With humor and style, David Benjamin turns a property hunt in Paris into a saga worthy of Victor Hugo, spicing the story with incisive snippets of Parisian history; a tour of the bistros and cafés of the world’s best city for eating out; a rich lode of asides, observations and digressions on natives and tourists, the Louvre and lovers, kings, queens and criminals, waiters, bakers and greengrocers, painters and poets; and the “guardian angel” who made it possible.