No comments about Idylls of France.

No comments about Blue Guide South West France, Aquitaine, Dordogne to the Pyrenees (Blue Guides).

No comments about Lyon Et La Vallee Du Rhone Green Guide (Michelin Green Guides).

No comments about Michelin Local Map No. 315 Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, Territoire-de-Belfort (France) scale 1 cm = 5 km.

1 comments about Insight Guides Smart Guide Paris (Insight Smart Guide Paris).

1. This guide is unfortunately very incomplete, and even leaves out mention of such major museums as the Jacquemart Andre. I wish I had brought along my out of date Frommer's! Next time, I'm buying Frommer's to be on the safe side.

4 comments about Let's Go 2004: France (Let's Go France).

1. By and large, this is a wonderful book, especially for young travelers on a tight budget. I was able to plan for and spend a wonderful 10-day vacation in France, visiting Bayeux, Paris, Annecy, and Nice, using only this guide. There is a tremendous amount of useful information, the vast majority of which was thankfully up-to-date. The commentary is lively and interesting, and although their recommendations for accommodations, food, sights, etc. at times appear a tad inexplicable, even arbitrary, they are usually on the nose.

   The only major flaw, which stood out rather starkly given the overall excellent nature of the guide, was that its stinginess when it comes to maps. Why, for example, would they only include detailed maps of half of Paris' 20 districts (unless they were trying to drum up business for "Let's Go: Paris")? Would it have been so hard or costly to tack another 10 or 20 pages onto the book, allowing them to add more maps and increase the size of those already included? I can't say that this oversight wasn't annoying, because when you're short on time and money the last thing you want to do is worry about is reacquiring your bearings.

   Nevertheless, I still heartily recommend this book.




2. I mean that in a good way.

   When I was in college (I plead the Fifth on when that might have been), Let's Go ___ (insert country/continent of your choice) was known as the Bible of budget travel. It also provided little secrets that Fodor's and others didn't which helped my friends and I forge backroads and have more contact with local culture and people....while saving us money at the same time.

   But 2 years ago, when I planned a return trip to Provence, I was heavily disappointed at France 2002. Prices were way off, descriptions of sites in Provencal towns didn't give myself or my hosts (an American and her French-born husband) enough information to decide what day trips to take or even what sites to see in Avignon, their hometown. Luckily, I had purchased Doring Kindersley's "Provence & the Cote D'Azur", which has the advantage of pictures and fine maps, before I left. We found that very helpful

   Back to the book at hand, Let's Go 2004: I almost didn't look for it when I made plans to return to France this year to visit Flanders and Normandy. But after dissatisfaction with a number of other books, I decided to give it a chance.

   I'm very glad I did. There have been a number of improvements. Prices were right on (almost a miracle considering the climb of the Euro)and descriptions of accomodations, etc. were highly accurate. The sites described made me change my mind about where I wanted to go in some instances; for example stopping to see the Bayeux tapestry after all when I had determined to focus only on the D-Day sites. Let's Go also frequently includes walking maps this year of various cities, such as Lille, as a way of getting oriented but also as a free site-seeing tour. (In Lille it helps, because the town is laid out like a maze).

   Another very charming thing about this edition is the sidebars and special reports from the authors, with titles such as "From the Road", "Local Legend", "In Recent News" and "On the Menu". Most of those I read in the Paris, Flanders and Normandy sections were helpful, and if not, they were interesting.

   I would have liked to see other D-Day sites, such as St. Mere Eglise, discussed, but I also recognize that at 806 pages it's imposssible to put everything in. Thanks to Let's Go for getting the get up & go back!




3. I've made >20 visits to France all together. Here are my reviews of the best guides....to meet you r exact needs.....I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later......this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max!
   
   Let's Go
   Let's Go is a great guide series that specializes in the niche interest details that turn a trip into a great and memorable experience. Started by and for college students, these guides are famous for the details provided by people who used the book the previous year. They continue to focus on providing a great experience inexpensively. If you want to know about the top restaurants, this is not for you (use Fodor's or Michelin). Let's Go does have a bewildering array of different guides though. Here's which is what:
   Budget Guide is the main guide with incredibly detailed information and reviews on everything you can think of.
   City Guide is just as intense but restricted to the single city.
   PocketGuide is even smaller and features condensed information
   MapGuide's are very good maps with public transportation and some other information (like museum hours, etc.)
   
   Michelin
   Famous for their quality reviews, the Red Michelin Guides are for hotels & Restaurants, the Green Michelin Guides are for main tourist destinations. However, the English language Green guide is the one most people use and it has now been supplemented with hotel and restaurant information. These are the serious review guides as the famous Michelin ratings are issued via these books.
   
