Paris to the Moon

In this enchanting memoir, Adam Gopnik, a longtime New Yorker writer, recounts his family’s move from the familiar comforts of New York City to the glamorous and romantic City of Light in 1995. Gopnik embarks on a personal pilgrimage to Paris, a city that has long been considered the undisputed capital of culture and beauty, with the hope of raising a child who would appreciate the Parisian way of life and sense of style that Americans find so elusive.

As Gopnik strolls through the Tuileries, engages in philosophical discussions at his local bistro, and writes as the violet twilight falls over the arrondissements, he also navigates the challenges of raising a child and carrying on with day-to-day life in a foreign city. Readers of his beloved and award-winning “Paris Journals” in The New Yorker are familiar with the delightful juxtaposition of evenings spent with French intellectuals and middle-of-the-night baby feedings, afternoons filled with visits to the Musée d’Orsay and pinball games, and weekday leftovers consumed while three-star chefs debate a “culinary crisis.”

With wit and insight, Gopnik draws parallels between the journey of navigating a foreign city and becoming a parent, both of which involve new routines, languages, and rules for everyday life. Paris to the Moon is a funny and tender look at the experience of being an American family man in Paris at the end of the twentieth century, as Gopnik weaves together the magical and the mundane in a wholly delightful and often hilarious narrative.

Through his “sentimental reeducation,” Gopnik learns unexpected lessons about life, love, and the enduring allure of the French capital, making this memoir a must-read for anyone who has ever dreamed of making Paris their home.