5 comments about Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer.

1. This book is highly informative. My father, a B-17 Bombardier in the 8th Air Force apprecitated the authenticity of this book. Well written without the Hollywood fluff.



2. Whether this is your introduction to daylight bomber operations over Europe, or you've read hundreds of accounts, Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer will not disappoint. What really sets this book apart from a typical account, is that O'Neill has managed to get the entire crew's recollections mission by mission. Each individual's perspective is different, and taken as a whole provides a remarkably complete picture of life on a B-17 crew during the most intense period of air combat in the ETO. You will be hard pressed to find a better book on the subject.



3. Half a Wing, Three Engines, and a Prayer , written by Brian O'Neal, is the historical account of a B-17 Bomb Wing in Europe during the Second World War. Though many crews and other wings are followed in the book, the central story is that of the 303rd "Hell's Angels" Bomb Group and the B-17 crew of Lt. Bob Hullar. The period covered is from training in 1942 to combat over Europe from 1943 to 1944.
   
   Though several previous histories of Air Combat in World War II had been written, few had given the full perspective of the individual bomber crew. For B-17s, this consisted of 10 men, 3 of whom were officers and the rest enlisted. Together they flew the airplane, operated navigation instruments and radios, sighted and dropped the payload, and used machine guns to fend off attacks from enemy aircraft along the way. Often noted by the book was the fact that nearly 25% of these air crews would never return from the European Theater of Operations.
   
   The crews of the 303rd Bomb Group began their training for the most part in 1942, following the American entry into World War II. These men came from all walks of life and trained at bases all across the country before being assembled at a base in Washington for their final phase of training, where they trained as the crew they'd be a part of in Europe. From there, they were sent to England, where the 303rd was based as part of the strategic bombing campaign of the 8th Air Force against occupied Europe and Nazi Germany. The Group operated the four-engined B-17 "Flying Fortress", and crews typically flew different airplanes during their tour in Europe, which required 25 missions to be completed. Bob Hullar's crew would fly no less than 10 different aircraft during their tour, several of which were later destroyed, rendered irreparable by damage, and one of which had to be ditched in the English Channel.
   
   O'Neal relied heavily on interviews from members of the crews, particularly that of Bob Hullar. Each chapter of the book is devoted to a mission flown during the Hullar crew's tour, their targets ranging from coastal towns in France to large industrial cities deep in the heart of Germany. Likewise, the missions varied from somewhat un-remarkable to enormous aerial battles and fierce anti-aircraft fire. Regardless of the target, however, every mission posed extraordinary danger to the crews who flew on them. They remained in constant fear of their own destruction, and this perhaps played a role in how well the individual crew members could remember the particulars of each mission decades after it occurred. When events could not be correlated with the accounts of the crew's, O'Neal turned to the official records of the 303rd Bomb Group and even those of the German Luftwaffe to determine what actually occurred during the air battles documented in the book.
   
   The story of the American Amry Air Force in Europe was first made famous by the story of the crew of the Memphis Belle, which was the first B-17 to complete 25 missions and served as the platform for a now famous documentary on the subject, made during the war. Since that time numerous documentaries and books have been produced on the subject, making it one of the more well understood aspects of the war in Europe.
   
   Overall, one learns a great deal from the individual accounts that are contained in the book. They give an eye-witness view to the carnage and fast-paced action that occurred thousands of feet above the earth during the air war, and offer a glimpse into how it actually felt to be caught in the middle of this. One is surprised to learn the ineffectiveness that often plagued American bombing missions, which frequently missed their intended target or did little damage, despite the involvement of hundreds of airplanes for each mission. At times there were well over a thousand aircraft, both bombers and fighters, engaged in accomplishing these missions. The crew of Bob Hullar , one finds out, was lucky to survive the slaughter that took place at 25,000 feet on an almost daily basis, and the story of the air war in Half a Wing, Three Engines, and a Prayer is forever memorable because of it.



