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| Subtitle | An Underground History of the City of Light |
| First Written | 2008 |
| Genre | Travel |
| Origin | France |
| Publisher | Walker & Company |
| ISBN-10 | 0802716954 |
| My Copy | library hardback |
| First Read | June 30, 2011 |
Metro Stop Paris
The older history is really fascinating, and the initial essays about death (Denfert-Rochereau) and birth (Gare Du Nord) are particularly rich.
Noted on July 13, 2011
This is not a travel guide, but rather a series of essays about the history of Paris - each one centered around a stop on Paris' Metro. It's unevenly interesting, but gives a real sense of texture for the Parisian traveler. Or so I hope!
Noted on July 13, 2011
Historians today often mock the fears contemporaries expressed of 'the mob' and the 'dangerous classes.' But historians do not have to walk the streets of Paris in the days when they were lit by oil and gas lamps -if lit at all. And they do not have to face the scream of the mobs in the revolutions of1789, 1830 and 1848, which could be blood-curdling; nor have they sat amongst the kinds of crowds that gathered for a nice drawn-out public execution. Paris was not simply picaresque, it was fetid and savage.
Quoted on July 13, 2011
Men called meneurs travelled around France seeking wet-nurses who would cater to Paris's needs. In 1866 half the children born in the city, that is around 25,000 babies out of a total of 53,000 births, were nourished by mercantile breasts supplied by the outlying rural economy. 'Trading on one's breasts has become a means of earning one's living,' a report as late as 1898 noted.
Quoted on July 13, 2011