Michelin Green Guide: Provence (Michelin Green Guides)
Anyone traveling to Provence should purchase ths guide with one caveat. The guide has its own interpretation of where the Provence is. Most Provence guides include the Cote d'Azur and the Gorge de Verdon. This guide does not, The tours shown on the back cover are not well described in the text. One is better advised to use the tour explanations that correspond to the tours indictated in the front cover map.

Michelin Green Guide: Provence (Michelin Green Guides)
Anyone traveling to Provence should purchase ths guide with one caveat. The guide has its own interpretation of where the Provence is. Most Provence guides include the Cote d'Azur and the Gorge de Verdon. This guide does not, The tours shown on the back cover are not well described in the text. One is better advised to use the tour explanations that correspond to the tours indictated in the front cover map.

Unfortunately it seems 2002 print is the latest available at present, which means some admission times and charges are no more correct. Nevertheless, it is a guidebook with the standard Green Guide outlay with lots of town plans, suggested tours (both in towns and across region) and the easy-to-find alphabetical list of sights. What I didn't like is the index where sights (castles, villages) described within proposed tours are often missing and there is no simple way to find them in the guidebook. This is a flaw that I met in several other Michelin Green Guides I used in the past. On the good side, information is mostly adequately detailed and with a car driver in mind (positions of car parks on the maps, road numbers etc).

Unfortunately it seems 2002 print is the latest available at present, which means some admission times and charges are no more correct. Nevertheless, it is a guidebook with the standard Green Guide outlay with lots of town plans, suggested tours (both in towns and across region) and the easy-to-find alphabetical list of sights. What I didn't like is the index where sights (castles, villages) described within proposed tours are often missing and there is no simple way to find them in the guidebook. This is a flaw that I met in several other Michelin Green Guides I used in the past. On the good side, information is mostly adequately detailed and with a car driver in mind (positions of car parks on the maps, road numbers etc).

Unfortunately it seems 2002 print is the latest available at present, which means some admission times and charges are no more correct. Nevertheless, it is a guidebook with the standard Green Guide outlay with lots of town plans, suggested tours (both in towns and across region) and the easy-to-find alphabetical list of sights. What I didn't like is the index where sights (castles, villages) described within proposed tours are often missing and there is no simple way to find them in the guidebook. This is a flaw that I met in several other Michelin Green Guides I used in the past. On the good side, information is mostly adequately detailed and with a car driver in mind (positions of car parks on the maps, road numbers etc).

I have lived in France for over two years, and have traveled to over 50 places all over the country.

I have chosen the Provence Green Guide to review because it's my favorite region; though all of the guides are similar. I might also mention that I have not actually seen the English version of the Green Guide - I only use the French ones.

That being said, I have tried and looked at MANY guides of France. The Green Guide (or Guide Vert) is the best for FRANCE. For other countries this is not the case.

The maps are useful; the rating system is very, very useful (and pretty close in my opinion); and the sites they recommend are very good. There is also a recommended walking path for each city map - a sort of top place to walk around if you are rushed, during a train layover for example. The many photos of sites, buildings, and cities is nice; they are often a critical deciding factor in my travel choices. Though more often than not the photos dont do justice to the quality of the fantastic places in France.

There are a few things of course i don't like (in terms of selections of sites et al) but nothing is perfect.

Since the Green Guide is from a French company (Michelin) obviously they can get a lot of good information and insight into the guides. Best of all, they have a regional focus. Since I live in France, my need for a national book is minimal; I only go to more or less one region at a time over a long weekend or week.

The Green Guides let me take my time, give me travel ideas that a France-wide guide would not give, and is pretty reliable.

On a separate note, i do not use any of the times for the sites; in France, opening times are unreliable. You are best off using the net or just taking your chances.

In the end, whatever your guide, France is a fantastic country for tourism and it's also wonderful to live in.

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.

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.