Books to Read When Visiting Paris

hi everyone I'm Miranda and welcome to my youtube video today I'm sharing some of my favorite books to read when you're going to Paris February is one of the most romantic months of the year as Valentine's Day falls in February and Paris is certainly the most romantic city today on my podcast Cian title I interviewed the author of this book the littler museums of Paris by Emma Jacobs and this is a little bit of a quirky guide to Paris in it she talks about some of Paris's small little known museums and galleries which gifts are really interesting take to the city and the Jacobs is an artist herself so she brings that artistic eye to the observations she makes and she has illustrated this guide so it's a very quirky but very interesting guide if you're going to Paris then this would be an excellent companion because Emma really introduces her reader to lots of museums that you've probably never heard about before I'll put my link I'll put my interview with Emma in the description box down below if you'd like to listen to it but basically this video has been inspired by my chat with Emma because I thought as well as showing you her book I will show you a whole pile of other books that I think will be lovely to read if you're visiting Paris this month or at any time in the future first up is a book for all of us fashion lovers this is mrs. Harris goes to Paris by Paul Gallico I also am lucky enough to have the first edition of the book which was called flowers for mrs. Harris it was republish as mrs. Harris goes to Paris later I wanted to show it to you because I think the cover is so so gorgeous but mrs. Harris goes to Paris is all about London ciao woman who really wants to buy a Dior dress she's had this dream for years of going to Paris and purchasing her very own Dior dress it's set in the 1950s and it starts when mrs. Harris has saved up enough money that she can afford to go and buy this dress and the book is all about what happens when she gets to Paris and she realizes it's maybe not quite as simple as she thought it would be to buy a Dior dress and it's about the people that she meets in Paris and it's just such a lovely heartwarming fun witchy story so yes this would make a lovely read if you're going to Paris particularly if you're buying some luxury fashion whilst you're there next I have the dud avocado by Elaine Dundee this is the book to read if you're going to Paris as a single woman and you just want to have fun it's very much what the heroine of this book does again it sets I think in the 1950s and it follows the adventures of a young American girl in Paris it is partially based on Elaine dundies own experience of her time when she worked for a little while as an actress in Paris but the heroine of this book dyes her hair pink and decides she's going to have a wonderful time her name is sunny and she has lots of affairs with men while she's in Paris and she just lives the good life shall we say but yes this is an excellent book to read if you're going to Paris as a single woman and you want to have fun then Sally can guide you with that okay another great Parisian read is the blessing by Nancy Mitford this is all about a young English woman who marries a very dashing charismatic Frenchman and she moves well first a romance with him and then to Paris and she's a little shocked by the Parisian lifestyle where men tend to have miss stresses and wives tend to have lovers and this is just a very very funny story about grace learning how to cope with motherhood and the blessing she has is the child that she has in the book learning how to cope with her marriage and learning how to cope with life in Paris has a rather naive English girl it's a really fun read I love a Nancy Mitford this is part of her love in a cold climate and the pursuit of love series if you haven't read this yet then please do I also have a first edition well the first American edition of the blessing I wanted to show you as well I love it when I can collect some original editions of some of my favorite books I always get really excited so I thought I would just share them with you when I get a chance next up we have I love you too much by ELISA Drake I interviewed Alyssia auntie and tattle as well I'll put a link to that interview in the description box if you'd like to listen to it this is a very different take on Paris and Lucia lived in Paris for many many years and during her time there she observed some of Paris's elites shall we say some of the very wealthy he lived a very wealthy district of Paris but the glamorous surface often covers far from glamorous secrets and truths although this book is called I love you too much it's very much a book about not being loved enough it's told from the perspective of a young teenage boy who is really neglected by both of his parents and this is really beautifully written unless he actually wrote the novel first in French before she wrote it herself in English because she really wanted to get that feel of French dialogue right and she really did it really just feels like French when he reads this book and I think it captures a certain part of Paris that as a tourist you wouldn't really come across very very well so another one I recommend to add your Paris list next up its the Everyman's pocket classics Paris stories edition so this is a collection of short stories I love short stories especially when they're done like this to actually give you a taste of Parisian culture and literature I think that this would make a great book to read if you're traveling to Paris and you just want to get a little taste of different stories that cover different aspects of Parisian life so yes this short story collection would make a great addition as well of course I had to mention my life in France by Julia Child which is really all about falling in love with French cuisine I adore French food myself I love the story of Julia Child and went to Paris with her husband I think this is actually a very sweet love story as