Customer Reviews

Frommer's Paris 2007 (Frommer's Complete Guides)

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

 

 

This was my first trip to Paris and I don't know what I would have done without this guide glued to my side. I used the suggested itineraries as my starting off point, then subtracted and added "top attractions" as needed. My husband and I stayed in Montparnasse, so the sections on each arrondissement were invaluable. I even found the brief summaries on the architecture and history of Paris helpful. I've become a true francophile because of this guide and hope my trip is the beginning of a beautiful relationship with the city of lights!

This book is full of great information about the City of Lights! It includes everything from the top sites to see, hints about how to save on your trip,great places to eat, stay and watch Parisian life! It also includes three self guided walking tours, a quick history of Paris, and a Glossary of useful French words, including food, menu and cooking terms. The back flap has a handy Paris metro map, the front flap has a metric conversion chart.Of course, many datailed maps so that you know exactly where to go, includes a large pull out map of the entire city of Paris! Complete, accurate, easy to read and a must have companion for your trip to Paris!

I have been using the Lonely Plant guide books in my last few years of traveling. I bought Frommer's for a change, just to see what other guide books have to offer. I was completely disappointed. Here is why.

- Terrible maps
1) The maps are scant in details: it does not have a lot of the smaller rues (streets) in Paris and the small and winding rues on the left bank are (in)famous. Consequently, you will frequently be unable to figure out where you are or where you are going to as there is no cross road as a reference point.

2) The fold-out map only include the areas closest to the Sein on the left and the right bank. If you want to find out about the other Arrondisements, good luck. For example, the 14e and 15e are almost entirely missed out.

3) The major landmarks are not clearly marked on the map. I believe most of us would love to have some graphical representation (icon) of the major attractions on the map. It makes it easy to figure out a lot of things, i.e. how much area are you covering, where you are relative to the Louvre, etc. The fold-out maps chose to use words, instead of icons, to tell you where the major attractions are. You have to read, among the street names, the arrondisement names etc. to find the attractions - a waste of time.

4) There are SEPARATE maps for attractions, restaurants, markets and metro/RER stations etc. It is very time consuming to figure out where to eat after seeing the attractions. I understand that it may be too much details on one map with all this information. But with Frommer's maps with scant details, I don't see why this cannot be done. By the way, the Lonely Planet guides seem to be able to do this very well, and with more details.

5) There is not enough map. There should be a detailed map for each of the major arrondissement. For example, the book mentions that one should take a walk in Montparnasse. But where is the map?? How do I get there??

After 2 days of frustration with the Frommer's maps, I got a free map from my hotel. Everything was clearly marked, including the smaller and more ambiguous rues that even the locals had trouble finding. And it was completely free!

- Illogical Organization
1) After the book mentions about a place, it does not tell you where it is marked on the map. Instead, it gives you an address so that you have to find it yourself on the map. This is a time wasting exercise. Further, many times I found the address could not be found on the maps provided by the book, either because the rue is too small and thus omitted by the book, or because the arrondissement is not included.

2) After the book mentions a place, it tends not to tell you how to get there. For example, it mentions Versaille is a must go and you can get there by RER. But which line?? How often is the service?? It also fails to mention that the RER offers a package deal including return ticket and admission to the palace - it would save a lot of time (at least 1 - 1.5 hour) waiting in the queue.

3) After the book mentions a place, it does not tell you how to pronounce it in French. So you will struggle when you get in a cab, or try to get help from the locals.

There are so many imperfections in this book, making it close to worthless. For example, I would really appreciate some more write up about the cultral backgroud, etiquette etc. in France. The restaurant recommendations were not great, either. Some recommended restaurants were closed for the season, some do not serve coffee at a certain time (yet the book fails to mention).

I finally went out of my way and found a recommended spot, that was open and serving food. The food was good, but not significantly better than the random walk-ins that I found when the book's recommendations failed to deliver. And it was expensive. I also noticed that in that restaurant almost all diners were international travelers, many with a Frommer's - obviously not a spot enjoyed by the locals.

On the inside cover of the book, it quoted Des Moines Sunday Register's somewhat indifferent remarks ("Hotel recommendations are close to encyclopedic"). I guess that the hotel recommendations would really help one navigate the city! Further, that newspaper only has a circulation of 250,000 (by comparison, USA Today has 2.5 million circulation) - hardly an authority on anything. But wait, where the hell is Des Moines?? Bill Bryson, one of my favourite comtemporary writers, once honestly wrote about Des Moines, his home town in Iowa, as "nothing really happens... every one just wants to get out of there!" I should have been alarmed when I saw a book quoting from such a newspaper!

Enough ranting. The book is written by some supposedly famous writers, but good writers do not equal good travel writers. And this book has evidenced that. I believe a good guide book should present clear and accurate information about a location in a user-friendly way. This book is anything but. So it will be my first and last Frommer's. I hope it would not be your first.

