Paris Metro Tales [Oxford University Press] (9780199579808)

Following on from Helen Constantines hugely successful Paris Tales, the twenty-two short stories included in More Metro Tales take the reader on an fascinating journey around Paris by metro. The journey begins at the Gare du Nord, stops at twenty underground stations along the way, and ends at Lamarck-Caulaincourt. Some of these stories actually take place in the metro itself, but most are to be found when you emerge above ground. They range from the 15th-century account of the miraculous Saint Genevieve, patron saint of Paris, through tales by favourite writers such as Zola, Simenon, and Maupassant, to Martine Delerms evocation of the last hours of Modiglianis mistress, Jeanne Hbuterne. Grard de Nerval evokes the thriving, bustling market in Les Halles in the 1850s, Colette recounts her involvement in a traffic accident near the Opra, Boulanger describes a blackly funny experience in Pre Lachaise. Each story is illustrated with a black-and-white photograph and there is a map and suggested itinerary round the metro system. Readers will find familiar and unfamiliar writers here, but all are masterly writers of the short story and each evokes a different aspect of this endlessly intriguing and much-loved city, whether the traveller is on the metro or at home sitting in an armchair.