I do understand that when I go to Paris, I’m not going to see the same sights that my father did in the 1950s. But, author Christophe Destournelles and photographer Christophe Lefebure show some of those hidden gems were still there in 2014 when Old-fashioned Corners of Paris was released.

Carousels! Cemeteries.Tarot card readers. Antique and second-hand booksellers on the banks of the Seine, otherwise titled “Riverside Reading”. There were still close to 250 bouquinistes, booksellers, in the stalls by the river. Punch and Judy shows. Jazz. Oh, and “confectionary stores – where visitors put aside their resolutions and forget the passing of time as the immerse themselves in sheer bliss….Travel there alone or in convivial company.”

I’m traveling to Paris with convivial company, and it’s a friend who gave me this charming book. The photos bring back moments I never knew, but any reader of books set in Paris will hunger to see those scenes. If you’re a reader, do you find pictures enchanting, feeling as if you’ve already seen that place or that setting? This charming book takes us to places that are vanishing. But, I’m sure that an eager traveler, willing to look in out-of-the-way spots, will still find glimpses of the past.

Ireland was more wonderful than I ever imagined. Old-fashioned Corners of Paris shows that a traveler with an open heart and appreciative eyes can still find secrets in that city. I’m eager to discover moments of enchantment there.

Old-fashioned Corners of Paris by Christophe Destournelles. Photos by Christophe Lefebure. Translation by Simon Beaver. New York Review Books. 2014. ISBN 9781936941100 (hardcover), 194p.

*****
FTC Full Disclosure – The book was a gift.