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Eyewitness Travel Guides
Bretagne[Mythen, Seefahrt, Pläne, Festivals, Wallfahrten, Hotels, Strände, Architektur, Kirchen, Menhire]
DK Eyewitness Travel Brittany is your indispensable guide to this beautiful part of the world. The fully updated guide includes unique cutaway illustrations, floor plans, and reconstructions of the must-see sights, plus street-by-street maps of cities and towns. DK's insider travel tips and essential local information will help you discover the best of this region in France, from local festivals and markets to day trips around the countryside. Detailed listings will guide you to hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops for all budgets, while practical information will help you to get around by train, bus, or car.With hundreds of full-color photographs, hand-drawn illustrations, and custom maps that illuminate every page, DK Eyewitness Travel Brittany truly shows you around this gorgeous destination as no one else can.
Hardcover
First published May 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 27, 2020
Admittedly, I don't have any plans to visit Brittany any time soon. While some people tend to read a book like this only when they are going to a place and actively planning on it, I tend to think that it is worthwhile to look at a book like this as a way of gaining ideas, perhaps for some time far in the future. I have already been to France, of course, before, but not this particular region. Likewise, the event that tends to lead me to travel tends not to be located in Brittany for whatever reason. In looking at this book I sought to at least figure out why it is so rare for the even to be held here when it is a beautiful area that has a lot of sights to see and quite a few reasonably priced (at least for France) places to stay at or eat. And in looking at this book I can say that the biggest reason why this site would be less than desirable to go to is because of the diet there, with regional food being focused on seafood and pork, two things that are not a part of the menu of either me or the people who I would travel with. That tends to make this place a less than obvious one.
This book is about 300 pages long or so and it is divided into various sections. The first section of the book introduces the reader to Brittany and includes sections on discovering Brittany as well as where it is on the map, a portrait of the region, as well as a look at Brittany through the year and a history of Brittany that focuses on politics and military matters. After that the majority of the book discusses Brittany region by region. After starting with an overall glance the book then turns to a look at the Ille-Et-Vilaine, the Cotes d'Armor, Northern and Southern Finistere (viewed separately), the Morbihan, and then the Loire Atlantique region that is culturally but not politically a part of contemporary Brittany and based around Rennes, one of France's larger cities. After that there is a discussion of Traveler's needs, namely where to stay, where to eat and then shops and markets, entertainment, and outdoor activities. The book then ends with a survival guide that includes practical information, traveler's information, a general index, as well as acknowledgements and a phrase book that includes some French (but not Breton) phrases.
In looking at this book I saw that this would be a place that I would like to visit someday and that it had a lot to offer from a historical perspective. That said, I also found a lot about the book that gave me a bit of pause. Not only was the diet something that I found to be problematic but I also found much to question about the religious focus of a lot of tourism that tends to occur in Brittany. A few of the sites that one would have wanted to visit because of their history apparently have suffered a great deal of destruction, and the book that I read focused a huge amount on Catholic pilgrimages that were of limited interest at best to me. If you are a conservative Catholic who wants to visit a tour of parish closes or if you have an interest in ancient Celtic megaliths, Brittany is definitely a place that would be fun to visit. I imagine few tourists would be familiar with the Breton language, but at this rate few Bretons themselves are, which is something to be regretted.
This book is about 300 pages long or so and it is divided into various sections. The first section of the book introduces the reader to Brittany and includes sections on discovering Brittany as well as where it is on the map, a portrait of the region, as well as a look at Brittany through the year and a history of Brittany that focuses on politics and military matters. After that the majority of the book discusses Brittany region by region. After starting with an overall glance the book then turns to a look at the Ille-Et-Vilaine, the Cotes d'Armor, Northern and Southern Finistere (viewed separately), the Morbihan, and then the Loire Atlantique region that is culturally but not politically a part of contemporary Brittany and based around Rennes, one of France's larger cities. After that there is a discussion of Traveler's needs, namely where to stay, where to eat and then shops and markets, entertainment, and outdoor activities. The book then ends with a survival guide that includes practical information, traveler's information, a general index, as well as acknowledgements and a phrase book that includes some French (but not Breton) phrases.
