The most recommended books about Paris

An obscure and fantastic book, Eléphasme, Rhinolophon, Caméluche et autres merveilles de la nature is a collection of illustrations of imagined beasts. From toads with feathery axolotl gills and seabirds with a probosci's monkey snout to a hairy chicken with hooves, these animals don’t make any sense, but they sure are beautiful to look at.

I stumbled on it back in 2012, during my first trip to Paris, visiting a singular shop called Deyrolle, which is filled with taxidermy, bones, bugs, and other curiosities. This book might be one of the most special things I own, and it’s almost impossible to find outside of France. For those who are determined to track it down, I can assure you, it’ll be worth it.

Craig Carlson shares his passion for food and France in this charming, thought-provoking collection of essays. With heart and humor, he shows us the best of America and France, and how we can learn from one another. Whether delving into cultural differences or the challenges and rewards of running a business, Craig is the perfect guide. Let Them Eat Pancakes is a delicious, satisfying dish about following your dreams and dealing with any challenge that arises.

Dermansky is a veteran novelist who deserves a wider readership. Bad Marie may be her best book - a darkly funny, oddly affecting tale of a feckless young woman who takes a job as a nanny for a Manhattan power couple, only to abduct the young girl she’s charged with looking after and abscond with her to Paris, the South of France and, finally, Mexico.

Even though Marie is undoubtedly "bad," Kermansky pulls off the impressive feat of making her lovable as she searches for a place in a world that has no use for her. 

It is a unique, daring, and deeply rewarding novel.

This beautiful tome, with endless photos, takes a tour of Paris through the années folles, from the end of the Great War in 1919 to the start of World War Two in 1939. Many histories of Paris in this period focus solely on the culture – understandable, as this outpouring of modernism was world-shaking. This book includes history, politics, law, Parisian café life, sex workers, immigration, and more. My copy is full of so many notes that I had to buy a second copy. Here I found the underground gay scene and the effect of the war on the working class. Schiaparelli’s surreal hats sat along an overview of soup kitchens during the Depression. The book shows Paris as it was lived in those years, and mostly through visual material, giving the impression that you could book a ticket and visit.

This book was a huge influence on the development of my own series.

I love the combination of spy story, action adventure, and a couple with layers of deception between them. Percy and Marguerite are married but neither fully knows who the other is. And for all the swashbuckling adventure, that tension is at the heart of the story. 

I love this author’s voice. To me, her writing reads almost like poetry, making me pause and reflect on the words and their importance in the story, even something as simple as the description of a box.

Aside from the author’s skill as a writer, she’s a great storyteller. This is a story about lifelong love and sacrifice, told with grace and dignity. It kept me turning the pages, hoping for the main character’s happy ending. 

Steadman needed to offer the reader a believable character in terms of who she is in relation to the storyline. In this case, the protagonist is a clinical psychologist who is tasked with putting the pieces of information together to find out who the mysterious man is that was found wandering on the beach. The man doesn't know either, and is at a loss to explain how he wound up on the beach in the first place.  But it’s not just a ‘simple’ case of amnesia because that would be too simple a diagnosis. The buildup to the eventual discovery, leading to the surprising and climactic ending, made this a fun read for me. 

Authors who are able to combine elements of a mysterious character and an intriguing storyline that carries you through the action of a unique concept is a winning formula for whodunits or just good mysteries of… show more.

Hemingway (who might have fully ‘got’ Spain if he had been less obsessed with ‘being Hemingway’) once described Madrid as ‘the centre of the world’. Jules Stewart is a former reporter who knows the city like the back of his hand. In this book he provides a perfect guide for travellers (even of the armchair variety) around what is one of the most vibrant European capitals. From Dalí’s favourite café to the place where Cervantes drew his last breath, it brings the history of the place alive like nothing else.

Paris has long been a city of creation—but also a city of people who have made these creations their own. Perhaps this is why Paris influences the world; it sells so much more than products; it sells a lifestyle. Francophile and Professor Joan DeJean has written numerous books on French culture, but this is a particular favourite of mine. Head-spinningly well-researched, The Age of Comfort looks at how Paris architects and designers, from the late-seventeenth to late-eighteenth centuries, created the concept of a private life, and all the necessary accompanying interior-design components, from sofas to toilets to baths to desks. It was a century that changed the way Parisians lived, and in turn, changed them as people, before going on to transform the rest of the world. Utterly fascinating. 

I fell in love with this book so hard that I read it all in one sitting. (Yes, that means I spent one, entire, luxurious day reading it! That day was an absolute gift.) I loved the writing style, the chance to armchair travel to Paris on the back of Leo’s moped alongside Hannah. It had just enough intrigue but was quiet and charming overall. Reading this book was like taking my mind to a spa to be pampered and rejuvenated.