Paris Quiz: How Well Do You Know Paris?

I bought this gift for a friend who frequently goes to Paris. She Loved It!

PARIS QUIZ: HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW PARIS is the perfect item of choice for both travel libraries strong in European history and culture and as a gift choice for any Francofile. Some four hundred provocative and curious trivial questions offer multiple choice queries on Parisian culture and history perfect for a fun game.

This is a fun and fact filled book about Paris. My daughter, who lived there for a time, loved it.

Dominique Lesbros annoys me. I've been to Paris a gazillion times, lived there for months, get around without a map. I not only have favorite restaurants, I have favorite dishes at them. I'm looking right now at a concert stub from a top-ten-ever Bruce Springsteen concert at the Bercy Arena. And, for an English major, I have read a shelf of French history and fiction. I like to think I could get a C on a quiz about Paris. Now comes Ms. Lesbros with 400 "provocative, curious and humor questions [about Paris] to enlighten and entertain". Her pitch: "Let's forget for a moment the arduous Paris, the everyday Paris, and look at the capital in a new light. What if Paris were nothing but a giant playing field? What if the roads, the monuments, the statues and the history of the capital were the pretext for a thousand questions?" Okay, a history and culture quiz. I can handle that. But only on a level playing field. Which this is not: "The questions that follow are each provided with three possible answers, one true, the other two far-fetched, deceptive, treacherous at times. But be careful! In exceptional cases, more than one answer may be correct. Will you be able to recognize them?" Will I? More to the point, can you? Let's take the book out for a spin, shall we? Here are 10 questions, not chosen for excessive difficukty. In 1870 the Prussians were at the gates of the capital. How were the Parisians able to prevent the statue of Napoleon I (which is today located in the cour des Invalides) from falling into the hands of the traditional enemies of the Empire? a. They covered it in plaster to disguise it as a Roman goddess b. They submerged it in the Seine c. They hoisted it into a tree, hiding it in the foliage The Eiffel Tower, constructed for the World's Fair of 1889, was supposed to be demolished shortly thereafter. What saved it, in 1909? a. Its aesthetic qualities, praised by three hundred artists in a petition b. Its technical, scientific and military usefulness c. The greed of a private company, which had already glimpsed a juicy profit in it Another about the Eiffel Tower: How long did it take to pay off the loan that financed its construction? a. 1 month b. 1 year c. 10 years What kind of prisoner was housed in the Bastille? a. Highwaymen and pickpockets b. Deserting soldiers c. Aristocrats and men of letters How long did it take to transport the obelisk in the 1st arrondissement presented to France by Egypt in 1830? a. 5.5 months b. One year, one month and one day c. Two years and 24 days Who is the only woman entombed alongside 60 great French men under the dome of the Pantheon? a. Marie Curie b. Simone de Beauvoir c. Flora Tristan Who is Rodin's "Thinker" and what is he thinking about? a. Dante, thinking about his "Inferno" b. Balzac, thinking about a novel c. Apollo, thinking about seducing the nymph Coronis How often is the Unknown Soldier's flame lit to the sound of a bugle? a. Every evening b. Every Sund