Paris: Walks on the Dark Side

A practical guide to Paris for the tourist interested in exploring the dark and macabre side of the City of Light. This book highlights places connected with the more gruesome aspects of French history from the 16th century to just after the French Revolution. Visits to prison sites, museums, cemeteries, and places of torture and execution are interspersed with stories of notorious criminals and notable historical figures. Discover where to see a guillotine blade, the black bathtub in which Marat was assassinated, the heart of the boy-king Louis XVII, the grave of Heloise and Abelard, Marie-Antoinette's prison cell, and remnants of the Bastille. The last chapter proposes a series of walks arranged to lead the Paris visitor in a methodical way to all the previously mentioned sites.