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Fodor's France 2000: Expert Advice and Smart Choices, Updated Anually, with a Full-Size Map and Color Planning Section
"Fodor's guides are always a pleasure." -- The Chicago Tribune
"Teeming with maps and loaded with addresses, phone numbers, and directions." -- Newsday
Experienced and first-time travelers alike rely on Fodor's Gold Guides for rich, reliable coverage the world over. Updated each year and containing a full-color foldout Rand McNally map, a Fodor's Gold Guide is an essential tool for any kind of traveler. If you only have room for one guide, this is the guide for you.
New for 2000! Full-color sections let you experience France before you get there. With region by region virtual tours and cross-referencing to the main text, Fodor's color sections are a great way to begin planning your trip.
Let the world's smartest guide enrich your trip
Full-color images evoke what makes France unique - Local experts show you the special places - Thorough updating keeps you on track - Practical information gives you the tools to explore - Easy-to-use format puts it all at your fingertips
Choose among many hotels and restaurants in all price categories
Stay in mansions, châteaux, cozy auberges , stylish gems, family-run favorites, and small hôtels de charme - Dine in culinary landmarks, innovative bistros, traditional brasseries, wine bars, and outdoor cafés - Check out hundreds of detailed reviews and learn what's special about each place
Mix and match our itineraries and discover the unexpected
Savvy descriptions help you decide where to go and when - Driving and walking tours guide you from Paris's museums, Monet's gardens, and Chenonceaux's château to Burgundy's vineyards, Lyons vieille ville, and Arles's arènes - Great sources for haute couture, Provençal prints, brocantes, santons, faience, and wine
Go straight to the facts you need and find all that's new
Useful maps and background information - How to get there and get around - When to go - What to pack - Vocabulary and menu guide - Costs, hours, and tips by the thousands
"Teeming with maps and loaded with addresses, phone numbers, and directions." -- Newsday
Experienced and first-time travelers alike rely on Fodor's Gold Guides for rich, reliable coverage the world over. Updated each year and containing a full-color foldout Rand McNally map, a Fodor's Gold Guide is an essential tool for any kind of traveler. If you only have room for one guide, this is the guide for you.
New for 2000! Full-color sections let you experience France before you get there. With region by region virtual tours and cross-referencing to the main text, Fodor's color sections are a great way to begin planning your trip.
Let the world's smartest guide enrich your trip
Full-color images evoke what makes France unique - Local experts show you the special places - Thorough updating keeps you on track - Practical information gives you the tools to explore - Easy-to-use format puts it all at your fingertips
Choose among many hotels and restaurants in all price categories
Stay in mansions, châteaux, cozy auberges , stylish gems, family-run favorites, and small hôtels de charme - Dine in culinary landmarks, innovative bistros, traditional brasseries, wine bars, and outdoor cafés - Check out hundreds of detailed reviews and learn what's special about each place
Mix and match our itineraries and discover the unexpected
Savvy descriptions help you decide where to go and when - Driving and walking tours guide you from Paris's museums, Monet's gardens, and Chenonceaux's château to Burgundy's vineyards, Lyons vieille ville, and Arles's arènes - Great sources for haute couture, Provençal prints, brocantes, santons, faience, and wine
Go straight to the facts you need and find all that's new
Useful maps and background information - How to get there and get around - When to go - What to pack - Vocabulary and menu guide - Costs, hours, and tips by the thousands
704 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 18, 2009
An excellent guide to France's restaurants, hotels and exhibits. I find these guides usually list more expensive hotels and restaurants but do have finds and special little nooks. You can really use the guides in museums to just see the most important exhibits.
February 24, 2011
Taking it with me to France this fall. Great resource.
February 18, 2014
A traveler's guide to France
Fodor's guides are a kind of standard for travelers, since it contains destination detail, with their own ratings of tourist's spots, motels & restaurants, shops, and other attractions. Although Michelin and AAA also have their own ratings for tourists spots, I like the Fodor's a little better since it has greater detail and nicer pictures.
The book is divided into 16 chapters, which includes the 15 regions of France with a separate section on Paris. Exploring Paris includes numerous places of attraction. These include the magnificent Grand Palais, the France's largest Cathedral Notre Dame, and the details of tour of Eiffel Tower. Page 98 gives the overall guide for French dining, and page 119 highlights the places to stay. A tour of Versailles (Page 175) is one of the most interesting experiences of visiting France.
