France: The Rough Guide (Rough Guide Travel Guides) - Softcover

Baillie, Kate; Salmon, Tim; Humphreys, Rob; Ayliffe, Rosie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1858280508 ISBN 13: 9781858280509

Publisher: Rough Guides, 1992

Synopsis

This new edition has been completely overhauled by its original authors and a support team. Taking responsibility for different chapters, they travelled the length and breadth of France throughout 1991 by car, motor bike, train, plane and on foot. Practical information has been separated and put into easy-to-use listings format (with hotel prices given in new price bands), while much of the book's background information - its cultural, historical, literary and wine-lover's asides - has been restructured as boxed features. The book's "Basics" section has been largely rewritten to anticipate the new face of Europe in the 1990s, with masses of information on travel deals, specialist holidays, EC documentation for travelling and residing, visitors with special needs, and a great deal of new information on food and drink. The fourth edition includes increased coverage of the Jura, Massif Central, Loire and Alps, and features a fresh series of walks.

About this title

Review

The Rough Guide to France follows its now well-established format that puts cheap eats, clubs and accommodation above comfort and style. That is its appeal for the student traveller intent on making the most of limited resources. The 2001 edition adds and updates a host of Web site addresses and includes euro price equivalents. Its 100 maps have improved measurably and its listing of map sources in England remains very helpful.

Yet the guide, despite its assurance that this is an "updated" seventh edition of the book, is a remarkably similar--and unfortunately sometimes outdated--version of much earlier guides in the France series that was launched in 1995. In this Rough Guide edition, for the most part, there are fewer restaurant listings and many of the recommendations remain the same as those touted five years ago. Those with a bit more change in their pocket might find better gastronomic satisfaction from Fodor's France or Cadogan Guide to France for upmarket touring.

On the plus side, the Rough Guide to France goes to great lengths to explain and encourage public transportation rather than driving. For cyclists, the list of routes, rentals and means of transporting bicycles across the Channel is one of the best for a broad-based guidebook. The camping section, too, has more depth than its competitors.

Take the name of the book as a guide: it's for those who want to rough it. --Kathleen Buckley

Review

"If you can take only one book on your trip...this is it." A reader from Mass. USA, amazon.com, 13 March, 1999

Edition details

• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1858280508
• ISBN 13: 9781858280509
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 848