A Year in Paris: Season by Season in the City of Light Audiobook (Free)

From the incomparable John Baxter, the bestselling writer of THE MOST AMAZING Walk in the World, a sumptuous and definitive family portrait of Paris through the times of year, highlighting the unique tastes, sights, and changing personality of the town in spring, summer, fall, and winter.

“A man with a great appreciation of what makes Paris tick.”- Newsday

When the normal people of France revolted in 1789, one of the first ways they chose to correct the excesses of the monarchy as well as the chapel was to about A Year in Paris: Season by Season in the town of Light rename the months of the entire year. Selected by poet and playwright Philippe-Francois-Nazaire Fabre, these fresh names reflected what occurred at that period in the natural world; Fructidor was the month of fruits, Floréal that of flowers, while the winter breeze (vent) dominated Ventôse.

Though the names didn’t stick, these seasonal rhythms of the year continue steadily to define Parisians, aswell as travelers to the town. As acclaimed author and long-time Paris citizen John Baxter himself recollects, “My own appearance in France occurred in Nivôse, the month of snow, and continued in Pluviôse, the growing season of rainfall. To someone via LA, where seasons barely existed, the surprise was visceral. Attempting to adjust, I found reassurance in the literature, music, actually the food of my adoptive country, which marched towards the inaudible drummer of the seasons.”

Devoting a section of the book to each of Fabre’s months, Baxter attracts upon Paris’s literary, cultural and artistic past to paint an impacting, unforgettable portrait of the town. Touching upon the many ghosts of Paris past, from Hemingway and Zelda Fitzgerald, to Claude Debussy to MFK Fisher to Francois Mitterrand, Baxter evokes the rhythms of the times of year in the town of Light, as well as the feeling of wonder they can arouse for many who check out and live there.

A melange of history, travel reportage, and myth, of high tradition and low, A Yr in Paris is vintage John Baxter: a vicarious thrill trip for anybody who loves Paris.