Paris Buildings and Monuments

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.

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.