We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light

"We'll always have Paris," Humphrey Bogart reminds Ingrid Bergman in their bittersweet parting at the end of Casablanca, and undoubtedly those words resonate for lovers everywhere. Indeed for many people, Paris is not just a place; it is an intoxicating state of mind where anything goes, inhibitions vanish and imagination flourishes.

There is a long tradition of artists escaping to Paris from all corners of the globe. Australian film scholar John Baxter is one of those people. Now, in We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light, he chronicles his ongoing affair with this magical place and one Frenchwoman in particular.

A cultural tour through the many sensual pleasures of the city, We'll Always Have Paris takes readers to all the spots traditional guidebooks leave out. A very personal love story as well, We'll Always Have Paris traces Baxter's relationship with Marie-Dominique, the woman who inspires his trans-Atlantic move and eventually becomes his wife.

We'll Always Have Paris overflows with literary, film and pop culture references and enough notorious names to fill a tabloid in this unique look at the capital of romance. Traveling from brothels to bistros and making stops along the way at the Prime Minister's official residence and other more scruffy hideaways, Baxter observes:

• The transformative effect Paris has on people (especially uptight Americans!)
• The sexual openness of the city, and its historical devil-may-care attitude about lesbianism, homosexuality, prostitution, pornography, voyeurism, exhibitionism and extramarital affairs
• The steady stream of visitors welcome and unwelcome
• The culinary treats served at the chicest tables like pig's feet, sea urchin and sausages made of unmentionable substances
• The hangouts and homes of famous expatriates Man Ray, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas
• The customs and quirks that distinguish Parisians from everyone else in the world

With a cinematic eye and a cheeky sensibility, We'll Always Have Paris captures the city in all its seductive glory, from its louche delights to its genteel charms. Weaving together gossip, rumor, established facts and first-hand experience, Baxter pens a love letter to his adoptive hometown and the woman who brought him there.

"Perhaps no city has been more lustfully romanticized than Paris, and this cavorting collection of bons mots will do nothing to quell its erotic reputation. Baxter (A Pound of Paper), a cineast and biographer (of Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg and others), is an Australian in love with a French woman. After moving into her Parisian apartment in 1990, he subsequently becomes her baby's father, her husband and eventually, in his own way, French. He loosely arranges his narrative in themed chapters, lobbing little-known facts, references to favorite films, and gossip about the inglorious past of certain addresses into stories about the affairs of the heart of famous Parisians and expats. He peppers tales of his quotidian life with bemused observations of Gallic quirks and offhanded recommendations of tucked-away shops and obscure cafs, resulting in a book that is part guidebook, part memoir. Some chapters are bawdy and some hilarious, such as 'Invaders,' about uncouth, ingrate houseguests. Anyone who appreciates Paris and its myths, likes the meandering storytelling of good conversation and enjoys the mildly salacious will relish reading this book, curled up with a glass of full-bodied red and a box of chocolates. Photos." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"In We'll Always Have Paris we have he personal story of charming, funny, and mischievous (even caustic) John Baxter, who comes to us via his numerous film related biographies and his passion for book collecting as recorded in his enormously entertaining account." Jeffrey Greene

"Anyone who appreciates Paris and its myths, likes the meandering storytelling of good conversation and enjoys the mildly salacious will relish reading this book, curled up with a glass of full-bodied red and a box of chocolates." Publishers Weekly

"Baxter leads his readers on a decidedly eccentric tour of Paris." Booklist

"Baxter's insights keep the pages turning." Library Journal

"Captivated readers will hope that Baxter's 'long conversation' with Paris, still going strong after 14 years, never ends." Kirkus Reviews

For more than a century, pilgrims from all over the world seeking romance and passion have made their way to the City of Light. The seductive lure of Paris has long been irresistible to lovers, artists, epicureans, and connoisseurs of the good life. Globe-trotting film critic and writer John Baxter heard her siren song and was bewitched. Now he offers readers a witty, audacious, scandalous behind-the-scenes excursion into the colorful all-night show that is Paris — interweaving his own experience of falling in love, with a delightfully salacious tour of the sultry Parisian corners most guidebooks ignore: from the literary cafés of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and de Beauvoir to the brothels where Dietrich and Duke Ellington held court, where Salvador Dali sated his fantasies, and Edward VII kept a sumptuous champagne bath for his favorite girls.

For more than a century, pilgrims from all over the world seeking romance and passion have made their way to the City of Light. The seductive lure of Paris has long been irresistible to lovers, artists, epicureans, and connoisseurs of the good life. Globe-trotting film critic and writer John Baxter heard her siren song and was bewitched. Now he offers readers a witty, audacious, scandalous behind-the-scenes excursion into the colorful all-night show that is Paris — interweaving his own experience of falling in love, with a delightfully salacious tour of the sultry Parisian corners most guidebooks ignore: from the literary cafés of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and de Beauvoir to the brothels where Dietrich and Duke Ellington held court, where Salvador Dali sated his fantasies, and Edward VII kept a sumptuous champagne bath for his favorite girls.

A long-time radio and TV correspondent and critic for the BBC and Australian Broadcasting Commission John Baxter has produced and fronted radio and TV programs in both Britain and Australia. As noted film critic, screenwriter and biographer, he has written extensively about moviemakers including Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas and Robert De Niro, and his encyclopedic knowledge about cinema shines through here. He is also the author of A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict. Born and raised in Australia, he now lives in Paris with his family.