3 comments about When in France, Do as the French Do.

1. Useful for people planning to live in, do business in, or merely visit France. Or even an armchair traveller interested in customs and mores elsewhere.

   Steele gets it right. Many of his comments are also revealed in some of the best books about living in France such as Sarah Turnbull's 'Almost French' and Adam Gropnik's 'From PAris to the Moon'.

   Steele has sections on a whole range of subjects: arts, business, daily life, food and drink, identity, language, philosophy, politics, and more.

   Discover the answer to questions such as: when should you mention a person's family name in greeting? how should you attract a waiter's attention? where was Napoleon Bonaparte first buried? what French fast food chains are there? why don't French people smile as much as Americans? when in a meeting do you hand over a business card?




2. I wanted this book because my husband and I are planning a week's vacation to Paris. I found this book pretty much useless for our purposes. The book is arranged in one-page primers on various subjects. The vast majority of the subjects are about French history or music or whatnot. There is some information about business etiquette that could potentially be useful for the business traveler.

   But I find the title to be a misnomer. It isn't a book about doing things the French way. There are very few cues on how to avoid faux pas. This is not a useful book for the average traveler, and I'm sorry I bought it. I've considered returning it, but am not sure the $9 I paid for it is worth the hassle of packing it up, sending it off, etc etc.




3. This book provided a cultural understanding. I work for a French-owned company, and after reading the book, had an expanded appreciation for the way the French see things. I also can understand why Americans may see the French as unfriendly and/or rude. I recommend the book to people who want to increase their knowledge of French culture, history and norms.

2 comments about Prague: A Traveler's Literary Companion.

1. As we prepared for our trip to Prague, I ordered this book from Amazon.com but didn't get a chance to read until we actually got there. What a treasure! Each piece made some landmark or moment of history come more vividly alive than any of the standard guidebooks could possibly provide. The division of the book into corresponding areas of the city was a great idea.I always look to literature to gain insight into travel destinations. No single book has ever done a better job than this one.



2. Excellent collection of pieces from obscure writers and celebrated Czech authors. The book is divided into sections for each part of the city (Old Town, Mala Strana, etc.). I've lived in Prague before and it was so much fun following each author around the city again. I recommend this book for anyone enchanted by the idea of Prague or for those who miss it and want to spend some time there with a bunch of amazing tour guides.

No comments about The Rough Guide to Tuscany Region Map (Rough Guide Country/Region Map).

1 comments about Michelin the Green Guide Languedoc Roussillon Tarn Gorges (Michelin Green Guide: Languedoc, Roussillon, Tarn Gorges English Edition).

1. Michelin's guides are a five-star resource for travel information, from hotels and restaurants to attractions and how to get there. This guide is no exception, containing all the practical info you'd expect from Michelin, plus maps and some color pictures. The alphabetical listing of sites makes information easy to find. As you'd expect from a guide published by a tire company, the Michelin series seems best suited to car travel. I appreciate the star ratings of cities and attractions (1 star = "interesting", 3 starts = "highly recommended"), which help you determine whether a detour is warranted, or helps you meander your way through the countryside on a day of exploring.
   
   I'm annoyed with this guide, however, because even though the title includes the names "Languedoc" and "Roussillon", it is NOT a guide to the entire French region known as Languedoc-Roussillon. Rather, it includes parts of Languedoc-Roussillon and parts of the adjacent region of Midi-Pyrenees. I bought it in preparation for a stay in Nimes, which is in the Gard department of Languedoc-Rousillon. Inexplicably, information about the Gard is found in the Michelin "Provence" guide, even though the Gard is not in fact part of Provence. So, if you're wanting to purchase a Michelin guide for information about a particular city or region, use the "Look Inside" feature to review the Table of Contents before you buy!

5 comments about Buenos Aires: A Cultural History (Cultural Histories Series).

1. This is not a "travel book" in the usual sense -- you will not, for instance, find anything about where to stay or eat. Rather, this is an historical, cultural, and literary guide to Buenos Aires that will make your time there more interesting and worthwhile.

