Why a Booktrail?
1995: Adam Gopnik, his wife, and their infant son left the familiar comforts and hassles of New York for the urbane glamour of Paris
Paris to the Moon: A Family in France
What you need to know before your trail
This is a man’s perspective of moving from the US to Paris. His innocence is evident at the start to the reality he faces and understands better at the end.
He will only stay in Paris for 5 years and then must return to New York but not before he has experienced everything that Paris has to offer –
Travel Guide
Gopnik sets out to experience for himself whatever the city has to offer. Like other American writers before him, he wants to walk the path of the Tuilleries, to enjoy philosophical discussion in cafes.
Rue Saint Sulpice
This lies at the heart of the novel as it’s where the novel opens as this is the street where he sees a painting ‘ A railroad from Paris to the moon’. This painting and its title will have a huge effect on him and if you are in the area you should look for the shop and if you don’t find it, there’s always the remarkable Church nearby.
The fabled life of an American in Paris however is not as fabled as he would like.
Gopnik falls in love with Paris’s daily life, the Frenchness of it all – from the cafés, the little shops, the ancient carousel in the park and everything in between. But Paris can also be a difficult city to love, particularly its pompous and abstract official culture and red tape. Paris likes to keep itself as French as possible but it fears globalisation and it is these two sides of the city which Gopnik studies.
An ode to Paris and Parisian idiosyncrancies.
Streetview Maps
C) Paris - Small archway which the author loves
D) Paris - Pont des Arts
Where Next?
