1 comments about Paris, Shops & More.

1. I love this book. Can't believe you get so much for the great price. The shops are grouped into arrondissements and a map is drawn with the shops noted. There's vital information such as hours of operation, website address, & perfect description. The photos are superb. I didn't need to take photos of the stores myself as the book did it perfectly for me... and on matte paper! I can't stress how great the photos are in this book. All the Taschen books are fabulous. This book is really packed with everything you need. As they say, a photo is worth a thousand words and this book is packed! This book's vibe is today's Paris; It really makes you feel like you're there. If you like verbiage, than this book is not for you.

3 comments about The Essential Driving Guide for France (Essential Driving Guides in Europe) (Essential Driving Guides in Europe).

1. The best guide I have ever read in all my travels! It was very useful and accurate. Merci beaucoup!



2. Oro Strandoo's guide, Essential Driving Guide for France is an excellent source of routings and itineraries, points of interest and other pertinent information. This guide is a must have if you really want to see France. The maps are clear and easy to read and his suggestions are to the point. Patsy and Gerry Donegan, Oro Valley, Arizona



3. We are just wrapping up 5 weeks in France. We bought this book before we came, and took a great deal of time to study it. What a waste! It is so inaccurate, and filled with very odd info. For example, it says that horns are used "only for emergencies", and you will get a ticket if you use your. Well, within 2 minutes on the road, we started hearing horns for all the usual things, like: "Hey, the light's green, GO!" or "Excuse me, but I have the right of way." Signs are misrepresented. And the layout is not at all conducive to a quick lookup while driving.
   
   This book was a good idea, but poorly executed. Don't buy it.

No comments about Corsica, 3rd (Cadogan Guides).

1 comments about A House in the Sunflowers: Living the Dream in the SOuth of France.

1. I BOUGHT THIS AS A GIFT TO MY DAD AND HE LOVED IT. KNEW THE AREAS IT SPOKE OF AND BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN.

1 comments about Michelin Midi-Pyrenees, France (Michelin Maps).

1. The Michelin maps are excellent. They are extremely detailed with a scale of 1 inch = 3.16 miles. With motorway exits and entrances for example, it's clearly marked in which directions they operate. It includes useful information like toll roads, petrol stations and even speed radar locations. I also like the insider information. Panoramic lookouts and scenic routes are all clearly indicated (the other regional maps that I considered didn't have this). However do be aware that unlike the broader regional Michelin maps, there are no indications of which towns and villages are of interest to tourists. (Although the Michelin Green series guidebooks list the map references for all places of interest).
   
   This is essentially a regional map with only central Toulouse being shown in any detail.
   
   One annoying thing is that the map is printed on both sides, so you're always flipping it over (which increases the risk of damaging or tearing it). This makes it less easy to navigate routes between the northern and southern parts of the region. Nevertheless, if you want to travel off the beaten track in this region, it's invaluable.

No comments about Paris: City Highlights.

No comments about A Dictionary and Phrasebook of French Medical Terms: With an Introduction to the French Medical System.

No comments about Hadrian's Wall.

5 comments about Vie de France: Sharing Food, Friendship, and a Kitchen in the Loire Valley.

1. Is it a book about travel? Is it a book about cooking? Yes, on both counts. James Haller's "Vie de France" tells of his experiences living in a rented house in a village in the Loire valley for a month with a group of friends. Like any good travel book, it leaves the reader with a strong impression of the countryside and the people, the culture and the atmosphere - with memories, as if you had spent that month there yourself. Better yet, the impression is of laughter, or at least smiles, and not tears. It also leaves you with memories of food prepared with care, even with love. Not classic French cooking, but Haller's personal style of cooking creatively yet simply. There is also the sense of adventure that comes from visiting a new place, with a foreign language, new towns and roads, restaurants that run on an offbeat schedule, and supermarkets that have a fascinating combination of the familiar and the strange. To emphasize the point that cooking is a major theme, the book has a table of menus, not a table of contents. Certainly a book about the joy of cooking, of travel, of friends, and of life.



2. You can almost taste the buttery brie and smell the crisp baguettes baking in chef James Hallers book, "Vie de France".

