IF YOU ARE EVER PLANNING A TRIP TO PARIS THEN THIS BOOK IS ALL YOU NEED. THIS BOOK IS YOUR BIBLE. IT GOES INTO GREAT DETAIL EVERY SECTION OF PARIS WHICH CONTAINS A STREET MAP OF THAT SECTION, CHURCHES, MUSEUM AND PLACES OF INTEREST. THE PICTURES THROUGHOUT THIS BOOK IS OUTSTANDING. THERE IS A LARGE SECTION FOR HOTELS AND RESTAURANT, AND SHOPPING IN EACH SECTION OF PARIS. THERE IS A SECTION OF GETTING AROUND PARIS WHETHER BY METRO OR BUSSES WITH A MAP OF ALL THE METRO STOPS. YOU CAN TAKE A PARIS VACATION OR A PARIS EXPERIENCE THROUGH THIS BOOK, IT IS UP TO YOU. SO ENJOY ONE OF THE GREAT CITIES OF THE WORLD PARIS " THE CITY OF LIGHTS" THROUGH THIS BOOK. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED

This book is just chock full of fabulous ideas and tips. A great book for people who relate to the visual as well as the written.Paris (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE)

Purchased the guide as a replacement for a borrowed guide that got wet while we were in Paris. This one came with a wear/water resistant cover and was very nicely arranged for quickly finding the locations and areas of interest.

this is a great simple guidebook for a short trip to paris. it's very easy to absorb, but there are deeper sections if you want to know more. perhaps we had the latest edition but we did get a quick overview of the trendiest spots in paris - perfect if you're travelling with a pack of teenage girls...

the only problem is that it's a bit heavy. i'd have carried even more often if it were lighter.

We have just returned from Spring Break in Paris and the "Paris: Eyewitness Travel Guide" was our guidebook for our trip. Of course, the photo illustrations in any DK book are always impressive, and since I always like to see where I am going and what is to see there without having to Google everything, that was an obvious plus with this book. I must admit that II do not really think about this particular book as a guidebook for getting in-depth information about places; when I want that sort of information I get a guidebook at the place (only thing I bought on the trip were guidebooks and postcards). In practical terms this guidebook functioned as our menu for the trip, allowing us to see what was available and when you could visit, which was crucial because visiting hours change based on the month and the day (my biggest piece of advice based on this trip is that if you can go see the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay at night--Wednesday and Thursday respectively--you will enjoy them a lot more without the massive crowds during the day).

For me the best part of this guide book ended up being the maps. Paris is gridded out in 18 maps in the back of the book and for each region of the city there is a general map of the entire area with "Sights at a Glance" marked along with metro and train stations. Add to the mix the Paris Metro and Regional Express Railway (RER) map inside the back cover, and we found it incredibly easy to find things. We got a 5-day Metro pass and had the fortune of our hotel being right down the street from the Montparnasse Bienvenile station, which was the intersection of several metro lines (plus linked to a train station which allowed us to go to Chartres and be back by 1 in the afternoon). Except for a bus tour/river cruise the first night and a side trip to Versailles, we did not have our trip planned out. We had a list of things we wanted to see and each day would pick a starting point and work out our other options as we went along. These maps were great for making that relatively easy. Nor did we feel that we were restricted to the restaurants in our area because we were able to use our maps to head off into the night and find them.

The only exception would be the maps of the Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise and Cimetiere du Montparnassem because they were not extremely helpful in trying to find several of the graves I was trying to track down. Those of Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison are easy to find because there are also several people standing around them, but finding those of Moliere, Sarah Bernhardt, and Samuel Becket were much harder. The guide does provide tiny icons representing what the graves actually look like, but the locations can be troublesome, especially when the graves are not right on a walkway. But there are detailed maps for Pere Lachaise and signs at the entrances that you can photograph with your digital camera and reference as you walk about (courtesy of your magic zoom button).

I bought the book a year before our trip, when my impromptu suggestion that we go to Paris for Spring Break was derailed by the lack of a current passport. So there is a minor concern that information is not totally current. On the one hand the Musee de l'Orange with Monet's water lily series was open, but the one place my wife wanted to go, the restaurant atop La Samaritaine, was derailed because the department store was closed. As long as you suspect that these sort of things are always going to happen (I felt sorry for the law students visiting the Louvre to discover that the Code of Hammurabi was not on display), you should be able to roll with these punches. Final word of advice regarding this particular guidebook: Make sure that you have a purse or a coat with pockets large enough to accommodate the peculiar not quite "pocket" size of this guide.

