A little street, the rue de la Huchette, not more than three hundred yards long, lies in the heart of Pairs. There, off and on for eighteen years, Elliot Paul lived as a member of the community, participating in the pleasures and sufferings of his friends and, in the end, witnessing their heartbreaking betrayal. The Last Time I saw Paris is the story of that street.
This book evokes the spirit of the France one prefers to remember. It is an intimate human document which brings back to life a group of French men and women who typify, in all its nobility and degradation, a civilization the world can ill afford to lose. Hotelkeepers, shopkeepers, workers, politicians, students, businessmen, radicals, conservatives, clergymen, wives, fathers, growing children-all are part of the street and the nation.
