Paris Buildings and Monuments

• Hardcover - 01 June, 1999 - Harry N Abrams
• Usually ships in 4 to 6 weeks
• By: Michael Poisson
• ISBN: 0810943557

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About this book

Few cities can approach the quality and number of Paris's distinguished buildings and streetscapes. But if you go there to find those treasures, you'll miss most of them if you lack a good guidebook. Michel Poisson is a Parisian architect who spent the last several years sketching the city's buildings and urban spaces, locating them on maps of his own devising, and providing the requisite data and commentary.

His book is organized by arrondissements, the city's traditionally defined districts, and each entry includes a short building description or comment, a freehand drawing, an address, date, and the names of the closest metro station, the architect, and the patron. The last is a nice touch usually lacking in architectural guides. Nor is that the only unusual element of this book, which is as singular as a Citroën deux chevaux. It is larger and heavier than a normal guidebook--6.5 inches by 9.5 inches, 464 pages, and about 3 pounds--which may limit its portability on the field. The hand-drawn maps are a bit funky, and the illustrations vary from rich and full of character when showing older buildings to simplistic and inexpressive in the case of some newer projects.

Still, it's an amazing effort for one person: 200 maps, 535 entries, 650 drawings, and all the research and prose that goes with them. Poisson is a savvy urban explorer, and he steers readers not only to obvious sights such as the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Centre Pompidou, and Notre-Dame but also to scores of old and new places that you might never find on your own. And while it's easy to get disoriented in this complex city, you won't lose your place in the book--it thoughtfully features a bound-in red ribbon bookmark. --John Pastier

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Reviews by readers

A superb achievment. Wonderful illustrations and maps

Paris Buildings and Monuments is the superb achievement of Michel Poisson, a Paris architect. He made more than 850 drawings showing more than 500 well-chosen buildings. These drawings show everything that you need to know to decide whether to visit one of these buildings. Many of the drawings are front elevations. Some are floor plans. Others are three-quarter views. Still others are bird's-eye views.

Thanks to his carefully thought out design, the author makes it easy for you to find any of these building. First, he has organized the books to follow Paris's system of arrondissements. The book begins with the 1st Arrondisesment and continues, arrondissement by arrondissement, through the 20th Arrondissement.

There's an excellent, handdrawn map for each arrondissement, showing the exact location of each building described in the text. Also, there are smaller maps of neigborhoods within arrondissements, as well as bird's-eye views of larger building complexes such as the Louvre.

There is ample text describing each building, including the name of the architect who designed it and the name of the patron who paid for its construction.

The author shows the location of the Metro station nearest each building and makes it very easy for you to reach each building.

Essential for the Architectural Enthusiast

Arranged by arrondissement, each chapeter begins with bird's eye view perspective drawings that make walking tours a facile visual delight. Full of exquisite treasures that one cannot find in other architectrural guides. One example: the old Bibliotheque National with its splendid reading room. Historical background with each entry. Worth the price for just the ink drawings. Would be spoiled by mere photographs. Superb in every way. Pair with Anthony Sutcliffe's "Paris, An Architectural History" and understand Paris better than the experts. Valuable even if Paris is not in your itinerary.

splendidly comprehensive, but thin on detail

This is, I believe, the most comprehensive one-volume catalogue of the notable buildings and quartiers of Paris. Some customer reviews criticise its lack of photos, but Poisson's elegant line drawings highlight the architectual character of his buildings and give the book a pleasantly personal touch. There are plenty of alternative books with photos. The Amazon.com review points out one disadvantage of the book. It is rather bulky in size and in weight--mainly as a result of its good-quality paper and its large quantities of white space. These features make it very pleasant to peruse, but not very practical as a guide book. It is best used as a review of one's past on-the-spot experiences or as a planner for future ones. The other weakness is that the text is very scanty. Most buildings are treated in only a sentence or two. The comments are always judicious, but one would like more.

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