I must say that this guide was exactly what I needed, but also I must confess that another thing came up since I have been traveling to Europe for some time now. I didn't realize or wasn't even thinking about travel insurance?? I mean we all have insurance, that covers us while we are in the US, but not for traveling abroad. I recently planned a second trip to Germany, but wasn't sure if my insurance company policy would take care of minor details in my policy for things I am not sure I have thought about. I am not saying I might or might not be covered, but I need peace of mind when it comes to my family. I then called my HR to find out general things about traveling abroad and "What would happen if" scenario's. I wasn't going to read my lengthy policy, even if I did I wouldn't understand the legal double-talk anyway not being a lawyer and all.

My HR told me everything would be ok, and I shouldn't worry. But some thing in the back of my mind said call again and asked the same questions to see if the results would be the same from another Representative, to my surprise, it was. Ok then, not feeling a warm feeling of confidence in my HR responses. I didn't have much time to keep doing the research, so I looked up travel insurance and started to focus my attention on getting some basic package to cover me and family while we were abroad. There are a lot to choose from, but again this became confusing. So I came across www.securemytravelonline.com which had an aggregate of different well known insurance companies. I choose AIG with a basic plan and the rest was history. Also I didn't know you can insure your travel and luggage also in case of theft, flight cancellation etc. I thought I would share something from one avid traveler to the next. Overall a GREAT Guide and I have bought another copy for my friend. Paris is in my opinion the most beautiful city in the WORLD...period.

Take care.
Carl>

Upon receiving my Eyewitness Travel Guide I was so drawn into the detail and ease of use in finding many interesting facts and hints. My wife and I have both taken turns looking through the guide and have been able to create an itinerary, map our routes, and find places of interest and things we want to see. Everything is in an easy to understand format. There were things we found in the book that we had no idea were an option on our upcoming honeymoon. Traveling to a place you have never been to can be very intimidating but I can honestly say that after receiving this little gem of a reference tool my wife and I are even more excited about our trip.

Jason S.
St Cloud, FL

The maps, pictures and layouts in this book were all extremely helpful to our visit, as was the descriptions of major attractions.

I found, however, that the recommendations and listing for hotels and restaurants (the key to any good vacation) were extremely limited (probably less than 1% of the places in the city were listed) and somewhat dated.

The maps, pictures and layouts in this book were all extremely helpful to our visit, as was the descriptions of major attractions.

I found, however, that the recommendations and listing for hotels and restaurants (the key to any good vacation) were extremely limited (probably less than 1% of the places in the city were listed) and somewhat dated.

I loved this book! The maps are excellent as they are different from regular maps, it is like looking down on the town and you can see where each building is. Offers unusual sights to visit and a lot of needed information. I am excited about our upcoming trip

I just returned from a visit and found this guidebook very usefull while planning my trip but a bit less so once on the ground in Paris. The neighborhood maps and sections are accurate and helpful but I found the book a bit clumsy and large to carry around. I recommend getting this a few weeks in advance and using it to prepare but find something a bit more compact to use once there.
Recommendations on sights, shops , etc were good. I didn't use the restaurant guide as much. The Metro map on the back cover was helpful but is available all over Paris and in each station as well.

I purchased this book in preparation for my upcoming trip to Paris in 9/2008. I didn't realize that I had already purchased a copy a few months ago when I first started thinking about going to Paris. Nonetheless, I don't mind owning two copies--the book is full of information about Paris and there's cool information about the history of Paris. I guess I could bring one copy to Paris with one--I'm sure it will be battered with use, so now at least I'll have a fresh copy at home for my next visit...

This was this best thing we took with us on our honeymoon - no pre-planning needed! The maps in this book were great, especially the metro map, the info by neighborhood, etc was so detailed that it helped plan our daily itineraries and even showed us a few things off the beaten path. I highly recommend this book for both travelers who have been to Paris many times and those who haven't been before.

just bought two of these books for a european holiday. they are fabulous books. they made planning my itinerary very easy and i love the detailed information included with all the major sites.

however, there are two shortcomings.

- the maps are not very good. there is no overall paris map that is usable in any way. we had to go to a hotel and find one of the free tourist maps in order to really make our way around the city. also, they break up the city onto 16 smaller maps but there is no way to easily navigate from one map to another. we found ourselves lost frequently.

