Rating: 
Summary: Boring with blisters
Review: This book is boring and irritating. Repetitious, monotonous, and despondent descriptions of a self-regimented walk (mandatory 7 minute breaks every one and a half hours), on mostly paved roads, through anything-but-romantic France, are interrupted by the author's rambling histories of his investment banker past. At first appearing to be self-effacing, or proof of lifestyle change, these long personal asides seem only to justify the constant snubbing of food, wine, lodging, map companies, dogs, customs, and lifestyles. I found this as irritating as hearing about blisters on every page.This book is supposed to be about self-discovery and rekindling the author's marriage. Yet their is little, if any, reflection or discovery in the plodding day to day descriptions of the walk. There is no spiritual dimension, only passing judgments on materialistic things. And the reader learns nothing about the author's wife or marriage relationship except that she accepts his patronizing behavior. We only read how the author heroicly carries both his and her pack on the harder days. This book is definitely not about France or wallking. The weak descriptions (and horrific metapahors) of the surroundings and the people encountered could be of Turkey or Tennessee. This book is as far from Peter Mayle's books or a walking guide as one can get.
Rating: 
Summary: More about marraige than walking
Review: This book is not so much about walking across France as it is about the relationship between a middle-aged husband and wife. I agree with the previous reviewer that Morland chose the wrong part of France to walk and the wrong time of year to walk it. Worse still, he followed roads instead of trails. I would never do what he did! It is an easy read, though, and it is inspiring to read about two people with no physical training who simply packed up one day and walked 15-20 miles every day for a month. My wife is now taking seriously my suggestion that we do the same
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing from the Get-Go...
Review: This book may well have been titled "Whining & Dining Our Way from One Bad Hotel to the Next Across France". The walking pair, British "Wall Street" Miles and wife Guislane, set out on a month long stroll from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. What could have been a picturesque, inspiring and informative triumph quickly becomes a hip-aching, blister-breaking, "where's my Evian", husband-wife downer. Throughout the walk, Guislane is fervently scribbling notes in her journal - if only she had offered some interesting commentary on what was going on around them instead of between them! No town seemed to impress them; no river, castle, lodging, meal, or outfit seemed to gain their favor. They drank a lot, which I can fully appreciate considering the disdain they seemed to find in each agonizing (for the reader as well) kilometer. You learn very little about France, but much about the cranky Morlands.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing from the Get-Go...
Review: This book may well have been titled "Whining & Dining Our Way from One Bad Hotel to the Next Across France". The walking pair, British "Wall Street" Miles and wife Guislane, set out on a month long stroll from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. What could have been a picturesque, inspiring and informative triumph quickly becomes a hip-aching, blister-breaking, "where's my Evian", husband-wife downer. Throughout the walk, Guislane is fervently scribbling notes in her journal - if only she had offered some interesting commentary on what was going on around them instead of between them! No town seemed to impress them; no river, castle, lodging, meal, or outfit seemed to gain their favor. They drank a lot, which I can fully appreciate considering the disdain they seemed to find in each agonizing (for the reader as well) kilometer. You learn very little about France, but much about the cranky Morlands.
Rating:
Summary: Fun getaway from reality
Review: This book was a really quick read, and it was fun to pretend that I did what they did and just dropped everything I dela with every day to enjoy life at it's simplest. The book doesn't really have a climax, but it does have many engaging little challenges all along the way. It will make you reflect upon your own life a bit and make you ask yourself if you are really doing what you want to be doing.
