Michelin the Red Guide France 2001
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 April, 2001)
list price: $26.00
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Reviews (4)

Red guides are not green!
Reviewer Mr Munger is confusing red and green guides. The red guide is a guide to hotels and restaurants in France, nothing more. As such, it is unparalleled.

get the regional guides for depth information
I have fond memories of the French Michelin Guide I had 20 years ago. But it was a regional Guide (Provance). What I loved about that book was that it seemed anything of cultural importance in a town (or village) was mentioned in the Guide. That is not the case with this overview version for all of France.

The other problem with this book is that it is organized alphabetically. If you want to plan a day trip from Paris you will need either another book or a lot of map reading to decide what to look up in this Guide.

The regional Michelin Guides are unique, and clearly worth the high ratings they receive. I can't see why anyone would buy this excerpted version.

Others offer opinions, the Michelin is fact!
The London reviewer is right. Michelin's guides have acquired such authority over the years that you might say that while others offer just opinions, the Michelin is fact. Those coming to Michelin for the first time will have to learn the symbols and codes: unlike most restaurant guides, written as a series of "restaurant reviews", Michelin has almost no descriptive text at all (the little there is was a novelty introduced only 100 years after the first edition) so its rating is all the more lapidary. No qualms here about being judgmental! As a result, you may want to carry other hotel and restaurant guides with you when visiting France, but you will always, always rely on the Michelin to tell you the truth about levels of comfort and the quality of cooking. And only the Michelin offers such comprehensive coverage. If there's somewhere decent to eat in the remotest corner of Brittany or the Correze, Michelin will know. Conversely, if a town has neither hotel nor restaurant in the guide, you just don't go there, it's a simple as that. By the way, when driving around France, use Michelin road maps. Any city, town or village with a place in the guide is underlined in red, so wherever you are, when you start to feel hungry, you know where to go!
One reservation as regards the London review: Michelin is not as reliable on restaurants in other countries, where you should always compare with a local guide; but you can still use it to double-check hotel standards before booking.
By the way, all the ratings are on Michelin's web site - but you'll still need the book of course when travelling around. ... Read more

Isbn: 2060002877
Sales Rank: 373315
Subjects:  1. Europe - France    2. Reference - General    3. Travel    4. France    5. Hotel & holiday accommodation guides    6. Restaurant & pub guides    7. French    8. Language   

The Voice of the Sparrow: The Very Best of Edith Piaf
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (30 July, 1991)
list price: $11.98 -- our price: $10.99
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Editorial Review

The voice of Edith Piaf carries with it perhaps more national identity than that of any other recorded artist in the world. Tiny, frail, and tragic in her life, Piaf brought French identity to the rest of the world in a way that was understandable to all. Known as "the Little Sparrow" in her country, her voice was strong, bold, and passionate, even as she grew more infirm. The archetypical torch singer, she had massive popular success with songs like "Milord," "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien," and "La Vie, L'Amour," included here with 18 other classics. While this is a great compilation of some of her best material, the complete lack of enclosed notes or biographical material may frustrate those not familiar with her fascinating career. However, the work of one of the most original songbirds of all time speaks loud and clear for itself. --Derek Rath ... Read more

Reviews (35)

An Incident In The Life
Marcel Cerdan, the French middleweight boxer and one of Piaf's many lovers, wrote in his autobiography about the first time hesaw her perform in a cellar cafe in Paris.This short,ordinary-appearing womanin her trademark long black dress and pale makeup was mesmerizing.

She used no microphone, her strong voice with that remarkable plaintive , quivering sound echoed off the walls of the dingy
cafe.
During one of her songs, Cerdan wrote, he began to look at the other members of her audience.Herealized ,at that moment, every male watching her had fallen in love with Edith Piaf.

Had I been there I would have loved her too.

Better late than never
I have just discovered Edith Piaf.I had bought a DVD called "Forgotten Broadway".One on of the tracks it has her signature song from her life story musical "Piaf."I have loved Broadway for years but i guess she was much before my time.

What a discovery!I've been reading everything i can get my hands on about her and her life.Her voice and songs are amazing and it's funny how many of her songs now that i've discovered her, i have heard many times before.

This CD is wonderful and has many of the songs that i've heard as a child and now becoming extremely found of.What a joy it must have been to see this amazing tragic women in person.All of her songs are so heart felt and give me goose-bumps.I have always found French music to be so romantic anyway and this CD really does it for me.Enjoy it with a nice glass of red wine.