4. It's always a pleasure to find a non-fiction account of any period which is so good you don't want to put it down. Here's an account of the American contribution to the bombing war in the European Theatre of Ops which is truely readable at all levels (no pun intended.) The story concentrates essentially on bombing operations, in a chronological order, explored mainly through the eyes of the bomber crews themselves as recorded in their diaries and wartime interrogations and de-briefings. These experiences are reinforced by solid research into US and German records, just to confirm the men's accounts. The story concentrates mainly on the crews of one bomber group as they go through their tour of duty. But in the process, it recounts what many men saw and did in the air over Germany. This is NOT a statistical account of the US strategic bombing offence. This is an up-close-and-personal account of men at war, trying to beat the odds and survive the full 30 Ops needed to finish a tour and go home. So when planes blow up beside you and Messerschmitts pop out of the clouds behind, you'll discover what it felt like to have your guns jam at the critical moment, to feel enemy cannon shells hammer your airframe, to sense the hand of death at the controls, then to see 'little friends' come racing to the rescue. The paperback edition contains some unpublished aerial photos, and some surprises - like a photo of the first US experiment with flying bombs, which looked like miniature Lightning fighters carried under a B-17s wings. Most of all, this book is a good read - covering lots of action at a ripping pace. It's a good, thick book and well worth the price. I was glad I bought it.



5. Bob Hullar was my father. I was born in 1948 and my Dad went back into the newly formed US Air Force shortly after that and retired as a bird colonel. While my Dad and I were pretty close, he didn't talk much about WWII and what he did. As a kid, I knew that he was a B17 pilot based in England and that he probably dropped a lot of bombs, but that was about it. This book opened up a part of his life to me that I didn't really know and couldn't possibly understand. My mother, Jean, provided a lot of documents, photos and information to the author as he was researching for it. "Half a Wing, Three Engines and Prayer" is very well written and factual, but also manages to convey the incredible dangers these men continually confronted and the courage they must have had to get back into those planes day after day. As I was reading it, I constantly asked myself "Could I have done this?" and "What was I doing at age 25... surely nothing like this!" It helped me to understand my Dad, who remained a quiet, complex man for the rest of his life and gave me a glimpse of what surely was his peak lifetime experience. For anyone who is interested in the World War II and the US Army Air Force, I think it is a must read.
   Thanks to the author for undertaking this task and doing such a great job!

5 comments about Christ Stopped at Eboli: The Story of a Year.

1. In a pre-Marley world, a young Italian doctor and artist with socialist ideas was exiled for three years to a remote southern Italian village by Mussolini's Fascist party. While it's not entirely clear where his money came from, he was allowed to keep a dog, have visitors and talk with the villagers freely. Because the two local doctors amounted to little more than antiquated quacks, Carlo Levi was pushed into practicing medicine. The sentence required that he not leave the village and that he find his own quarters. A dozen other exiles lived in the village, but contact among them was limited as well. That's how a liberal Jewish intellectual from Turino came to live among the peasants, petit bourgeoisie, and envy-wracked country gentry of Gagliano village in the mountains of what is today Italy's Basilicata region. Villages here, in the 1930s, lived a life far from any government assistance. Even Christ stopped (it was said) at Eboli, a town at the northern edge of the poverty-stricken region. Levi writes brilliantly of life in the remote village---the discouraged priest, the Fascist mayor (who, though strict with the exiles, wants Levi's approval as a "man of culture"), the mayor's manipulative sister, the peasant women maids who worked for him---and the difficult lives they had, without any aid from the outside world. Levi paints a picture of a place tied to its past, with 19th century struggles between bandits (peasants) and the landowners only the last of the struggles. Outside occupiers had marched in and out for centuries, but for the most part, the peasants kept their heads down and worked in their malarial fields in the valley below. CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI evokes above all the world of the forgotten people of Italy, taxed, drafted into armies for wars they never understood, and then ignored. Rome gave them nothing, only sent tax collectors and imposed mayors who called useless meetings and gave fatuous speeches. But don't think that the peasants were unaware of the outside world. It was just that their ties with the wider world did not lie in Rome, but in the big city slums of America. A huge percent of the village men went off to America to labor, sent money and goods, and often never returned, leaving an equal number of women alone. The men who returned mostly plunged back into village life. When their foreign funds dried up, they became part of traditional life once more, not having changed dramatically in their foreign sojourn.
   
