atlases and maps

If you ever expect to find that little bistro on Pas. de Clery, or a park on R. du Fouarre, you'll need a detailed map. This is it. This has the stuff that is not on the other tourist maps.

There's a key map (a city map with a numbered grid showing the page numbers of the detail maps that follow for each section of the city). And there's a complete street index.

The 29 detailed city maps are divided into two-page spreads. They're labeled with sights, Metro stops, and establishments.

The bus routes are shaded gray, and the bus numbers are printed in red alongside the streets. I spent some time in Paris and came to love commuting by bus on clear days. If you plan to try it, leave some extra time to figure it all out, it's worth the effort. You'll need more info than is provided here. A current bus map would be a big help in planning your day trips, ...

Metro stops are marked on the street maps, but the metro routes are not shown. There's a small metro map on pages 2-3, followed by some very condensed practical information for tourists. (If you need guidebook information, don't rely solely on this book, get a Michelin.)

The detail maps leave out substantial parts of the 12th, 13th, 15th, 18th and 20th arrondissements. If you want something comprehensive, though not as user-friendly, look for "Paris par Arrondissement - Plan Net" by Editions Ponchet. That guide also has detailed bus routes.

I prefer the book map format over fold-out maps, because it gives me a detailed map, but I don't have to fight with it to get it folded and back into my pocket. Ironically, I did end up folding this book to get it into my back pocket. I wish the form factor were slightly narrower.

Bon Voyage!

Of the three map guides I have used to navigate Paris -- the other 2 being PARIS PRATIQUE PAR ARRONDISSEMENT and the little Blue Michelin map guide -- Middleditch's is by far the most beautiful. Metro stops, arrondissements, tourist sights are included; the maps are large and bright; the book is large, but not too large; and yet...

To me, the most important thing a map guide could do is get me from Point A to Point B without too much time-wasting confusion in between. Where all the map guides fail is by not including good bus maps. The Metro is great, but you see only the dark underside of Paris; whereas a trip along Bus #69 will take you from the Eiffel Tower past the Louvre and Hotel de Ville through the Marais and Menilmontant to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. A comparable trip along the same route underground would involve one more more of the dread "correspondances," which are underground commuter rat races up and down stairs, ramps, and escalators to distant transfer points.

This guide actually tries to suggest the different bus routes by including widely dispersed little red numbers which are impossible to follow closely. If you really have to use the bus, you'd have to print the "plans de quartier" and bus routes from the RATP's website .

We had a whole sheaf of these route and quartier maps with us, so we enjoyed Paris to the utmost, taking the Metro only on Sunday and evenings, when the bus service winds down.

One additional gripe: It would not have been terribly difficult to include taxi stations, as the Michelin maps do.

Despite my criticisms above, the mapguide is excellent, but not that much better than the other two I mentioned. And I realize it would be much more difficult to do justice to bus routes (as they are so changeable), but the opportunity is there to make it a great guide.

To be honest, we picked up a Metro (subway) map and a free city map and used those more than we used this one. It was just one more book to carry along with us. The size is handy and the maps are very detailed....when we got lost, we did use this map book to find our way to where we needed to be. I can say that I recommend it if you are not an experienced traveler or if you plan to do a lot of exploring on foot.