Rating: 
Summary: British couple hikes from Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
Review: This charming book tells the true story of a hike across France. Miles Morland and his French wife make this trip both to commemorate his retirement at age 45 and to try to mend their strained marriage. The author quits his high-pressure financial market job in London and takes a month long walk across France with his wife. They allow a month for the five hundred kilometer trip and set a grueling 20 to 30 kilometer per day pace for themselves. The author is strangely frugal for someone of his background. They stay in second-rate hotels in unfashionable parts of towns. They take meals in out of the way restaurants and are sullenly served by the haughty locals. His wife buys a pair of hiking boots to replace the uncomfortable blister-causing pair she brought from home, which they mail back to England. They take with them only the things that will fit into rucksacks they carry on their backs. This trip was a unique quest, more an ordeal than an adventure. Dogs, heavy traffic, and blistered sore feet torment them. I feel that they enjoyed themselves less than one has a right to expect on a month long vacation. An engaging read about a trip that I wouldn't want to try to duplicate myself.
Rating: 
Summary: I thought I would love to do a walk like this myself, but...
Review: This mini-saga of a privileged investment banker who gave it up for the simpler life of a writer left me a little unfulfilled and tired. The prose was engaging enough, but for one who was expecting a little more encouragement about undertaking a similar adventure, it took some air out of my sails. It was not the best time of year nor the best part of France to take such a walk. There were some interesting moments, and reflections about his mid-life crisis and the pursuit of an ideology, but it rang a little hollow and was typically narcissistic in tone, as many personal journals tend to be. To its credit it did not ring of the arrogant yankee condescension found in, say, Paul Theroux, but I would have preferred more advocacy in the message to the reader. Travel writing of this sort should have practical elements (it does), a bit of history (it does) and cultural observations (ditto). But above all it should possess vibrancy and life and guide the imagination to aspire to take a 4 week walk thru France. Unfortunately, this was a little like having to watch a stranger's home movie
Rating:
Summary: The Travels of an Inspired Type A
Review: To choose a long walk (about 350 miles) is inspirational. What's troubling is a narrator who lacks the self-awareness to see the silliness in making up rules like "seven minute breaks." Miles, this proverbial type-A personality, thinks he's mellowing, loosening up, leaving Wall Street thinking behind. But he's a complete control freak who refuses to even let his wife see his bible of maps. One hopes that he'll grow and even poke fun at his rule making. But he never does. Still, this is not a bad book. It's just waylaid by a bourgeoisie label-conscious demand for Evian. Part of it might be the sophistication of seeing Europe as an easy adult playland. Aspects of the marriage are revealed that are really quite daring, much like the choice of undertaking the adventure. As far as the decription of food and wine, it wasn't particularly knowledgeable nor descriptive. Maybe it's just too dated.
Rating:
Summary: The Travels of an Inspired Type A
Review: To choose a long walk (about 350 miles) is inspirational. What's troubling is a narrator who lacks the self-awareness to see the silliness in making up rules like "seven minute breaks." Miles, this proverbial type-A personality, thinks he's mellowing, loosening up, leaving Wall Street thinking behind. But he's a complete control freak who refuses to even let his wife see his bible of maps. One hopes that he'll grow and even poke fun at his rule making. But he never does. Still, this is not a bad book. It's just waylaid by a bourgeoisie label-conscious demand for Evian. Part of it might be the sophistication of seeing Europe as an easy adult playland. Aspects of the marriage are revealed that are really quite daring, much like the choice of undertaking the adventure. As far as the decription of food and wine, it wasn't particularly knowledgeable nor descriptive. Maybe it's just too dated.
Rating:
Summary: The Travels of an Inspired Type A
Review: To choose a long walk (about 350 miles) is inspirational. What's troubling is a narrator who lacks the self-awareness to see the silliness in making up rules like "seven minute breaks." Miles, this proverbial type-A personality, thinks he's mellowing, loosening up, leaving Wall Street thinking behind. But he's a complete control freak who refuses to even let his wife see his bible of maps. One hopes that he'll grow and even poke fun at his rule making. But he never does. Still, this is not a bad book. It's just waylaid by a bourgeoisie label-conscious demand for Evian. Part of it might be the sophistication of seeing Europe as an easy adult playland. Aspects of the marriage are revealed that are really quite daring, much like the choice of undertaking the adventure. As far as the decription of food and wine, it wasn't particularly knowledgeable nor descriptive. Maybe it's just too dated.
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