Fodor's Essential France

Get inspired and plan your next trip with Fodor's ebook travel guide to Essential France (including Paris, Ile-de-France, the Loire Valley, Normandy, Lyon and the Alps, and Provence and the French Riviera, with highlights in between).

Intelligent Planning: Discover all of the essential, up-to-date travel insights you expect in a Fodor's guide, including Fodor's Choice dining and lodging, top experiences and attractions, and detailed planning advice.

Easy Navigation for E-Readers: Whether you're reading this ebook from start to finish or jumping from chapter to chapter as you develop your itinerary, Fodor's makes it easy to find the information you need with a single touch. In addition to a traditional main table of contents for the ebook, each chapter opens with its own table of contents, making it easy to browse.

Full-Color Photos and Maps: It's hard not to fall in love with France as you flip through a vivid full-color photo album. Explore the layout of city centers and popular neighborhoods with easy-to-read full-color maps. Plus get an overview of French geography with the convenient atlas at the end of the ebook.

What's Covered? Get to Know Essential France:
The Ile-de-France region is the nation's heartland. Here Louis XIV built vainglorious Versailles, Chartres brings the faithful to their knees, and Monet's Giverny enchants all.

To the south, the Loire Valley offers Chenonceau, Chambord, and Saumur--the parade of royal and near-royal chateaus that magnificently capture France's golden age of monarchy. Northwest Normandy is sculpted with cliff-lined coasts and has been home to saints and sculptors, with a dramatic past marked by Mont-St-Michel's majestic abbey, Rouen's towering cathedral, and the D-Day beaches.

Local chefs rival their Parisian counterparts in treasure-filled Lyon, heart of a diverse region where you can ski Mont Blanc or take a heady trip along the Beaujolais Wine Road. Don't miss Provence, famed for its Lavender Route, the honey-gold hill towns of Luberon, and vibrant cities like Aiz and Marseilles. This region was dazzlingly abstracted into geometric daubs of paint by van Gogh and Cézanne. The sprawl of pebble beaches and zillion-dollar houses of the French Riviera has always captivated sun lovers and socialites from amorous St-Tropez and beauteous Antibes to sophisticated Nice.

No trip to France would be complete without a stop in Paris. A quayside vista that takes in the Seine, a passing boat, Notre-Dame, the Eiffel tower, and mansard roofs all in one generous sweep is enough to convince you that this is indeed the most beautiful city on Earth.

Note: This ebook edition includes photographs and maps that will appear on black-and-white devices but are optimized for devices that support full-color images.