2 comments about Vacances Pyrenees & Gascony: Including Andorra: France by the French.

1. This guide provides many color photos of the Pyrenees & Gascony. Help is given on planning a vacation there, with ideas of what to do and where to go. Topics such as food, churches, villages etc. are covered. However, with so many photos this guide may not provide all the detail you want from a guide. I personally recommend it for its photos as to supplement another guide which presents more facts. The area of accommodations is not covered and this would have been invaluable.



2. It is very difficult to find guide books for this area. This one has lots of specifics. Information is given either by the area & village as well as by interest. There are maps of vineyards, museums, forests, food specialties and festivals.
   It includes the large cities and details on the tiniest villages.
   Andorra is also included.
   We will be visiting this area soon and plan to keep this ready at all times.

1 comments about A Summer in Gascony: Discovering the Other South of France.

1. Gascony is not as familiar to tourists as its sexy cousin, Provence. This southwest corner of France, along the Spanish border, is, in some respects, not even all that French. The local dialect is something that the author learned upon his summer working on a farm as a student. This light, slight, polite book offers a pleasant description of that experience.
   
   Adventurous, Calder finds a summer college job in a pretty remote region of a modern country. His trip requires a ferry, a train, a bus, and (after failed hitch hiking), a call for a ride from his host. Calder finds a small country, family-run restaurant and farm, and Calder is soon joined by three other summer workers who assist the owner, his wife, and two reasonably productive sons and one teenager, with questionable work skills; he can't even sweep a staircase properly.
   
   The book's chapters are a basically a chronology of short scenes, from clearing sheep manure to picking plums among the hornets, from watering tomatoes to herding sheep, from making pastries to slaughtering a sheep. Calder provides in a short history of Gascony, its heroes, its conquests, its culture, its food and its wine. If you are a Francophile, take some care, as the people of Gascony see themselves as distinct culture. They seem set back in time, not well connected to the twentieth century. There is not a word of television, fast food, or politics. Their food is rich yet simple, not full of fuss or spices. Their wine, for the most part, gets consumed locally, and only today is the region becoming more popular for tourists and second homes. There is finally bus service to the small village where Calder works for his small summer wages and country experience.
   
   There are a few coy moments with the young women joining him on the farm, but more of it is about their labors than their relationships. The people Calder meets offer a little color, but probably not much more than had he chosen to take up the summer in northern Alabama.
   
   This is a nice, quick summer read, a vicarious working holiday in Gascony.

No comments about Prita Goes to India (Children Return to their Roots).

No comments about Another Long Day on the Piste: A Season in the French Alps.

No comments about Cool Restaurants Cote D'azur (Cool Restaurants).

3 comments about Boulangerie: A Pocket Guide to Paris's Famous Bakeries.

1. This book is a jewel. It made our first Paris trip that much more special by introducing us to some exceptionally fine bakeries. This pocket-sized book not only gives you a listing of the fine Boulangeries (organized by arrondisements, includes the address & phone number, closest metro or bus stop, when they are open, and what's special about each) but tells you where to go (nearby picnic spots) and eat the bread and goodies that you buy at these Boulangeries -- this is what truly made the book special. We tried "Robineau" in the 7th and "Gerard Beufort" in the 5th as listed in this book and we were not disappointed. Both had wonderful baked goods, the former within a short walk to the Champ de Mars and Eiffel, and the latter, a 3-minute walk away from Arenes de Lutece, the ancient Roman amphitheater which is a perfect picnic spot. You could use this book to plan your breakfasts and picnic lunches as a nice balance to the Bistro-dining in Paris.



2. Let's face it, whether you are visiting Paris for the first or the fifth time, there never seems to be enough time to squeeze everything in. Everyone should take at least one evening or one afternoon for a 3-star dinner or lunch; but, when you are busily going from sight to sight, who has that kind of time? This book is perfect for letting you find bakeries with a wonderful range of foods you can carry away with you. I found that the descriptions of each bakery carried their specialities and any unusual items they carried. The first time you find a conveniently located establishment when you are trying to get from point A to point B, you will know what a treasure it is. The size makes it very convenient to take with you as well.