   Progressing geographically through the city's most important streets, plazas, and neighborhoods, Wilson uses the observations of writers, artists, foreign visitors, politicians, academics, and others to give the reader a "feel" for both the city and its inhabitants. These observations are supplemented with just enough historical framework to provide context. Buenos Aires is a city filled with buildings, streets, and monuments that stir up a great deal of emotion in its inhabitants; what this book does is help to explain why these locations are so important and how they fit together -- geographically, historically, psychologically -- to make up the city.

   This book was along with me during my recent trip to Buenos Aires and undoubtedly made my time there more satisfying. Its only real deficiency is a lack of good maps -- there is one, but it is very general and doesn't cover enough territory. Nonetheless, I would strongly recommend this book to anyone traveling to Buenos Aires.




2. I loved Mexico City by Nick Caistor in this series but this was a HUGE disappointment. There is way way too much name dropping and quoting of other sources rather than getting the author's actual feel of the city of Buenos Aires as it is today. I understand this series is subtitled as "a cultural and literary companion" but I'd have preferred way more emphasis on the culture as it stands now and less of the literary references. It was like reading Footnotes 101.

   Stick with Miranda France's Bad Times in Buenos Aires.




3. I spent a week in Buenos Aires and brought this book with me with the hope that it would introduce me to the uniqueness of this contradictory and culturally rich city - it did not. I have not read a more disjointed, dysfunctional guide than this one.
   
   Jason Wilson uses the word 'Babylonic' to describe Buenos Aires, and in a Freudian way, that very word describes how this book reads. Wilson uses the words of other writers to express (evidently he cannot) the soul of this city. All the multitude of quotes muddles your mind and the book ends up sounding like babble.
   
   Quote after quote assails you from writers you will be sorely pressed to recognize. This book could, maybe, work best in an Argentinian Literature course where the readers would have a pejorative understanding of the writers quoted. BUT, it is not, in any way, suitable for the average, or even above average, traveler in Buenos Aires. If you want an understanding of Argentina's Culture, then you should consider 'Culture Shock! Argentina' (however it too could be seriously improved, see my review). Not Recommended



4. Jason Wilson is an editor of travel writing collections of some note, and I have much enjoyed other books in the Cities of the Imagination series (most notably Elizabeth Nash's Madrid volume), so I looked forward to the arrival of this book from Amazon with much anticipation.
   
   I was, for the most part, greatly disappointed.
   
   The book was intensively researched, and you can count on several apt quotations per page. Hardly a signicant writer about Buenos Aires in the last three centures goes uncited, and it seems as if every block on the city grid gets its moment.
   
   The flaw - and it is a near fatal flaw - lies in the organization. Wilson organizes the book rigidly according to geography, going more or less block by block around the city, and detailing who lived in this building or what writer set a scene in that block of apartments.
   
   Whereas Nash weaves the history and neighborhoods of Madrid into broad thematic stories, Wilson tells no stories. He bludgeons you with facts and literary quotations, tied together only by geography. It is a hard and boring slog, and even if you push through, you emerge with no unifying concepts that might help you understand this vast and magical city.
   
   It's a shame, really, that the book is so dull and mechanically structured, because the research that went into it clearly was extensive, and because Buenos Aires seems to offer more potential than most cities for a proper Cities of the Imagination treatment. It reads, unfortunately, as if time ran out for the actual writing of the book, and the writer delivered a data dump organized by zip code.
   
   If you drive a tour bus around Buenos Aires for English speaking tourists, this book will prove a handy reference, barrio by barrio, street by street. If you are researching your own book on Buenos Aires, the bibliography alone will save you months in identifying the books you should read. If, however, you are planning a visit to Buenos Aires and want one cultural guide that will help you understand the living, breathing city, this is not the book to choose.



5. Because the book is organized around the cafes, theaters, and other cultural landmarks of particular streets, the book was an enormous help in understanding the city. By reading it beforehand, it allowed us to prepare our daily itinerary from a cultural-historical perspective. Forget the naysayers, here is no better book in understanding and appreciating the city of Buenos Aires as Jason Wilson's book. I've given it to all my friends.

1 comments about Frommer's Florence, Tuscany & Umbria (Frommer's Complete).

