A Little Bit of Paris

by Jean-Jacques Sempé

Renowned New Yorker cover illustrater Jean-Jacques Sempé illustrates the quirky charm of France's capital and it's residents with his signature style and gentle sense of humor and irony. His drawings are famed for their striking use of pen and ink, their inimitable style, and most of all for their satire and tragic-comic vision. The 128 drawings in this charming portfolio are sweet and sentimental. They somehow manage to be gentle even when the topic is difficult. They probe the quirkiness of life in Paris and wordlessly pinpoint the quintessential features of the City of Light, creating a world peopled by lovers strolling along the Seine, culture mavens preening in the Louvre, and characters who are ready to see the comic and the light-hearted beyond life's problems. Anyone who has fallen in love with Paris will be sure to cherish this charming keepsake.

Genres: Art, France, Bande Dessinée, Fiction, Paris, Graphic Novels, Picture Books

128 pages, Hardcover

First published October 3, 2001

About the author

Français:
À 17 ans, Sempé roule à bicyclette pour un courtier en vins. En 1960, il démarre avec René Goscinny l'aventure du petit Nicolas, dressant une inoubliable galerie de portraits d' "affreux jojos qui tapissent depuis notre imaginaire" (dixit Goscinny). Son humour fin, subtil et allusif allié à un formidable sens du dérisoire caractérisent toute son ouvre. Sa plume traduit sa vision tendrement ironique de nos travers et des travers du monde. Aujourd'hui, Sempé est l'auteur d'une trentaine d'albums. En 1988, il a illustré Catherine Certitude, de Patrick Modiano. Il dessine régulièrement pour L'Express, Télérama, le New Yorker et expose ses dessins et ses aquarelles à Munich, New York, Londres ou Salzburg, où il rencontre toujours un très vif succès.

English:
Jean-Jacques Sempé, usually known as Sempé (French: [sɑ̃pe]), is a French cartoonist. He is known for the series of children's books he created with René Goscinny, Le petit Nicolas, and also for his poster-like illustrations, usually drawn from a distant or high viewpoint depicting detailed countrysides or cities.

Reviews

[Nercs]

این اولین کتابی بود که امروز توی کتابخونه‌ی سفارت به چشمم خورد و همونجا نشستم و ورقش زدم. تصویرگری‌های سامپه رو خیلی دوست دارم، مخصوصاً دقتی که توی جزئیات داره. واقعاً هم که جزء به جزء هر نقاشی à la fraçaise بود.

[Bloodorange]

So deeply satisfying.

Full of glimpses of splendid isolation, of moments of having Paris - the sun falling between the buildings, the tiny square, the entire park, the building - all to onerself. Small, luxurious moments of priced solitude, during the day, but also before the dawn, when the groceries are just being delivered, when you angrily look at the rising sun, since ALL THESE PEOPLE will be in the streets again.

But also moments of contact: of speaking to one's loved one on a phone in a crowded street, gay couples touching hands, waving at a spouse across the distance, and being waved back at, starting a conversation with a woman sitting on the bench next to you.

Each picture is an exquisite story.

[Kelly]

A charming collection of cartoons by Sempe (best known for his many drawings for The New Yorker), with subjects drawn from the French countryside. Each little piece made me smile. Often there are several sly jokes to be made, and I think the vast majority are understandable and entertaining even if you have only a passing familiarity with French culture. It deals largely with the clash of technology vs. the Old World presence of France and the more general generational shift in lifestyles, with a whole lot of fun poking at pettiness and small things too, and with, of course, lots and lots of pictures of bicycles.

Would make a lovely coffee table book/conversation starter.

[Klara Gonciarz]

what an incredible artist Sempe once more proofs to be with this astounding collection of charming drawings and petit cartoons. not only is his incredible talent shown through the seemingly simple sketches with an occasional brush of gentle watercolor but also through the overall complexity and depth of every single one of his pieces of the majestic Parisian daily life. each of these works contains a unique, one of a kind story that one gets absorbed into imagining what it is like to be there in flesh. author’s utmost skills make the French streets flourish, the Eiffel Tower stand solo quite proudly amongst nostalgic, ancient immeubles, the hum of the morning business as pleasant as it can be as the glasses gently clink on the tray next to the crusty, warm pain au chocolat - the ability to make the city alive with just a few strokes of paint and a couple of subtle lines of dark pencil is truly extraordinary and inspiring.

