Pleasant enough read (despite a very sloppy Swedish translation), though pales next to what someone like Peter Ackroyd has done for the other burg across the channel; Deutsch is too hung up on buildings and kings to ever write much about life in the city itself, and at times feels almost as dismissive towards the ordinary parisians as the noblemen whose lives he finds much more interesting. That my edition completely lacks illustrations and maps doesn't help. But sure, it gets the job done, acts as a guide both to the city and how history has left its marks in the present, and teases enough anecdotes and stories to make you want to dig deeper.

Personal aside: The next time someone over here mumbles "You know, in France they wouldn't stand for this, they'd take to the streets and build barricades" I'll just shrug and reply that I'm fairly happy about living somewhere where it's not a given that every conflict is resolved through violence.