Welcome!

 

Many of you know me as a travel, food and wine writer, a benign curmudgeon who prowls the big cities and back roads of France and Italy in search of the authentic and unadulterated.

My latest print and e-book efforts in this genre - each with striking photography by  Alison Harris - are the critically acclaimed Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light (now into its 9th printing) and, new for spring 2013, Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptical Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James. Part adventure story, part personal memoir Paris to the Pyrenees is pure quirkiness and irreverence.

 


Listen to an interview with NPR's legendary radio host Jacki Lyden about the book and our adventure.

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ON APRIL 15, 2013 

It’s my  new adventure tale-cum- travel memoir: Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James.  

Part adventure story, part cultural history the author of Paris, Paris: Journey into the  City of Light explores  the phenomenon of pilgrimage  along the age-old Way of Saint James in France. 

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Watch David interviewed on TV.

Don't miss us at Book Passage in both Corte Madera and SF's Ferry Building, Kepler's in Menlo Park, and on West Coast Live, performing on May 11 from 10-12:30 in the Mission District. For details http://www.wcl.org and to reserve tickets: Brown Paper Tickets http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/124229 or call their 24/7 hotline at 1-800-838-3006.

Other food/wine and travel books include Food Wine Rome and Food Wine Burgundy, plus Quiet Corners of Rome, and the updated classic Enchanted Liguria. All four will be out soon as e-books.


The other big news item for 2013 is the recent release of my first-ever app: David Downie’s Paris Timeline. It gives you hundreds of highly illustrated short takes on key Dates in Paris from 8000 BC to the present, plus key People, Places and Events. This is more than a Wikipedia-style history app: it’s 100-percent Paris with lots of surprising details and a distinctly unconventional point of view. Paris Timeline is the first of many apps to come. Stay tuned.

 

 

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ENTERTAINING, INFORMATIVE, OPINIONATED 

David Downie’s Paris Time Line brings Paris alive. 

This is much more than a Wikipedia-style listing. It features Paris and Paris alone and goes into places revealing details you’ll find nowhere else.

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From history to mystery: my second novel of suspense Paris City of Night is an authentic, unadulterated work of a seriously peculiar imagination. Alfred Hitchcock might have liked it. Paris City of Night will soon be available as an e-book.

 

Travel and food writing and my addiction to history and perambulation have spawned a parallel activity: custom walking tours of Paris, Burgundy, Rome and the Italian Riviera. 

Looking forward to meeting you on the page or on the pavement,

 

David D. Downie

 

 

Biographical sketch


David D. Downie is a San Franciscan who moved to Paris in the 1980s and divides his time between France and Italy. His travel, food and arts features have appeared in over 50 magazines and newspapers worldwide. He’s a European correspondent for Gadling.com and Travora.com, and is the author of a dozen nonfiction books, two thrillers, and a series of upcoming history, travel and food/wine apps.

 

Take a custom tour of Paris with David and Alison Harris.

“David, you and Alison did a fabulous job with our motley group. We came for the food and devoured the history! We were dazzled by your encyclopedic knowledge of everything from Frankish kings to Frank Gehry's architecture. We will definitely be back for a second helping!”—Laurie Petersen et al

 

“David Downie is the master of educated curiosity.”—Michael Ondaatje

 

 

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