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Rating: 
Summary: some like it plain
Review: Having just returned form a brief sojourn outside of Avignon(one of numerous visits over the years to the South of France) I found the Green Guide as indispensable as ever.These oddly shaped, distinctive volumes dispel whatever remains of Peter Mayle's cute and condescending presentation of the region. Here instead is an ancient and noble land of sunlight and wind, which has created strangely shaped stones and mountains surrounding ancient olive groves,endless vineyards, wide rivers, and more Roman remains than can be found in Rome. The magical Middle Ages are here, too, as well as the quintessential visions of Cezanne, the native son, and Van Gogh, the wandering Dutchman. As your eyes do the looking, this highly useful green book will filll you in with all the information you will need on plants, stones (manbuilt and otherwise) weather,rivers, geology, and above all history. What you see around you is explicated with an appropriate Gallic resserve, accuracy and precision, so that you can meditate on the land without any editorial interference. The format of the Green Guides is unique, reflecting their self-confidence that, like Popeye, and all unique creations, they are what they are. And the small maps included in the descriptions of many of the most important sites are, as befitting a maker of tires and maps, perfect. If you love France, you will love this book and all the others defining that land for travelers from near and far.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful overview
Review: The green guide for Provence provides a very useful overview, along with pertinent information such as opening/closing times (the Pont du Gard at opening, approx 7:30 am, is not to be missed--marvel in the silence). Used it, along with Rick Steves's France guide in 01, and will use both again in 03.
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