Rick Steves' Paris 2008 by Rick Steves, Steve Smith, Gene Openshaw
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Book Reviews of Rick Steves' Paris 2008
Book Review: Practical and thorough
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is great. It is detailed without being overwhelming and gives lots of great practical advice.Book Review: Definitely a good buy!
Summary: 4 Stars
Went to Paris in 2008 for the first time. Brought this book and DK Paris guide. Took both to Paris because there are info in Rick Steves not in DK and vice versa. Whereas the DK has colored photos, Rick Steves Paris guide is in black and white, hence, lighter in weight. Really valued bringing Rick Steves guide because there were specific directions on how to get to hospitals (Yes, hospitals as my traveling companion had allergies that drugs from local pharmacies could not alleviate.). While DK Paris tell you the address of hospitals, Rick Steves actually tells you how to travel there. Definitely saved the trip! Make sure you check out Rick Steves' website for they have many useful tips!Book Review: Helpful Guide
Summary: 4 Stars
This was extremely helpful for my trip to Paris and helped me plan my trip. There were a few areas that were sketchy and incorrect but overall, this was the best guide for my six day trip to Paris. In fact, I saw many Americans with the 2007 version - so I know this is the guide to use.Book Review: I get the feeling Steves assumes we are stupid Americans with no interest in French history or culture
Summary: 3 Stars
When my family all went to Paris last year this was one of the books we purchased to prepare for the trip. Luckily I bought a few additional, more thorough, guides because this one missed the boat on a few amazing spots. This book by Steves mentions the Pantheon, Musee Histoire and Musee de Carnavalet only in passing and really only to imply that they aren't worth going to. This is a huge error, these sites were some of my favorite places that we visited! Steves mentions something like "only well-read people or historians would recognize the names of people buried in the Pantheon". Does he mean unrecognizable people like Voltaire, Madame Curie, Antoine de St. Exupery, and Victor Hugo? Plus I found the Pantheon absolutely staggering in its size and beauty. It was one of my family's favorite spots. He also dismisses the Musee Histoire and Carnavalet, but these places were equally interesting. Maybe I'm easily impressed, but the Musee Histoire houses such gems as letters from Charelemagne, Voltaire, and a young Louis XVI's journal, as well as the fabric book that Marie Antoinette chose swatches from for her dresses. The Musee Carnavelet has Parisian artifacts from Roman times through the Revolution to the present, definitely worth a visit. One room, painted of a circus in the clouds, entirely in deep reds and grays was breathtakingly beautiful, and I have never seen its equal in Europe. I imagine in the grand scope of things, these places may not compare when pressed for time to places like the Louvre, San Chapelle, or the D'Orsee, but I thought they were amazing. Rather then give them the brush off, Steves should have more accurately described them and given the reader a chance to choose. I only found out what these places housed when reading other guides. This makes me not trust his judgment and I would certainly never trust a travel guide of his for anywhere else without some additional resources. Oh, and please excuse my bad French, I am writing these names from memory, and may not have the spelling correct.Book Review: less than complete, a bit jaded, but still a few good tips -
Summary: 3 Stars
So Mr. Rick is starting to show his age a bit (or maybe it's the market he's targeting that is aging him..) This book would be best for somebody who is (a) middle aged and (b) has never been to Europe/Paris before. (And maybe (c) from Seattle, with that singularly provincial and self-satisfied worldview.)
Now of course if you've achieved middle age and have not yet been to Paris (and maybe are from Seattle to boot), then you're probably unsalvageable anyway, in which case you may find the cutesy, and generally fairly shallow, descriptions of what is worth seeing there amusing, or at least tolerable - I found them more annoying. A much better choice for cultural insight of appropriate depth would be the Michelin Green Guide.
More annoying is the lack of some basic details, e.g. how to find/grab the train from the airport to town - as with instructions in general, you are probably better off with nothing than with something as incomplete and confusing as provided in this case, when you need it most, in your transatlantic jetlagged funk; at least then you'll start out knowing that you are on your own and will need to sort things out.
To this book's credit, it does provide advice of sufficient accuracy to be quite useful on museum access/logistics, e.g. closing days, why it's worth getting a museum pass (which it is), connecting to versailles - but even here it's not perfect, and most of what matters you could grab with a quick reading in the library, or even the bookstore.
All in all, I'd give this one a miss - it's not worthy of its subject, which is an easy 5 stars!
Paris remains quite enthralling, and more than worth your time/money/effort - the place has always been expensive, but worth it, and that is manifestly still the case, even with the dollar in freefall. Go and have a good time, but don't expect to do it on the cheap!