Paris. The name alone conjures images of chestnut-lined boulevards, sidewalk cafés, breathtaking façades around every corner--in short, an exquisite romanticism that has captured the American imagination for as long as there have been Americans.

In 1995, Adam Gopnik, his wife, and their infant son left the familiar comforts and hassles of New York City for the urbane glamour of the City of Light. Gopnik is a longtime New Yorker writer, and the magazine has sent its writers to Paris for decades--but his was above all a personal pilgrimage to the place that had for so long been the undisputed capital of everything cultural and beautiful. It was also the opportunity to raise a child who would know what it was to romp in the Luxembourg Gardens, to enjoy a croque monsieur in a Left Bank café--a child (and perhaps a father, too) who would have a grasp of that Parisian sense of style we Americans find so elusive.

So, in the grand tradition of the American abroad, Gopnik walked the paths of the Tuileries, enjoyed philosophical discussions at his local bistro, wrote as violet twilight fell on the arrondissements. Of course, as readers of Gopnik's beloved and award-winning "Paris Journals" in The New Yorker know, there was also the matter of raising a child and carrying on with day-to-day, not-so-fabled life. Evenings with French intellectuals preceded middle-of-the-night baby feedings; afternoons were filled with trips to the Musée d'Orsay and pinball games; weekday leftovers were eaten while three-star chefs debated a "culinary crisis."

As Gopnik describes in this funny and tender book, the dual processes of navigating a foreign city and becoming a parent are not completely dissimilar journeys--both hold new routines, new languages, a new set of rules by which everyday life is lived. With singular wit and insight, Gopnik weaves the magical with the mundane in a wholly delightful, often hilarious look at what it was to be an American family man in Paris at the end of the twentieth century. "We went to Paris for a sentimental reeducation-I did anyway-even though the sentiments we were instructed in were not the ones we were expecting to learn, which I believe is why they call it an education."

作者1986年开始为《纽约客》杂志撰写杂文，作品先后得过“美国杂志奖”等重要奖项。他全家在巴黎居住5年，期间撰写一系列反映法国文化的作品。

本书被喻为“近年反映法国的最佳作品”。作者美国人亚当·戈普尼克曾举家居住在巴黎5年时间，充分感受法国文化的博大精深。作者运用《纽约客》杂志专栏作家的纯熟文笔，对法美文化展开一系列反思和分析。全书从袭由格特鲁德·斯泰因、欧内斯特·海明威等著名美国旅法作家的优良传统，从社会、文化、风俗、历史等多元角度对法国进行审视与阐释。作者游刃于现代美国文明与法国传统思想的缝隙中，寻求差异，发现共性，把日常生活小事抬升到文化比较的高度，全方位揭示法国文化的精髓。该书由一系列韵味深长的短文组成，典型的美国人一家在花都巴黎遭遇的苦与乐跃然纸上，夹杂点点精妙的文化感悟，读者读到会心之处，每每抚卷自乐。匆忙来去的生活中，不妨偷得浮生半日闲，和亚当·戈普尼克一起慢下脚步，在巴黎邂逅一场细腻的文人雅趣。