Paris Out of Hand: A Wayward Guide

This imaginary guide to Paris is full of surreal imagination that will just make you smile. Helpfully divided up into sections on hotels, restaurants, the nightlife, sights, etc., you'll read about places and services you've never dreamed of! What a shame, they don't really exist! Peppered thoughout the text are helpful French expressions translated into English such as "Do you have a ladder so I can reach your airmail clerk suspended from the ceiling?" You can read some guest comments for the hotels which of course, are also bizarre, and learn about special services such as a kidnapping service or a food tasting service (so you don't get poisoned). The book has some quotes from real people too and the lavish artwork gives it an other worldly feel. It will transport you immediately to a wonderful alternative reality Paris.

There's a reason why this little book is subtitled "a wayward guide." The inverted Eiffel Tower on the cover should be a warning to those of faint imagination, that this book is not your father's Fodor Guide. Rather, Paris Out of Hand, is a handy guide to the hotels with fold-down balconies, volume controls on the phones for those who don't speak French, and turn-down services which leave a fish on your pillow. It is full of helpful French phrases, so you will never be caught short not knowing how to ask: "Do you come to this noctambupark often? Are the bats given annual rabies shots?" ("Venez-vous souvent a ce noctambuparc? Est-ce que les chauves-souris recoivent leurs piqures de rage annuelle?") It is loaded with delightful factoids such as: "Some Parisians don't have sheepskin covers for car seats, but drive around with live sheep in the laps. Thus 'Revenons a nos moutons!' is also the cry of the man roaming the levels of the parking structure in search of his bleating Peugeot." It's liberally illustrated with wondrous and slightly mad collages as fascinating as the prose.If you cherish journeys of the mind, then this book is for you.

Curiously, my local bookshop stocks this wonderful book in the "Travel" section. From the cover with the inverted Eiffel Tower to the hilarious "hotel features" icons, even the least adventurous armchair traveller can deduce that this is indeed a unique tourist guide. It is a guide of sorts: taking the Parisians on at their own game it transforms a city known for its absurdities into a whimsical looking-glass world where nothing is as it seems. Bantock's incredible illustrations and the feast of found images adorn the author's intoxicating prose. She lets us peek at the acidic comments written in the guestbooks of fictional hotels. Her cafes reek of gitanes and hallucinogenic pseudo-reality. Paris Out of Hand is a one-off classic, and my only complaint is that the type fades far too quickly from the cover with the inevitable constant handling. I've bought several copies and given them all away as gifts. Now I'm getting one for myself.

What an unusual way to spend a day, month, or maybe just an hour at one of the many strange & somewhatout of this world cafe's & hotels. You would think that maybe that wrong turn you took ended up being on another planet besides earth, so what ! these places are so much fun & entertaining than why worry if a person is on some other solar system ! The characters & places are never boring, I can say that I was entertained through out this entire book. I would recommend it to anyone

A great "guide" to Paris for those who have been there, and for those who've not (like me). The hotel guide was by far the best of the "guide sections." The cover, showing the Eiffel Tower upside down is the best clue as to the book's contents. I look forward to the day when my my travels will include Paris and the "Cafe Conjugal" I will be sending a copy of this book to a dear friend...who teaches High School French... for her birthday in January. Congratulations to all of the authors!