Knopf Mapguides: Paris: The City in Section-by-Section Maps Paperback – January 7, 2020

This little book is a nice combination of guide and map. I'm somewhat obsessed with finding the perfect guidebook every time I take a trip ... I often buy more than one just to be sure I don't miss anything. While it's great to have that kind of information on hand, it's best to have on hand back at the hotel in my suitcase rather than weighing down my purse while I'm out sightseeing. I read through my big guidebooks, then made a few sticky notes with a few things I wanted to remember and stuck them on the relevant pages of this one to take with me. After all, who needs to lug a guidebook containing things like hotel information around all day?This is a great size for carrying in a purse. It's also small enough that my husband can be persuaded to stow it in his jacket. Even better!The book starts out with a double-page horizontal fold-out showing a map of the entire city divided into 10 sections. (Arrondissements are roughly shown but not drawn out.) Each section then gets its own two-page vertical fold-out, including a larger map. Points of interest are reviewed, including a number of restaurants, cafes, bars, shopping, and things to see. There are lots of color pictures on every page. The maps include Metro stops and there's also a Metro map of the city in the back.The section maps are MUCH easier to read than the little maps you can get from the hotels or at the Metro stations. Not only is the print bigger, but the maps themselves are not as unwieldy as a regular map. I felt just a little less touristy reading them.I sometimes wished there was just a little more detailed information, but that would make for a bigger, heavier book. Overall, I think they did a good job of balancing the need for information with a manageable size.

I did a week-long solo trip to Paris and got this to help me get around as I'd never been there before. I love to walk and found that using this map either before setting out from the hotel or while en route somewhere to be accurate and very easy to read. It folds up easily so it went into my small backpack without taking up much room. The streets are well marked as are the sites most visitors to Paris would want to see. If you're concerned about the data cost of using a smart-phone's GPS or suddenly you have no battery life left, this is a great option to have with you.

This is a TERRIFIC little pocket guide, once you've decided what you want to see. There are brief lists of the 'top ten' sights, and information on lodging and transportation, including a subway map. Where this excels is with the maps. For each of six major areas of the city, you open the guide to descriptions of the restaurants, bars, and shopping in the area. The pages feel very thick, almost like you're reading a young child's cardboard book. But like magic, the pages unfold UP, not from side to side, so you're looking at a double-page map that takes up roughly 3/4 of the page, with the bottom section highlighting the tourist attractions (museums, churches, palaces, theaters, piazzas) in the area -- brief descriptions, addresses, hours, phone numbers, and color photographs. The index lists several hundred sites you may want to visit, and references them back to the appropriate map. They have been incredibly efficient in cramming so much information into such a compact design. Very well done!

My wife and I spent 10 days in Paris in July 2013 and we carried this little book everywhere we went as it weighs next to nothing. The beginning of the book showed the arrondissement and the corresponding pages. We love how the pages flip up to just the section we were exploring. It also has the metro lines on the back of the book.Note, however, treat this book for what it really is ... it's basically a well organized map. It has a tidbits of must and should-see places for each sections and some recommended restaurants, but for all intent and purpose, this served only as a map for us. We did our Paris planning by visiting various websites and utilizing other Paris related travel books.One final note, when we were travelling, we were never completely lost. We always knew where we are at any particular point and where we're going. I'm not sure if this map was meant for you to get completely lost in Paris (e.g., take the metro and get off at wherever your heart desires) and figure out where you are. I'm sure you can figure it out quite easily, but the book doesn't have a list of all the street names and corresponding pages like a true atlas does. But people in Paris are friendly ... just figure out which arrondissement you're at, open up the map and say, "Bonjour, I'm a lost tourist, can you tell me where we're at?" :)Buy this book and enjoy your trip.

I have at least 5 of these Knopf books. They fit easily into purses and large pockets and the area by area fold out maps help you avoid the giant unfolded map situation. I like it for identifying sights and providing a good map, but sometimes the restaurants/bars are gone, the hours might be wrong, and Knopf doesn't include the prices for sights. So you might see a museum and want to go, and when you show up it's $$$ and you might change your mind. It's a great supplement and worth it for the map convenience.

Sturdy pages, lightweight, easily fits into my pocketbook. I appreciate the petite size, as well as the fact that the maps each expand when "popped out", so they end up bigger than 2 open pages. The font is easy to read. Metro stops, street names (even tiny ones) are all marked legibly. I loved that the pages were NOT glossy, so I could highlight streets we planned to walk along on the way to a destination. I also added dots to note locations of favorite restaurants, with notes in the margin. The maps overlap, and there is a great large map of the entire city illustrating how they overlap. So if your destination is on the edge of one map's page, you can just go to another map to find it in the middle of a the page. A brilliant book! I will buy one for each city I travel to. We own Las Vegas and Paris, so far...

The best part of these guides are the sectional maps, very handy. Not certain how practical the shopping and dining recommendations are for most travellers. But a good overview nonetheless.

Excellent little book - pocket size, fold out maps, all attractions. Perfect for touring the sites.

Terrific and concise little guides for people who get overwhelmed by too much information. These offer a few special ideas to make your visit a lot of fun.

Brilliant!

These are the BEST. They are super lightweight and fit easily into a purse, ready to be plucked out when you are looking for direction in the midst of aimlessly wandering a foreign city! They are often older so the restaurant info and/pricing may not be up-to-date, but I am personally not concerned about that. My only wish is that they had them for more cities!