Review: Paris to the Past by Ina Caro

Paris to the Past is the perfect book for people like me who love traveling, France, and French history.  I swear this was pretty much the perfect travel book because it was also filled with so much history!!  Caro and her husband have been traveling to France since they got married years ago, and as they got older, they found that they wanted to rent a room in Paris for their long trips, instead of renting a car and driving all over the country like they used to do.  Caro still wanted to take trips though.  One day while on the Paris metro she had an epiphany.  She would travel to historically significant places that were within 90 minutes of the city by train (the exception was of course my beloved city La Rochelle, which is a 3 hour train ride from Paris).  This book is about the places she visited that were a short train ride from Paris.

So really, what more can I say??  Caro is a lover of history, like myself, and her descriptions of the villages and buildings she visited are also full of the history of each place.  And a lot of it is very off the beaten path sort of history.  I found myself entranced in the book's pages.  I wanted to visit each place that Caro wrote about and experience everything for myself.

Caro reminded me of myself in that when she is visiting a place with a lot of history, she tries to really connect with it and image herself there ages ago.  I am the same way and always thought I was kind of weird because of it.

I really want to give some examples of that, and of the places she visited, but I lent my book to a friend before taking down notes.  So, just take my word for it!  If you love France and French history, read this book!

I would caution anyone who loves travel books but isn't into history to maybe not read this one though.  It is filled with history.  So if you don't like reading about events that took place centuries ago, you will not be happy with this book at all. 

I loved it though and wish that it was longer!

Do you guys have any favorite travel books??

Title: Paris to the Past: Traveling Through French History by Train
Author: Ina Caro
Date of Publication: 2012
Number of Pages: 400
Genre: Nonfiction, travel, history
Source: Personal Copy