The Dordogne, Lot & Bordeaux, 6th (Country & Regional Guides - Cadogan) [Paperback]

Dana Facaros (Author), Michael Pauls (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2007 | Series: Country & Regional Guides - Cadogan

This lush, rural corner of France where four great rivers meet offers good food, good wine and good living. Cadogan’s foray into the home of gastronomic indulgence now sails into its fifth edition. Authors Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls lived in the Lot for ten years, and the guide bursts with their intimate knowledge of the region. They explore the world’s most celebrated vineyards along the Dordogne and Lot rivers, through Bergerac, Saint Emilion and the medieval city of Cahors, with detailed wine critiques along the way. From Bordeaux to Toulouse, the region’s two fascinating cosmopolitan cities, they reveal the density of historic and natural treasures the region has to offer; from the earliest known prehistoric art at the Lascaux caves to the beautiful Renaissance town of Sarlat. Now fully redesigned, this new edition contains the most up-to-the-minute practical information and listings, along with a stunning section of color photographs and useful maps.

Editorial Reviews

Review

‘Passionate and packed with good info’ – National Geographic Traveler (US)

 

‘Bursting with practical information and in-depth knowledge, Cadogan Guides also make a cracking good read.’ - The Times (UK)

‘Cadogan are the pick of the bunch’ - Daily Telegraph (UK)

From the Back Cover

Beguilingly slow-paced, this area is backwater France at its most bucolic and diverse. Here, the rivers Dordogne, Lot, Garonne and Tarn wind through a land of gentle hills, myriad chateaux, medieval fortified bastide towns, astonishingly unchanged Romanesque churches, and Paleolithic caves adorned with paintings from our early ancestors. While, amid the world's largest concentration of vineyards, the bustling cities of Bordeaux and pink-brick Toulouse up the pace distinctly, elsewhere you get the feeling that little has changed since the Hundred Years' War. Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls have produced this witty, astute insider's guide to their very own patch of France – its places, architecture, natural wonders, legends, quirks, cuisine and wine - and show you why it is a region to return to again and again.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 472 pages
• Publisher: Cadogan Guides; 6th edition (June 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1860113540
• ISBN-13: 978-1860113543
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #417,148 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Travel > Europe > France > Bordeaux
  • #13 in Books > Travel > Europe > France > Dordogne

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Almost zero photos. Pithy, cheeky Brit-speak makes for a hard slog..., March 28, 2009

By 

APC Reviews "APC Reviews" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dordogne, Lot & Bordeaux, 6th (Country & Regional Guides - Cadogan) (Paperback)

This book does have a fair amount of useful information. But this positive comes with a big negative: the guide is written in pithy, cheeky Brit-speak with a decidedly Anglo-Saxon, expatriate type of perspective on French culture and history. The text abounds in childish witticisms and conflations and is filled with adjective loaded condensations of and comments on history and facts. The author is, evidently, addicted to cartoonish metaphors and silly descriptions that convey French history as a grade school costume pageant.

The text is in a very small type face, and is rather grayish rather than black, making for some hard reading in anything other than strong light. There is a brief color photo section at the front, but the book is otherwise all text and maps.

There's useful info; but it's a hard slog. Insight Guide's "Southwest France", while less detailed in some ways as to recommendations, and far less opinionated, is vastly better in all meaningful respects. Eyewitness Guide's "Dordogne and Southwest France" is also filled with useful info and history, as well as wonderful photos and extensive illustrations. Either of these alternatives are superior. But if you buy both of them they will, together, completely out class the Cadogan "The Dordogne, Lot & Bordeaux, 6th"

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars chacun ses gouts, October 5, 2010

By 

Dr. M. R. James (Brisbane, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dordogne, Lot & Bordeaux, 6th (Country & Regional Guides - Cadogan) (Paperback)

I came to this page in search of a new edition of this book. I don't have the old one, or obviously this one, so I will not write a review. But seeing that these two reviews on this site are so negative I just wanted to say that in general I find the Cadogan guides to be better than most others, including LP. The same authors write a series of guides on this part of the world--they actually live in SW France. Their South of France book (presumably incorporates their separate books on Provence, Cote d'Azure, Languedoc-Roussillon) is unreservedly excellent. I have to concur with the Amazon reviewer of that guide who wrote this:

"When I travel to other places I'll look at the guides by Facaros and Pauls first."

I have no connection with the authors or publisher but like them I have a special affection for SW France. Perhaps it is more a cultural difference for these two reviewers who didn't like the "Brit chatty tone". As an Australian who has lived in England and France (and briefly worked in USA) I cannot say I especially detected that in the SoF book and it made me curious: checking their website it is not clear but on Paul's website the current article begins "we Americans".. But on their shared website it says "Pauls' primary interest has always been cities and urban design, which sets their guidebooks apart.." This could be another reason why I find their guides a bit different because it happens that this is also a lifelong interest of mine.

So there it is, perhaps simply chacun ses gouts.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Have they really been there?, June 23, 2009

By 

CYRIL (EDLEEN, South Africa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dordogne, Lot & Bordeaux, 6th (Country & Regional Guides - Cadogan) (Paperback)

While motoring from Bordeaux up through the Medoc to Pointe de Grave it became increasingly clear that the authors of this book either spent no time or very little in the area they are writing about. The book gives very little relevant information on the surroundings but tends to waffle on in childlike fashion about essentially nothing. The information on the Dordogne valley is as dissapointing.