No comments about I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do): Living in a Small Village in Brittany.

No comments about Let's Go 2009 France (Let's Go France).

No comments about Buying a Property France, 3rd (Buying a Property in France).

5 comments about Hello France! Best Budget Hotels in France, Third Edition.

1. I am the author of Eating & Drinking in Italy and Eating & Drinking in Spanish (the What Kind of Food Am I? series). I own, and have used, all of Margo Classe's guides, including Hello France! These guides are thorough and the author adds a personal touch when she describes in detail each hotel she has visited. Hello France! is a must for the independent, budget traveler.



2. I am the author of Eating & Drinking in France and I have used all of Margo Classe's guides, including Hello France! This guide is thorough and the author adds a personal touch when she describes in detail each hotel she has visited. Hello France! is a must for the independent, budget traveler.



3. This is the best book I've ever used for finding hotels in Paris and Mont-St. Michel. The rooms were great, clean, well located, and the detailed descriptions of each hotel and best rooms were greatly appreciated and right on the money.



4. You don't need a roommate to share the cost of travel when you can stay in a delightful Paris hotel for just $50 per night, with a private bath. Margo Classe does our homework for us, finding the little gems that even travel agents don't know about. These are small, Mom & Pop places that are not even listed on the Internet. This book lists the charming, affordable hotels in cities throughout France. Each listing perfectly describes the place in great detail, giving contact info. Her other books do the same for Spain, Italy and Britain & Ireland. If only her books covered the world!



5. "European hotels do not have facecloths. I always pack mine. Showers: I haven't figured out why some showers don't have shower curtains on them." ~Margo
   
   On my last trip to France, this book would have come in handy. One of the hotels I stayed at in Paris did not even have shower curtains and when I sat on the bed, the bed literally collapsed. This was in a very nice hotel and I was shocked. While the tour guide seemed oblivious to the predicament, I never forgot the experience. The breakfast the next morning and tour was of course worth the effort of having to put the bed back together.
   
   A guide by Margo would have helped me select my own hotel accommodations that weekend. I also found I wanted to spend more time in various locations and a tour to Paris seemed rushed on a weekend. I wanted to spend an entire week, no a month just wandering around France. When we traveled to Provence, I had no idea where to stay and while we found nice hotels, it was purely by chance and we had no idea what to expect. When at the Louvre I wandered around not realizing I could get a portable headset to explain some of the paintings.
   
   Throughout this guide to Budget Hotels in France, Margo selects the best hotels and explains why a double bed is cheaper than twin beds and why you might be able to ask for a "zip and lock" king-size bed (they might put two beds together), but why king-size beds are not something you will find in Budget hotels.
   
   If you love to cook, you might want to look for the Culinary School listing. There are detailed descriptions of all the hotels, including unique creative touches like she mentions the way the rooms are decorated. Will you have to climb stairs, do you want a garden/patio, does the room have a view of the Eiffel Tower?
   
   Margo spent ten weeks traveling around France and went to 30 of the most popular cities to explore the hotels she has written about. She spent her own money and time to produce this book and no hotel or restaurant has paid to be in this book. If where you stay is as important as the sites you will visit, then this is the book for you. A list of French Phrases for checking in is included. If you want to spend more money eating out and touring the cities, then this guide will also help you save money.
   
   ~The Rebecca Review

3 comments about Living and Working in France: A Survival Handbook (Living and Working Guides).

1. I am going to live in France in September and I recently read this book. It is invaluable and I can see I am going to be referring to it constantly come September. It's just what I needed! Everything I wanted to know and even things I didn't know I wanted to know but was glad I discovered!



2. I have read two other books in this catagory, "Living, Studying, and working in France", and "Live and Work in France" and this is the best of the three. The "Live and Work..." book is the worst. It is mainly aimed at UK residents moving to France. The "Living, Studying..." book is pretty good too, but doesn't have the concentration of good info as this book. Lots of contacts info for jobs, paperwork, etc. Very thorough. The one thing I wish it had was more about the internet access and contacts for that.



3. David Hampshire gave much helpful guidance regarding the rules, regulations and bureaucracy in France (although "Frommer's" and "Lonely Planet" books do as well). However, his clear dislike for most things French (especially the people) made the book read more like a prejudiced, bigoted, diatribe. A bit of fun-poking would have certainly been acceptable and lightened a bare facts book, but Mr. Hampshire went on for, literally, pages and at every opportunity to criticize and ridicule. One wonders, if he were corect in his assessments, how a country so filled with stupid, unwashed, crude and lazy people could possibly be responsible for the creation and ongoing care of some of the world's greatest works of artistic expression. Shame on you Mr. Hampshire. Perhaps in your next revision, you'll omit the vitriolic rhetoric. It will be a much better book.

