The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris

As a Francophile, I looked forward to reading Baxter's book with eager anticipation. Unfortunately, my eagerness was not rewarded with the quality I had hoped for.By the title, The Most Beautiful Walk in the World - A Pedestrian in Paris, one would expect the author to write about walks in Paris. In fact, out of 37 chapters, there are only about four such walks -- and the first walk begins on PAGE 94! Before that, we are treated to Baxter's attempt to LEAVE Paris (Chs. 1 - 5), a diatribe on LOS ANGELES, and a walkabout in AUSTRALIA (wasn't this supposed to be a book about PARIS???) Suggestion: just start on page 94.Nearly all of the SHORT chapters have LONG quotes, paraphrases and/or borrowings from other more accomplished authors, such as Hemingway, Orwell, Adam Gopnick, Morley Callahan, John Glassco, Art Buchwald, and Noel Riley Fitch. As such, the book takes on the quality of an anthology, rather than an original work. Suggestion: if you want to read a quality work about Paris, read these other authors, as I have done (Gopnick also has a good, GENUINE anthology on Paris).Baxter is an obvious Hemingway wannabe, considering his heavy reliance on A Moveable Feast throughout his book. But Baxter never quite manages to capture the spirit of the city as Hemingway and the other writers after him, despite Baxter's reliance on these other writers who do. Instead, he devotes a couple of chapters to Terence Gelenter, another undistinguished expat doing typical - and boring - touristy things - WHY???Baxter is a cinephile and is eager to show off his knowledge by punctuating many chapters with irrelevant snippets about old movies. Unless you have an encyclopedic knowledge of old films, Baxter's asides will mean nothing to you, and really add nothing to the time and place of Paris. This leads to another problem with this book: a stream of consciousness writing style that is totally out of place for what is supposed to be a series of Hemingway-like vignettes. Some examples:"Narrow Streets and crowded tenements lent themselves to house-to-house warfare. They pestered him for broad avenues . . ." (Huh? "They" pestered "him?" The narrow streets pestered somebody??? The tenements pestered somebody???)"And passing the shop selling travel souvenirs, I noticed that its stock included modern copies of antique tins. After work, the laundresses returned to Montmartre." (What? How did we get from souvenirs and tins to laundresses???)"Even though it was Sunday, dozens of men stood silent on the opposite corner. Edmund White came here in May 1981 to stay with friends." (Huh? How did we get from present day 2012 to 1981 in the course of two sentences???)In sum, Baxter heavily borrows from others because (in the opinion of one who has read many books on Paris) he is not a very interesting storyteller. The best chapters are his four walks -- at least there we have some originality. I give the book a generous "C."

Anyone who has ever stood in front of a group expected to provide a vivid, engaging, and memorable explanation as an "expert" will connect with John Baxter. What John Baxter provides in "The Most Beautiful Walk . . ." is much more about connecting his "clients" to Paris than it is about the tourist checklist. He becomes the "accidental" tour guide, brought in as the rookie substitute to replace the high-priced academic expert who has flopped with a group attending a high-priced literary seminar.Baxter's own passions for Paris as a walking city provide the storyline for what is really a "Bad News Bears" story line. The under-prepared, accidental tour guide finds spectacular success because he comes to understand that finding a personal connection to Paris for his clients is what works. This starts with a discourse on the drug culture of the 1920s prompted by the chance sighting of a hooka in a shop window. The Ivy League tourists love the edginess. Baxter learns to bring something of Paris to his clients' interests. My favorite chapter in that vein deals with a couple of loud and boisterous women from Texas. Everything is bigger, better, more modern in Texas. Nothing catches their fancy until he takes them to the haunts where Hemingway, et. al., put on the free nosebag. Free food -- a buffet -- lights their fire, and they become converts to the cult of the Parisian literati. They are thrilled with the rest of the day. They found a connection.Those who want to find a guide to Paris in Baxter's work certainly have better alternatives. Baxter offers a number of interesting contextual insights into urban life, and why Paris is a walking city, while so many other cities are not. Still, "The Most Beautiful Walk . . ." is really most suited for those who have faced a group expecting an enlivening, engaging tour or presentation. How do you "grab" that group and get them fired up, on your side, and ready to go? The book is a meditation on becoming a tour guide in Paris. How did he get his inspiration? How does he communicate it to his clients?