   
   
   Levi writes of all this and a lot more. He created it on the basis of one year's stay, because he received an amnesty when Addis Ababa fell to Mussolini's army. You would have to use the word "lyrical" to describe the style. The inhabitants of Gagliano and surrounding villages are drawn vividly, the connections of peasants, village, nature, the saints, the church, the magical spirits, social class, and politics so well-knit that you absorb a "village study" better than most professional anthropologists' before you know it. This is a masterpiece. One of the best books I have read in a long time.



2. Levi provides great literature and great historic commentary. Cristo si e' fermato a Eboli, represents a truly great literary work for the international market for it seems to me one of those books that can in fact be translated successfully. Levi's narration is gripping, one feels that the tome can be read in one seating. Before reading it I had hesitated in view of the obvious relation and similarity of the subject to the classic Verga's masterpieces on the corresponding condition of the Sicilian fishermen and farmers, literature which I thought rather hard to match. Although I still prefer Verga's work, Levi's comes close. It is interesting that alongside its poetic (in fact almost pictorial, Levi is also a painter of some relevance) and literary aspects the book did upon publication - and still does - provide a glimpse of the conditions of the Italian rural south that had gone, and in some respect still are, totally ignored, almost "blocked out", by the rest of the country and especially by its government. Levi and Verga powerfully describe how the total abandonment of the Lucanian and Sicilian "contadini" managed to seamlessly - and culpably - survive the transitions from the the blithe sovereignty of the Neapolitan court to that of the Savoia's and eventually to that of the taxing Italian government in Rome (twenty years of fascism being hardly perceived in such a remote society). As a consequence the forgotten populace's shining knights are the "briganti" the bandits that in the South had to be crushed by the infant nation's army in a bloody civil war that lasted several years. Crushed the briganti were but not so thoroughly for a recalcitrant mass of people still survived that has since seen mafia or 'ndrangheta as "cosa nostra", our thing. No wonder the Italian army (besides the customary "carabinieri" that are formally an army corps) had to be redeployed in very recent times in both Sicily and Sardinia. American readers will be surprised and amused by reading of the picture of one of their presidents being the only other venerated icon of the resigned "contadini" alongside that of the black faced "Madonna di Viggiano".



3. I ordered the book for my mother. She specifically selected the title. She loved the book.



4. Levi, a doctor and painter and intellectual, spent a year in the mid-1930's in Gagliano, Lucania, a peasant town in southern Italy, exiled there by the Fascist government for unspecified political offenses. CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI is his sensitive and loving portrait of life in Gagliano. In many ways the peasants were still pagans ("everything participates in divinity"); Christianity as a religion had not yet penetrated that far south in Italy; in other words, "Christ stopped at Eboli" (a city somewhat north of Gagliano). Levi recounts in detail the lives and world-view of these Twentieth-Century European peasants, which is summarized in the following passage: "This suffering together, this fatalistic, comradely, age-old patience, is the deepest feeling the peasants have in common, a bond made by nature rather than by religion."
   
   Interesting as it is, the book moves slowly -- probably much like the pace of life in Gagliano, but too slowly for me. Levi is not a particularly rigorous or logical thinker; his mentality is more that of a poet. Yet the writing, while not quite pedestrian, is at times ponderous and never really outstanding (perhaps that is in part the fault of the translation). Hence, after reading the book, I was mildly surprised by the mostly glowing reviews on Amazon, and I initially refrained from posting my own review, thinking that perhaps I was being overly critical. But I just finished reading VOICES OF THE OLD SEA by Norman Lewis, which is a portrait of peasant life in two remote villages in Spain in the late 1940s. Despite the different countries and a 15-year gap in time, there are many similarities between the communal lives portrayed by Lewis and by Levi. Yet Lewis's is a much superior book, in large part because the pace is quicker and the prose far better. By no means do I wish to discourage anyone from reading CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI, but if you enjoyed it, or think you might enjoy it, I do encourage you to read VOICES OF THE OLD SEA as well.



5. Being a college student who has read already read a diverse amount of literature, I would have to say that Christ Stopped at Eboli was one of the worst novels I have read. I will say that Levi has mastered the use of descriptive language to very accurately portray the plight of the peasants; however he offers little compassion for the peasants and at times writes of them in a condescending manner. Perhaps his condescension is a true portrayal of class differences back then, however I could not identify in the least bit with Levi. Nor could I identify with the peasants, because there was absolutely no character development in this book. Levi wrote a descriptive novel -- he told things like he saw them, but without passion and intrigue. I found this novel to be very dry and mostly uninteresting. A college professor or older person may disagree, but from my standpoint this book had little to offer except that it was a good look at a different part of the world.

