Lonely Planet France [Paperback]

Steve Fallon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lonely Planet France | Publication Date: January 2003

This guide offers a special section on France's renowned cuisine and wine, as well as information on getting off the beaten track in Caen, where to be seen in Cannes, places to stay and detailed coverage of Andorra, Monaco and Corsica.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lonely Planet's France has good practical information not found elsewhere..." -- Conde Nast Traveler, April 2006 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

Note from Publisher: This title is the previous edition of Lonely Planet's guide to France.

Lonely Planet's new edition of France may be found by typing the ISBN number, 1740599233, into the search box.

Lonely Planet's new 6th edition to France has great advice on where to enjoy the best food and wine throughout the country, perceptive History, Culture and Arts coverage for informed travel, and detailed maps and extensive coverage, including Corsica.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1088 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications; 5th edition (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1740592913
• ISBN-13: 978-1740592918
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,706,661 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

156 of 170 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You're going to LOVE FRANCE!, September 25, 2004

By 

Richard R. Carlton (Ada, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet France (Paperback)

I've made >20 visits to France all together. Here are my reviews of the best guides....to meet you r exact needs.....I hope these are helpful and that you have a great visit! I always gauge the quality of my visit by how much I remember a year later......this review is designed to help you get the guide that will be sure YOU remember your trip many years into the future. Travel Safe and enjoy yourself to the max!

Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet has City and Out To Eat Guides. They are all about the experience so they focus on doing, being, getting there, and this means they have the best detailed information, including both inexpensive and really spectacular restaurants and hotels, out-of-the-way places, weird things to see and do, the list is endless.

Frommer's
These are time tested guides that pride themselves on being updated annually. Although I think the guides below provide information that is in more depth or more concise (depending on what the guide is known for), if your main concern is that the guide has very little old or outdated information, then this would be a good guide for you.

Michelin
Famous for their quality reviews, the Red Michelin Guides are for hotels & Restaurants, the Green Michelin Guides are for main tourist destinations. However, the English language Green guide is the one most people use and it has now been supplemented with hotel and restaurant information. These are the serious review guides as the famous Michelin ratings are issued via these books.

Fodor's
Fodor's is the best selling guide among Americans. They have a bewildering array of different guides. Here's which is what:
The Gold Guide is the main book with good reviews of everything and lots of tours, walks, and just about everything else you could think of. It's not called the Gold guide for nothing though....it assumes you have money and are willing to spend it.
SeeIt! is a concise guide that extracts the most popular items from the Gold Guide
PocketGuide is designed for a quick first visit
UpCLOSE for independent travel that is cheap and well thought out
CityPack is a plastic pocket map with some guide information
Exploring is for cultural interests, lots of photos and designed to supplement the Gold guide

MapGuide
MapGuide is very easy to use and has the best location information for hotels, tourist attractions, museums, churches etc. that they manage to keep fairly up to date. It's great for teaching you how to use the Metro. The text sections are quick overviews, not reviews, but the strong suite here is brevity, not depth. I strongly recommend this for your first few times learning your way around the classic tourist sites and experiences. MapGuide is excellent as long as you are staying pretty much in the center of the city.

Time Out
The Time Out guides are very good. Easy reading, short reviews of restaurants, hotels, and other sites, with good public transport maps that go beyond the city centre. Many people who buy more than one guidebook end up liking this one best!

Blue Guides
Without doubt, the best of the walks guides.... the Blue Guide has been around since 1918 and has extremely well designed walks with lots of unique little side stops to hit on just about any interest you have. If you want to pick up the feel of the city, this is the best book to do that for you. This is one that you end up packing on your 10th trip, by which time it is well worn.

Let's Go
Let's Go is a great guide series that specializes in the niche interest details that turn a trip into a great and memorable experience. Started by and for college students, these guides are famous for the details provided by people who used the book the previous year. They continue to focus on providing a great experience inexpensively. If you want to know about the top restaurants, this is not for you (use Fodor's or Michelin). Let's Go does have a bewildering array of different guides though. Here's which is what:
Budget Guide is the main guide with incredibly detailed information and reviews on everything you can think of.
City Guide is just as intense but restricted to the single city.
PocketGuide is even smaller and features condensed information
MapGuide's are very good maps with public transportation and some other information (like museum hours, etc.)

Rick Steves' books are not recommended. They may be an interesting read but their helpfulness is very poor. They don't do well on updates, transportation details, or anything but the first-time-tourist routine and even that is somewhat superficial on anything but the mega-major sites.

37 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I cannot say enough positve comments about this guide, August 17, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Lonely Planet France (2nd ed) (Paperback)

Lonely Planet's "France: Travel Survival Kit" was essential to the success of our 21 day journey in France. My boyfriend and I did know where we were headed or what we wanted to do. Using this well organized, percise guide we found ourselves hikeing cliffs in Brittany and wondering backroads in Cote D'Azur.

We were new to the country and traveling by train. The first 160 pages of the guide were packed with all the many essentials of travel -- trains, monetary system, telephone cards -- the little things that make a huge difference. Who wants to spend the first few hours in France trying to figure out how the phones works?

We wanted to see France, not a heap of tourist attraction wizzing by us. Everywhere we went, this guide showed us the not so traveled places. Even in busy Paris, with help from our trusty guide, we visited flea markets and neighborhoods where tourists don't often venture. These were the places that gave us the real flavor of France.

I loved my trip to France. I can honestly say, due to this guide I was able to relax and enjoy the visit more. We relied upon it for finding accomidations and entertainment. It never failed us. We love you, Lonely Planet

64 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Easily Beaten by the Opposition, March 4, 2001

By 

Moshe Reuveni - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lonely Planet France (Paperback)

I like the Lonely Planet guides, and I owe much of the pleasures I've experienced while traveling to them. But this one is lacking.

OK, it is young in spirit, and it does read like a book about France (i.e. high on atmosphere). And unlike most of the other guides of this series, it does cater for those who are not on a shoestring, as well as its regular low budgeted audiences.

However, when it comes to descriptions, it is simply beaten by the opposition, mainly the Eyesight guides. When it comes to France, the Lonely Planet's cheap format of black & white paper, without too many pictures, maps and photos, cannot stand up and face more modern competition.

As France is expensive anyway, you're better of with one of the alternatives even if you are on a shoestring; use other resources, like the web, for the kind of help you usually rely on Lonely Planet to supply you.