France (Rough Guide Travel Guides) [Paperback]

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assurance that this is an "updated" seventh edition of the book, is a remarkably similar--and unfortunately sometimes outdated--version of much earlier guides in the France series that was launched in 1995.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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Pithy and descriptive...undoubtedly the backpacker's bible, but invaluable for almost every independent traveller. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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

This is a comprehensive guide to one of the world's most popular destinations. Revised and updated, this edition includes a 24-page colour introduction to France's highlights, from the standing stones in Carnac to the Moulin Rouge in the Montmartre district in Paris. Throughout the guide, there is practical information on exploring France's landscapes, from the rolling hills of the Ardennes to the lavender fields of Provence. There are also listings and reviews of the best places to stay, eat and drink, for all budgets.

The latest edition has been reseached by a team of regular Rough Guide updaters, all experts on France's various regions.

WHERE TO GO
Travelling around France is easy. Restaurants and hotels proliferate, many of them relatively inexpensive when compared with other developed western European countries. Train services are admirably efficient, as is the road network – especially the (toll-paying) autoroutes – and cyclists are much admired and encouraged. Information is highly organized and available from tourist offices across the country, as well as from specialist organizations for walkers, cyclists, campers and so on.

As to specific destinations, Paris, of course, is the outstanding cultural centre, with its stunning buildings and atmospheric back streets, its art, its trendy nightlife and its ethnic diversity, though the great provincial cities – Lyon, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille – all now vie with the capital and each other for prestige in the arts, ascendancy in sport and innovation in attracting visitors.

For most people, however, it’s the unique characters of the regions – and not least their cuisines – that will define a trip. Few holiday-makers stay long in the largely flat, industrial north, but there are some fine cathedrals and energetic cities to leaven the mix. The picture is similar, in Alsace-Lorraine, where interesting Germanic influences are strong, notably in the food; to the south, the wooded mountains of the Jura provide scope for outdoor pursuits. On the northern Atlantic coast, Normandy has a rich heritage of cathedrals, castles, battlefields and beaches – and, with its cream-based sauces, an equally rich cuisine. To the west, Brittany is more renowned for its Celtic links, beautiful coastline, prehistoric sites and seafood, while the Loire valley, extending inland towards Paris, is famed for soft, fertile countryside and a marvellous parade of châteaux. Further east, the green valleys of Burgundy shelter a wealth of Romanesque churches, and its wines and food are among the finest in France. More Romanesque churches follow the pilgrim routes through rural Poitou-Charentes and down the Atlantic coast to Bordeaux, where the wines rival those of Burgundy.

Inland from Bordeaux, visitors flock to the gorges, prehistoric sites and picturesque fortified villages of the Dordogne and neighbouring Limousin, drawn too by the truffles and duck and goose dishes of Périgord cuisine. To the south, the great mountain chain of the Pyrenees rears up along the Spanish border, running from the Basque country on the Atlantic to the Catalan lands of Roussillon on the Mediterranean; there’s fine walking and skiing to be had, as well as beaches at either end. Further along the Mediterranean coast, Languedoc offers dramatic landscapes, medieval towns and Cathar castles, as well as more beaches, while the Massif Central, in the centre of the country, is undeveloped and little visited, but beautiful nonetheless, with its rivers, forests and the wild volcanic uplands of the Auvergne.

The Alps, of course, are prime skiing territory, but a network of signposted paths makes walking a great way to explore too. Stretching down from the mountains to the Mediterranean is Provence, which, as generations of travellers have discovered, seems to have everything: Roman ruins, picturesque villages, vineyards and lavender fields – and legions of visitors. Its cuisine is similarly diverse, encompassing fruit, olives, herbs, seafood, lamb and an unusual emphasis on vegetables. Along the Provençal coast, the beaches, towns and chic resorts of the Côte d’Azur form a giant smile extending from the vibrantly down-at-heel city of Marseille to the super-rich Riviera hotspots of Nice and Monaco. For truly fabulous beaches, however, head for the rugged island of Corsica, birthplace of Napoléon and home to an Italian-leaning culture and cooking and some fascinating Neolithic sculptures.

WHEN TO GO
The single most important factor in deciding when to visit France is tourism itself. As most French people take their holidays in their own country, it’s as well to avoid the main French holiday periods – mid-July to the end of August. It’s at this time that almost the entire country closes down, except for the tourist industry itself. You can easily walk a kilometre and more in Paris, for example, in search of an open boulangerie, and the city seems deserted by all except fellow tourists. Prices in the resorts rise to take full advantage and often you can’t find a room for love nor money, and not even a space in the campsites on the Côte d’Azur. The seaside is the worst, but the mountains and popular regions like the Dordogne are not far behind. Easter, too, is a bad time for Paris; half of Europe’s schoolchildren seem to descend on the city. For the same reasons, ski buffs should keep in mind the February school ski break. And no one who values life, limb, and sanity should ever be caught on the roads the last weekend of July or August, and least of all on the weekend of August 15.

Generally speaking, climate need not be a major consideration in planning when to go. If you’re a skier, of course, you wouldn’t choose the mountains between May and November; and if you want a beach holiday, you wouldn’t head for the seaside out of summer – except for the Mediterranean coast, which is at its most attractive in spring. Northern France, like nearby Britain, is wet and unpredictable. Paris has a marginally better climate than New York, rarely reaching the extremes of heat and cold of that city, but only south of the Loire does the weather become significantly warmer. West coast weather, even in the south, is tempered by the proximity of the Atlantic, subject to violent storms and close thundery days even in summer. The centre and east, as you leave the coasts behind, have a more continental climate, with colder winters and hotter summers. The most reliable weather is along and behind the Mediterranean coastline and on Corsica, where winter is short and summer long and hot.