Excellent!
Like so many others, I was first introduced to Edith Piaf in french class.I never quite understood what she sang of, but I felt it.Her distinct voice guarantees you will never forget or mistaken her for anyone else. ... Read more

Asin: B000002UYD
Subjects:  1. Cabaret    2. France    3. French Pop    4. Int'l & World Music    5. Nostalgia    6. Pop    7. Vocal    8. Vocal Pop   

A Year in Provence
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (04 June, 1991)
list price: $13.00 -- our price: $10.40
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Editorial Review

Who hasn't dreamed, on a mundane Monday or frowzy Friday, of chucking it all in and packing off to the south of France? Provençal cookbooks and guidebooks entice with provocatively fresh salads and azure skies, but is it really all Côtes-du-Rhône and fleur-de-lis?Author Peter Mayle answers that question with wit, warmth, and wicked candor in A Year in Provence, the chronicle of his own foray into Provençal domesticity.

Beginning, appropriately enough, on New Year's Day with a divine luncheon in a quaint restaurant, Mayle sets the scene and pits his British sensibilities against it. "We had talked about it during the long gray winters and the damp green summers," he writes, "looked with an addict's longing at photographs of village markets and vineyards, dreamed of being woken up by the sun slanting through the bedroom window." He describes in loving detail the charming, 200-year-old farmhouse at the base of the Lubéron Mountains, its thick stone walls and well-tended vines, its wine cave and wells, its shade trees and swimming pool--its lack of central heating. Indeed, not 10 pages into the book, reality comes crashing into conflict with the idyll when the Mistral, that frigid wind that ravages the Rhône valley in winter, cracks the pipes, rips tiles from the roof, and tears a window from its hinges. And that's just January.

In prose that skips along lightly, Mayle records the highlights of each month, from the aberration of snow in February and the algae-filled swimming pool of March through the tourist invasions and unpredictable renovations of the summer months to a quiet Christmas alone. Throughout the book, he paints colorful portraits of his neighbors, the Provençaux grocers and butchers and farmers who amuse, confuse, and befuddle him at every turn. A Year in Provence is part memoir, part homeowner's manual, part travelogue, and all charming fun. --L.A. Smith ... Read more

Reviews (106)

delightful and light reading...
for a brief introduction into provence and provencal life, i'd suggest you start with peter mayle's book.it's an engaging, witty travelogue that keeps readers hooked from page one (if you like that dry british sense of humor, i suppose, but who doesn't?).we progress with the author and his wife through the seasons in provence and witness their troubles with getting their house fixed in a timely manner, eating sumptuous french meals, the bustling markets, the friendly and idiosyncratic characters who they interact with, and the ups and downs with weather (the mistral is something i'd care not to experience).although perhaps mayle and his wife are a bit stodgy english caricatures, you can't help but love their british affectations which over the course of the novel fall more in line with the unhurried french way of life.

Toujours Provence is better
It was interesting reading the first book after having read Toujours Provence. Of the two I prefer Toujours for it's vingette style of wrapping the author's autobiographical elements around the eccentric lives of those he meets. In A Year in Provence, it's exactly that, twelve chapters that start in January and go linearly through to December. Both are valid story telling methods but I think that the thematic method used in the sequel made for a more entertaining book.

I wonder what he would write about Indiana?
I started the Provence trilogy by reading the last one first-no matter,I will probably read them again because they are so good and redolent [maybe too strong a word] of humanity.I read books slowly and the predominant thought that I always dealt with at the time, regardless of how much of it had passed since last I picked up the book, was the extraordinary humanness of his writing.The book oozes with deep, deep love for the people, their culture and the land that surrounds them-even the animals that accompany their passage through this life in the Luberon.The second thought that always occupied my mind as I read Peter Mayle is one of total envy-how can a person be so observant and at the sme time express those observations so lovingly and so clearly.

To someone who has not read the book, realize that it is a series of anecdotes about the people that become part of his life in Provence.These people, perhaps naturally or perhaps through Mayle's superb writing, take on a larger than ordinary life.He paints them with the utmost care and love but they emerge from his canvas as more interesting, more substantive and more full of life than most of us can manage-hence the title of this comment.

