A Walk Through Paris

"Eric Hazan, author of the acclaimed The Invention of Paris, takes us by the hand in this walk from Ivry to Saint-Denis, more or less following the dividing line between the east and west of Paris, or what you could call the "Paris meridian." He chose this itinerary without much consideration, but later on it became clear to him that it was no accident, that this line followed the meanders of his life, begun close to the Luxembourg garden, led for a long time opposite the Observatoire, and continued further to the east, in Belleville, his current home, but with long spells in the meantime in Barbès and on the north side of the Montmartre hill. Under the effect of the peerless mental exercise that is walking, memories rise to the surface street by street, even very distant fragments of the past on the border of forgetfulness. In this walk across Paris, almost every step evokes for the author memories of childhood and adolescence, his study and practice of medicine, and eventually his work as a publisher, along with those of the city and its successive layers of epochs and events"--