Along the banks of the Seine

Paris
The Secret History
By Andrew Hussey.
Copyright 2006
Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York
ISBN 1-59691-323-1
485 PP W/ Illustrations
$32.50

It seems fitting to write today's blog post about the history of the City of Paris. On this day in 1794, Maximilian Robespierre, leader of Committee of Public Safety and known as "The Incorruptible" took his last trip through the streets of Paris in a cart to the Place De La Revolution, placed in the guillotine and executed. With his death ended one of the blackest periods the city has known in it's long history, from the days of the Roman Empire to today.

Covering the full range of historical events and personages, Andrew Hussey leads the reader on an incredible look at one of the worlds most famous cities with lush prose, excellent quotations from people of the period, and contemporary views from insiders and outsiders alike. From the Roman Conquest of 54 BC the reader watches as the city grows and expands and confronts times of war and peace, abundance and famine with the rise and fall of the Monarchy, the Napoleonic Era, the restoration, The Second Empire, the Belle Epoque and two World Wars. It's a history that is still unfolding, and Hussey brings it fully to life in a way that is immensely fun to read and easy to grasp. This is truly a book for the Francophile and the novice to the world of French history.