1. While we found the guidebooks useful in some ways, the restaurant recommendations were extremely disappointing. We ate at two of the recommended restaurants (one recommended by the Frommer Tuscany guidebook, the other by the Frommer Rome guidebook) during a week long stay in Italy. They were the most average meals we had - certainly they were not worth the stars they were given by Frommer. The Rome guidebook also recommended a restaurant (Insalata Ricca) near Piazza Navona without mentioning it was part of a chain. We walked several blocks to this location with family who wanted a light meal before catching the train (we didn't eat there ourselves) and later discovered that there was another one right around the corner from our hotel. I do not plan on buying a Frommer's guidebook again, because I can't trust their recommendations. The facts and history are available in other guidebooks too.
   
   I should also mention that the guidebook claimed that parking in Siena was exorbitantly expensive. Perhaps that is true if one parks the car and stays in a hotel in the city for several days. We visited the city for about 8 hours and paid about $15 which didn't seem too bad.

5 comments about Europe from a Backpack: Real Stories from Young Travelers Abroad (From a Backpack series).

1. Europe From a Backpack is the first in a series of backpacking anthologies that editor Mark Pearson is planning. The essays in this volume are written mostly by young backpackers who are not professional writers. The lack of polish is somewhat compensated for by the enthusiasm that shines through, though not entirely.

   Europe From a Backpack is a bit like the Travelers' Tales books, except that all the writers in the Backpack series are (so far) unknown. A few of the writers rise to the top of this collection, notably Lisa Cordeiro and Mike Riley. Cordeiro's two essays about living in Europe after a hitch in the Marines left me wanting to know more about her adventures. She writes as if telling a story, not just relating her experiences. Riley's essay is a funny, punchy story of how he found himself in desperate need of a restroom, then of new underwear in a small town in Portugal.

   Pearson has a website to promote his "From a Backpack" books and to solicit essays. There are instructions for submitting stories, but no mention of payment if your essay is included in one of his anthologies. While most of the authors in Europe From a Backpack might be satisfied by the thrill of seeing their writing in print, I certainly hope Cordeiro and Riley, at least, were paid for their stories.




2. Great stories, and helped me to grasp a perspective from travelers experiencing culture shock, or other first experiences that exist in travel.



3. I bought this book recently because I miss traveling and will not be able to head back over to Europe for a few months. I figured, if I can't go myself, I might as well live vicariously through someone else's travels. Unfortunately I opted out of re-reading Under the Tuscan Sun and sacrificed good writing for tales of American teenagers romping around Europe. I enjoyed about every other essay in this book, mainly because half of them were written by responsible, respectable Americans who had genuinely interesting stories to tell. The other half were tales of Americans criticizing foreign cultures, staying up all night drinking and partying, and being deceitful when faced with law enforcement. I wanted to read about people's experiences with European cultures and how they transformed their lives, not their spring break partying. I can forgive the poor writing, but to be honest, some of the content of this book upset me - do young Americans really behave this way? No wonder we have such a reputation.



4. Europe from a Backpack is just plain good travel writing. It is pure nostalgia and is sure to inspire fond memories in anyone who has traveled the country. On the other hand, it can serve as an inspiration to armchair travelers, or an underground guide to places off the beaten track. If nothing else, this collection should inspire any traveler to record their memories in a journal. At the very least, take away the lesson that a few unforgettable travel anecdotes are far superior to a collection of a hundred of photo slides to torture your friends and family with.
   
   The collection is divided into twelve chapters by region--Spain, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and so on. Stories focus on the hazards of a pilgrimage, on fleeting friendships formed in small cafes, on opulent stays with exchange families, and most of all, on the rare chance to fully experience local culture.
   
   Read this with a notepad in hand, because you will not only want to jot down the must-see sights and experiences, but the advice imparted by the book. Reading stories of travelers' sticky situations will provide the reader wisdom that comes only from hindsight.



5. This is a great book to hold you over from one European trip to the next. Quite entertaining and funny. A good "easy read".

2 comments about The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of the Balkans.