A marvellous, readable book. ... Read more

Isbn: 0679731148
Subjects:  1. Essays & Travelogues    2. Europe - France    3. France    4. Homes and haunts    5. Mayle, Peter    6. Provence    7. Provence (France)    8. Social life and customs    9. Travel    10. Travel - General    11. Travel / Europe / France    12. Reading Group Guide   

Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary: French-English English-French
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 June, 2001)
list price: $49.95 -- our price: $32.97
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Reviews (10)

Learn to 'speak' french
I like to learn languages but my specialization is engineering; other reviewers can offer more in-depth reviews on the linguistic front. But i must say that i am totally impressed with the bundled 'speakFrench' software that is basically a French text-to-speech program. The biggest difficulty that English speakers have is with the French pronunciation and this pretty much solves it. Combine is cautiously with a good translation software and you can learn French in a considerably smaller time. This is well worth the money. No wonder i would like to try a similar product with Italian and Spanish in the future.

Comprehensive
More definitions than you will ever need. Many examples so that you can understand how each word is used. The examples also bring out subtleties of meaning that should help you avoid making a fool of yourself. Many insets and extras. So thorough that you won't have to spend money on an army of books for conjugations, idioms etc. Don't get me wrong, this is not a complete stand-alone guide to the French language (who could lift it), but it is a damned good start.

Five stars means that I don't see how this could be any better.

Outstanding reference work
This is everything a bilingual dictionary should be.Simply the best French/English dictionary out there.I'm really impressed. ... Read more

Isbn: 0198603630
Sales Rank: 30768
Subjects:  1. Dictionaries    2. Dictionaries - General    3. English    4. English language    5. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    6. French    7. French language    8. Language    9. Polyglot Dictionaries    10. Reference    11. Bilingual dictionaries   

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume One
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (16 October, 2001)
list price: $40.00 -- our price: $25.20
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Reviews (31)

Magnificent, Incomparable
A book of unique importance in the culinary (& cultural) history of the United States.Before Child, this country was mired in a cuisine that had never really emerged from the depradations of wartime rationing, was being manhandled into the unsavory tinned world of industrialized food (soup in a can, noodles in a box, adulterated, nothing fresh), & had never had much in the way of a national cuisine.Onto this bare plate Child (& her co-authors) placed a sumptuous feast of perfect French food, & with it, an awareness of a better way of eating, a better way of living.

A watershed, a monument.But how does it stand up as a cookbook?In a word, it remains one of the best cookbooks ever written.The recipes are elegant & their products are nearly without exception delicious.The writing is graceful, witty, & informative.The index & glossary are excellent.

This book can teach you to cook.If you can cook, this book can teach you to cook better.If you can't cook, but love to eat, give it to someone who will cook for you, & you will eat better.

Try the Potage Parmentier.The soul of simplicity & gustatory delight.

The best cook book ever written!
When I went to culinary school, the first several months were spent mastering basic cooking techniques. As an avid Julia Child fan, I had already been introduced to all of them via her book. All the techniques of are in this volume, and in the order they should be mastered. As a professional chef, almost every other American born chef I know can trace their interest in cooking to this book.

Most Important Cookbook of the Last 50 Years. Period.
Rarely are we able to say with certainty that a book is at the top of its subject in regard and quality. This book, `Mastering the Art of French Cooking' by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck is certainly in that most unique position among cookbooks written in English and published in the United States.

With Julia Child's celebrity arising from her long series of TV cooking shows on PBS, it may be easy to forget how Ms. Child rose to a position with the authority that gave her the cachet to do these shows in the first place. This book is the foundation of that cachet and the basis of Ms. Child's influence with an entire generation of amateur and professional chefs.

It may also be easy to forget that this book has three authors and not just one. The three began as instructors in a school of French cooking, `Les Ecole des Trois Gourmandes' operating in Paris in the 1950's. And, it was from their experience with this school that led them to write this book. To be fair, Julia Child originated a majority of the culinary content and contributed almost all of the grunt work with her editors and publisher to get the book published.

The influence of this book cannot be underestimated. It has been written that the style of recipe writing even influenced James Beard, the leading American culinary authority at the time, to change his style of writing in a major cookbook on which he was working when `...French Cooking' was published. Many major American celebrity experts in culinary matters have cited Child and this book as a major influence. Not the least of these is Martha Stewart and Ina Garten. It is interesting that these first to come to mind are not professional chefs, but caterers and teachers of the household cook. Child was not necessarily teaching `haute cuisine', she was teaching what has been named `la cuisine Bourgeoise' or the cooking of the housewife and, to some extent, the cooking of the bistro and brasserie, not the one or two or three star restaurant.