- the recommendations for food were quite lacking. yes, this is paris and there is a patisserie on every corner, but it would have been nice to find out which ones stand out from the crowd. we were unimpressed with the small restaurant section.

if i could, i'd give the book 4.5 stars. the strengths of this book more than make up for the two shortcomings.

This book was perfect for my trip to Paris. Used it lots and lots every day. The maps were particularly good.

The graphics, images, and maps are really well done, and cover many of the places you would want to visit. However the actual textual information is remarkably limited, leaving you to judge how to invest your time based largely on the pictures. In addition, the guide is careful to provide no cost information at all for any attractions.

I would recommend this guide only in combination with another guide that provides more information, background, and cost information. This was the only tour guide I had, so I don't have a specific recommendation for the companion to this one. You should read the reviews of the other Paris guides with an eye towards what is missing in this one. With that guide, I think this one is in fact worth the money and, perhaps more importantly, the space in your carry-on baggage.

I do highly recommend Sandra Gustafson's "Great Eats Paris" and "Great Sleeps Paris", which are far better and much more comprehensive than the corresponding coverage you would find in this or any other Paris guide book.

My husband and I just traveled to Paris for our first anniversary, and we bought this book to help us plan our trip. It was perfect! It's full of great information about the city and various sights to see. It also contains maps that came in very handy! The book also contains a couple pages of important phrases in French - not much, but enough to help you get by! I always buy the travel books from this series when I travel, because they are so appealing to look at! Rather than just containing pages and pages of text like many travel guides, these books are full of great pictures, maps, and photographs. A great travel guide!

This guidebook really helped me on my trip to Paris. There's lots of good, up to date info and maps.

This book gives a little history and insight into Paris. This is the second Eyewitness I have purchased and LOVE IT! It not was invaluable while we were there but a great memory book of the places we saw.

If you are planning a trip to Paris or enjoy remembering your trips through travel guides, the Eyewitness Travel Paris Guide has a lot to offer. While planning a trip you can read all the detailed descriptions and then later also gain perspective on where you are in Paris through the detailed maps.

If you plan to take a river tour or want to know what it feels like to have the Mona Lisa follow you around the Louvre (really she seems to see you no matter where you are standing by her portrait), then this book gives you an idea of where you will be at any point in time on a tour. A tour is an excellent choice, but this book will give you all the details you need to truly appreciate your Paris experience.

Full-color illustrations show details of the Seine and all the essential places to visit including the Musee du Louvre, Notre-Dame Cathedral and Eiffel Tower. Details are given on how to take a Seine Cruise and with this book you will be able to identify the buildings along the river as you cruise by them on a pleasure-cruise boat. Some of the highlights include information on:

Place du Tertre - highest point in Paris, also see the Street-by-Street map of Montmartre
Champs-Elysses
The Louvre Collection - Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa and a Gallery Guide
The History of Paris
The Palace and Gardens of Versailles
Eight Guided Walks - Choose from a variety of 90 minute walks around Paris
Restaurants
Where to Stay

If you love the travel guide for Paris, you may also want to look for the Eyewitness Travel Provence & The Cote D'Azur.

~The Rebecca Review

If you are planning a trip to Paris or enjoy remembering your trips through travel guides, the Eyewitness Travel Paris Guide has a lot to offer. While planning a trip you can read all the detailed descriptions and then later also gain perspective on where you are in Paris through the detailed maps.

If you plan to take a river tour or want to know what it feels like to have the Mona Lisa follow you around the Louvre (really she seems to see you no matter where you are standing by her portrait), then this book gives you an idea of where you will be at any point in time on a tour. A tour is an excellent choice, but this book will give you all the details you need to truly appreciate your Paris experience.

Full-color illustrations show details of the Seine and all the essential places to visit including the Musee du Louvre, Notre-Dame Cathedral and Eiffel Tower. Details are given on how to take a Seine Cruise and with this book you will be able to identify the buildings along the river as you cruise by them on a pleasure-cruise boat. Some of the highlights include information on:

Place du Tertre - highest point in Paris, also see the Street-by-Street map of Montmartre
Champs-Elysses
The Louvre Collection - Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa and a Gallery Guide
The History of Paris
The Palace and Gardens of Versailles
Eight Guided Walks - Choose from a variety of 90 minute walks around Paris
Restaurants
Where to Stay

If you love the travel guide for Paris, you may also want to look for the Eyewitness Travel Provence & The Cote D'Azur.