1. * * * Do NOT buy hardcover version! * * *

   Summary:
   Maps: **(*)
   Text: ***(*)
   To be used together with another atlas. (e.g. "Historical Atlas of East Central Europe, by P. R. Magocsi or Cartographia's "Történelmi Világatlasz" (in Hungarian))

   Just like when I first discovered the "Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe" I thought: "At last a specific work on the topic in English!".
   Well, despite the range of the maps - 50, listed at the end of the review - it was quite a disappointment.

   The maps... They can at best be described as of "average" quality, but words like "perfunctory" or "sloppy" could be used as well. There is no excuse for the roughness and distortion of state boundaries, the lack of rivers and cities/towns. And the actual errors to them have yet to be mentioned. Still, since these maps cover a smaller area than their counterparts in the
   "Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe", they are a bit more precise, but far from detailed.

   It must be noted as well that GEOGRAPHICALLY the Northern boundary of the Balkan Peninsula is defined by the Danube - Sava - Kulpa rivers. Thus Slovenia is entirely and Croatia and Romania is partly outside of it. However, while historically Ljubljana and Zagreb is rightly considered Central European, Bucharest is linked to the Balkans. Despite it's acquisition of Transylvania in 1918/20.

   It must be noted that the author makes an honest attempt to be objective in the history telling, by sometimes presenting several versions/views on the same event, BUT I am sure that even this won't satisfy everybody.
   However, the style of the text is sometimes "odd". "Nationalist", is one of the much preferred word used by the author, especially when dealing with newer history. The difference between "nationalism" and "patriotism" is apparently very subjective.

   All in all, the map part of this atlas is suitable for low-level studies of the area only, and the text for high-school studies.

   A last remark: This volume shares 14 - or 1/3 - out of it's 50 maps with the "Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe" from the same series. (Nos. (5), 8, 11, 13, 17, 19, 21, 25, 30, 32, 33, 37, 38, 49 and 50, as observed by the author of these lines.)
   So basically, the "Historical Atlas of the Balkans" - with it's 36 additional maps of the Balkans - is a complementary to the "Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe".

   The Maps:
   1: Physical
   2: Political, 2001
   3: Natural Resources
   4: Demographic
   5: Cultural
   6: The East Roman Balkans, Late 6th Century
   7: Avar, Slav, and Bulgarian Invasions, 7th Century
   8: Rise of the First Bulgarian Empire, 7th-10th Centuries
   9: Fall of the First Bulgarian Empire, Mid-10th-Early 11th Centuries
   10: Rise of Medieval Croatia, 19th-12th Centuries
   11: The Balkans, Late 12th Century
   12: Crusades in the Balkans, Late 11th-Early 13th Centuries
   13: The Balkans after the Fourth Crusade, 1204-1214
   14: Byzantium Resurrected, 1261-1328
   15: Rise of the Romanian Principalities, Mid-13th-14th Centuries
   16: Rise of Medieval Bosnia, 13th-14th Centuries
   17: Rise of Medieval Serbia, 13th-Mid-14th Centuries
   18: Political Fragmentation, Mid-14th Century
   19: Ottoman Expansion in the Balkans, Mid-14th-Early 16th Centuries
   20: Fall of Constantinople, 1453 (and Ottoman Istanbul)
   21: Apex of Ottoman Expansion, Mid-16th Century
   22: Ottoman Millet Organization, Mid-16th-17th Centuries
   23: Habsburg Croatian-Slavonian Military Border, 17th-18th Centuries
   24: The Ottoman Balkans, Late 17th-18th Centuries
   25: Emergence of Modern Balkan States, 1804-1862
   26: The Balkan Crisis of 1875-1876
   27: The "San-Stefano" Balkans, March 1878
   28: The "Berlin" Balkans, July 1878
   29: Balkan State Territorial Expansion, 1881-1886
   30: The Macedonian Question
   31: The Balkans, 1908
   32: Bosnia-Hercegovina, 1908-1914
   33: The Balkan Wars, 1912-1913
   34: World War I in the Balkans
   35: The Post-Versailles/Lausanne Balkans
   36: Yugoslavia, 1929-1941
   37: Post-Trianon Romania, 1920-1938
   38: The Transylvanian Question
   39: Bulgaria, 1919-1940
   40: Greece, 1923-1941
   41: Albania, 1921-1939
   42: The Balkans, 1939-1940
   43: World War II-The 1941 Balkan Campaign
   44: The Axis-Dominated Balkans, 1941-1944
   45: Balkan Cominform States 1945-1947
   46: The Greek Civil War, 1946-1949
   47: Splits in Communism, 1948-1960
   48: Collapse of Communism, 1989-1991
   49: Wars of Yugoslav Succession, 1991-1995
   50: The Kosovo Crisis, 1999

   Review based on First paperback September 2001 edition.