In looking at this book I saw that this would be a place that I would like to visit someday and that it had a lot to offer from a historical perspective. That said, I also found a lot about the book that gave me a bit of pause. Not only was the diet something that I found to be problematic but I also found much to question about the religious focus of a lot of tourism that tends to occur in Brittany. A few of the sites that one would have wanted to visit because of their history apparently have suffered a great deal of destruction, and the book that I read focused a huge amount on Catholic pilgrimages that were of limited interest at best to me. If you are a conservative Catholic who wants to visit a tour of parish closes or if you have an interest in ancient Celtic megaliths, Brittany is definitely a place that would be fun to visit. I imagine few tourists would be familiar with the Breton language, but at this rate few Bretons themselves are, which is something to be regretted.
February 27, 2020
How much does a book change in four years? If you are reading this book, the answer is not very much. Admittedly, I did not expect my library to send me two different editions of the same book when I was looking on a lark for books relating to Brittany (given that the area is obscure to me and somewhere I would like to know a little bit better). But having gotten the books I realized that this one seemed very familiar when I started reading it. And comparing the two books together there are admittedly few differences between them. Both of them have the same introductory material, include the same maps and drawings and the same illustrations and photographs. It is clear that either not a lot about Brittany changed over the course of four years and/or the editors thought that it would be far more profitable to re-use as much as possible from a previous version of the book when marketing a more up-to-date version for tourists. And that is the main reason why someone would want to read this book if they had already read a previous version of it, to see what changed from one volume to another.
And admittedly, not much did, but there was a little that changed, at least. Some things did change, though, so it is worthwhile to note that the guide on places to eat and stay did change, where the authors gave a lot less specific price information (perhaps they were concerned about inflation and becoming too quickly obsolete) in this version as opposed to the older version. The fact that so little information about the tourist sites themselves changed suggests that Brittany has not done a great deal over the past few years to revamp their tourist facilities but is rather content to just maintain what they already have. I do not know of Brittany being a very active advertiser when it comes to tourism, so I suppose it is for the best if they are content with their infrastructure and sites and simply hope for more people to enjoy them. Those who have been to Brittany or have seen advertisements can inform me if they are more familiar with efforts to get people to go to Brittany that I have not seen. As it is, there is plenty to see but also a few concerns which will likely keep the area from being a high priority to visit.
And admittedly, not much did, but there was a little that changed, at least. Some things did change, though, so it is worthwhile to note that the guide on places to eat and stay did change, where the authors gave a lot less specific price information (perhaps they were concerned about inflation and becoming too quickly obsolete) in this version as opposed to the older version. The fact that so little information about the tourist sites themselves changed suggests that Brittany has not done a great deal over the past few years to revamp their tourist facilities but is rather content to just maintain what they already have. I do not know of Brittany being a very active advertiser when it comes to tourism, so I suppose it is for the best if they are content with their infrastructure and sites and simply hope for more people to enjoy them. Those who have been to Brittany or have seen advertisements can inform me if they are more familiar with efforts to get people to go to Brittany that I have not seen. As it is, there is plenty to see but also a few concerns which will likely keep the area from being a high priority to visit.
May 24, 2010
This is a good book to read if you are visiting Brittany. It has a good amount of history of the whole region as well as details of things to do in various towns and villages that have things to see. The illustrations are interesting and colourful.There are maps, some vocabulary and some general information about holidaying in France. There are also some restaurant reviews.
Have avoided giving it a 5 star although it really is pretty good. I think it might just benefit from slightly more about the smaller towns and slightly less about the larger towns and it also is printed on quality paper making it a little heavy to carry around. However as a guide book to keep in the car/caravan and to use alongside perhaps a lighter weight dictionary/phrase book then it is a good buy.
There are various guide books reviewed at :
http://www.bestfrenchcampsites.com/bo...
Have avoided giving it a 5 star although it really is pretty good. I think it might just benefit from slightly more about the smaller towns and slightly less about the larger towns and it also is printed on quality paper making it a little heavy to carry around. However as a guide book to keep in the car/caravan and to use alongside perhaps a lighter weight dictionary/phrase book then it is a good buy.
There are various guide books reviewed at :
http://www.bestfrenchcampsites.com/bo...
May 3, 2017
For my trip to Brittany at the weekend
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews