A Walk Through Paris

A Walk Through Paris:A Radical Exploration

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A walker’s guide to Paris, taking us through its past, present and possible futures

Eric Hazan, author of the acclaimed The Invention of Paris, leads us by the hand in this walk from Ivry to Saint-Denis, passing such familiar landmarks as the Luxembourg Gardens, the Pompidou Centre, the Gare du Nord and Montmartre, as well as little-known alleyways and arcades. Filled with historical anecdotes, geographical observations and literary references, Hazan’s walk guides us through an unknown Paris.
He shows us how, through planning and modernisation, the city’s revolutionary past has been erased in order to enforce a reactionary future; but by walking and observation, he shows us how we can regain our knowledge of the radical past of the city of Robespierre, the Commune, Sartre and the May ’68 uprising. And by drawing on his own life story, as surgeon, publisher and social critic, Hazan vividly illustrates a radical life lived in the city of revolution.

Reviews

  • An ardent student of the anatomy of the city, Hazan is a keen observer with a remarkable memory: despite his limitations, he has written an unmissable account of Paris’s unique and defiant physiognomy.

    Lauren ElkinGuardian
  • Fifty years after the demonstrations and strikes of May 1968, it seems right to include a book that traces the history of radicalism, protest and attempted erasures in the City of Light. Hazan takes us on a very French journey through the French capital’s intellectual as well as urban and architectural history, illuminating forgotten markers of radical struggle alongside the architectures of empire, representation and modernity.

    Edwin HeathcoteFinancial Times
  • The writer and publisher Eric Hazan, who was born on the Left Bank in 1936, vividly evokes the atmosphere of the time in his new book, A Walk Through Paris.

    Jonathan DerbyshireFinancial Times