SaintGermaindesPres, John Baxter
SaintGermaindesPres, John Baxter
List: $16.99 | Sale: $11.89
Club: $8.49

Saint-Germain-des-Pres
Paris's Rebel Quarter

Author: John Baxter

Narrator: Graham Halstead

Unabridged: 4 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/08/2016


Synopsis

For many years, Saint-Germain-des-Prés has been a stronghold of sans culottes, a refuge to artists, a paradise for bohemians. It's where Marat printed L'Ami du Peuple and Thomas Paine wrote The Rights of Man. Napoleon, Hemingway, and Sartre have all called it home. Descartes is buried there. Now bestselling author and Paris expert John Baxter takes listeners on a narrative tour of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which is also where Baxter makes his home.

Tucked along the shores of the Left Bank, Saint-Germain-des-Prés embodies so much of what makes Paris special. Its cobblestone streets and ancient facades survive to this day, spared from modernization thanks to a quirk in their construction. Traditionally cheap rents attracted outsiders and political dissidents from the days of Robespierre to the student revolts of the 1960s. And its intellectual pedigree boasts such luminaries as Pablo Picasso, Arthur Rimbaud, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Simone de Beauvoir, Gertrude Stein, and Albert Camus.

Part-history, part-guidebook, Saint-Germain-des-Prés is a fresh look at one of the City of Light's most iconic quarters, and a delight for new tourists and Paris veterans alike.

About John Baxter

John Baxter has lived in Paris for more than twenty years. He is the author of four acclaimed memoirs about his life in France: The Perfect Meal: In Search of the Lost Tastes of France; The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris; Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas; and We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light. John, who gives literary walking tours through Paris, is also a film critic and biographer whose subjects have included the directors Fellini, Kubrick, Woody Allen, and most recently, Josef von Sternberg. Born in Australia, he lives with his wife and daughter in the Saint-Germain-des-Pres neighborhood, in the same building Sylvia Beach called home.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kristy on August 07, 2017

3.5 stars - Rounded up John Baxter is an Australian who has lived in Paris for 30 years now. He's written books on food, the nightlife, and beautiful walks in Paris. He now has a goal of writing a short book for each of Paris's arrondissements, or neighborhoods. Last year he started with his neighbor......more

Goodreads review by Patricia on January 02, 2017

If you want a book that makes you feel homesick for Saint-Germain, this is it. Having walked the 6th Arrondissement with the author earlier this year, I felt that I had returned there as I turned the pages. I was even taken aback when I turned to page 179 to see a photo of the author with a fromagie......more

Goodreads review by Jean on January 03, 2021

Lovely meander through Saint Germain, exploring the history, art and literati that called this corner of Paris home......more

Goodreads review by Eesha on July 25, 2024

I peaked......more

Goodreads review by Andie on September 05, 2017

John Baxter, apparently finances his life in Paris by writing about the city and giving specialized walking tours of the same. This book on Saint-Germain-des-Pres was interesting because this is my favorite arrondissement in Paris. And Baxter knows his stuff and is full of interesting stories of who......more