Paris Out of Hand: A Wayward Guide
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Book Overview
From the author of The Transitive Vampire, comes an invitation to a strangely illuminated City of Light, Paris out of Hand. This seductively beautiful replica of a 19th-century travel book--replete with illustrations of sights you will never see and maps that may plummet you into a different era--guides readers through the Paris that is, that might be, and that never was. Amid the Parisian locales you know and love, unheard-of temptations abound. If your visit to the Cafe Conjugal ends in a spat, you can make up at the luscious and fantastic Museum of Lips and Books. From the disconcerting Brasserie Loplop, steal your chair for the Cinema Pont Neuf, whose movies flow onto the Seine. Your curiosity sated for the day, check into Hotel des Etrangers, where phantoms change the sheets and your room in the middle of the night. Unhandy glossaries help you talk your way through these provocative encounters, with such apropos comments as J'aimerais sortir avec votre hyene pour boire un verre (I'd like to take your hyena out for a drink). A rare and rowdy entertainment that dares its readers to explore a Paris one can only wish existed.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0811809692
ISBN13:9780811809696
Release Date:August 1996
Publisher:Chronicle Books
Length:160 Pages
Weight:0.74 lbs.
Dimensions:0.8" x 5.3" x 7.3"
Customer Reviews
5 ratings
Seductive, surreal and humourous
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 23 years ago
This imaginary guide to Paris is full of surreal imagination that will just make you smile. Helpfully divided up into sections on hotels, restaurants, the nightlife, sights, etc., you'll read about places and services you've never dreamed of! What a shame, they don't really exist! Peppered thoughout the text are helpful French expressions translated into English such as "Do you have a ladder so I can reach your airmail clerk suspended from the ceiling?" You can read some guest comments for the hotels which of course, are also bizarre, and learn about special services such as a kidnapping service or a food tasting service (so you don't get poisoned). The book has some quotes from real people too and the lavish artwork gives it an other worldly feel. It will transport you immediately to a wonderful alternative reality Paris.
Dreams Guaranteed, Nightmares Extinguished
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
There's a reason why this little book is subtitled "a wayward guide." The inverted Eiffel Tower on the cover should be a warning to those of faint imagination, that this book is not your father's Fodor Guide. Rather, Paris Out of Hand, is a handy guide to the hotels with fold-down balconies, volume controls on the phones for those who don't speak French, and turn-down services which leave a fish on your pillow. It is full of helpful French phrases, so you will never be caught short not knowing how to ask: "Do you come to this noctambupark often? Are the bats given annual rabies shots?" ("Venez-vous souvent a ce noctambuparc? Est-ce que les chauves-souris recoivent leurs piqures de rage annuelle?") It is loaded with delightful factoids such as: "Some Parisians don't have sheepskin covers for car seats, but drive around with live sheep in the laps. Thus 'Revenons a nos moutons!' is also the cry of the man roaming the levels of the parking structure in search of his bleating Peugeot." It's liberally illustrated with wondrous and slightly mad collages as fascinating as the prose.If you cherish journeys of the mind, then this book is for you.
Is it a guide? Is it a novel? No! It's a work of art!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
Curiously, my local bookshop stocks this wonderful book in the "Travel" section. From the cover with the inverted Eiffel Tower to the hilarious "hotel features" icons, even the least adventurous armchair traveller can deduce that this is indeed a unique tourist guide. It is a guide of sorts: taking the Parisians on at their own game it transforms a city known for its absurdities into a whimsical looking-glass world where nothing is as it seems. Bantock's incredible illustrations and the feast of found images adorn the author's intoxicating prose. She lets us peek at the acidic comments written in the guestbooks of fictional hotels. Her cafes reek of gitanes and hallucinogenic pseudo-reality. Paris Out of Hand is a one-off classic, and my only complaint is that the type fades far too quickly from the cover with the inevitable constant handling. I've bought several copies and given them all away as gifts. Now I'm getting one for myself.
Whimsicial journey through the streetsof Paris.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 27 years ago
What an unusual way to spend a day, month, or maybe just an hour at one of the many strange & somewhatout of this world cafe's & hotels. You would think that maybe that wrong turn you took ended up being on another planet besides earth, so what ! these places are so much fun & entertaining than why worry if a person is on some other solar system ! The characters & places are never boring, I can say that I was entertained through out this entire book. I would recommend it to anyone
AN ABSOLUTE DELIGHT
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 28 years ago
A great "guide" to Paris for those who have been there, and for those who've not (like me). The hotel guide was by far the best of the "guide sections." The cover, showing the Eiffel Tower upside down is the best clue as to the book's contents. I look forward to the day when my my travels will include Paris and the "Cafe Conjugal" I will be sending a copy of this book to a dear friend...who teaches High School French... for her birthday in January. Congratulations to all of the authors!
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