France for Dummies

The French have mastered the art of living well. With this guide, you’ll master the art of vacationing well—seeing what you want to see, doing what you want to do, and enjoying every mile and every minute. In France, there are so many sights to see and so much fabulous food and wine to savor that you may have to pick and choose. This friendly guide helps you plan ahead with info on:

• Four great itineraries for exploring France and five daytrips from Paris
• Provence, with the famous towns of Avignon, Arles, and Aix-en-Provence, and the quaint village of St-Rémy
• The fabled French Riviera, including Cannes, Nice, and Monaco
• The D-day beaches at Normandy
• Biking in the countryside, climbing to the heights of Mont-St-Michel, visiting prestigious vineyards, and more
• Hotels, ranging from one built as a convent in the early 18^th century to an Italianate rose-pink villa from 1881 to a palatial hideaway in chic St. Tropez
• Museums, ranging from Musée de Louvre and Musée d’Orsay in Paris to Musée Picasso in Antibes and Foundation Maeght in St-Paul-de-Vence, a modern art Mecca
• Incredible castles, palaces, churches, and cathedrals, including Cathédrale de Notre-Dame in Paris, one of Western civilization’s greatest edifices
• Shopping for the latest fashions in the chic boutiques of Paris, for hand-painted pottery in Quimper, for home decorating items and antiques in St-Rémy-de-Provence, for fruits, vegetables, and area specialties at the famous fruit and vegetable market in Aix-en-Provence, and more

Like every For Dummies travel guide, France For Dummies, 4^th Edition, includes:

• Down-to-earth trip-planning advice
• What you shouldn’t miss — and what you can skip
• The best hotels and restaurants for every budget
• Handy Post-it® Flags to mark your favorite pages

Whether your style is grabbing a bite at a sidewalk café or savoring five-star haute cuisine…taking in the major attractions or exploring the French countryside, with this guide, you’ll have a bon voyage!

Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince: As a team of veteran travel writers, Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince have produced numerous titles for Wiley Publishing, including best-selling guides to Italy, France, the Caribbean, England, Germany, and Spain. Porter is also a Hollywood columnist and biographer, and his radio broadcasts devoted to popular culture are heard in all 50 states. His most recent biography is Brando Unzipped, which explores the private life of Marlon Brando. Formerly with the Paris bureau of the New York Times, Prince is today the president of Blood Moon Productions and other media-related firms.

Cheryl A. Pientka (coauthor with Joseph Alexiou on all Paris chapters): Cheryl Pientka is the author of Paris For Dummies and coauthor of Frommer’s Paris on $80 a Day. She is a graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism and lives in New York City. Joseph Alexiou recently graduated from Tufts University with a degree in History. A hopeless francophile, he hopes to return someday to Paris (or anywhere in Provence) in some literary capacity. For now he resides very happily in Brooklyn, New York.