This unusual and engaging book explores some of the peripheral arrondissements of Paris, taking the reader on a journey of exploration through the regions behind the great stations and prestigious buildings, up steep steps, through hidden courtyards, and along the frontier of the canal. Paris is revealed as a humble, private city - that of the independent artisan, the small shop-keeper, the immigrant, and the bargee - with architecture to scale: unassuming, intimate, rural and pleasantly amateurish. Much of Paris is disappearing fast. This unique view of a typical part of it by a celebrated historian, with photographs specially taken during his itinerary, preserves its character for the armchair visitor and evokes a world he would never see unaided.