Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to Brittany & Normandy, 10th Edition (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

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I have to agree with a previous reviewer who stated that the tone is very negative. You would think that the author completely hates this corner of the world! I've been looking forward to visiting Brittany and Normandy, and I know that I will love it there only because I read other books and saw tv specials as well. If I went solely by this book, I wouldn't have a single place I'd want to visit! I usually love The Rough Guides but this one is just horribly written. It also doesn't give much depth on the various towns, nor any comprehensive itinerary ideas.

The Rough Guide seems to have accurate enough information, but the tone of the book is sometimes a little negative and snarky. Focus is definitely on the more budget end of travel and seems aimed at 20-something hipsters travelling. Not as good a guide for family travel.

Very bad for families, no differentiation or discernment on eating. Skip this one

It is difficult to know who the audience is for Greg Ward's "Rough Guide to Brittany & Normandy" beyond lads on a lark. He merely lists towns, has some vague hand waving about accommodations, mostly to do with camping, and has the shallowest differentiation on eating choices of any "guide" ever published. He mentions that creperies in Brittany often also offer mussels and chips (frites) for the budget minded, but beyond that he isn't much help at differentiating the quality of anything (he does sometimes list prices of things), and therefore this guide is of little value.

Top destination for many Brits is of course the St. Malo area, so I'll focus there, but I assure you the guide is equally useless for the south of Brittany near Cargnac. For example, on page 221 on the town of Dinan, he suggests "All sorts of specialist restaurants, including several ethnic varieties, are tucked away in the old streets of Dinan....." He then proceeds to not list a single one, or differentiate any of them as to quality, ethnicity, or price. [ "Have a curry boys, before we drink!"] He follows this unhelpful advice up with "Once you've eaten, the area to head for bars..." I get it, we've paid for a guide book of obvious advice for lads night out. Eat whatever, then go drink.

Think I'm being unfair? Example 2: On page 223 Ward writes "There's no great reason to recommend any one of Cancale's restaurants above the rest...." [Sit down and gobswallow oysters and beer mate, its all good!"] And he goes on with similar unhelpful advice for nearly all of Brittany. Ward also appears to be a remarkably bad choice to write a guide book on Brittany and Normandy, as he apparently finds the entire place boring. For example, he is frequently running down the sites with such unhelpful comments as: "...it undoubtedly is in a banal setting" (page 224) "much of a muchness" (numerous examples), "...not at all compelling in themselves..." (page 214), etc.

You are better off buying the English language editions of the Michelin Green (sites) and Red (restaurants and hotels) guides than this "guide." Unless you are on a lads weekend where all you are going to do is camp, eat whatever, drink, and vomit. And if you are, you don't need this guide either.

Excelant information on places to eat.
The usual excelant information on places to visit.