Fodor's France 2003 : The Guide for All Budgets, Where to Stay, Eat, and Explore On and Off the BeatenPath

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Summary: Fodor's France 2003
Review: I had no idea Fodor's guide books were so crammed with excitement! I naturally expected a ton of information, but Fodor's France comes on like a Rolls-Royce: full of elan and poetry, plus precision. Some site descriptions are like tone-poems, restaurant reviews are mouth watering, hotels are frankly yet colorfully rendered. When it comes to the big places---Chartres, Monet's Giverny, Chambord, etc.---the detailed texts really put you there, but Fodor's also lets you in on loads of undiscovered villages and low-profile getaways. There are no photos in the book, but I found the texts to be photogenic enough, starting with the juicy chapter intros. (In contrast, Frommer's France, though adequate, seems topheavy on things like geography and population data.) Here's the opening line for the Brittany chapter in Fodor's France: "You feel it even before the sharp salt air hits your face from the west---a subliminal rhythm suspended in the mist, a subsonic drone somewhere between a foghorn and a heartbeat, seemingly made up of bagpipes, drums, and the thin, haunting filigree of a tin-whistle tune." I nearly picked up the phone and made a hotel reservation on the spot, but that will have to wait until I've checked the calendar and the spare change.