About this item
Elaine Sciolino, the former Paris bureau chief for the New York Times, invites us on a tour of her favorite Parisian street, offering an homage to street life and the pleasures of Parisian living. "I can never be sad on the rue des Martyrs, " Sciolino explains, as she celebrates the neighborhood's rich history and vibrant lives. While many cities suffer from the leveling effects of globalization, the rue des Martyrs maintains its distinct allure. On this street, the patron saint of France was beheaded and the Jesuits took their first vows. It was here that Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted circus acrobats, Emile Zola situated a lesbian dinner club in his novelNana, and Francois Truffaut filmed scenes fromThe 400 Blows. Sciolino reveals the charms and idiosyncrasies of this street and its longtime residents the Tunisian greengrocer, the husband-and-wife cheesemongers, the showman who's been running a transvestite cabaret for more than half a century, the owner of a hundred-year-old bookstore, the woman who repairs eighteenth-century mercury barometers bringing Paris alive in all of its unique majesty. The Only Street in Paris will make readers hungry for Paris, for cheese and wine, and for the kind of street life that is all too quickly disappearing. "
About the Author
Elaine Sciolino is the author of five books of nonfiction, including the New York Times bestseller The Only Street in Paris and La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life. She is a contributing writer and former Paris bureau chief for the New York Times and has worked as a foreign correspondent in countries around the world. In 2010, she was decorated as a chevalier of the Legion of Honor, the highest distinction of the French state, for her "special contribution" to the friendship between France and the United States. She and her husband have lived in Paris since 2002. www.elainesciolino.comwww.facebook.com/theriverthatmadepariswww.instagram.com/elainesciolino/