well because they had such a happy marriage together and such a supportive marriage but it really tells about how Julia fell in love with French food and then also brought it to America through her famous cookbook but there are some wonderful descriptions of Paris as well as a food in this book so this is a real classic to read another foodie parisian memoir is paris my sweet by Amy Thomas I interviewed tight Amy auntie and Cattle so I'll put a link to that discussion in the description box too this is all about Amy's I think it was about a year that she spent in Paris she moved there from New York and it's an interesting one because in some ways she didn't quite fall in love with Paris as much as she thought that she would she is obsessed with sweets so she loved that aspect of Paris going and finding all of the best patisserie play since to try out and I loved traveling with Amy through Paris in that way she gives lots of great recommendations for places to try bear in mind this book was written a few years ago so some of those recommendations may be out of date but a lot aren't and also Amy's attitude of going out of trying all of these different types of patisserie and going to different areas of Paris is really inspirational I think and her passion for her subject is very infectious although like I said she also discovered that some parts of adapting to crazy in life were actually quite difficult for her so this is a really interesting read and or any interesting perspective on Paris that I really enjoyed another foodie man what I do like my food mmm was this is lunch in Paris a love story with recipes by Elizabeth bard so this is another sort of classic Paris story I think that you would think of again it's about an American woman who moves to Paris she falls in love with a Frenchman she falls in love with French food and she writes about it in this memoir I love Elizabeth bards writing and I've interviewed her on my podcast as well and she's such a charming person but this is a really sweet love story I love that there are also real recipes interspersed throughout the text and if you love food if you love Paris and you'll definitely enjoy this book I've also included this in my palm it's called when in French by Lauren Collins Lauren was the first person who interviewed auntie and tattle so this book has always been special to me for that reason technically it's not about Paris it's set in Geneva in Switzerland but it is all about Lauren learning French it's also a love story because again she is an American but she met a Frenchman when she was living in London fell in love with him ended up moving to Geneva to be with him and in front Geneva she moved to Paris which she loved much more than Geneva I used to live in Geneva and I actually loved Geneva but Lauren does not which is interesting to read from that perspective as well but why I'm including this one in my Paris book list is because it really is all about the French language Lauren talks about not only her own sort of personal struggles with learning the language and how that impacted on her relationship and as on her life living in a foreign country but she also goes into some of the linguistics of French and it's just a really fascinating well researched intelligent book and when I would definitely add to your list if you're learning French you speak French you're just interested in its interested in other languages and this is a great book to read then a guide book I would recommend is this one Sundays in Paris and insiders guide to the best places to eat drink and explore the I do Sundays in Paris is I think the idea of having just this kind of days where you get to amble around at your ease doing whatever you want to do and this is a very sort of gentle guide to Paris but it has really interesting recommendations of different shops and restaurants and it's one eyeball quite recently and definitely made me want to go back to Paris as soon as possible so if you're looking for a good pack Paris guidebook then I think this one would be an interesting one to look at and it gives a bit different recommendations from you know just the standard that you can get in any guidebook then finally I have Paris in bloom by Georgiana Lane again I interviewed George on Elaine in my podcast so if you'd like to listen to that the link is down below Georgiana Lane is an amazing floral and city photographer within a special passion for Paris she's an American but she's lived in Paris a lot and her beautiful Instagram feed which is at Georgiana Lane features lots and lots of gorgeous images from Paris this is the first in her series of sort of city in bloom books she's ER in Paris and bloom New York and bloom and then London in bloom is coming out this March which I'm really excited about but if you love Paris if you love romantic floral images of the sort that you can really get I think only in Paris then this is the book for you as you can see it's just stunning it's such a romantic book it's a perfect February gift it would be a perfect Valentine's Day gift I think because it's so romantic and it's so beautiful but those are all of my recommendations of books to read if you're heading to Paris and please give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it I hope you did enjoy my recommendations I'd love to hear from you if there are any books about Paris set in Paris that you think I would enjoy I know there are so many out there I had to leave out quite a few from this pile but I'd love to get your recommendation so do you leave them in the comments down below but thanks so much for watching do you subscribe if you'd like to see my future videos you can subscribe by just clicking on my face here but yes thank you for watching and I'll be back again very soon with another video bye

Channel: Miranda Mills

Views: 2,989

Rating: 4.9824562 out of 5

Keywords: books, booktube, bookstagram, reading, paris

Id: 0hb-f11NFus

Length: 14min 58sec (898 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 08 2020