Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Walking in France

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

 

 

I am currently planning my walking holiday in France, so I am trying to learn as much as I can before I arrive. I found this book to be helpful in as far as it dealt with practical matters of conditions in France; such as visas, telephones and doctors. It also gave a good indication of the attractions that walkers will find in France on a regional basis.

I felt, however, that for a country famous for its very long distance trails, this book had an unhappy focus on short, often single day, walks. To be fair, it dealt in detail with the gruelling "GR20" trail in Corsica, but that was the only real endurance walk that it looked at. Given that these walks are my focus, I found this book to be something of a disappointment.

That being said, someone looking to enliven his holiday with one or more short, possibly overnight, walks could do a lot worse than this handy little book.

This was a good overview for our two week hiking trip in southern France. Because the book covers the entire country, there isn't much detail and only a couple of walks per region. I found the book to be mostly factual though a section on bus routes in the Gorges du Verdon was incorrect--we ended up having to wait an extra day to take a bus that the book said would be available. Overall we had an excellent trip, but really this book is more about exploring options than final planning. For the real work of getting from Point A to Point B, we relied on the French language materials we found in the country (I speak and read intermediate French).

This book provides a nice overview and sampling of the regions of France and the walks/hikes that are available. there