~The Rebecca Review

Even if you don't venture to the city of lights you'll enjoy this beautiful little gem of a guide. We found it to be imperative on our recent trip to Europe and they offer a condensed "Top 10" version as well.
Priceless!

Used these books before in both Paris & Italy in conjunction with the Rick Steve's Guides.

I especially like the DETAILED street maps & easy open Paris Metro Map.

With the two books, you can't go wrong.

The Eyewitness Paris travel guide is a beautiful and fun book to read before a trip to Paris, then purchase a real travel guide to take with you. It's a great guide for armchair traveling.

The Eyewitness Paris travel guide is a beautiful and fun book to read before a trip to Paris, then purchase a real travel guide to take with you. It's a great guide for armchair traveling.

This is the best and most informative travel book on Paris. The illustrations are splendid,with so much information on Paris! Beautiful colour plates, Dorling Kindersley are excellent publishers, the best ever. I am very happy with this book. I highly recommend it.

This book is very well laid out and user friendly. Very detailed in explainations and directions. I recommend it to anyone traveling to Paris, whether you are a first time visitor or have been there many times.

the pictures, the words, the organization...this is the perfect resource for any armchair traveller preparing in thought or deed to travel to Paris...the information is up to date, fresh, interesting, and thorough.

Nice pictures, good maps and narrative. A little short on details which would help you plan your trip, such as how to order tickets, make reservations via internet, etc.

The City guides have all the basic information you need to figure out where to go and how to get there. The only weaknesses to the book are (1) lack of "human interest" anecdotes (such as you find in a Rough Guide), (2) very little detail on hotels and restuarants, and (3) lack of good pricing data. If I had to limit myself to 2 or 3 books when visiting a city, this would be one I would take.

For anyone traveling to Paris this is a must have travel guide. It clearly lays out region by region in a city that is too large to conquer in a short period of time. It is best to see Paris in this way and it will ensure that you see everything on your trip. Following top 10 lists takes you out of your way and you miss the smaller more elegant parts that are not in some travel books. Recommendations on hotels and restaurants are top notch. Highly recommend for anyone taking a trip that wants to see all of what Paris has to offer.

Language phrases was very helpful. Maps and info good

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.

Traveling without doing any research is a recipe for sub-par trips and missing many things that you would want to see if only you knew where to look. The problem with most travel guides, though, is that they are great sources of information on hotels, restaurants, and attractions but they have few pictures if any. Yet, when you travel to a place such as Paris, there are many attractions that have great visual appeal. How can you possibly select or prioritize among them without seeing pictures of them? Paris may be the most beautiful city in all the world but you won't get a true sense of that from most travel guides.

This is where the Eyewitness Travel Guides come in handy. While not comprehensive in covering the details, this guide has photos of many of the landmarks that await you in Paris. The book is an excellent starting point and can definitely help you decide what you want to see while visiting the City of Light. I highly recommend purchasing it along with a more detailed book such as Frommer's to get a truly comprehensive comination of source material to help you plan your trip.

If you are a grown-up and want context for your travels, this series brings it. They figure, reasonably for me, that you already know how to shop and that club-hopping is not the be-all and end-all--and that, if it were, you would probably be able to suss all that out.

No no no. Paris has history and you get a well-digested if detached version of it. Paris has neighborhoods that were villages, and you get a nicely laid-out approach to each, including well-marked maps and a variety of delights in each. Paris has a wealth of all kinds of cultural attractions, and you get a sense of many many many of them (and how to get to them). Paris has flavors, and I find the authors' characterizations accurate and evocative.

I admit that I find the lists of restaurants disappointing, in that those listed are very very safe and therefore less interesting, but I am good at reading a restaurant from its menu, and enjoy going to places where English is not spoken and where the locals hang out. Others might find the establishments exactly what they want.

By the way, the editors are scrupulous about updating information and maintaining accuracy. I wrote to them about a minor error, and they not only responded, but thanked me with a freebie. Great attitude, and it shines on all the (glossy high clay-content) pages. In fact, that is my only real complaint about this book: it is a heavy little package, and I would not want to carry it around with me. As a reference, however, it is very fine indeed.

