around the world. I want to read more travel accounts.
** A Paris Year is now out in stores so get a copy and let me know what you think! You can also find it at your local library. **
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
Banner image from Unsplash.
I visited Paris many times when I lived in the UK and I’m sure I’d enjoy this book. The film is ‘Midnight in Paris’, which I also enjoyed very much. I’d have loved to hang out with all those authors back in the 1920s. Ernest Hemingway is one of my favourite writers, but I’m sure I’d loathe the man. I don’t suppose he’d think very highly of me either!
Thank you, Chris! I am going to rewatch the movie! I have read one or two by Hemingway, do you have a favorite? I want to read more older authors but with all the new books coming out all the time, it is hard to prioritize.
‘Islands in the Stream’ is one of my favourites. It was published after Hemingway’s death, covers three stages of his main character’s life and draws heavily on the author’s own experiences. ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ is his classic novel set during the Spanish Civil War. Not an easy novel to read, but very fine writing. For a shorter, but no less powerful read, try ‘The Old Man and the Sea’, which I read when I was staying in Cuba. All have a great sense of place, so would tie in nicely with your armchair and historical travels.
Another recommendation, for a novel set in a city, is ‘Our Man in Havana’ by Graham Green. Published just before the Cuban revolution and highly amusing.
Great! I have added them to my library list. 🙂 Our man in Havana has fun reviews!