Champagne region situated in the North Eastern part of the country is known for some of the best sparkling wines produced from Marne Valley between Epernay and Chateau-Thierry and the slopes of the Montagne de Reims. Champagne tasting tours are usually at various houses miles away from Vineyards and farms. Some of the tours include maze like cellars (caves), and your experience could range from hilarious to despairingly tedious. Experiencing the underground crayers is a must for all visitors to the Champagne country. There are also many hiking trails in the region. Burgundy, one of the regions in Eastern part of the country is also another great place to visit.
St-Tropez in the French Riviera is a great place to be if you have money to spend because the place is outrageously priced and it is hard to get to the beaches.
Fodor's guides are a kind of standard for travelers, since it contains destination detail, with their own ratings of tourist's spots, motels & restaurants, shops, and other attractions. Although Michelin and AAA also have their own ratings for tourists spots, I like the Fodor's a little better since it has greater detail and nicer pictures.
The book is divided into 16 chapters, which includes the 15 regions of France with a separate section on Paris. Exploring Paris includes numerous places of attraction. These include the magnificent Grand Palais, the France's largest Cathedral Notre Dame, and the details of tour of Eiffel Tower. Page 98 gives the overall guide for French dining, and page 119 highlights the places to stay. A tour of Versailles (Page 175) is one of the most interesting experiences of visiting France.
Champagne region situated in the North Eastern part of the country is known for some of the best sparkling wines produced from Marne Valley between Epernay and Chateau-Thierry and the slopes of the Montagne de Reims. Champagne tasting tours are usually at various houses miles away from Vineyards and farms. Some of the tours include maze like cellars (caves), and your experience could range from hilarious to despairingly tedious. Experiencing the underground crayers is a must for all visitors to the Champagne country. There are also many hiking trails in the region. Burgundy, one of the regions in Eastern part of the country is also another great place to visit.
St-Tropez in the French Riviera is a great place to be if you have money to spend because the place is outrageously priced and it is hard to get to the beaches.
June 24, 2014
The review is of the physical edition. Travel information is evolving at light speed, and, but Fodor's makes a real effort to keep up,with both the books and their website. The books are updated regularly using comments from real travelers, not paid reviewers, which is a real plus. I made a long trip to France in 2013, used this book for general planning, background information, and to a lesser extent to find hotels. It does a very good job at what it does. I am planning another trip and am following the same procedure.
Once the plans and itinerary are nailed down, Fodor's has done its job. I did not take it with me: The cultural, historical, and architectural highlights were too slim to meet my needs,. I put the works into an app. In fairness, I have covered this territory previously. Once my daily itinerary and plans were complete, I carried Michelin Green Guides, which cover those items in exhausting detail, but some of which haven't been updated, or even the typos corrected, in years.
Travel publishers must really scramble in an effort to keep up, to keep current, and keep selling. Converting a physical book to vapor may not do the trick. They also have to compete the apps, many of them free, and the number of which for French museums is literally exploding.
Many travel books available online are of doubtful quality, They also are not inexpensive. So, I'll begin with the physical books and then see what, if any, I actually need to download.
I have always thought of the Michelin Green Guides as the ultimate, and have used them since the 1970s. My complaint today is exactly the sand as if was then: their site-seeing walks are difficult to follow, and they never correct errors. Especially spelling errors.
Once the plans and itinerary are nailed down, Fodor's has done its job. I did not take it with me: The cultural, historical, and architectural highlights were too slim to meet my needs,. I put the works into an app. In fairness, I have covered this territory previously. Once my daily itinerary and plans were complete, I carried Michelin Green Guides, which cover those items in exhausting detail, but some of which haven't been updated, or even the typos corrected, in years.
Travel publishers must really scramble in an effort to keep up, to keep current, and keep selling. Converting a physical book to vapor may not do the trick. They also have to compete the apps, many of them free, and the number of which for French museums is literally exploding.
Many travel books available online are of doubtful quality, They also are not inexpensive. So, I'll begin with the physical books and then see what, if any, I actually need to download.
I have always thought of the Michelin Green Guides as the ultimate, and have used them since the 1970s. My complaint today is exactly the sand as if was then: their site-seeing walks are difficult to follow, and they never correct errors. Especially spelling errors.
June 7, 2013
This is a travel guide to France -- it probably doesn't need much more introduction than that. Having used it on our recent trip to France (April-May 2013), I learned the following about the book:
- The "Essentials" at the end of the book really are essential, so be sure to read those before you go!
- Whole regions of the country are missing, so make sure you have a good sense of your travel route/destination before you select this book.
- Many of the operating hours listed for specific sites were wrong... not just once or twice, but regularly.
