Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light

· Blackstone Audio Inc. · Narrated by Max Winter
Audiobook
9 hr 55 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

Swapping his native San Francisco for the City of Light, travel writer David Downie arrived in Paris in 1986 on a one-way ticket, his head full of romantic notions. Curiosity and the legs of a cross-country runner propelled him daily from an unheated, seventh-floor walk-up garret near the Champs-├ëlys├®es to the old Montmartre haunts of the doomed painter Modigliani, the tombs of P├¿re-Lachaise cemetery, the luxuriant alleys of the Luxembourg Gardens, and the aristocratic ├Äle Saint-Louis midstream in the Seine.

Downie wound up living in the chic Marais district, married to the Paris-born American photographer Alison Harris, an equally incurable walker and chronicler. Ten books and a quarter-century later, he still spends several hours every day rambling through Paris and writing about the city he loves. An irreverent, witty romp featuring thirty-one short prose sketches of people, places, and daily life, Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light ranges from the glamorous to the least-known corners and characters of the world's favorite city.

About the author

David Downie, an American journalist based in Paris since 1986, has written about European culture, food, and travel for magazines and newspapers worldwide. He was a Paris correspondent for Salon.com, Departures, Appellation, and Art & Antiques and has contributed to many websites. He is currently a blogger for Gadling.com, the popular literary travel site. The author of more than a dozen works of nonfiction and fiction, Downie’s writing has also appeared in many anthologies, among them The Collected Traveler volumes on Paris, Southwest France, and Central Italy; Salon.com’s Wanderlust; Travelers’ Tales: Adventures in Wine; and By the Seat of My Pants.

Max Winter is the pen name of producer Chris Goldberg, founder of Winterlight Pictures. A former literary scout for 20th Century Fox, Chris was involved in the rights deals on Gone Girl, The Martian, and The Fault in Our Stars, all of which were #1 New York Times bestsellers and #1 at the box office. Since founding his own company, he has set up feature films and series at Netflix, Amazon, Universal, Lionsgate, Showtime, MGM, and others. He wrote “Retro” one night on his phone when he couldn’t sleep.

Diane Johnson is an American-born novelist and essayist. A two-time finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in three different genres—essay, biography, and fiction—she is the author of a dozen novels, including Le Divorce, Le Mariage, and L’Affaire. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books and splits her time between San Francisco and Paris.

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