Saint-Germain-des-Pres: Paris's Rebel Quarter

Written by John Baxter

Narrated by Graham Halstead

For many years, Saint-Germain-des-Pres has been a stronghold of sans culottes, a refuge to artists, a paradise for bohemians. It's where Marat printed L'Ami du Peuple and Thomas Paine wrote The Rights of Man. Napoleon, Hemingway, and Sartre have all called it home. Descartes is buried there. Now bestselling author and Paris expert John Baxter takes listeners on a narrative tour of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, which is also where Baxter makes his home.

Tucked along the shores of the Left Bank, Saint-Germain-des-Pres embodies so much of what makes Paris special. Its cobblestone streets and ancient facades survive to this day, spared from modernization thanks to a quirk in their construction. Traditionally cheap rents attracted outsiders and political dissidents from the days of Robespierre to the student revolts of the 1960s. And its intellectual pedigree boasts such luminaries as Pablo Picasso, Arthur Rimbaud, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Simone de Beauvoir, Gertrude Stein, and Albert Camus.

Part-history, part-guidebook, Saint-Germain-des-Pres is a fresh look at one of the City of Light's most iconic quarters, and a delight for new tourists and Paris veterans alike.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Nov 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781515977568

John Baxter

John Baxter has lived in Paris for more than twenty years. He is the author of four acclaimed memoirs about his life in France: The Perfect Meal: In Search of the Lost Tastes of France; The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris; Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas; and We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light. Baxter, who gives literary walking tours through Paris, is also a film critic and biographer whose subjects have included the directors Fellini, Kubrick, Woody Allen, and most recently, Josef von Sternberg. Born in Australia, he lives with his wife and daughter in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood, in the same building Sylvia Beach called home.

Reviews for Saint-Germain-des-Pres

[etxgardener · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

John Baxter, apparently finances his life in Paris by writing about the city and giving specialized walking tours of the same. This book on Saint-Germain-des-Pres was interesting because this is my favorite arrondissement in Paris.And Baxter knows his stuff and is full of interesting stories of who lived here and who drank there. Is you love Paris like I do, you'll like this book