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Mapaholics' France
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France remains the “First Lady of Europe”. She
is as beguiling as ever, a country both deeply rural and highly civilised.
An added plus is that the tourist “industry” is run by individuals for
individuals. And, joy of joys, Marianne still clutches to her breasts endless
delights - hidden corners where Nature’s priceless legacies and majestic
man-made creations are ignored by all but a few enterprising visitors. How
can you prise out of La Belle France your share of her cornucopia of pleasures?
One golden rule applies as much as ever: maps are the essential key if you
are to open the door to France’s seductive charms. Good large-scale maps
repay their outlay a thousand times over. A second golden rule goes like
this: “The more you run the risk of getting lost the more certain you are
of seeing the real France.” In Mapaholics’ France I’ve chosen an idiosyncratic
way of persuading you to emulate my freewheeling philosophy of exploration.
I’ve selected 44 map sheet pages from the spiral bound Michelin Motoring
Atlas France - the finest investment you can make. (For easier use I detach
map sheets from the spiral binding, as needed, and bulldog clip them to a
piece of cardboard. I never use hardboard.) Each map sheet forms the basis
of a chapter, in which I detail as many as possible of the widely differing
natural and man-made treats on the ground. Though much of the material I
have unearthed is not listed in
Michelin’s green guides I do not claim
to have done anything more than scratch the surface of each area. If you
want to enjoy France’s varied topography then you must have a go at
“navigating”. By that I mean you must use as many of the Michelin maps’
“yellow” and “white” lanes as you can manage. There’s a foolproof system
which helps you enormously: all but a few French minor roads have an identifying
number which is shown on both maps and signposts. Dyed-in-the-wool readers,
doing a “Binns”, will already be familiar with the term “mapaholic”. Join
the club - the guidelines are simple: immerse your self in maps; get lost
often; laugh over your wrong turns; and always remember a third golden rule
- the best parts of any country are found, more often than not, at the end
of roads that go nowhere. Some important advice: make use of France’s tourist
offices. Your Maison de la France (MDLF) will provide you with lists of the
departmental and regional (22) tourist offices; all of them are useful sources
of information. Hundreds of Office de Tourisme and Syndicat d’Initiative
addresses in France (and their phone numbers) are listed under village and
town names in the Michelin red guide. Hotels and restaurants: use the 1,000
or so recommendations made in my Franc-wise France and French Leave Encore
guides. |
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