2. If you're looking for maps of how the Balkan borders have been drawn and redrawn between 600-1999 AD, plus a brief textual overview on the facing page, this is the book for you. Several earlier maps also show the general dispersion of the various cultures that inhabited that portion of the Balkans (not always an easy task).
   
   Understanding the Balkans is difficult (well, at least it is for an American like me) ... but this book has helped me more than one time to grasp the often turbulent events that constantly reshaped Balkan countries. As kingdoms and empires grew and shrank, the borders often changed ... and new countries were created and old countries disappeared.
   
   It's nice to have this brief progression through time in the form of the changing geography. It's a reference book that anyone who is interested in Balkan history will find useful over and over. And it's never out of date, since 600 AD will never occur again.

1 comments about One Hundred and One Beautiful Towns in France: Food & Wine (101 Towns).

1. Un beau livre!!
   This is a great addition to the coffee table book lover's collection and a great gift for the Foodie/Gourmand. You can't help but have an appreciation for France's time-honored traditions of enjoying good food and good wine. The regions of France are mapped out for you with a guide to which towns are highlighted in the book. Used as a quick reference book, you can quickly find out which epicurean delight any of the regions are best known for. Address, telephone and website information is also provided for a variety of stores, hotels and restaurants for each town featured. You can easily lose yourself in this book with stunning photography and well written descriptions. If you've been to France - you'll want to go back. If you've never been to France, you will want to go for sure. This could be the foodie's travel guide to France.

3 comments about Take Your RV To Europe: The Low-Cost Route To Long-Term Touring.

1. Details! Details! Details! WOW! You won't believe it. The main part of the book is 169 pages, with 143 more in Appendices, for a total of 312 pages. And, these are 8x10 pages, not the standard pocketbook size. Even if you don't have an RV, this is a must-read! It takes you day-by-day around the back roads of Europe, leading you through places you don't read about in the travel brochures. It didn't take me more than a few chapters of reading about the complexities of taking your own RV to Europe to convince me that it was something I'd probably never do, but if you're considering doing it, this book will tell you EVERYTHING you need to know. Read the book first for entertainment, then keep it as a reference. I would bet that you'll never see a book with this much attention to details, including photos whenever they're needed to clarify a point. And that's just the main part of the book -- they go on in the Appendices with 80 pages of letters they wrote home during their trips, very useful notes on 17 European countries, followed by info on ports, suppliers, useful internet sites, and European RV dealers/renters. Their notes and recommendations are REQUIRED for an RVer, but INVALUABLE to someone planning to travel Europe in any manner whatsoever.
   
   
   Here we have a retired couple with alot more energy and perserverance than I've ever had. They take you step-by-step through the process of why they decided to ship their RV instead of renting/buying one when they got there, finding the most cost-effective ways to do the shipping, and then finding their way around Europe in a manner that assured that they made the most of their time and money. They even go into details on how to save money on your second (and subsequent) trip(s). If you're interested in visiting, driving, shopping, eating, camping, touring, enjoying scenery, or just reading about Europe, this is your book.



2. Take Your RV To Europe is a straightforward guide to touring Europe long-term in the most economical manner possible - by RV! Chapters address how to calculate costs, preparing an RV for Europe, the shipping process, the campground scene, how to stay in touch, the author's personal experiences, and much more. Appendices summarize useful things to know about various European countries, including where to get tourist information prior to the trip, security issues, emergency telephone numbers, essential equipment, highway information particularly regarding tolls, and more. A no-nonsense, candid guide to seeing Europe at one's own pace.



3. This is a well-written book. I've not RV'd in Europe yet, but I sure want to. This book helped me see the ups and downs a little more clearly.