Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb

The author has chosen to tell the history of Paris through the eyes of those who lived there over time, rather than from a stricly historian perspective. The result is a distinctly nonlinear history of the city since 1750. The hallmark event of history are all there -- the French Revolution, the Commune, the Nazi Occupation, the student revolt of 1968, even the suburban riots of 2005 -- as are many of the the city's better known personalities: Napoleon, Mme and M. Victor Hugo, Marie Antoinette, Proust, Hitler, De Gaulle and Mitterand, Sartre and De Beauvoir and even Miles Davis. But Robb comes at each of these subjects (and many, many more) obliquely, through a dazzling variety of narrators and forms. The tale of the student revolt is presented as a course outline, with discussion questions and sample answers. Sartre and Miles Davis encounter each other in a screenplay set in the Café de Flore. The sections on Mme Zola and Proust are narrated in styles that wittily echo their subjects (and what a great touch it is to use Proust as witness to the great outburst of modernity signaled by the Metro, the telephone and even telephone broadcasts from the Opera).
The book is a great introduction to a city that in it's modern form continues to have allure and charm--not to mention a great food and wine sulture. I think anyone planning a trip there should put this on their 'must read' list.