3 comments about Thomas Jefferson's Feast (Step into Reading) (Step #4).

1. This is a wonderful children's book about our third president (US). It provides a fun story about how he loved to read and write and eat! He brought foods back from France that weren't popular here and made them famous. Jefferson got people to finally try love apples or tomatos, thought to be poisonous here in the US, but eaten often in France.



2. There are enough facts about Thomas Jefferson to easily fill a book hundreds of pages in length. So why, a reader might wonder, would an author choose to even partially fictionalize a 48-page-long children's book. Six pages are filled with specific information about a feast that did not take place, and although clarified in the author's note, it seems that young children are unlikely to distinguish fact from fiction in a biographical book. Additionally, the idea of a man who owned 100-200 slaves at any given time preparing an entire feast by himself is nonsensical. Only two pages portray slaves: one shows a smiling man at the door of a dumbwaiter; another, two small figures working the land. Their almost-absence, when recounting the life of a man whose existence depended so heavily on their labor, borders on revisionism. The illustrations are very good; the factual parts of the story are excellent; and the inclusion of several French words, complete with meanings and pronunciation, is a bonus; but the truth is overly bent. Abe Lincoln's Hat by Martha Brenner, another in the Step Into Reading series, is equally good, but all true.



3. All of the books in this series take one personality trait of a famous person and talk about it. The trait they chose for Jefferson was that he liked to eat. The fact that the "feast" happened over several parties as opposed to one meal is not an important enough piece of "fiction" to justify saying that the book is bad. The book does not talk about Slavery. That is covered in the book about Harriett Tubman, which is also a very good book. This is a Step Into Reading book, not a complete history of Thomas Jefferson book. Although the reading level is 2nd - 4th grade, the content is PreK - 1st.

5 comments about French in 10 Minutes a Day® (10 Minutes a Day Series).

1. I bought these right after returning from Paris knowing I was going back the following year. I didn't know one word of French before these CD's and when I returned to Paris I felt quite competent getting around. I wasn't fluent by any means, but these CD's focus on what you need to know as a traveler i.e. asking basic questions, making reservations, going to the post office, airport terms, ordering food, menu item names, names of shops and conjugation of common verbs. I learned a tremendous amount just by listening to the CD's. The use of different people on the CD's introduces various accents and helps reinforce pronunciation. The workbook lessons are a nice beginner level and follow the CD's and are good to reinforce the spellings and vocabulary. There is a glossary in the back which is also helpful. I highly recommend this set to anyone wanting a good first step to learning French or just wanting to be able to get around France on vacation. It made a huge difference in my confidence from the first year, not knowing a word to being able to walk into a place asking for a table, ordering my meal and paying completely in French.



2. I doubt that you can learn a language in just ten minutes a day but this one at least gives you confidence to at least try to speak some french as a traveller and people always respond well to the fact that you have made an effort.
   One of the most attractive features of this book is the simple system of pronuncation. Next is the logical way it sets about teaching you ie., the order of gettin to the heart of the matter. Some of the suggested ways of learning vocabulary can be expanded onWell worth the cost.



3. Although I believe the sequence of the training is good, I would have liked the CD to strictly follow the book. The tape also uses several French speakers and they all pronounce the words very differently, which to a beginner like me, is very confusing. The intent was good as they wanted folks to hear people with French accents from all over the world; however, to someone hearing and learning the language for the first time, I personally found this to be frustrating. For my level of expertise (none), I needed consistency in pronunciation and pronunciation I could understand so I could repeat. Folks who already are familiar with the language, may find this CD useful.



4. All I want is to learn to communicate the essential needs of a tourist when I travel to France. This book includes sticky labels to label all sorts of items in your home, flash cards, and other tools that help to learn basic French with less effort. You will need other materials if you want to learn this language more fluently and a CD to help with pronounciation. Regardless, this book can be a helpful tool.



5. i was happy with the book and the phonetic structure that gives you an idea of how the words are pronounced. i have a problem learning a new language and this book makes it easier. the spanish version already has a home in my library and has been very helpful. however, i was disappointed when i put it in my cd player and got no response. i didn't realize that it was a cd rom and not a regular cd.

