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Rough Guides
For Paris, we turn to the annual Rough Guide to Paris, a 500+ page tome. We like Rough Guide's coverage of niche travelers' needs, and we love the "Contexts" chapter that appears at the end of the guidebook. These chapters provide an historical sketch, and are especially good at giving a sense of the dynamics contextualizing contemporary life. The Rough Guide to Paris also has great hotel listings, with reviews of tons of inexpensive places. We're big fans, obviously.
Rick Steves
We dig the folksy tone of Rick Steves' guides, and Rick Steves' Paris is no exception. The best thing about Rick Steves is his unbridled love of travel in Europe, something that's palpable throughout. Rick and his team are especially good with itinerary suggestions, plotting out self-guided walks and tours for visitors to Paris. There's also an extremely helpful appendix, with tips and various forms of advice.
Eyewitness Travel
The more visual people in the EuroCheapo office swear by DK's Eyewitness Travel guidebooks. Glossy pages and lots and lots of photographs and graphics are the rule here. We especially like the detailed maps, which show streets, alleyways, and individual buildings. The Eyewitness level of detail is really amazing, and even provides museum floorplans.
Time Out
Time Out Paris is a fantastic guide to the City of Light. We're especially taken by the series of chapters at the start of the guidebook. These chapters provide quick primers to Parisian history, contemporary life, the creative scene, and film, among other subjects. In addition to these chapters, Time Out Paris sports some of the best city maps we've come across, strong listings, and lots of little page-long feature articles on one or another detail of Parisian life.
We're also big fans of Time Out European Breaks, which provides short basic information on 100 European cities. The newer editions include 13 French cities in addition to Paris, plus an overview of the restaurant scene in Paris. There's no better quick guide to short weekend breaks in Europe.
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