[Nina]

rip sempé

[El]

No words really. All drawings of Paris life. I'd love to jump into his sketches, have a cafe with a croissant and take a walk.

[Miss Précipitation]

j'ai adoré, j'adore et j'adorerai

[rosie]

I spent a good amount of time living in the 9th, which I feel is one of the best places to live if you want to get to know both sides of Paris, the more elevated and posh and the more "popular"; despite the 9th being posh on its own. Flipping through the pages of this, I saw my favorite city, unposed, natural. Paris is so much more than the buildings, and the shops, and the pastries, it's the crowded streets, the traffic jams, the Sunday marchés aux puces, it's fragmented and uncapturable, and, oxymoronically, often captured perfectly by Sempé. While he does mostly stick to central Paris, his casual style, combined with the accurate representations of what a lived-in city looks like, is on point. An ode to Paris. And he loves Paris, I can tell.

[Myriam]

Le crayon affûté de Sempé rend un bel hommage à la capitale française au travers des lieux et des scènes de vie qu’il aime et qui font sourire le lecteur : Paris embouteillé, Paris noire de monde, Paris la nuit, Paris manifestante, Paris en rouler, bref Paris sous toutes ses coutures vu par l’humour délicat de Sempé.

[Julia]

Since my childhood I loved the drawings by Jean-Jacques Sempe, and I continue to do so. My mom used to live in the French countryside for years, and I was fortunate enough to visit once a year. Put those two together, and this book of 78 drawings is, to me, simply lovely.

[Jo]

This is more like a collection of arts. His quick sketch and intricate technique fascinated me.

I love how he used v simple shades of black to depict animated scenes and attention to the subject.
The carefully constructed city skyline , crowded scenes. Each character is unique.


It is brilliant! Tres bien!

[Polly Vous Francais]

Sempé had captured MY Paris! All those quirky moments, little ironies and joys and frustrations of daily life. And I found it impossible to merely flip through ...
The rest of my review here

[Susana Ory]

No se puede hablar de lectura, pues es una sucesión de viñetas en tamaño DIN A-3; más que la hilaridad desenfrenada, se encuentra entre la sonrisa ácida y la de reconocimiento, pues esta ciudad no ha cambiado tanto en veinte años.

[Jill]

Pen and ink drawings of Paris in the New Yorker cover illustration tradition... enchantee!

[Anh]

Beautiful, overcrowded, romantic Paris. Paris with the pavement café, balconies, small parks, narrow alleys, roller skaters, and above all, Eiffel tower. Chaostic Paris.

[Pchu]

To be honest I don't know when I first read this book, but I re-read it today and it is still so cute and wonderful. I love Sempé's drawing style and sense of humor.

[Isabelle]

Not a book you read, as it’s mainly drawings, but they were all so beautiful and I wanted to have this saved somewhere.

[Raquel]

Increïble.
Com un llibre sense ni una sola paraula pot dir tantes coses.
Un llibre en el que Jean-Jacques Sempé retrata un París en diverses èpoques i moments, tant tranquils i quotidians com d'ebullició i moviment de la metròpoli.
És un llibre per perdre's i nedar a casa pàgina, en tots els detalls i traços. Una petita-gran obra d'art!

[Kathy Piselli]

faves: lady bicycling down cobblestoned street, lady shelling peas before a statue of a saint with rosary beads, hen gazing wistfully out of her coop with copy of Madame Bovary on the floor. I miss him so much!!

[Jane]

Super funny cartoond

[Miriam Blair]

Charming, funny, sweet, made me nostaligic for a city I didn't even like that much.

[k]

adorable!!!! i wanna give it all the stars ever but i can’t rate it the way i’d rate a book with words but if i did i’d give it 4.5🌟

[Bistra Ivanova]

What a beautiful small poetic art book... A love letter to Paris from one of France's biggest artists... Simply magnificent!

[Rogival Gregory]

Magnifique

[Ana Petrova]

I need to go back to Paris asap

[Janis]

Felt like I was transported to Paris again. Amazing illustrations that capture the spirit of Paris!

[Ana]

Más que apuntes de París, los dibujos parecen verdaderas historias. Me quedo con ganas de saber más de algunos de los personajes.

***
Rather than sketches of Paris, these illustrations look like true stories. I would very much like to know more about some of the characters.

[Yi]

Haphazard blank pages throughout the book