   Haller and a group of friends rented a lovely home in Savonnieres a small town in the Loire Valley for a month. The beauty of the area, availability of fine fresh food and warmth of good companions inspired Haller to share the time he spent in the region.

   In "Vie De France", Haller describes how he and his friends enjoyed their days, looking for antiques, exploring the marketplace and soaking up the atmosphere.

   Haller is an award winning chef and author of several cookbooks. He loves to eat, cook and shop for food. He relishes food and this radiates throughout the book. In each chapter, he shares mouthwatering morsels of the food he feasted on. He describes dishes he made using fresh, local ingredients and dishes he enjoyed at casual cafes and fancy restaurants.

   Haller walks you through the marketplace where he selects from four aisles of cheeses. You will pick from the freshest vegetables displayed like jewels. The butcher cuts your meat to order as you wait. In the patisserie the variety of breads, candies and pastries delight the eye. It's hard to decide between a "crusty round pain de compagnes" or a hearty wheat bread.

   Back in the kitchen, Haller prepares tasty dishes using natural, healthy ingredients like creamy French butter, olive oil, herbes de Provence and garlic. The delicious recipes he makes are interspersed throughout the book. Recipes included range from the simple - french toast baguette with an apricot sauce to the more complex - turkey cutlets stuffed with a mushroom pilaf in a white wine and sorrel cream sauce. Other recipes included range from the common - grilled meat and a nice green salad to the more unusual - baked snails in butter, lemon and parsley.

   The dining experience usually includes a fine red wine and a dessert. Desserts range from light to rich. A decadent creme caramel ends a simple soup and salad meal. Chocolate with hazelnuts tops a meal of sausage and red wine ragout. An apricot lavender tart completes a roast chicken stuffed with cassoulet. A table of menus at the beginning of the book makes finding the recipes easy.

   In "Vie De France" Haller will create his moroccan olive salad or fresh tomatoes in basil dressing for your enjoyment. You will tour the countryside perhaps stopping for a glass of red wine at the local cafe. You may stop at the antique shop and find a special piece of pottery or pay a visit to the patisserie and pick up a fresh baked apple tart. You will savor the fresh food, beautiful views and good friends.

   Lee Mellott




3. It's hard to know where to begin critiquing this dreadful book, but suffice it to say if my middle schooler had turned this in as a "What I Did On My Vacation" essay, I'd have failed him.
   From the completely uninspired writing style to the astonishing errors in French spelling and terminology to the unsavory and repetitive recipes, it's just one big, sophomoric exercise.
   Readers, I dare you to count how many times "Chef" Haller writes "I sautéed [sometimes with the accent mark, and sometimes without] some green beans in olive oil and a bit of garlic." How about that recipe for "French toast" that he repeats verbatim twice? Does a real chef actually use "cheap red wine that we bought just for cooking"?
   I don't know whether to blame him or his editor, or both, for the remarkable number of spelling errors (framboisse, fois gras, marguez) or the factual mistakes ("We drank a bottle of Badouit, a local mineral water"; "cassoulet actually comes from the Provence region"), but someone should take the rap.
   Take all this phony "knowledge" gleaned by an absolute amateur on a one-time, one-month trip to France and pair it with a penchant for walking readers through recipes as though they were in Montessori school ("First I chopped last night's turkey into bite-sized pieces and put those pieces into a large cast iron pot I found on the second shelf of the pantry" - OK, I fabricated that, but that's what it's like reading this guy), and you have one big snore of a book.



4. This is a thoroughly entertaining and interesting account of the author's month in France. He and his friends had a great time, just as I did when I read it. His comments and observations make me want to rent the same house sometime. I re-lived the year I lived in a different part of France.



5. I'm a fan of these types of travel books, and while I bought this one with no recommendations other than Amazon users' reviews, I was thorougly happy with my purchase. It was a lovely read, I felt like I was there in France with them, it just made me happy and mellow. A wonderful escape from reality.

5 comments about The Best American Travel Writing 2002 (The Best American Series (TM)).

1. If you like short stories and travelogues you'll love this book. These are the best of the best. And like some reviewers have already mentioned, there are a wide variety of experiences and information in this collection of essays. I found myself laughing in Devin Friedman's "Forty Years in Acapulco" and Lawwrence Millman's "In the Land of the White Rajahs" and learning new information from Molly O'Neill's "Home For Dinner." I admit, however, that I did enjoy soem of the essays much better than others, but they are all very well-written and image provoking. It's as if I traveled the world without leaving my room.



