The dust had hardly settled after the Napoleonic Wars before a flood of English-language guidebook writers descended on the city. Edward Planta’s 1814 guide set the standard for some generations. It also set a record for the longest guidebook title. It ran to 30 words, concluding with the magnificent “…accurately describing remarkable edifices, places of amusement and every other object worthy of attention.”

In the 200 years since Planta’s smart debut, a dozen guidebooks a year have come out on Paris and most sweep through the city without bringing much that is new to the endeavor.

Exploring Paris

But this spring, a very special new guide to Paris is on the market. Duncan JD Smith’s new book on the French capital has echoes of Planta in the full title: “Only in Paris – A Guide to Unique Locations, Hidden Corners and Unusual Objects.”

But while Planta is encyclopedic, Duncan JD Smith is highly selective and the appeal of this book is in the sheer ingenuity of the author who is an accomplished urban explorer. For Smith, Paris is a blank canvas, a place waiting to be discovered. One has a sense of a man who has conducted impeccable research but still contrives to arrive in Paris with an open mind. That’s a rare touch.

Discovering “Only in Paris” has been a real delight, and something of a surprise too. We had Smith marked down a natural citizen of “Mitteleuropa.” We ran across his guides to Vienna, Prague and Budapest and have over the years followed with interest as the “Only In” series extended to German cities and last year to Zürich. With “Only in Paris,” Smith demonstrates very convincingly that he is equally at home in the Latin world. Where next, we wonder?

Paris’ many faces

In “Only in Paris,” Smith tracks down 98 curiosities that have helped shape the texture of Paris both past and present. Each sight is the touchstone for a story. This is a delightful way to be led around a city. Smith escorts us through Capuchin quarries, up the “buttes” in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont and to the remains of the Bastille.

The book is especially strong on “Paris mondial” and nicely captures the many faces of Paris with its migrants from Africa, Indo-China, Russia and beyond. But the itinerary is not limited to the obscure and offbeat. Familiar Paris gets good coverage too, though invariably with a very novel perspective. Yes, there is something new to be said about the Eiffel Tower and the hunchback of Notre Dame and Smith rises to the challenge with authority and good humor.

Last but not least

“Only in Paris” is a great read and a handsome tribute to one of Europe’s loveliest cities. The book is published by Christian Brandstätter Verlag in Vienna. It is a volume that oozes high production values, with decent quality paper that is perfect for showcasing Smith’s photography. A German language-version, called “Nur in Paris,” is available from the same publishing house.

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We first stumbled on Jonglez’ work in Brussels, when his guidebook Bruxelles Insolite et Secret led us to parts of the Belgian capital that lie well off the regular tourist trails.

The “secret” formula

Since then books from Jonglez Publishing have become firm favorites that give us a fresh perspective on some of the most celebrated cities on the west European tourist circuit. That first Brussels book included cameo accounts of factories and allotment gardens, and descriptions of intriguing toilets and apartment blocks, to complement more predictable Brussels fare such as art and architecture. And that first guide was quickly translated into English.

Subsequent Jonglez volumes follow the same formula, though as the series has evolved the company has placed more emphasis on the supposed authenticity derived from having local authors. “Local guides by local people,” runs the blurb on recent English-language volumes covering Rome, Madrid, Venice and London. So these guides are an antidote to globalization, a chance to pause and take note of what is peculiarly distinctive about the cities covered by Jonglez guides.

Secret Paris

This is a marvelous series of books. They are all impeccably researched and well-illustrated, with little inset boxes succinctly explaining the background to the various sights. We learned, for example, why there are so many crêperies in Montparnasse and why so many Paris theaters lie north of the Grands Boulevards.

And it is not as if the Jonglez guides neglect to mention more established sights. It is merely that they reach the parts of European cities that other guides simply ignore. And the books are hugely effective in endowing the reader with a sense of having privileged access to areas of European cities that lie well beyond the regular tourist haunts.