3. I never knew how grand the bakeries of Paris where until I read Boulangerie! I wish we had a similar tradition in my home town. I love bread and soup above all other foods! Some day, when I visit Paris, I'll search the city with a copy of this pocket guide in my hand.
   I also enjoyed the pictures of the boulangeries of Paris on the authors Web site: Dorseybooks.com

5 comments about Lonely Planet Cycling France (Cycling Guides).

1. With this book, you find the most interesting roads to ride on. In addition, you will also find nice stories of professionals who ride these roads - experiences on what to do & what NOT to do. So, whether you come to france, or stay at home, with this book, you'll have your own tour de france in your room!



2. As of October 2001, this appears to be the best book available on the subject of bike touring in France. Neither Karen & Terry Whitehill's nor Jerry Simpson's books come even close to being as comprehensive as this book. The best thing about this book is all of the useful logistical information it provides. For example, the authors thoroughly document how to get out of Paris with your bike (both from Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports). They also explain the SNCF's fairly unfriendly policy with respect to bikes on trains. And in typical Lonely Planet fashion, they also document the myriad of important details for survival in France, such as how to make a telephone call and how much to tip.

   With respect to the actual tour documentation, this book does a good job. There are tour choices in all regions of the country including Corsica. Routes are well documented and the road choices seemed pretty reasonable. Cue sheets are provided with good distance information between all intermediate points. Some tours have elevation profiles included. I would have liked to have seen a bit more information about food and lodging availability--particularly in the intermediate towns.

   The truth about cyling in France is that the bike touring part is really easy. Unless you are worried about hills (in which case you should stay in the Loire), all you need is a Michelin map. The color scheme tells you all you need to know about route choices (seek out the white roads, and green highlights mean scenic routes). You can usually find some place to stay and eat in any town and if you can't, you can usually find another town a few kilometers down the road. All of France is wonderful for riding, so you really don't need a book to lay out a tour for you. What you do need is information telling you how to get around with your bike and how to survive once you are over there. This book does that exceptionally well.




3. Six of us used this book this past June for a nine day trip to the Dordogne region of France. The book is indispensable for do it yourself travel. It tells you everything you need to know regarding the nuts and bolts of putting a trip like this togethter. The suggested routes, restaurants, and hotels were all excellent. I would suggest another book to supplement this one as far as detailed information about the sites is concerned.



4. Sorry to be so blunt, but I spent the last 5 weeks cursing the authors of this book (and those that I met on the road with this book felt the same way). Do NOT waste your money on this thing. It is FIVE years old (I live in Seattle and met one of the authors before she left in June '99). The information is totally outdated and some of the campsites no longer exist! My advice is to get a good guide that is updated regularly, maybe get a good idea for a route from the Mountaineers and then get the Michellin map following the scenic (green) routes (or get the special bikes maps from any bookstore (librarie) while you are there). Cycling in France is a breeze. Enjoy France on the bike...there is no greater place to ride. Don't let McGuide mess with your fun. Live to ride...ride to live...



5. My husband and I used this book about five years ago to tour the Loire region. We have traveled a fair amount but never on bike before this trip. This book gave us a plan of how to do that. (Just the information about bikes on trains made the book worth getting.) We added a little cycling to the beginning of our trip and split some of the rides so we could sightsee more. It's emphasis on backwoods ways of getting into and out of towns was fantastic to help us avoid traffic. We loved seeing all kinds of places we would never have encountered if we hadn't picked up this book. We paired it with the Cadogan Loire Guide for interesting background about where we were visiting and the lodging section photocopied out of some other guide.
   
   I wish they would update it. I tore most of the extra pages out of it (for areas we weren't going to) before our first trip. Glad I saved them. We will use it again this year in Brittany but not without a Michelin map as a back up since it's now so old.

