The Rough Guide to France (Travel Guide with Ebook)

By Rough Guides

Book Overview

This practical travel guide to France features detailed factual travel tips and points-of-interest structured lists of all iconic must-see sights as well as some off-the-beaten-track treasures. Our itinerary suggestions and expert author picks of things to see and do will make it a perfect companion both, ahead of your trip and on the ground. This France guide book is packed full of details on how to get there and around, pre-departure information and top time-saving tips, including a visual list of things not to miss. Our colour-coded maps make France easier to navigate while you're there. This guide book to France has been fully updated post-COVID-19 and it comes with a free eBook.

The Rough Guide to FRANCE covers: Paris; The North; Champagne and the Ardennes; Alsace and Lorraine; Normandy; Brittany; The Loire; Burgundy; Poitou-Charentes and the Atlantic coast; The Limousin, Dordogne and the Lot; The Pyrenees; Languedoc; The Massif Central; The Alps and Franche-Comte; The Rhone valley; Provence; The C?te d'Azur; Corsica.

Inside this France travel guide you'll find:

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EVERY TYPE OF TRAVELLER
Experiences selected for every kind of trip to France, from off-the-beaten-track adventures in B?ziers to family activities in child-friendly places, like Provence or chilled-out breaks in popular tourist areas, like Paris.

PRACTICAL TRAVEL TIPS
Essential pre-departure information including France entry requirements, getting around, health information, travelling with children, sports and outdoor activities, food and drink, festivals, culture and etiquette, shopping, tips for travellers with disabilities and more.

TIME-SAVING ITINERARIES
Includes carefully planned routes covering the best of France, which give a taste of the richness and diversity of the destination, and have been created for different time frames or types of trip.

DETAILED REGIONAL COVERAGE
Clear structure within each sightseeing chapter of this France travel guide includes regional highlights, brief history, detailed sights and places ordered geographically, recommended restaurants, hotels, bars, clubs and major shops or entertainment options.

INSIGHTS INTO GETTING AROUND LIKE A LOCAL
Tips on how to beat the crowds, save time and money and find the best local spots for sampling the very best of French food, relaxing on fine sandy beaches and zipping down the slopes in the Alps.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THINGS NOT TO MISS
Rough Guides' rundown of Brittany; Burgundy; The Pyrenees; The Dordogne's best sights and top experiences helps to make the most of each trip to France, even in a short time.

HONEST AND INDEPENDENT REVIEWS
Written by Rough Guides' expert authors with a trademark blend of humour, honesty and expertise, this France guide book will help you find the best places, matching different needs.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Comprehensive 'Contexts' chapter of this travel guide to France features fascinating insights into France, with coverage of history, religion, ethnic groups, environment, wildlife and books, plus a handy language section and glossary.

FABULOUS FULL COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY
Features inspirational colour photography, including the stunning Carcassonne Castle and the spectacular Canal du Midi.

COLOUR-CODED MAPPING
Practical full-colour maps, with clearly numbered, colour-coded keys for quick orientation in the Atlantic coast, The Limousin and many more locations in France, reduce the need to go online.

USER-FRIENDLY LAYOUT
With helpful icons, and organised by neighbourhood to help you pick the best spots to spend your time.

FREE EBOOK
Free eBook download with every purchase of this guide book to France allows you to access all of the content from your phone or tablet, for on-the-road exploration.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 178919749X
• ISBN13: 9781789197495
• Release Date: June 2023
• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Length: 1000 Pages
• Weight: 1.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 5.1" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Good resource, and I live in France

I live along the border of France and Switzerland. I like to take excursions around France and needed a dependable guide. So far, I have found this one to be pretty good, with straightforward basics about how to get around, where to stay and with pretty accurate opinions. I would recommend it overall, but bottom line, the very best resource is Michelin. If I were to buy just one guide I would make it the Michelin green guide, or of course for restaurants, the red guide.

The BEST practical guide

This is THE BEST practical guide for visiting France. It's well-organized, with highlights at the front of each chapter, and practical transportation information at the end of each chapter. In addition, their evaluations of a site's merit have, thus far, been right on. While their lodging and dining sections might focus on the lower-end, the accuracy and comprehensiveness of their information more than makes up for it.

Look No Further!

If you are looking for a small book to fit in your back pocket, The Rough Guide France is not for you. If you are looking for a guide that lovingly describes even the smallest French town in careful detail and clear format, then this IS the guide book you should be looking for. The Rough Guide to France does an excellent job in several areas where many guide books fail. For example, smaller attractions are often overlooked in favor of the larger cities, such as Paris or Lyon. Rough Guide ensures that for those who want to go provincial, they won't be going in blind. Another merit of the guide is in it's clear, concise format. Not overburdened with irrelevant maps/illustrations (a pet peeve of mine), Rough Guide has clean, simple directions and mapping. This is a vast improvements over Guides like Lonely Planet, where I often feel the editors publish more with an eye towards their own self-satisfaction than towards the serious traveler. The resturaunt/hotel features are adequate, frequently include useful maps, and will not tax anyone's checkbook too harshly. Perhaps the greatest strength of this guide is the seeming conviction of the editors to tell you that which you NEED to know for that trip to France. Michelin might the cultural ask-all, DK may have lots of lovely photographs, but Rough Guide is for when you're ready to get serious about your trip to France. Well-written, informative, with a clear and honest style that should impress both casual and budget traveler alike, The Rough Guide France should be your FIRST PICK in guide books.

A must for a vacation in France... Balance with 2nd book

What I like best about the Rough Guides is that they give critical reviews. They will point out the tourist traps and will give negative reviews. I find that Frommer's and Fodor's rarely point out the negatives to a particular hotel or site. The rough guide is very critical and is a great balance to these other guides. I would balance your trip to France with a Fodors (or Frommers) book because the maps and illustrations are often better and there are more higher-end hotels listed.This book will help you decide where is best to spend your vacation in France. There are clear critical descriptions of all the regions and great general info on getting around in France.If you aren't interested in "roughing" it and staying in lower priced hotels.. the guides are still very useful in rating attractions, and areas in which to stay... but you will need another book to look at more moderate and luxury hotels.I would definitely read this book before going to France.

If you can take only one book on your trip...this is it.

My husband and I took a couple of well known guide books with us on our recent trip to France...but this is the one we found most useful. One invaluable feature is the inclusion of maps. When we got lost in Avignon we had only to open the Rough Guide to find our way. Also, we were able to locate the bus and rail stations on the maps. There is much to be learned by reading a number of guidebooks before you go but this is the one to take with you.