It is a given that any decent book about Paris will inevitably tell you just as much about London. Even those for whom the rivalry between the cities is a myth will admit that.
The thing I learned from Simon Kuper’s enjoyable memoir about living in Paris for 20 years is the reason its Metro system is so effective. I’m sure that any connoisseur of London Underground will already know this (so apologies), but even though the Parisian Metro was built nearly 40 years after ours, it mushroomed quickly.
