Books About Paris

Every year, my family goes to another country during the December holidays. But... we have a family tradition that every year, my sister and I will not know where we are going until 2 weeks before we leave! Then, our parents will get us books and we will do research on that country and make PowerPoint slides about that country.

The reveal for 2023 was France! We went to the Alps and Paris, but in this review we will mostly talk about Paris. The parts I loved most about the trip was going to the Louvre (Loove), The Palace at Versailles (Versigh) and eating French pastries!

My sister was 7 when she read these books and I was 9.

On to the books about Paris:

Who Was Marie Antoinette?

I don't think this was really a guide, it was more of a 'learn about this person' type of book. I loved it though. I learnt a lot about Marie Antoinette and I kind of feel sorry for her, as she was exucuted purely because the French did not like the royals. I feel like she should have paid more attention to the peasants though. I love learning about the history of royals and their downfalls, for example, King Henry the VIII and his 7 wives. (I think it is 7. I am not sure).

Brick City Paris

I really really like this book. It gives me lots of ideas for new Lego things to make and even teaches me how to make them! It has lots of interesting facts about the places. The only thing I don't like about this book is that sometimes the thing I want to make requires special pieces I don't have or many of the same piece, when I only have a few. However, I have been able to make a few, like the guillotine (Gee o teen) and the opera cake. They were kind of rainbow and did not really look like how it was supposed to though. Overall, I think it is a very good guide if you want to learn facts about a place in Paris and how it looks.

And a peek inside the book:

Impressionism

I honestly can't say I liked this book. Half the time I didn't understand what it was saying and it was really boring. (I only read it once though. And I skipped a bit.) I don't know if this is a helpful guide or not because I didn't really read it that much. I think it is about the impressionist style of art which started in France. My mom got it because we went to the Musee d'Orsay (Musé dor say). I didn't really like the museum either. There was too many paintings. I prefer looking at stuff instead. I don't really recommend this book, but if you're an art fan, you might like this book.

Different Like Coco

I really loved this book. It was really entertaining and I learnt that Coco Chanel was not really appreciated in the past. But then people began to see the niceness of wearing loose and comfortable clothes and people began copying Coco. She set the fashion trends then, and still does. (She's not alive anymore though) It was also because of this book that I learnt it was pronounced 'She nal' not 'Channel'. I actually feel very grateful for her and her loose clothes, as if she had not done that, we might still be wearing super uncomfortable and impractical things like corsets and giant skirts with a million layers or something. It was super good, but like most of the other books, it was more of a 'learn about this super-famous person' book rather than a guide.

The Three Musketeers (Illustrated)

I also happen to have the adult version of this book, but even though this is the childrens

version, I still don't understand it. Its kind of confusing, and I have no idea who the characters are. The adult version is even more confusing. It has lots of French words. Anyway, I can't say I liked it, but I also can't say I hated it. It was more of a 'I am ok with this but I don't really like it' book.