The table of contents follows a very familiar and very comfortable outline, with major chapters covering Soups, Sauces, Eggs, Entrees and Luncheon Dishes, Fish, Poultry, Meat, Vegetables, Cold Buffet, and Deserts and Cakes. The table of contents does not itemize every recipe, but it does break topics down so that one can come very close to a type of preparation you wish from the table of contents. One of the very attractive schemas used to organize recipes in this book is to take a general topic such as Roast Chicken and give not one, but many different variations on this basic method. Under Roast Chicken, for example, you see Spit-roasted Chicken, Roast Chicken Basted with Cream, Roast Chicken Steeped with Port Wine, Roast Squab Chickens with Chicken Liver Canapes, Casserole-roasted Chicken with Tarragon and Casserole-roasted Chicken with Bacon. Thus, the book is not only a tutorial of techniques, it is also a work of taxonomy, giving one a picture of the whole range of variations possible to a basic technique.

The book goes far beyond being a simple collection of recipes in many other ways without straying from the culinary material. Unlike books combining regional recipes with anecdotal memoirs, this book is all business. Heading the recipes is a wealth of general knowledge on cooking variables such as weights versus cooking time and conditions. Headnotes also include general techniques on, for example, how to truss a chicken (with drawings) and many deep observations on professional technique. The notes on roasting chicken instructing one to attend to all the senses in watching and listening to the cooking meat in order to obtain the very best results. This may have easily come from the pen of Wolfgang Puck or Mario Batali.

The individual recipe writing is detailed in the extreme, and recipes typically run to two to three times as long as you may see in `The Joy of Cooking' or `James Beard's American Cookery'. The recipes are also very `modular'. A single recipe may actually require the cooking of two or three component preparations. This is not an invention of Julia Child. I believe she has captured here an essential characteristic of French culinary tradition. The most common of these advance preparations is a stock. More complicated examples are to make a potato salad, a dish in itself, as a component to a Salade Nicoise. What Child may have originated, at least to the world of American cookbook writing, is the notion of a Master Recipe, where many different dishes are presented as variations on a basic preparation. This notion has been used and misused for decades.

This book has become so important in its field that it seems almost irreverent to question the quality of the recipes. I can only say that I have prepared several dishes from these pages, and have always produced a tasty dish and learned something new with each experience. While there are other excellent introductions to French Cooking such as Madeline Kamman's `The New Making of a Chef', one simply cannot go wrong by using this book as ones entree into cooking in general and French cooking in particular.

The more I read other cooking authorities' writing, the more I respect the work of Julia Child and company. Observations on technique that went right over my head two years ago are now revealed as signs of a deep insight into cooking technique.

As large as the book is, the material presented to Knopf in 1961 was actually much larger and the second volume of the book is largely material created for the original writing. To get a reasonably complete picture of French Cookery, do get both volumes at the same time.

A true classic with both simple and advanced techniques. A superb introduction for someone who is just beginning an interest in food. ... Read more

Isbn: 0375413405
Sales Rank: 7865
Subjects:  1. Cookery, French    2. Cooking    3. Cooking / Wine    4. French Cookery    5. French cooking    6. Regional & Ethnic - French    7. Cooking / French   

Jean de Florette
by Yves Montand Gérard Depardieu
Director: Claude Berri
Average Customer Review:
VHS Tape (08 September, 1998)
list price: $19.95
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Editorial Review

A truly impressive French film destined to become a modern masterpiece, Jean de Florette is an evocative adaptation of the highly regarded French novel. Two 1920s farmers engage in a bitter rivalry as one tries to tend to a plot of land and the other deviously undermines his efforts in order to conceal a valuable spring. The peasant farmer (Gérard Depardieu) who comes to the countryside to tend the land he has inherited is a naive and trusting soul seeking only to provide for his wife and daughter, while his neighbor (Yves Montand) is intent on doing whatever he can to discourage and demoralize the farmer so that he can take the land for himself. This simple tale unfolds in a wrenching fashion to a tragic conclusion, bringing forth questions about human nature and the prevalence and price of greed. Along with its follow-up, Manon of the Spring, this film will leave an indelible impression on anyone who sees it. --Robert Lane ... Read more

Features

• Color
• Dolby
• Digital Video Transfer
• NTSC

Reviews (69)

the best French movie
In my opinion, the best French movie ever made. Together with the sequel (Manon des sources) it displays a thrilling drama. It isn't till the end of the second movie, you begin to understand how dramatic the events really are.

You really do need to see both...
Released within a year of each other, "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des Sources" (aka "Manon of the Spring") are often viewed and reviewed separately, but the truth is that they're integral parts of a single story which needs to be seen in sequence for its full impact to be revealed.