1 comments about Gault Millau Hotels et Restaurants de France 2008 Edition (in French).

1. Gault Millau Hotels et Restaurants de France 2008 Edition (in French)
   Gault Millau is an excellent book for anyone who can read French and is interested in finding excellent restaurants and hotels in France. The book gives much detail about restaurants and hotels including prices. Do not purchase it if your French is weak

5 comments about Bistros of Paris.

1. Bistros are great for meat eaters; book doesn't point out whether any of the listed bistros will accommodate non-meat eaters. Stay away if foie gras, pork knuckles, and tripe don't turn you on.



2. Having lived in Europe for several years, traveling to Paris hundreds of times, I've found this book to be the most reliable way to find an excellent restaurant while out and about. These people really know and appreciate French cuisine.



3. Dude, the Robert Hamburger who wrote REAL Ultimate Power is different than the Rober Hamburger who wrote Bistros of Paris. You're an idiot if you think that a 10-year-old is also a 51-year-old. It's two different people, moron. Besides, Robert Hamburger, the ninja guy, hates bistros. He even says so on his website.



4. I Found this book to be not helpfull with my ninjering study, I thaught that Robert Hamburger had writen this book about ninjering in paris. I nearly bust a nut when i saw it was a new book by him. I fliped out all over some guys flowerbed and couldn't stop myself to break a hole naiborhood including the trees which i broke in to down the middle like candys, it was so sweet. But whats bistros?



5. You can do much better on your own by choosing crowded restaurants than depending on this book. For example, we relied on this book's recommendation and ate at Bistro Odeon described as moderately priced and very popular: neither description was accurate. This restaurant was almost vacant at peak time and for good reason. Very expensive in light of value for food received. We paid $24 dollars, US currency for three small scallops cooked essentially in butter and garlic,nothing at all exceptional. Dishes recommeded by the authors were flavorless and the wine, perhaps our choice, was pretty bad.
   
   I think this book is very outdated. It recommends Chez Rene, a restuarant I have visited over the past twenty years and in that same period there has been a marked decline in quality accompanied with a substantial price increase.
   
   To be fair to the authors, I would like the reader to know I base my opinion on the 2001 version, so the authors may have updated and refined their opinions. If not, I think the reader can do better when eating in Paris than he, or she would if this book is used as a guide. We certainly did.
   
   Stephen Kane

1 comments about Essence of Provence Postcard Book.

1. I love Provence! I have never been there, but it is definitely on my lists of places to see. * * * * * * * * Sonja Bullaty and Angelo Lomeo have captured Provence in their photography, and in this case, they are postcards. The photographers are award- winners, and in this lovely collection, the viewer can certainly see why. The title "essence" is aptly chosen, because each postcard represents a gorgeous detail of this wonderful region. * * * * * * * * The scenes depicted here are perfect portrayals of the area.There are generous selections of flowers and nature, including lavender, sunflowers, herbs, red poppies, olive trees, plane trees and more. There is a harvested hay field, with the large roll of gathered hay, waiting to be put in an old truck to go to their destination. There are large farmhouses and tiny, ancient cottages, and beautiful windows, framed by flowers and greenery, with lace at the window. A close-up of the curved, terracotta, roof tiles, with kittens relaxing in the grooves is lovely. There are views of Roman architecture to remind us how old history is in Europe. * * * * * * * * The owner of this postcard book may want to keep it as it is; frame each postcard; or, establish a small easel with a frame to rotate the prints. But I could never mail them. They are for me!

No comments about Michelin Green Guide Alsace Lorraine Champagne (Michelin Green Guides).

1 comments about Kafka's Prague: A Travel Reader.

1. Franz Kafka spent most of his life in Prague, even though he always felt like a stranger there -- a German-speaking Jew in a predominately Czech Catholic town. Consequently, there are many sites in Prague that are of some interest to fans of Kafka's work. Klaus Wagenbach's little "Travel Reader" highlights most of these sites (e.g., the writer's birthplace, all the Kafka family residences around Old Town Square, Kafka's apartment in the castle, etc.). If you're headed to Prague, you could easily spend half a day retracing Kafka's footsteps with this guide. The book includes a map and numerous photographs of the city as it appeared about 100 years ago so you can contrast today's Prague with the Prague Kafka new. It also includes some short excerpts from Kafka's works, mostly vignettes like the haunting "An Imperial Edict", included next to the sections on the buildings where Kafka lived.

   I lived in Prague myself for a month this summer and frequently took this book along with me on my evening jaunts through town. The selections from the writer's work included here helped add personal and emotional meaning to what otherwise might have been just a bunch of buildings. Highly recommended.