France · Travel writing
The Most Beautiful Walk in the World
John Baxter approaches Paris on foot. Streets lead to cafés, cafés to writers, writers to scandals, and a simple walk can wander into history, food, sex, crime or some half-forgotten corner of the city.
His Paris is built through digression. To walk through it is to encounter layers of other people’s stories, and Baxter happily allows himself to be distracted by whatever appears around the next corner.
It is the outsider’s gaze at its most attentive: still fascinated by Paris, but less interested in the postcard than in the pleasure of noticing.
Walking; Literary history; Paris; Everyday life