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In Paris, A Bridge To The Stars
A low-cost route to glamour in the City of Light.
(Branford, CT) Following in the footsteps of A-list film stars turns
out to be a surprisingly budget-friendly way to tour Paris.
The wooden pedestrian bridge in Paris known as the Pont des Arts
provides “one of the most glorious 360-degree-views in Paris,”
proclaims Michael Schuermann, a Paris-based freelance translator and
sportscaster.
The view from the bridge includes both banks of the
Seine, and the Île-de-la-Cité with the spire of Notre-Dame cathedral
in the distance. Reason enough, one would think, to make a stop here
on any visit to the City of Light.
But Schuermann offers another motivation for visiting this site: you
can stand where film stars from Audrey Hepburn to Harrison Ford to
Steve Martin have stood. “Few Paris-based Hollywood movies seem ready
or willing to miss this view,” he explains.
Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face, Audrey Tautou in Amélie, Tom Everett
Scott as the eponymous American Werewolf in Paris (when he feels his
first wolfish hunger pangs, no less), Jean Reno and Steve Martin in
the remake of The Pink Panther, and lovers Harrison Ford and Julia
Ormond in the 1995 version of Sabrina appear on the silver screen at
this picturesque bridge.
Schuermann should know: the author of Paris Movie Walks: Ten Guided
Tours Through the City of Lights! Camera! Action! (just published by
The Intrepid Traveler, $15.95 US) has spent years showing visitors the
Parisian sights made famous in films from the French New Wave classics
to Hollywood blockbusters like The Da Vinci Code.
“I first realized there might be a market for this kind of thing,” he
says, “when friends and visitors, having displayed a dutifully polite
interest in the former studios of Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec down
our road, suddenly brightened up when told that a scene of French Kiss
had been shot right underneath their bedroom window.” Film buff
Schuermann discovered more and more locales that had made appearances
in cinema over the years. He began making up suggested walking tours
that would lead strolling visitors from one film site to the next, in
the process incorporating the more traditional sights, sounds, and
tastes of the city.
The tours, he found, were ideal for many visitors for a number of
reasons. First, of course, there’s the novelty of recognizing the
setting of a scene from one of your favorite movies. On a more
practical note, though, many of the most popular sites for movies
include iconic views of Paris’s landmarks. Too, walking from one to
the next allows you to pace yourself, taking anywhere from a couple of
hours to a full day to complete a route, depending on whether you
decide to pause for shopping, refreshments, or checking out museums
along the way. Finally, and, perhaps most importantly these days,
self-paced equals budget-friendly, as the views on the street are free
and the stops strictly optional.
Eventually, Schuermann put together ten tours to make up Paris Movie
Walks: four through the heart of the city, four around the periphery
of central Paris, and two through the working-class neighborhoods of
the city that served as settings for French film classics of the 1930s
and 1940s.
Schuermann points out another reason to take his tours, one that
follows from the city’s popularity with filmmakers. “Paris is one of
the most active film locations in the world,” he notes. “When my
editors field tested the walks, they encountered four active film
shoots, one of them a John Travolta movie!”
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Paris Movie Walks
Ten Guided Tours Through the City of Lights! Camera! Action!
by Michael Schuermann
ISBN: 978-1-887140-83-6
280 pages • 6 in. x 9 in.
64 b/w photos by the author
21 b/w maps by cartographer Dion Good
Index of films
Trade paperback original
USA: $15.95
Publication Date: June 2009
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Paris Movie Walks is available in bookstores nationwide, from online bookstores, by calling 203-469-0214, or by visiting www.ParisMovieWalks.com
Published by The Intrepid Traveler
Please send two copies of any printed review or mention to
The Intrepid Traveler, P.O. Box 531, Branford, CT 06405
Please send a link to digital reviews or mentions to
mischa @ intrepidtraveler.com
To request a review copy of PARIS MOVIE WALKS, or for any additional information: Contact Mischa Benoit-Lavelle at The Intrepid Traveler
mischa @ intrepidtraveler.com • (203) 469-0214
Note: We would like to acknowledge cartographer Dion Good, whose name was accidentally omitted from the copyright page of some copies of the book.
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