The Eyewitness guides are known for their full color photos which make them an interesting read for armchair travellers. However, they are also known for being a little light on travel information, and this holds true for the Paris edition as well. You get lots of great photos of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and of the art treasures of the Louvre, so this guide is actually a good one to get in the early stages of planning your trip. The full-color photos will help you to decide which areas and sights you would like to see most. However, when you're ready for more serious information, you'll have to look elsewhere. Perhaps this book would be good for those who are travelling with a package tour, but those who are travelling independently will need to get another guidebook. Basically, if you can only afford one guidebook, then I recommend getting something else, but if you have the cash to buy two or three guidebooks, then you won't regret adding this one to your collection.

Maybe it's not the most practical guidebook, but wow, it sure is gorgeous to look at! I love all the pictures & history. Its gives you a feel for Paris & helps you pick places to see when you go.

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.

I recently spent about a week in Paris and this book has everything you need to know to plan a comprehensive trip that will allow you to visit every major attraction/landmark there is. Get this book for your trip to Paris. You will regret it if you don't.

I am a novice traveller, but yet a lover of history. I purchased 4 books in these series to each place. Great read both on the plane ride AND while I am there. Does it have everything....no. But, it is easy to carry and gives you a good frame to work with.

In preparing to go to Paris for the first time, this book is fast becoming my best friend and travel companion. What other travel books lack in logistics, this more than makes up for. The way the book is divided so that you can look by region or by interest is very helpful. There are plenty of different maps with varying levels of details, for whatever your need. Fantastic.

I would have given this book 5 stars, but I was quite disappointed by the hotel section. Unlike Rick Steves, these good people think that the average traveler can spend $75-$100 per night for accommodation, which is not always the case. It definitely isn't mine. Also, this book is quite heavy - literally - which will mean that it stays in the hotel, while Rick Steves goes with me out & about in Paris, helping me travel like a temporary native (I recommend checking him out too. His books are very user-friendly).

Still, it's a great guide for the first-time traveler, and I suspect will serve me even better for my second visit.

My work has provided me with the opportunity to travel a good bit. I am the type of person who wants to get a working background for my destinations, both in terms of history and geographic layout. Because I work, I don't have a great deal of time to spend reading and studying different, often lengthy, travel guides before or during my trips.

Because these guides are concise, beautifully illustrated, relatively compact, and impeccably organized, I cannot recommend highly enough the Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Travel Guides! The DK Eyewitness Travel Guide is THE guide I buy for every destination. Not only do I get a quick history and background of the destination, but I also will be provided with a visual guide to everything. The visual detail is really what sets the DK Eyewitness Travel Guides apart.

The street maps of common destination points are drawn in dimensional detail so you will visually recognize when you "get there." This is particularly helpful when you don't speak the native language.

The regional maps are colorful and concise. However, the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide really shows its stuff with the drawings associated with attractions such as museums. Their presentation of museum layouts allow the traveler who is short on time to quickly see the best of the museum within the time the traveler has to spend. This book's guide to the Louvre alone is worth the twice the price of the book.

Each DK Eyewitness Travel Guide has a good summary section in the back with practical information about where to eat, where to sleep, what to do, and how to get around.

While I may supplement the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide with others for a more detailed travel guide, the other guide is only more to read, not more to see. Buy the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide first for any destination.

I found this travel guide to be quite useful. The color pictures were great in helping me associate the descriptions to the sites. Another great feature of the book is the brief historical blurbs. They were long enough to be informative but were not overwhelming. The "useful phrases" included in the book came in handy, although I did come across several instances when I wanted to say a few things that weren't included, but I guess that why phrase books are available!

I think most people would agree unanimously that this is the best guide to Paris you will find. The only one that I got that could be put on the same level was the British AA guide to Paris. However, for most people this is more than you need. It will help you plan your trip in detail starting from the choice of hotel, the destinations in and around the city you might pick to fit your time schedule, to how to get there and what to do once you do. In other words you can make the best of the time you are in Paris.

As always these books are beautifully illustrated but it is always more than mere eye-candy because you will find them critical in finding your way around the city. It really helps to orient you when you find detailed pictures of the buildings in an area clearly drawn into the maps. It certainly saved me more than a few times as I wandered around this city. Public transport routes were also easy to find when you needed them too.