So we must confess that, when recently in Paris, we skipped the Mona Lisa and instead followed the call of Jacques Garance and Maud Ratton, authors of Secret Paris, to see the only level crossing in Paris, visit an Antoinist temple and discover a pagoda converted to a cinema.

The series

Éditions Jonglez publish English-language city guides covering Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Florence, Geneva, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Paris, Rome and Venice. They also have area guides to the French Riviera, Tuscany and Provence.

The books are titled Secret Amsterdam, Secret Barcelona, etc. Additional titles are available in French, and some books have been translated into Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch. In the USA the books are distributed by Globe Pequot Press.

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Mainstream versus the offbeat

All well and good, if you are staring at the Mona Lisa or the Taj Mahal. But we wonder whether Google Goggles will be quite so adept at recognising a particular spot on the Russian steppes, the Hungarian puszta or on a remote stretch of Scottish coastline. Catching the essence of landscape, and indeed of most places we visit on our European travels, is about more than merely accessing a gigabyte of data on major landmarks.

What makes a place tick?

Guidebooks are certainly going through a tough time – facing competition from the more critical travel websites. The more innovative publishers are reinventing their products for a web-wise generation. But appreciating a particular place (or even a whole country) needs more than just facts, data and listings.

So it is interesting to note that while the sales of print guidebooks decline, narrative travel writing has gone from strength to strength. The reading public evidently has a considerable appetite for well written prose that really helps us understand what makes a place tick. Iain Sinclair’s London Orbital gave us a completely new take on the M25 freeway that encircles London, just as Alice Albinia’s Empires of the Indus introduced us to 2000 miles of river and 5000 years of history, while Ian Thomson’s The Dead Yard opened our eyes to Jamaica.

The spirit of landscape

We still think it worth browsing a guidebook or two before leaving home. And casting an eye over some travel websites for information on accommodation and to get a feel for the range of reactions to a place is always helpful.

But for really getting under the skin of a region or country, some well chosen narrative travel writing is essential. Travel through southern Russia without a guidebook if you really must, but don’t so much as even think of venturing to the region without having read Philip Marsden’s The Spirit-Wrestlers. Here, we think, even Google Goggles might have met its match.

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The essence of Slow Travel

A while back we published our manifesto for Slow Travel which appealed to the interests of a new generation of travelers who increasingly prioritize low impact tourism, engaging with locals and giving something back to the communities they visit. These are folks who are ever aware of their own carbon footprints.

Bradt Travel Guides

A slow travel guide by Laurence Mitchell.

So three cheers for British publisher Bradt Travel Guides, which has launched a new series of guides devoted to Slow Travel, books that focus on the local and highlight how you might secure real insights into a country by exploring a limited area in detail.

Bradt has always been at the innovative end of the guidebook market, venturing to publish authoritative guides to areas of the world that receive only a tiny trickle of tourists. For travelers looking for good English-language guides to Belarus or Kosovo (or even, for that matter, to Eritrea or Kyrgyzstan), then Bradt is absolutely the market leader.

But they also have their own distinctive take on more frequented spots, and we are much impressed by a trio of books published earlier this month on very beautiful parts of England. They are Slow Norfolk and Suffolk by Laurence Mitchell, Slow North Yorkshire by Mike Bagshaw and Slow Devon and Exmoor by Hilary Bradt, who way back in the mid-1970s founded the company that still bears her name.

Slow Travel in England

Slow travel is a state of mind. It is about having the courage to give to places the time they deserve and not being enslaved by the need to travel farther and travel faster. England is of course ideally suited to this mode of travel and the three books that launch the new series dive off the main highways to take in country lanes and small villages.

Bradt say that more books in their Slow series are in the pipeline. US distribution is handled by Globe Pequot Press. The US editions of all three books will be published on July 13, 2010. Amazon is advertising them for about $16 apiece.

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