“A walk is not a parade or a race. It’s a succession of instants, any one of which can illuminate a lifetime. What about the glance, the scent, the glimpse, the way the light just falls … the “beautiful” part? No tour guide of guidebook tells you that. Prepared itineraries remind me of those PHOTO POINT signs at Disneyland. Yes, that angle gives you an attractive picture. But why not just buy a postcard?

 

Nor is there a single Paris. The city exists as a blank page on which each person scribbles what the French call a griffle – literally “a claw” but more precisely a signature; a choice of favourite cafés, shops, parks and the routes that link them.”

 

- John Baxter in The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris