We'll Always Have Paris

For more than a century, Americans and Britons have made their way to Paris in the hope of experiencing what these classic lovers found. Most were tourists, but many had other motives, from discovering art to finding a romantic husband or a rich wife; from escaping political persecution to gaining a sex education. In a gossipy blend of hearsay and fact, Baxter takes us behind the scenes of the vibrant, all-night show that is Paris. A visit to the literary cafes of Hemingway, Fitzgerald and de Beauvoir is quickly followed by an extensive tour to the parts most guidebooks leave out. These include famous brothels of the Thirties such as the Sphinx, patronized by Marlene Dietrich and Duke Ellington, and Le Chabanais, where Salvador Dali sated his fantasies, and where Edward VII kept a sumptuous champagne bath for his favourite girls. Interleaving his own experience of falling in love, John Baxter offers us an alternative cultural tour. His unique and idiosyncratic bank of knowledge of films, books and the visual arts provides a witty and audacious insight into Europe's most romantic capital. You will never see Paris in quite the same way again.