Set in the 1920's, both explore the stark realities of the tough existence and myopic intrigue that was an integral part of life in the Luberon's stunningly pretty countryside & villages before the march of time transformed them into "must see" tourist destinations. Beautifully filmed and meticulously crafted, their brilliantly effective evocation of the realities of this now lost and very different world elevates each into the category of truly outstanding cinema - visual feasts that re-create what life was really like, good and bad, in what we now see as an "idyllic" time.

And, as entertainment? Well, "Jean de Florette" wins in terms of having the stronger and most obvious "plot", enhanced by Gerard Depardieu's tremendous performance as a man seeking to realise his vision in the face of insurmountable odds. But that is, as "Manon des Sources" reveals, only half the story, for beneath the tragedy of "Jean de Florette" is a much more tragic sequence of events. Slower, more reflective and, in the end, deeply moving, "Manon des Sources" is not simply a "follow-up" but the key to understanding the full story on offer.

Individually each "works" and, as such, stands in its own right as an excellent film, but it is only when seen together that their true power is revealed. You really do need to see both...

Guy de Maupassant would have loved this
The acting--pick any of the three stars, Yves Montand, Gerard Depardieu, Daniel Auteuil--is superb, and the supporting cast excellent.But what makes this and its sequel, Manon des Sources (1986), jewels of the French cinema is the story and the characterizations, which go hand in hand.

There is genius in how naturally and almost inevitably the story unfolds.Although I haven't read the novel by Marcel Pagnol, I'm sure he's the genius.And this is not to slight Claude Berri's direction which is invisible and at the same time in total control, so that the film is simply a work of art.The characters are true to themselves, and what they do seems natural because of who they are.Jean Florette (Depardieu) fails because he puts too much faith in science, knowledge and the good will and fairness of his fellow man.(He should have listened to his suspicious wife!)Ugolin (Auteuil), whose selfishness and little guy envy lead him to do the harm that he does, is not a despicable character.We do not hate him the way Manon understandably does.He is a man of weakness who gave into greed.Papet (Montand), believes in the lineage of man, in property, money-all the standard burgher values.He is led to do his dirty deeds because of who he is.

What is so, so superior in "Florette" compared to most movies is the lack of propaganda, the lack of adherence to some political or philosophic preconception.What shines forth is people living their lives and falling into some very human traps.I am reminded of Balzac and Guy De Maupassant in the depiction of the petit bourgeois life of the French peasantry and attendant psychology. ... Read more

Asin: 0792899229
Subjects:  1. Foreign Film - French   

Chef's Choice 695 Electric French Press, Black
Average Customer Review:
Kitchen
list price: $69.99 -- our price: $69.88
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Editorial Review

This device boils a quart of water in just four minutes--faster than a stovetop kettle or microwave oven. Add ground coffee or tea leaves and insert the screen assembly, and it becomes a French press for making full-flavored coffee or tea. This eliminates a step--pouring boiling water and losing heat while doing so--from the usual method of preparing French press coffee or tea. The glass carafe lifts free of the power base to become a cordless server for the dining table. Designed with care, the device is durable (stainless-steel press assembly, rugged plastic) and thoughtfully engineered (steam-activated automatic shutoff when water boils, knuckle guard on carafe, cord wrap beneath base). It stands 11 inches high and carries a one-year warranty against defects. --Fred Brack ... Read more

Features

• Shuts off automatically when water boils
• Boils 1-quart water in four minutes--faster than stove or microwave
• Produces full flavored coffee or tea
• Cordless carafe perfect for dining table
• Use also to boil water for instant foods, beverages

Reviews (17)

Coffee fanatic's joy
Having just inadvertantly dropped my coffee maker, I'm back to buy another!This unit has provided the greatest advance in the quality of my daily coffee--ever.And I used to import my own green beans and roast them each morning!I have had NO problems with leaking or malfunctioning.It seems obvious that, should a leak develop, a simple application of a high-temperature silicone gasket would be an easy fix.