   Fodor's
   Fodor's is the best selling guide among Americans. They have a bewildering array of different guides. Here's which is what:
   The Gold Guide is the main book with good reviews of everything and lots of tours, walks, and just about everything else you could think of. It's not called the Gold guide for nothing though....it assumes you have money and are willing to spend it.
   SeeIt! is a concise guide that extracts the most popular items from the Gold Guide
   PocketGuide is designed for a quick first visit
   UpCLOSE for independent travel that is cheap and well thought out
   CityPack is a plastic pocket map with some guide information
   Exploring is for cultural interests, lots of photos and designed to supplement the Gold guide
   
   MapGuide
   MapGuide is very easy to use and has the best location information for hotels, tourist attractions, museums, churches etc. that they manage to keep fairly up to date. It's great for teaching you how to use the Metro. The text sections are quick overviews, not reviews, but the strong suite here is brevity, not depth. I strongly recommend this for your first few times learning your way around the classic tourist sites and experiences. MapGuide is excellent as long as you are staying pretty much in the center of the city.
   
   Time Out
   The Time Out guides are very good. Easy reading, short reviews of restaurants, hotels, and other sites, with good public transport maps that go beyond the city centre. Many people who buy more than one guidebook end up liking this one best!
   
   Blue Guides
   Without doubt, the best of the walks guides.... the Blue Guide has been around since 1918 and has extremely well designed walks with lots of unique little side stops to hit on just about any interest you have. If you want to pick up the feel of the city, this is the best book to do that for you. This is one that you end up packing on your 10th trip, by which time it is well worn.
   
   Lonely Planet
   Lonely Planet has City and Out To Eat Guides. They are all about the experience so they focus on doing, being, getting there, and this means they have the best detailed information, including both inexpensive and really spectacular restaurants and hotels, out-of-the-way places, weird things to see and do, the list is endless.



4. Thrilled to know that the maps came in handy for many of you. I'm sorry that more could not be made--it was an issue of both cost and time. If you'd like to see more maps in the future, I encourage you to write our publisher, St. Martin Press.

No comments about Corsica (AA Road Map France).

No comments about The French Alps (Hachette's Vacances Series).

5 comments about The Parisian Cafe: A Literary Companion.

1. This is a great book! Val Clark has assembled a wonderful collection of photos and quotes that transport the reader to the Paris café scene of Hemingway, Anais Nin and Albert Camus. Flipping through the pages of this beautifully laid out book will send any reader into another world entirely. I would say that it is an ideal coffee table book, except that two friends have already asked to borrow it from my coffee table!



2. Val Clark's selection of images and quotations evoking the literary life of Paris cafes is like sitting down to a cafe creme at Les Deux Magots with your favorite writers. Clark has scoured literary sources both familiar and overlooked to compile an ecclectic assemblage of testimonies on the allure of Paris cafes. She pairs these testimonies with images (photographs, oils, watercolors) so naturally that it seems the writers and artists had collaborated: Langston Hughes and Vincent Van Gogh, Irwin Shaw and Andre Kertesz, Henry Miller and LeRoy Neiman, and many, many more. The Introduction gives an insightful and appreciative overview of the essential role of cafes in Paris literary and artistic life. Like a good cafe, this charming books offers a respite from our hectic work-a-day lives. A delight!



3. A Literary Companion, indeed! As a writer, lover of Paris and cafes--I found this book delightful, and the perfect companion for a cold winter day. For like the cafe it celebrates, it has the ability to lift my spirits the moment I "enter" its sumptuous pages. Val Clark has done a masterful job in matching up the evocative photographs of Doisneau and Brassai, the art of Van Gogh, Manet, Bemelmans and much more--with the words of writers and artists that endure because they resonate with that fullness of being that the cafe nurtures. This little book pays loving homage to that sensibility. Thank you Val Clark!



4. Wow! I found this little gem at the bookstore at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. The cover attracted me because it looked like a scene I had seen many times when I lived and wrote in Paris. Any writer who has spent time in Cafe le Dome or Le Select will get multiple nostalgia attacks looking over the pictures and reading the quotes from Shaw, Papa Hemingway, Camus and the other greats. The review title above about everyone having two countries comes from Thomas Jefferson who loved Paris. Too bad he is dead, for he too would have also loved Val Clark's wonderful little book.



5. This is an artistic and literary presentation of the Parisian café. The beautiful photographs and matching quotes are an inspiration to the reader who readily senses the author's knowledge of the subject and her devotion to those cafes that were the haven for great painters, photographers, and writers. As one traverses the pages of this elegant, petite volume, one becomes, in one's imagination, a frequenter of those cafes, enjoying their seductive ambiance, while sipping coffee, chatting with artists and friends, admiring the decor without and within, and hoping to find, in this world, a café that can bestow upon him such joy and offer him a home away from home.

No comments about Paris '95: The Complete Guide with Walking Tours, Museums, Cafes, Bistros and Charming Hote ls (Gold Guides).