5 comments about Michelin Battle of Normandy Map No.102.

1. Excellent. I consider myself a World War II in Europe "fan", try to read all the books I can. This has certainly made many of them more meaningful since I can now pinpoint locations in them. Read about this map when Time published their 60 yr anniversary of D-day issue. Tom Hanks mentioned it, but I hadn't been able to find it. Googled, and there it was. Amazon came through again.



2. This map is a valuable companion to any book on Operation Overlord and the follow on operations in Normandy. It allows the reader to maintain geographical awareness when reading of the military operations taking place in various locations.



3. very interesting purchase. its actually a map you used to get in gas stations. shows where bunkers are & VERY detailed road, towns, & terain. not much on where battles fought & also from 1947. there are probably lots of changes to map now, but still for the money i like it.



4. Very well done. Plan to use this map for a trip to Normandy and find battle sites from D-Day.



5. I purchased Michelin Battle of Normandy Map No.102 to help us guide ourselves around Normandy this spring while looking for war ruins such as bunkers, and memorials and cemetaries. The map is very detailed and was excellent for planning the trip before arriving in France. However, after driving in Normandy, I was startled that I could actually depend on this map for navigation! Even though it is a map from the 40's, many things have not changed in Normandy! While some cemetaries that were identified on the maps are no longer US cemetaries (for example, we exhumed our dead from a current German cemetary and reburied them in the US cemetary near Omaha beach), practically every other feature identified on the map is accurate. These include the memorial markers, gun batteries, parachute drop zones and even the towns which had a lot of battle damage. The road numbers are the mostly the same so it's easy to get around by using this map. If you're touring Normandy you will be very happy you brought this map with you and used it. It's also readily available in many museums in the area.

5 comments about Narrow Dog to Carcassonne.

1. I didn't care for the book much. There were bits and pieces that were humourous, but overall, I didn't find it all that funny. That was disappointing, because I think the author can be quite humorous.
   I think, as others have mentioned, Darlington was trying too hard to show how erudite he was by including as many references to songs, books, quotes, poetry, etc. as he could. I'm well read and well traveled, but I didn't know what he was talking about half of the time.
   And even though this was about a boat trip, if I had to read one more ad nuasuem description of the locks they passed through, I would have screamed. Enough already!
   One more thing-it drove me CRAZY that there were absolutely no quotation marks in the book-made it very hard to read.



2. If you like travel and/or boats and/or dogs and/or a writer with humor and quotes from classics to films, this book will be right up your...canal. Funny and disarming, showing the downside moments as well as the champagne highs of taking a narrowboat across the Channel and, even more scaringly, down through France, not a dull page in the lot.
   
   I can't wait to see what happens when Terry and Monica and Jim the Narrow Dog come to my home country in the US.
   
   I read it in two sittings.
   BarbV



3. We've driven a barge to Carcassonne and the auther captures the experience. However, it was his sense if humor that kept us helpless.



4. I must admit that I have been to the UK and have been on a narrow boat. This book is hilarious, warm, endearing and I cannot wait to get the new book. Anyone who has ever traveled, either with a dog or children to someplace completely unfamiliar will appreciate the author's experiences. If you have been on one of the uniquely British narrowboats you are even more enraptured with the book. If you have been on a motorhome for a long trip, especially with children, you will appreciate Jim (the narrow dog). I must admit that Americans will have trouble with some of the English usage but it is well worth it. Wonderful book, wonderful story, wonderful people.
   WH



5. I read a lot of travel books and especially a lot of books about travel or living in France. This is, hands-down, one of the top 3 I've ever read, and I can't remember what the other two are! This is funny! It's honest. It's sometimes exciting. The writing is much better than that of most travel tales, by far!
   
   Mr. Darlington is a poet, and he's obviously had that wonderful sort of British education that sends one off into life with a head full of poetry as well as facts. This book is sometimes a poem, without a spare word. He makes his adventures come alive. He makes us want to be friends with him and his wife, Monica, and even with Jim the "narrow dog."
   
   I am really looking forward to the publication next year of his book about traveling the the southern U.S. Mr. Darlington, I hope you keep writing for a long time!