On 2 of our many visits we stayed in a hotel in rue Odeon. Loved it and the area but wish I had the history that Baxter explains at those times. It was the area of Paris that we loved most. I recall one cool morning 20th June my wife’s birthday we went to a cafe on the corner for breakfast. From the cold wind my wife had a tear in her eye. “Madam is sad?” Asked the waiter. “No I am very happy .It is my birthday, and with a “Bon Anniversaire” he kissed her cheek. Could only happen in Paris.

I've been to Paris a number of times and I love the city. I also like reading Paris books. This is not a book for first timers nor is it a book that will provide you with much practical tour information, if that is what you are seeking. The walking described is not the "begin at Point A and finish at Point B" type.This book is primarily (but not exclusively)about the Latin Quarter, where the author lives, and concentrates on the more "colorful" side of the Quarter, particularly as pertains to the American expat literary figures who haunted the area.This is definitely an entertaining read. The author is a long time resident, married to a French woman and apparently fluent in French. He also works part time as a guide. So it is clear that M. Baxter is very much a part of the city he loves. I learned quite a few tidbits about places I've been to and not been to. If you are a lover of Paris, you will enjoy this book.

Be warned that the title of this book is misleading: this book isn't about "The Most Beautiful Walk in the World". Instead you discover in the last quarter of the book and in just a few sentences that the walk referred to just happens to be the street in Paris in which the writer lives, in which there is some character and colour and in which a number of famous persons have lived in previous decades and centuries. And even this street is not described in any detail in any part of the book!The first quarter of this book is spent in a kind of long preamble about walking in various cities, and only after the author completes this preamble does he begin to occasionally share some interesting information about Paris. As other reviewers have pointed out he also spends a great deal of the time throughout the entire book name-dropping, either idolising people (usually writers) who once spent time living in Paris, or telling us of personalities he has met in his lucrative employment in Paris as a tour-guide.The essence of this book is really this: if you want to be a sought-after tour-guide you must introduce your group of walkers to the food and drink of Paris while telling them anecdotes about anything salacious. In other words, don't focus on giving them facts, information, data.Consequently Baxter gives the reader of this book very little interesting information about the French capital and one realises by its end that he's been spinning a yarn to spin himself some money.However, Baxter generally writes well, and occasionally he does dispense some information of value.

Definitely intended for the "typical" tourist, i.e. American, this book nevertheless does give insights into the "real" Paris and the French as they really are. I'm sure many who yearn to go to Paris but know little about it outside typical literature (Hemingway…) would enjoy this book, which is more of an introduction - and the message that one should take a little more time, wander the streets and just simply sit down occasionally, comes across very clearly.

Not a guide book! But once you realise that it is beautifully written and captures so much of the essence of being in paris. Great escapism with occasional mentions of places one wants to note and call in to in future. It would be useful to know when the writing refers to as I felt it was written quite a long time ago. Another reason why this is better as an imaginary journey, prompting memories of past visits to Paris, rather than as any kind of guide for the future.

At last, a book that really lives up to its title. This is not just an entertaining amble through the streets and boulevards of Paris, it is also full of distractions, particularly of a literary nature. So we are diverted into the cafes of Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald, how and why the characters of the late 19th century lived, and places to seek out when you are lucky enough to return to the City of Light. C'est magnifique!

Certainly not your normal travelogue. More a series of humorous anecdotes, from the broken door-lock, via the opium pipe, to the Swiss performance artist and Marlene Dietrich, with Paris as a backdrop. I really liked the author's style, and his descriptions of the numerous, often eccentric, characters who intersperse the stories. When next I travel to Paris I'd very much like to hire Mr Baxter for a day as a tour guide!