No comments about Costa Del Sol Travel Pack (Globetrotter Travel Packs).

No comments about Wines of South-West France.

5 comments about Envoy to the Terror: Gouverneur Morris and the French Revolution.

1. Gouverneur Morris has been a long underrated yet instrumental figure during important times. He took a critical part in the constitutional convention in Philadelphia, and he played as crucial a role as his predecessor, Thomas Jefferson, in his position as U.S. ambassador to France during the Terror, when French and American citizens alike sought his intervention, hoping to avoid losing their heads by guillotine. The author provides plausible explanations for this strange obscurity. Melanie Randolph Miller does much to humanize Morris's daily life, times and dilemmas, not to mention the big and small events of the French revolutionary era, deftly weaving into her text original and previously unknown sources, such as his own meticulously kept diaries, letters to and from his mistress, Adele Filleul, comtesse of Flahaut and other paramours, and urgent communications with key protagonists: the falling and fallen royal couple, Danton, Robespierre and the Girondins, among many others. The author's prose is brilliantly precise, enhanced by a dry and intelligent wit, and I agree with reviewers that the book is written with "the discipline of a historian but a novelist's eye," "a page turner." I admit that I found myself dragging my heels as I read along because, truth be told, I didn't really want to finish. In the final stretch, I stayed up way past my bedtime, skimming excitedly to learn what happened in the end, even though of course I already knew. I recommend Envoy to the Terror to anyone with more than a passing interest in the events of revolutionary Paris.



2. Gouverneur Morris may be the virtually unknown, underrated key to understanding the American Revolution, and this exciting new book tells his story from a fresh viewpoint. Thorough-going scholarship combines with bright and lively prose to bring Morris to life and set the record straight on his role in the establishment of the American Experiment. Dr. Miller shows that the conventional view of Morris has been much too limited and is due for thorough revision. This study is much more thorough than the recent popularizing biography of Morris by Richard Brookhiser. If you liked that book, which acknowledges Miller's ground-breaking research, you should read this one to learn the whole story. This book is invaluable for serious students of the Revolutionary period.



3. This well-written and lively book should go a long way in restoring Gouverneur Morris to his rightful place among the Founding Fathers. The prickly Morris has had a pretty bad press over the years, but Envoy to the Terror provides a vigorous, in places brilliant, and ultimately convincing defense of Morris' conduct. Miller shows how Morris energetically defended America's interests under extraordinarily difficult circumstances and successfully disproves charges made both at the time and by later historians that his term as minister to France was a failure.



4. We learn to see our future by looking at our past, and contemporary French and American relations--as they relate to French censure for America's enlarging foreign policy and the U.S. zeal for "democratization" of the larger world--can be viewed in greater focus by narrowing in on the history of our two countries during the French Revolution and the French `Terror' that followed it. The American diplomat pivotal to this period-the only one on whom Washington could depend for analysis of what was happening abroad-was Gouverneur Morris, today one of the lesser known founding fathers, who as United States Minister to France from 1789-92, during the height of the atrocities taking place there, turned out to be profoundly perspicacious in seeing the terrible future of this, one of America's first adventures in `democracy building,' and its unpredictable, and sometimes terrible results. In Dr. Melanie Miller's insightful revisiting of the historical record of relations between the United States and France during this fateful and terrible period, as set down in her recent biography of Gouverneur Morris, Envoy to the Terror, Dr. Miller tells us much that is relevant to French and American relations today.



5. An expansion and refinement of the author's Ph.D. dissertation on the diplomacy of Gouverneur Morris during very troubled times in Paris.
   
   Gouverneur Morris was an intelligent man of solid good sense, with an obvious love for life. Dr. Miller, as befits one holding a law degree, writes as an advocate for the historical reputation of this important figure from our country's early days. In my opinion, she wins her case.
   
   Anyone interested in the diplomatic efforts of our country in its infancy will enjoy this book.
   
   I hope that the talented Dr. Miller will continue writing graceful books on equally interesting subjects.