This was the greatest thing we had on our trip to Paris. Especially when it came to great places to eat. The book says to stay away from restaurants located near tourist areas and it is correct. The only great meals we had were ones we found from restaurants in this book. Cafe Constant was very affordable and superb! It also has perfect day itineraries that were great and easy to follow! This book covers EVERYTHING! If you are new to Paris, you will love this book. I particularly love how this book discusses a lot of the hidden treasures of Paris and doesn't just focus on the main attractions. We really got a great feel of what a wonderful place Paris is and a lot of it is because of this book.

For starters, this book gives the wrong Metro to take from Orlly airport into the city. The information person at the Metro ticket counter kept repeating "Take Metro __"(I've now forgotten which) And I kept saying, but this book says to take the other Metro. She just shook her head in knowing disgust. The book is hard to follow and the index offers little help in a rush. Unless you're willing to study and learn it before leaving home, I can't encourage you to take along this book and expect it to be more than an exasperating weight to lug around the beautiful city of Paris. And by the way, Parisians are generally helpful especially if you throw in a few Mercis and Pardons.

Now that I'm old (well, 33), I felt it was time to graduate from the rough guide/lonely planet Paris guidebooks that I normally use and pick up one that covers more high-end suggestions than I could afford when I started visiting Paris 15 years ago. Flipped a coin between Frommers and Fodors, and got this one.

If this is your first trip to Paris and you want to make sure you know what the must-sees are, this is a great book to have. There are plenty of lists of "Best Restaurants", "Top Museums", 1-3 day walking itineraries, etc. There's a nice mix of hotel and restaurant recommendations for all budgets.

However, if you're a more adventurous soul, this isn't the book for you--it's geared towards the standard tourist experience. Their idea of offbeat is...the Institut du Monde Arabe. This is a famous building with incredible architecture by Jean Nouvel and fantastic rooftop views, not exactly off the beaten path.

Likewise, the foldout map covers central Paris, but doesn't even show the outer arondissements. (Nor does it have a lot of detail, so if you intend to walk a lot, then invest in a detailed arondissement guide, not a fold-out.) I was also irritated to see that while there's a map of the metro, the RER stops are not included.

Bottom line...great for the basics, but you'll have to look elsewhere for undiscovered or quirky Paris.

All in all, this is a useful resource. However, there are some problems.

First, the maps--especially the tear out map--are not optimal. The tear out map only includes a portion of the city. Since some of the parks at the outskirts of Paris are mentioned as places to visit, it is not very helpful that the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes are not on the map.

Second, some detail in the maps is missing. I could not find the street on which a delightful hotel at which I stayed some time ago was located.

Third, as with any travel guide, one might question why some hotels, restaurants, attractions are included and others not. However, I have no major problems with the selections.

There are some nice touches to this work. The various walks laid out are helpful (although there is some repetition from section to section). The writing style is sprightly and witty. Some inserts, such as "family friendly restaurants" can be helpful to tourists.

So, although there are some problems with this work, overall it is a useful addition to the body of work on navigating the City of Light.

Compared to Rick Steves' book, this book is just useless. It had very few if any reasonable priced hotel and the rest, well, I will never get any of Frommer's books again, but you might find it useful-I didn't and didn't use it only to look through.

With 352 pages dedicated to just one city, you'd think that there would be a well organized listing of contents with details about every aspect of Paris - but you'd be wrong. While this is a good book to read before traveling, I'd make a list of details specifically important to your trip and then take that info on your trip, along with a more organized guide suited to your personal needs and a (better) street and Metro map. By the way, the Metro offers a clear, colrful map online free, which can be printed and easily laminated for one or multiple copies. Ditto for street maps of Paris, also offered on a variety of web sites free online. There are plenty of book selections from Amazon suited to a traveler's personal needs, such as books about patisseries in Paris, Parisian flea markets, Paris with kids, Parisian restaurants, and many more. After buying several guides on France and Paris to compare, I'll search for guides more specifically suited to my needs and select from those to take with me on my trip next Summer, and will leave this one at home.

My husband and I just returned from Paris and used this travel guide for our trip. Overall the book was great, the restaurant and hotel sections were extremely helpful and very accurate with the reviews and recommendations. The site seeing section was excellent and she really hit on all the sites that truly are must see. We loved the days that were laid out with a schedule, although we had a lot more time to spend in Paris the schedule was very efficient in being able to see multiple sites that were moderately close to one another. She also recommended an art fair on Sundays that was truly amazing and a great recommendation. The only section we had some trouble with was the shopping section, several of the stores had moved locations or closed since the publishing of the book, so we wasted a lot of time searching for something that no longer exists! The maps were only so-so for getting around as well, I recommend using the streetwise maps that have the city and metro stops all on one. Overall, this is a great book and I recommend using it for your trip!