5 comments about The Road from the Past: Traveling through History in France.

1. As my wife and I prepare to go to France (Dordogne) for a walking tour with 'Country Walkers', we were advised to read up on French history. This book was recommended. What a great read! I just searched Amazon for more books by the same author and was dissappointed to see that she has no more listed. I would love to travel to France with her. Karen Brown, beware!!



2. 
   Despite the her extensive bibilography at the end of the book, Caro's research is at best superficial. In fact, she seems to have relied a great deal on the Michelin guide to the Dordogne. The author also has a tendency to insert herself into the story in an annoyingly coy manner. Not recommended.



3. Caro's guide is unique and she provided me suggestions about places to see, and not see, that were very helpful. Some other reviewers were annoyed with her personal travel narratives, but I found them interesting. Her method of how to visit France, by traveling though its history chronologically was very good. In the end, I was able to use her book as the basis for planning my own two week trip. I am a college history professor, and her insights and recommendations about how to travel were very helpful.



4. We are planning our second long driving tour of France, and having visited many of the places she details, have found Ina Caro's book to be engaging and immensely informative. I like being able to place "sights seen" in an historic perspective and this book is genius at doing just that. Now I've purchased my own copy -- having renewed the library version twice this Spring, and having read it prior to our 2003 trip as well. We don't need guidebooks to help us find hotels or restaurants anymore. THIS is my kind of guidebook, and it will never be "out-of-date!"



5. Being an avid reader of travel essays and an admitted francophile, I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Caro's book. Her suggested travel method of combining history and architecture is brillant. I've read about the historical events she details in her book, but I had never read about the details of those same events being paired with the architecture of the period. Ms. Caro also does an excellent job of lending insight to the often-unknown dramas accompanying the locales she visits. A must-read for anyone interested in French history, chateaux, or arm-chair travel! As an added bonus, Ms. Caro has even included her own travel tips and recommended hotels and restaurants.

5 comments about Walking Paris : Thirty Original Walks In and Around Paris.

1. "Walking Paris" is an excellent, easy to read, easy to carry book of walks around Paris which combines both obvious tourist high spots with hidden and unspoilt and largely undiscovered Paris. It is full of fascinating background information. It also contains helpful information about good restaurants and cafes on your route."Walking Paris" really adds value and enjoyment to your trip to this fascinating and most beautiful city.



2. My girlfriend and I did about a third of the walks in this book while visiting Paris at Easter.
   
   Overall, a very good guide that points out both the expected and unexpected sites of interest on the
   walk. The maps sometimes have glitches, so on every walk we found ourselves lost at least once.
   
   Some walks were brilliant and informative. Walking Montmartre and the Marais, I learned a lot more about
   neighborhoods I'd been in before (previously armed with a Michelin guide). The Latin Quarter walks were
   a little less good but still excellent (and in the Latin Quarter, seemed to take us past all the fine bakeries).
   
   Other walks were simply average: the Louvre to Champs Elysee and Ile St Louis. The walks were fine but
   nothing in the guide made them feel special. And while I applaud the idea of trying to create a walk
   from Trocadero to the Arc de Triomphe, the actual walk was rather boring.
   
   Still, overall, the best walking guide for Paris I've encountered.



3. If you're only interested in who built a particular building and when and in what style, then you'll love this book. But in my mind, only an architectural history buff would like it. It's just a list of information, few cultural references, nothing interesting, it's very boring.



4. Having already used the "Walking London" and "Walking Dublin" books, by the same publisher, with great success, we were immediately drawn to the "Walking Paris" book. Instinct guided us correctly. My wife and I just used this book over Easter 2008, and were pleasantly satisfied with the range and commentary of the walks. I have been to Paris 4 times, and each walk we took I learned so much about the history of the streets, homes, and monuments that were on the paths. In five days we were able to enjoy around a dozen walks, and as a man I found the maps very helpful. If you plan ahead you can connect the walks to stretch your time. The book also includes valuable Metro information, historical background of Paris, colorful photos, and practical hints. My wife and I both feel that our days would not have been as exciting/ informational without "Walking Paris".
   