2. Although I didn't like most of the stories in this anthology, there were a few that I really, really, really loved. And they made it worth the price of the book, over and over.
   The introduction by Frances Mayes is a gem and really sets the tone. Especially if you were wondering why a report on 9-11 would qualify for "travel writing". (After you read that introduction, you'll -unbelievably - have to agree that it does).

   The story "40 years in Acapulco" is worth the price of the book by itself. I came away feeling almost guilty like a voyeur, as if I had just gotten a sneak peek into somebody elses life. I was literally transported.

   The 2000 version is much more upbeat than this one. But then, I suppose we were living in a much more upbeat "travel" world then.




3. I have been a big fan of this series and really enjoyed last year's compilation edited by Theroux. I also must admit that I really enjoy Theroux's travel writing as well. This year's edition, edited by Mayes, has the same faults that her books do, namely, they are long on description and short on plot. I have not gotten all of the way through The Best American Travel Writing of 2002 yet but what I have read is very similar to Mayes' "Under the Tuscan Sun". If you really like tales of flowery, descriptive (and dull) walks though Italian streets, etc. you will probably enjoy this book but if you are looking for more "great adventures" travel stories, try the 2001 edition instead.



4. This was a frustratingly uneven collection - when I pick up a book like this I expect consistent quality because the editors have done the work for me. But like another reviewer, perhaps I should have considered the fact that Frances Mayes edited this collection, and I'm not a fan of her work.
   That said, a number of these pieces are worth seeking out. The best include Michael Finkel's "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Void," which will take you into the heart of the Sahara. Devin Friedman's "Forty Years in Acapulco," William Booth's "Throw Junior from the Car," and Lawrence Millman's "In the Land of the White Rajahs" are all very funny takes on the people and places that move us to travel. Kate Wheeler's "The Fist of God" is a stunning piece on the shocking fight festivals still held in some corners of Bolivia. Isabelle Tree's "Spetses, Greece" is a charming glipse of a corner of the world she has made into a home. And Tom Mueller's "Ancient Roads, Walled Cities" is a moving meditation on Roman roads and the power of stone to hold memory. David Sedaris' "The Man Upstairs" is funny but quite short.
   On the downside, three pieces on 9/11 challenged my definition of travel writing. Only Scott Anderson's "Below Canal Street" had anything new to say on the topic, although to be fair all were writen much closer to that tragic day. Steven Bodio's "Sovereigns of the Sky" was much less about a place than a sport, and an archaic one that I didn't want to see up this close - hunting with birds. Rod Davis' "A Rio Runs Through It" told us a lot about the state and culture of life along the Rio Grande, but it is overlong and gets redundant. And I found Elizabeth Nickerson's "Where the Bee Sucks" to be a self-indulgent mess.
   When this collection is good it's very good, but when it's bad it's awful.



5. What a convenience to be able to find high-quality travel writing all condensed into one volume. This book covers the globe in its range of articles and essays, from Papa New Guinea to the Texas/Mexican border, from Greece to the Sahara, from Bolivia to Israel.
   
   I found several inclusions to be truly excellent - especially Scott Anderson's piece on 9/11, Rod Davis's article on the US-Mexican border in Texas, Michael Finkel's article about the void in the Sahara, Elizabeth Nickson's piece on Salt Spring Island, Molly O'Neill following a Cambodian chef home, Kira Salak in Papa New Guinea, and Kate Wheeler in violent Bolivia. Some pieces though were a bit blah and the fact that they were alphabetically arranged meant the flow wasn't ideal. For example, the first 144 pages of the book were all by male writers, leaving me starved for a different perspective by the time I reached Kate Hennessey's piece.
   
   There is a decidedly male tone to the book, which I found disappointing, with only 7 women represented among the 26 writers. This was reflected in a thematic focus of finding the most outlandish, isolated place on earth. I would have liked a little less reading about people setting out to do what no one had done before, and more human interactions with people of different places and cultures.
   
   But overall, this book offers armchair travelers the opportunity to enter many different worlds from the comfort of their favorite reading place.