If you think you can get by with a cheaper guide beware - you may be seriously short-changing yourself. I started with book lent by a friend and I kept reading the same pages over and over without being much the wiser. So when I got this book it was a huge relief. I got a clear plan of exactly what I wanted to do from the time I touched down in Charles de Gaulle airport. I used it to get around town, find museums, resaurants and to shop. It is completely indispensible, especially considering that it costs less than a meal at a restaurant in Paris. I suggest buying it well before you get to Paris and reading it from cover to cover and take it with you wherever you go as a quick snap reference.

The DK Eyewitness Travel Guide series is always top notch, the Paris book being a sterling example. My edition was acurate with opening/closing times for sights, great maps, interesting pictures, helpful informaton, good layout & design. Besides the intricacies of the city, outside sites like EuroDisneyLand or the Palace of Versailles are covered well.
Perhaps boderline as to whether it is a little too heavy to carry around all day, you must have it and take it with you at least as far as the hotel. this book goes well with the Access Guide to Paris.

The Eyewitness Books are beautiful. They are printed on high quality glossy paper, have magnificent photos, and are a joy to read and hold. But, I think they make better coffee table fodder than they do actual practical guide books for tourists.

If you just want to hit the most famous places, this guide would do. They do not go into depth about Paris, they stick to the tourist highlights. There are snippets of historical information about the City of Light, but they are not profound enough to justify its biggest drawback: its WEIGHT. This is an exceptionally heavy volume, and you will not like feeling as if you are carrying around 12 bricks in your "sac" at the end of the day. Trust me, if you can't live without DK Eyewitness, take their Top 10 Paris book on your sightseeing tours. It's much lighter and just as pretty as the full version.

I recommend you plan your trip with the uglier but more informative Frommers, and walk with DK Eyewitness Top 10.

I must say that I love this book. My sister and I went to Paris last April for about a week, and this book was our bible.
It was actually loaned to me by a teacher at the school were I work, who is from Paris. She said in her opinion this was the best guide for someone who is going to Paris for the first time.

I am so glad I had it with me, it was very informative, easy to understand and overflowing with useful information. One of the best pieces of information I found was that some historical monuments are free the first Sunday of the month. This was extremely useful to us, especially since our third day in Paris was the first Sunday of the month.

We ended up getting into the Norte Dome for free and a couple of other places. It was great because by that time we were beginning to feel the effects of paying the sometimes-high fees to get into most of the other historical monuments.

If we did not have this book we would have wasted lots of time trying to figure out what to see and how to get around. In response to the reviewer who said that this book does not go into depth or explain enough about the historical monuments, I say a person traveling to Paris should already have a good deal of knowledge about the history of Paris and its sites.

In conclusion, I think this book is great and recommend it to anyone going to Paris.

On a recent trip to Paris, I took along a DK Eyewitness guide for Paris as well as a Frommer's guide. In all honesty, I could have relied solely on the DK guide and been fine. The photographs are helpful when you need to locate different landmarks and structures and the maps are VERY reliable (unlike Frommer's), which is absolutely essential in a city like Paris.

If you choose DK guides that focus on a particular city or region, they are slimmer and more portable than the all-country guides. Information has been whittled down to the essentials, which I must admit has its downsides. At times I wish the writers provided more information on cultural aspects, but there are other guides for that. DK guides focus on destinations such as museums, gardens, parks, historic homes, etc. I would have to agree that the sections on hotels and restaurants are almost useless. Single sentence descriptions, although concise, aren't necessarily helpful when trying to choose an interesting location.

The best feature of DK guides is the ease with which you can navigate each guide. I've browsed through (and read) many, and they all have the same format. The history sections are useful and concise, and the divisions within each guide actually make sense. After a little while, you can quickly determine which page to flip to when you need to look up transporation tips or maps, or whatever else you might need.

As for the Paris guide, I found it informative and accurate. I do wish the guide provided more information about holidays and national celebrations. I traveled during Christmas and didn't know what to expect. I have to admit, though, that many guides don't cover holidays well. So for all of you that may wonder, the Champs-Elysees is surprisingly busy (albiet with tourists) Christmas day, the metro operates all day, patisseries, charcuteries, and other specialty food shops are open in the morning (for all those tardy shoppers I suspect), there are many eateries open in the more touristy areas, parks are less crowded and have some French families strolling about, and it IS bitterly cold. Oh, and it's sleepier the day after Christmas.

That's a good book to consult before travelling especially if it's a first time visiting Paris. I used it to plan my vacation to not waste time when I arrive there. It is very useful to plan ahead and to consult on site. I also recommend along with it Let's go map guide Paris by Inc Let's go.

