Paris Eyewitness Travel Guide

Dorling Kindersley's Eyewitness city guides bill themselves as "the guides that show you what others only tell you", and indeed, spectacular illustrations are one of their strongest points. Every page of an Eyewitness guide is filled with beautiful colour photographs, maps, drawings and diagrams that bring popular tourist destinations to life. Each guide colour-codes the city's districts or neighbourhoods, making it easy for readers to know at a glance just where they are in the book--and where they want to go. Eyewitness Paris is typical of the series: a brief history of the city is followed by "Paris at a Glance" featuring the best museums, churches and parks; "Paris Through the Year", a description of the seasons; and "A River View of Paris", which takes the reader on a tour along the Seine. After this introductory section, Eyewitness Paris tackles the city of lights district by district, starting with Île de la Cité and ending with Montmartre. At the back of the book is a lengthy section called "Travellers' Needs" which includes extensive information about restaurants, hotels, shopping, entertainment and special activities for children. The "Survival Guide" gives practical information about getting into and out of Paris, banking and postal services, safety, transportation and more. One of the best things about the Eyewitness series are the guided walks for each city. In Paris you have a choice of five 90-minute walks: around Parc Monçeau, along the Canal St-Martin, around the Île St-Louis, in Auteuil or in Montmartre--the directions for each are clear, the sites well-worth seeing and each provides you with the best possible way of getting to know the city. Don't be deceived by Eyewitness Paris's picture-heavy format--this little picture book packs a lot of information.

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View books by Alan Tillier.

Excellent clear design with consistent approach throughout - Rated
When I worked in the library service, I grew to admire Dorling Kindersley's Eyewitness books for the clarity of their design, so I had no hesitation in buying this Eyewitness guide to Paris. Each chapter represents an area of the city: the first page of the section gives a brief overview on the top half of the page, with a map on the lower half locating the major attractions. A double page spread follows with an aerial 3d illustration rather than a map, which is a nice touch because you can retrace some of your movements on your return and remember buildings and parks etc from the illustration. Photographs border the illustration pointing out features to look for. The next few pages then go into more detail on each individual attractions, sometimes with a further 3d illustration of major galleries or historical buildings. The consistency of this approach throughout each chapter allows you to browse through the book without feeling lost or overwhelmed with information - it also makes it easy to find something you half-remember as you can usually tell what part of the chapter it should be in. It also has 8 special guided walks and a detailed 18 page map with index at the back. I have found it excellent for planning trips, finding the information up to date and accurate. It is perhaps a little bit bulky and heavy to carry around, though I usually carried it in my back-pack. But it is very useful to have in your hotel room to refer to for information on interesting things you've seen or to plan your next day's activity. All in all, highly recommended for it's clear design, accuracy and consistent approach.

The maps make it good - Rated
Paris is a city I know fairly well, as my in laws lived there for years so I had many a free holiday. This book is a very accessable guide to the city, as it is designed around accurate, 3D drawn maps that act as the centre piece for information about an area. Really easy to see how things fit togehter. The approach extends to major sites and buildings, with well drawn exploded pictures giving an easy summary of what there is to be seen. Conveys information at a very intuitive level, and allows you to spot the next place to go with ease. Recommended.

Try the recommendations in the book, they are spot on - Rated
My wife and I now have over 15 Eyewitness Travel Guides...obviously we like them. There are several reasons, and the Paris guide points these out quite well:
- the restaurant recommendations are spot on, at least for our taste. I have been to Paris more than 20 times, 5 or so for pleasure, the rest of business. I stay in different areas. I always pick a restaurant close to my hotel from this guide, and it never fails to meet my expectations (which were well set from the book)
- the maps and summaries of the attractions help you make the most efficient usage of your time. True, when on business, I do take a couple of hours to tour, but I cannot linger at the Louvre as I do when I am there for vacation. These guides help me map out what I want to see, where it might be in the museum, and even suggest when to go
- I try to go see Jazz and Classical performances while in Paris. I would not have had a great Jazz evening at the Bilboquet if not for finding it in this guide.
- What can I say, I am a convicted map-a-holic (which really irritates my wife, until we turn the corner and there we are!). I don't carry extra maps, I just carry the guide book, and use it's street maps and Metro maps to get around.

The final piece I like on these books are their simplicity. I had the rare pleasure to take my mother to Paris. Mom is not one for maps, but I let her peruse the Eyewitness Book, and she found some things that she wanted to see and where she wanted to eat (she loves mussels, and found several recommended restaurants in the guide book) and found places she didn't want me to take her (the Catacombs, but my son and I took her anyway).

Though many people do not enjoy these guides because they have too many pictures, I find that the pictures help me navigate the city, the attractions and the restaurants. Sometimes when in Paris I just wander and stop somewhere for a glass of wine...then I look in the guide to see where I've wandered to and if there is anything close, like a jazz club that I should go sample.

Another Excellent Eyewitness Travel Guide - Rated
Being as I have at least 25 different Eyewitness Guides, I have to say that the Paris edition faced stiff competition. But, this is how highly I think of it: I have lived in Paris for 5 years, and still consult this guide on a regular basis. The pictures are gorgeous, the information is up-to-date, and the portrayal of Paris comes across as so very real. Even if you don't have the cash to come to Paris, you do have the cash to buy this book, and the book is almost better than being in Paris because you get to see pictures of all of the most important things without actually having to deal with the tourists (no offense). My only word of caution is that this should be used as a secondary source of information for a first-time tourist, not a primary source, because the maps are not very good and the practical information section is not really that practical. Overall, though, I highly recommend it.

Good - Rated
I disagree with the last reviewer saying this is a childs version of a grown up travel guide.

I do not tend to buy travel guides as I am not a pompous 'cultural' traveller but we purchased this guide as we were very excited to be going to Paris and wanted to explore as much as possible.

Having never travelled to Paris before; we found it a very good guide to the area where to go and what to see. The book was very helpful being divided into area's which made it very easy to use.

We are about to travel to Amsterdam in the New Year and will be purchasing this guide also.