   At the same time we purchased "Paris Walks" by Landis et al. and were quite disappointed. For the information that **is** given the detail is phenomenal, yet for such highlights, i.e. Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, and the Louvre you will not even find an entry. On the other hand, for a small yet historical restaurant such as Maxim's, you will find over 2 pages of information. This was not our style, but made a good compliment. That is why we think "Walking Paris" is the best.
   
   We will continue to purchase from this publisher for other cities we travel to. You will not be disappointed.



5. I found this book quite useful. I had it with me on a recent trip to Paris and took three or four of the walks. It's easy to use, accurate, informative and it definitely shows you things you might otherwise miss. On one walk through the Marais, we "discovered" a medieval library I would otherwise just walked straight past.
   I suggest taking this book and another one with restaurant and hotel listings. But for people who love Paris and love to walk, this is a good buy. For more on me, and my book The Nazi Hunter: A Novelgo to www.alanelsner.com.

5 comments about The Most Beautiful Villages of Provence (Most Beautiful Villages).

1. Provence is heaven to me.I love the hills, the variety of plant life, and the exquisite villages with their definitive shuttters and dove cotes. The fountains bubble with life. The cobbled streets lead to some of the most fetching homes and buildings in the world. The Provencal people dress their windows in lace and paint the exterior and interior of their homes in the colors found in the Provencal landscape: blue, yellow, ochre, greens. Terracotta roofs provide the most wonderful color and texture to the landscape. Somehow everything blends wonderfully! The creators of The Most Beautiful Villages in Provence capture the essence of this southern region of France. The photography vividly presents the viewer with a panorama of gorgeous scenes: fields of lavender, geraniums in pots leading to a beautiful door, roof top views that are breathtaking, undulating paths that take you to splendid spots, aerial views of villages, an old roman road and bridge. A friend of mine, who was born in Provence, gave me this incredibly beautiful book; the only thing better, she says, is to be there! I plan to take this book with me to Provence next summer!! After seeing this book, nothing can keep me away!



2. I am French and was born in Provence, so I have spent most of my days there, except when I travel and when I was modeling in the world of high fashion. I know every village, and I fly my plane over Provence many, many times. I bought this book because it is so beautiful and shows the many wonderful places in my part of France. I am not good at taking the pictures, like these men do, and besides, I always do the flying. My sister would have to do the picture making. If you buy this book, you will be able to see my beautiful Provence in the pictures whenever you want to. Provence is very old and very picturesque, that is why the photography is so good. If it was not a most beautiful place in the world, it could not be so beautiful of a book. I am French and so I know it is this beautiful. It is more beautiful in the real world, if you can even think that. We have lots of cobble streets. Everyone loves the flowers, so you will see most beautiful flowers everywhere you look in Provence. We have hidden waters that come out into our special fountains. Every village must have their fountains and some are very, very old and are more special than any place else in the world. We like things to be beautiful, so you never see anything ugly in Provence. The earth is very good to us. We have herbs growing everywhere in the countryside. Lavender, Rosemary, and Thyme, you can find just walking in our wonderful hills. We love colors in Provence. Blue, yellow, ochre,green, we like all of those colors. Marcel Pagnol lived in Provence, too. He made his films and his books because he loved Provence. He was French. If you want to see a beautiful book that will make you smile and smile, get this book, and then come see for yourself that I am lucky to be French and live in Provence most of the time...................... ................Presented to you by Summer



3. I bought this book thinking that it would show me not only nice pictures, but also information about the villages it supposedly considers the most beautiful ones in Provence. Pure disappointment... Even though the quality of the pictures is nice, they do not give you a true view of the relevant villages. They are pictures taken at random that do not represent - sometimes - the best view of the village.
   
   But what is most dissapoiting in this book is the poor information about the villages, its populations, culture and location. In my opinion, every descrition of each village should also contain a map of its location in southern France (for us to know how could one get there), its population (to see how big it is), a some info on the villages picturesque points, etc. The few paragraphs dedicated to each village are too vague.
   
   Finally, I think the editor should have made this book differently with half the villages and twice the pictures and info about them. I gave 2 stars for the pictures.



4. I love this book! It effectively captures the drama and charm of Provence. I have been to Provence and this book is the next best thing if you can't go there. I also highly recommend the other book "The Most Beautiful Country Towns of Provence".



5. France is one of my favorate places to visit and the book has picked a few of the places I have visited. Great Book to own.

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