No comments about Provence & Cote D'Azur (European Regional Guide).

No comments about Versailles: Le Palais De LA Monarchie, Le Musee De LA Nation (Poche Couleur Series).

2 comments about Access Paris (5th ed.).

1. This guide breaks Paris into neighborhoods, the most recommended way to explore the city. The color coding is highly useful. The maps are handy. The descriptions lively and charming. lt's condensed yet packed with invaluable informational tidbits. Don't leave home without it. lt's the one to take along every day all day.



2. When my friend and I went to France for the first time, we decided that our trip would consist almost totally of Paris, which has so must to see that it deserves about two weeks in itself. When the time came to start looking for guidebooks, by coincidence a letter writer in a travel magazine raved about this Access edition, so I picked it up. I wasn't disappointed.

   If you're only spending a few days it isn't a good choice - you'll only be dealing with must-sees like the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame anyway. It is ideal, though, if your're staying for 2 weeks or longer, sectioning off neighborhoods of the city into chunks that are tourable in a day. This is definitely a mark-up book, begging for sights you want to see, restaurants you want to eat at, and stores you want to shop in to be highlighted or circled. The color highlighting is a useful tool, the drawings are wonderful, and the entries fun and informative - a delight to read when you're actually sitting down at the destination being described.

   A good guidebook for the tourist making more than a token visit and who's willing to do a little work beforehand.

No comments about Michelin Green Guide French Riviera (Michelin Green Guides).

No comments about Michelin Map No. 519: Bourgogne (Burgundy) (France).

2 comments about Star-Spangled Eden: 19th Century America Through the Eyes of Dickens, Wilde, Frances Trollope, Frank Harris and Other British Travelers.

1. I loved Star-Spangled Eden. This well researched history reads like a historical romance. Simmons covers 50 of the most critical years of American History, 1830-1850, through the eyes of eight British men and women who came here, traveled widely, and had marvelous adventures. Each traveler plugs into a major theme of the era when the country developed from raw frontier to a modern industrial state and provides a unique perspective on important events of this period - the Southern slavery system, the Civil War, the exploration and settlement of the West, etc.

   My favorite chapter is the last one on Oscar Wilde's witty eleven-month cross-country American tour. To quote the author, "Here was the leading British snob, an effete poseur of highly refined sensibilities, lecturing American audiences from Boston to Leadville on the principles of aesthetics and becoming a popular celebrity in the process. Wilde found himself growing inordinately fond of Americans. A less unlikely love match could scarcely be imagined."

   Simmons writes great history-of-travel books. I first discovered him with Castaway in Paradise: The Incredible Adventures of True-Life Robinson Crusoes. I recommend these books to anyone looking for a great read that's based on fact.




2. In "Star Spangled Eden," James Simmons joins adventure story, mini-biography, and travelogue for a refreshing look at mid-19th century American history. He allows us to see through the eyes of British artists (Fanny Kemble) authors (Charles Dickens, Civil War reporter "Bull Run" Russell) and adventurers (Frank Harris, Richard Burton) trying to understand and succeed in a growing country just understanding itself.

   "Eden" touches on the seismic events between 1820-1890: slavery, the Civil War and reconstruction, taming of the American West, manifest destiny, the Chicago fire and the start of Mark Twain's "Gilded Age." But letters, newspaper stories, biographies and other first person period literature allow Simmons to show the humanity behind them even at its most graphic (Part II, covering "The Western Frontier," contains most of the book's goriest images.)

   You read of Dickens' "quarrel with America" over copyright infringement and Frances Trollope's disgust with perceived American misogyny, egalitarianism and even table manners. These resulted in two books causing national furor and turning American goodwill against their respective authors. (Several chapters repeat disgust with tobacco spittle and a savage American press.) Most notably, in Kemble's chapter, Simmons shows how America's shame of slavery tears a nation and family asunder.

   But each of Simmons' subjects is astounded at America's natural beauty (most notably west of the Mississippi) and earnestness even while complaining of crude manners or(as Oscar Wilde did wittily in the chapter on his American tour)aesthetics.

   Simmons allows some sense of closure when saying those gleaning the most from their American experience assimilated themselves best into it. This covered episodes from Wilde drinking American friends and rivals under the table to Burton and mountain man George Puxton adapting clothes, mannerisms and even speech from their new neighbors. This contrasts with Trollope and Dickens who,in Simmons words, "had no appreciation of America as a vigorous, expanding nation." Through his anecdotes, Simmons allows you to see American growing pains his characters often could not.

   Simmons' only misstep is forgiveable. In Wilde's chapter he tells of presidential assassin Charles Guiteau, whose trial and execution for shooting James Garfield becomes a media circus, prefacing celebrity trials even as he identifies Wilde as "the first modern celebrity...famous for being famous." You expect Simmons to make a larger point on Guiteau's perverse interpretation of what Wilde considered the art of his own life, but Simmons never quite does. (It would also have helped to read of Wilde's meeting fellow iconoclast Ambrose Bierce.)

   Regardless, Simmons succeeds at the aim of his acknowledgements. "With proper research and attention to the small details of place, action, and character," he writes, "formal history could be written to read as easily and effortlessly as the finest historical romance." Indeed, Simmons successfully wraps American hisory around his characters' adventures in "Star-Spangled Eden" (and includes a superb bibliography), making his an offbeat, informative and even reasssuring history lesson.

4 comments about The Splendor of France: Great Chateaux, Mansions, and Country Houses.

1. This book is an absolute treasure to anyone who loves French architecture and decoration. It contains spledid photographs of French Chateaux inside and out. While expensive it is worth every cent and then some. A Must!



2. I got this because I really missed France after studying architecture there for a semester. This book really captured the same feeling of many of the historical sites I visited. My favorites are Chenonceau and Vaux-le-Vicomte, the French chateaux with formal garden.

   This paper back version is only 287 pages much shorter then the first hardcover that was about 400-500 pages. I don't quite remembered, but I think there were some lesser chateaux taken out. I found the hardcover for $130 at a local architectural bookstore. So, this definitely a steal at Amazon price of $28.

   The pictures are very big; every other page is a full page photograph. Some pages have a smaller picture and a written summary. This is more of a picture book with very little written texts, so you can't really use it for writing a resource paper. The picture of the building or site is very clean, since most of these places are full of tourist and it is funny seeing it empty. There are photographs of Chateaux, garden, interior design with furniture, and sculpture.

   If you like France and garden after the Baroque period, this is a nice book. It would be a five star if they didn't condense the book from the in-depth first edition.




3. This is a nice book on an amazing subject. Maybe I expected too much from this book, I don't know, but though I liked it very much indeed, it did not blow me away. Something was missing, I think it was Versailles and Fountainbleau and maybe Sceaux. I just thought most of the greatest chateaux where absent, although I loved the section on Vaux le Vicomte, now that is a spectacular chateaux by anyones definition; maybe the most beautiful in France...Louis XIV thought so. The photographs where first rate and I did enjoy the book, I just wanted more. Having said that I do recommend it to anyone who in interested in this subject; for those it really is a book worth owning.



4. A great and large collection of huge impressive photos for any Francophile that loves the French countryside and it's haute-couture architecture. A super reference for artists and travelers.

No comments about Unusual Shopping in Paris (Michelin Green Guides).

No comments about Charming Small Hotel Guides France Including Corsica Bed & Breakfast (Charming Small Hotel Guides).

No comments about France Spiral Guide (Aaa Spiral Guides).