Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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"

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.

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.