The DK Eyewitness Travel Guide for Paris is a perfect product for the first time traveler to Paris. I have used it the last 3 times I was in Paris, but I found it most useful on the first trip. It also makes great reading before going to Paris. Read it on the plane!

The historic chapters are brief but essential to understanding the history of France and the city of Paris. This is especially helpful in uderstanding the revolution and the Bourbon restoration after Napoleon I under Louis XVIII and his younger brother Charles X, followed by their cousin Louis-Philippe I and the take-over of government by Napoleon III.

Medieval Paris is still present in Paris at the Louvre, Notre-Dame, and Sainte-Chapelle. Sainte-Chapelle is not easily accessed and the guide helps you find your way to the entrance of this Gothic jewel. The guide has a special section on Sainte-Chapelle, the first Gothic structure, with its thin columns holding up beautiful glass walls of red and blue.

Renaissance Paris can be found in the wonderful Place Royale (Place des Vosges). This space is amazing, and continues to be used for housing and shops after 400 years. Within Place des Vosges is the Victor Hugo Museum, showing his apartment furnished with his original furniture. Just relax in the central courtyard.

The guide color codes the various Quaters of the city, offering the highlights of each section of the city, along with suggested walking routes. This helps the travel orient to the book while walking and also helps avoid the naggig problem of missing a point of interest while nearby.

A full 22 pages is devoted at the beginning of the guide with an extended time-line showing the history of Paris and offering tips on sites to visit to capture various eras in the city's history. I found this especially useful in understanding the grand transformation of the city under Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann in which avenues and boulevards were widened, and the city became more accessible with broad grids and multiple spoke-like intersections. Because of this design, traffic jams are rare. When traveling, a slow-down on one street can be rectified by simply moving over one street. Travel patterns in the city are infinite.

The guide is well illustrated, with photographs, maps, drawings, charts and tables, all of which help the traveler orient and enjoy.

Because many travelers are in Paris only for a couple of days, the guide highlights the cities main tourist attractions and gives these sites ample explanation: Sainte-Chapelle, Versailles Palace, Pompidou Center, Musee d'Orsay, Eiffel Tower, Jardin du Luxembourg, Musee du Louvre, Notre Dame, an the Arc de Triomphe.

The guide includes a map of the metro system, which is inexpensive, convenient, and quick. However, be careful of pick-pockets at the metro stops at the major tourist sites. The gude advises you to buy a book of 10 metro rides at once for a cost saving. If you plan on being in the city long, this is a good idea.

There is a general subject index that is very thorough. For example, there are 17 entrys under Victor Hugo; 6 for Jean-Paul Sartre; and 24 for Pablo Picasso.

The maps at the end of the book were excellent and worth the price of the book. The street finder allowed you to orient yourself quickly if lost. The street finder was great for finding obscure addresses. We found the studios of Paul Braque and Nicholas De Stahl in hidden neighborhoods.

We had to use a taxi because we were late for a concert. The city is not taxi dependent like New York and Barcelona and thus taxis are harder to catch and more expensive. The bus routes are well marked and whereas they take longer than the undergound metro, you certainly see more of the city from a bus.

The guide helps explain the train system. I have come into Paris from Madrid, Brussels, and left Paris for Amsterdam and Frankfurt. It is important to know which train station to use. For example when arriving from or going to Amsterdam and Brussels you must use the Gare du Nord. When going to or arriving from Spain, you must use Gare Montparnasse. When going to or arriving from Frankfurt, you must use Gare de L'Est. you are in big trouble if you assume all these stations service the same destinations. The guide helps you sort this out so that you can use the train system in Paris conveniently.

The guide even tells you about the public toilets in Paris, which are conveniently located but the city needs far more of them. They are inexpensive and the entire little bathroom is washed down with sprinklers between users.

The street markets in Paris are wonderful and the guide tells you how to find the various markets. There are great cheese buys which you can take back to your hotel room to enjoy during your stay. The Passages are worth visiting for covered shopping. Walk down Rue du Faubourg St. Honore at least once to see the Chanel and Hermes flagship stores.

The guide also offers five guided walks. There are other books on this topic that offer many walking suggestions. This is one of the few weaknesses of the book, more suggested walks would be great.

As you can see, I found this guide to be fantastic, full of detail and pictures and maps. If I could give it six stars, I would.