- The entrance fees listed for certain sites were often incorrect (not a big deal, but it would be nice to know in advance to make sure you have enough Euros in your pocket).
- While the book offers a thorough history of some seemingly innocuous historical sites, it only glosses over some of the more significant (though this perspective may be subjective, based on one's preferred historical period).
- The map of Paris was indispensable, although poorly indexed (make sure you know the approximate location of the site you're looking for).
Other than that, the book was actually quite useful, and my husband and I gained a lot from reading through the descriptions of various tourist sites/attractions before arriving at each. This wasn't quite the book we were hoping for (I'm much more partial to the Rick Steves collection), but it got us through.
- The "Essentials" at the end of the book really are essential, so be sure to read those before you go!
- Whole regions of the country are missing, so make sure you have a good sense of your travel route/destination before you select this book.
- Many of the operating hours listed for specific sites were wrong... not just once or twice, but regularly.
- The entrance fees listed for certain sites were often incorrect (not a big deal, but it would be nice to know in advance to make sure you have enough Euros in your pocket).
- While the book offers a thorough history of some seemingly innocuous historical sites, it only glosses over some of the more significant (though this perspective may be subjective, based on one's preferred historical period).
- The map of Paris was indispensable, although poorly indexed (make sure you know the approximate location of the site you're looking for).
Other than that, the book was actually quite useful, and my husband and I gained a lot from reading through the descriptions of various tourist sites/attractions before arriving at each. This wasn't quite the book we were hoping for (I'm much more partial to the Rick Steves collection), but it got us through.
November 30, 2010
Another Fodor's travel book. And a good one! The focus here is France. The book is almost 900 pages long, so a detailed review would make little sense.
The book begins with background information. Then, region by region coverage, including places to eat, places to stay, attractions, the arts, nightlife, and so on. Regions covered include: Paris, Ile-de-France, the Loire Valley, Normandy, Brittany, Champagne Country, Alsace-Lorrane, Burgundy, Lyon and the Alps, Provence, and so on.
To illustrate. . . . Paris is covered nicely. A fine introduction to the charming Isle St-Louis, a genuine treasure. One learns of the Quartier Latin (on the left bank). Area by area, one gets a sense of Paris, from the old (Place des Vosges) to the new. Want to dine in a fancy restaurant? Learn which ones here. Same with hotels--from nice but not overly expensive to top of the line. All sorts of usweful guides (such as how to tip, how to use the metro, etc.).
Another good entry in the Fodor's Library.
The book begins with background information. Then, region by region coverage, including places to eat, places to stay, attractions, the arts, nightlife, and so on. Regions covered include: Paris, Ile-de-France, the Loire Valley, Normandy, Brittany, Champagne Country, Alsace-Lorrane, Burgundy, Lyon and the Alps, Provence, and so on.
To illustrate. . . . Paris is covered nicely. A fine introduction to the charming Isle St-Louis, a genuine treasure. One learns of the Quartier Latin (on the left bank). Area by area, one gets a sense of Paris, from the old (Place des Vosges) to the new. Want to dine in a fancy restaurant? Learn which ones here. Same with hotels--from nice but not overly expensive to top of the line. All sorts of usweful guides (such as how to tip, how to use the metro, etc.).
Another good entry in the Fodor's Library.
November 16, 2017
I got this guide specifically for information on the Champagne region of France. While they do give a good introduction to the region (unlike Frommer's, which pretends it doesn't exist), I was disappointed in the hotel suggestions and that they didn't include a map of the champagne routes. Not to mention including random gothic churches like Amiens that are NOWHERE NEAR CHAMPAGNE in this section makes no sense.
April 15, 2008
The day that someone creates a guidebook where the stuff that is needed to plan the trip PRIOR to leaving can be removed from the guidebook is the day someone will make a ton o' cash. We got this Fodor's guide as a gift, but I'm more of a Lonely Planet/Rick Steves type of gal. This had some useful info, but due to the size, it'll be left at home.
Want to Read
January 13, 2016Get inspired and plan your next trip with Fodor’s ebook travel guide to France.Intelligent Planning: Discover all of the essential, up-to-date travel insights you expect in a Fodor’s guide, including Fodor’s Choice dining and lodging, top experiences and attractions, and detailed planning advice...
January 27, 2009
One should always be prepared. I'm actually reading the 2009 version.
November 8, 2012
Great guide for the different regions on France. Familiar organization of places with things to-do, restaurants and hotels. A reference when visiting France.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews