Literary Landscapes Paris: From Hugo to Hemingway, the Cafes and Bookshops of the City of Light – by Dominic Bliss
Foreword by Sandrine Voillet
Harper and Collins ( February 2, 2023)
From Voltaire to Verlaine and from Hugo to Hemingway, these are the Paris locations that have influenced modern literature.
The book is an elegant photographic stroll around the bookshops, famous literary restaurants and storied streets of Europe’s favourite tourist destination.
Literary Landscapes: Paris takes this major European city and with picture perfect photography, compiles an album of memorable views linked to the words of Parisian authors, or writers who made Paris their home. It looks at places where books were written, discussed over dinner, and where ultimately the books are sold.
There are the theatres of Molière, Dumas and Beaumarchais along with the incredible Palais Garnier opera house and the legend of Le Fantome by Gaston Leroux.
There are the revered bookshops of the Latin Quarter including the idiosyncratic Shakespeare & Co.
There are the classic grand structures referenced in Victor Hugo novels (and still there) or the mean streets of George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris.
There are the famous cafes where authors gathered and wrote, or where artists and philosophers argued: Les Deux Magots, Café de Flore, Le Procope, La Closerie des Lilas, Prunier, Le Dôme, La Rotonde and Le Select.
There are the bouquinistes ranged in their green booths along the Seine, as once tended by Jean Genet. And there is the classic expatriate Paris of Joyce, Stein, Wilde, Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Beat poets.
Literary Landscapes: Paris takes readers on an exclusive cultural journey, introduced by one of the city’s most engaging tourist guides.
Sandrine’s Paris: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Romantic City
BBC Books (June 21, 2007)
Part travelogue, part cultural history and part inside guide to ‘hidden’ Paris, Sandrine’s Paris is lavishly illustrated with over 100 beautiful images that capture the magic of the City of Lights.
Paris. The most romantic city in the world, and a city with an amazingly rich cultural history.
From the Renaissance to the French Revolution, from the construction of the Eiffel Tower to Mitterrand’s grands projets, Paris has borne witness to extraordinary people and events over the centuries.
And who better to explore the French capital’s cultural past than Sandrine Voillet. Art historian, cultural commentator, Parisian, she’s as chic and elegant as the city she adores. In this fascinating and highly original portrait of Paris, Sandrine shares her passion for a city indelibly marked by change and revolution. Travelling through 400 years of cultural history, Sandrine introduces the people and events that have shaped Paris into the breathtaking spectacle we see today.
Press Articles
The Literary Landscapes of Paris with Sandrine Voillet
The Culture Trip 2023
Radius : PARIS
Gambetta, 20th Arrondissement
Metropolitan (Eurostar magazine), May 2011, feature
Rediscover Paris
Lonely Planet, January 2009, cover feature
Beyond the boulevards, an insider’s guide to Paris
The Independent, 23 June 2007, feature