This is a book I’ve seen in a few different higher-end design stores. It seems like the kind of thing that Anthropologie would stock (shoot, maybe they do); I happened to get it at one of those houseware shops that stocks things according to color. We are lucky enough to be heading to Paris at the end of the month, so I felt justified in buying this book.

Written by a journalist and photographer, this book feels more coffee table book than guide book. The photographs are just gorgeous; honestly, I think it’d be worth buying if you just want something gorgeous to set on your coffee table to pick up now and then. The colors are so vibrant. The accompanying text is fine, but it’s not necessarily exactly what I am looking for in what essentially is a very pretty guidebook.

Ms. McCulloch spends half of the book providing overviews and ‘a walk through’ most of the arrondissements. Each overview is about two pages, followed by two pages highlighting shops, cafes, museums and streets the author thinks the reader should explore. All of the places are then listed in the second half of the book, with addresses and fuller descriptions of them. Which leads me to treat this as a reference book. However, it’s so large that there’s just no way I want to bring it with me on our trip. I could go through and write down each place to visit, but it seems to defeat the purpose, as the shops will be lacking in the context the author worked so hard to provide. ( )

I can ask one simple question and your answer will tell me if you will like this book.

Here goes: Do you like Paris?

If you answer yes, you will like it.
If you answer no, you will not.

As for me, I've been reading on it for over a month. I didn't want to finish it. Sigh.

Paris. Perfect. Paris. ( )

[Monday, ‎July ‎8, ‎2013] I just got this book... I want to dream of Paris tonight. ( )

A different spin on being a tourist in Paris. Pretty and well presented, I don't know Paris well enough to be sure of the content, but I'd be willing to try:-) Not as substantial as I had hoped. ( )