I finally found a way to love this product!
I have purchased (and agrily returned) four of these products.The reason I've been angry is the same as the rest of the reviewers....great product which makes great coffee but leaks!I finally removed the glass container from the unit, cleaned off the cheap silicone that they use to seal it to the heating element, and re-sealed it with a high-temp gasket maker that I purchased from a auto parts store.NO MORE LEAKING!!!If Chef's Choice would simply use a better silicone sealer, this product would fly off the shelves.I've been using my new and improved press for 6 months now with no problems.

thanks for the reviews
I got excited about this product as I need a good coffee maker at my desk at work.I found the makers web site and read all about the product after reading an ad in the "New Yorker'.Thank goodness for the review section.I am going to continuemy search as the last thing that I need on my work space is a leaking coffee pot.
Thanks, Allen ... Read more

Asin: B00005CDPY
Subjects:  1. French Presses    2. Coffee Presses   

Chez Toots
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (28 April, 1998)
list price: $16.98 -- our price: $16.98
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Reviews (5)

NICE!
I have just purchased this CD while making my usual friday
afternoon trips to the Virgin Mega Store and what a great holiday
gift I have gotten for myself. Harmonica is such a simple yet
magical instrument especially with Toots. All of the tracks from
this album is well-known, well-presented, and with that richness
what else can one ask for? I would recommend this CD to anyone
who enjoys decent music, get the CD, share the music along with
its warmness with your whole family, and winter fades in just a
matter of seconds.

Aural Revelation
It is always a pleasure to discover a great artist I've not heard before.Toots' playing is a revelation.I'd never imagined the harmonica as such an expressive jazz instrument. (Growing up in the 60s and 70's I'd limited it in my mind to the blues.) He combines great technique, graceful lines, and a great ear for melody and improvisation.I'm also impressed with the other artists he attracts to play with him.This album is a joy from start to finish.

Sheer beauty
As a fairly serious jazz music fan who loves rich harmonies, true melodies and vocalists who transcend the everyday, I was surprised and somewhat embarrassed to discover Toots Thielemans so late!

In many other places, I'm sure, you can find descriptions of the virtuosity of this wonderful musician more lucid than I could provide.Yet, I have found myself so entranced by his music, as represented in this CD (among others), that I felt compelled to write a review here.

At least two of the pieces on this CD would have to rank in the top 100 of my all-time favorites.The music is very tastefully arranged and selected--but the guy's harmonica playing is about as close to sublime as one could possibly get with such an instrument.

I couldn't recommend this more highly to anyone with a love of France, and a love of beautiful music and superb musicianship that is never pretentious, ever fascinating. ... Read more

Asin: B000005YTT
Sales Rank: 67835
Subjects:  1. Bop    2. Brazilian Jazz    3. Contemporary Jazz    4. Jazz    5. Latin Jazz    6. Mainstream Jazz    7. Pop    8. Swing   

France: Burgundy, Provence & the Loire
Director: Graham Loveridge
Average Customer Review:
VHS Tape (10 November, 1997)
list price: $19.99
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Editorial Review

Ooh la la, this installment in Rick Steves's Travel the World series has everything you'd expect from a trip to France: cruises on picturesque canals, tastings in dark, dank wine cellars, hill towns dotted with chateaux. Steves is the master of low-budget travel (as he espouses in his series of Europe Through the Back Door travel books), and his television series is a terrific way to either prepare for a trip abroad or simply vicariously experience the pleasures of another culture.

In this episode, France: Burgundy, Provence, & the Loire, Steves is shown Burgundy by an American friend who makes his home in the region. He then makes his own way to Provence and the Loire where he explores the splendors including castles and Roman ruins. As usual, practical tips are dispersed between scenic tours (for instance, the difference between gites and chambres d'hôte), making the series not only fun to watch but informative. And Steves has a few surprises in store (wait till you see a French campground). But, of course, the bulk of the show is France itself: from a 15th-century charity hospital to the ultra-rapid, extremely modern TGV trains. Bon voyage! --Jenny Brown ... Read more

Features

• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (1)

Rick Steves is the best!
Rick Steves' PBS series is one of my "can't miss" TV shows every week, so this video, which combines a couple of his shows on France, is "magnifique".Steves gives lots of practical advice about travel in France, takes us to Burgundy wine country, a rural gite, wonderfulrestaurants (just looking at the food made my mouth water!), and theChateaux of the Loire valley.I'm going to France this fall, so being ableto get a preview of some of the places I'll see was wonderful.

No one isas good at doing Europe as Rick Steves.He has a down to earth style andreally mixes it up with the locals, staying at small hotels, eating in mom& pop restaurants.He has a way of making you feel that you've seenthe real France (or Italy, or Germany, etc.), not just the touristdestinations.

If you love France you'll love it even more after viewingthis video.(Also check out the one on Paris, Normandy and Brittany.Thisone is my favorie, however...I've watched it many times in anticipation ofmy trip!)

Happy Travels! ... Read more

Asin: 1568551797
Subjects:  1. Travel