Feel like I'm carrying a brick in my handbag! (The Rough Guide to Languedoc and Roussillon - Brian Catlos)

Member Name: bkecky

Product:	The Rough Guide to Languedoc and Roussillon - Brian Catlos
Date:	03/07/09 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good descriptions of places, excellent basic information

Disadvantages: A little pricey, may have only a few pages on your area, a few mistakes

I bought this book so that I could find out better what was around Nimes, France as I wanted to travel around during my time here and get to know the area as well as possible. Languedoc-Roussillon is a region of France (almost like we have a county), which covers part of the south of France with the main cities of Montpellier, Toulouse, Nimes, Perpignan, Carcassonne and Narbonne. I actually was just expecting a description of the area and its history with a few suggestions but I found that this book was extremely useful for aspects, which I had never considered.

The book is divided into seven sections: Colour section (Introduction, Where to go, When to go, Things not to miss), Basics (Getting there, Getting around, Accommodation, Eating and Drinking, The media, Sports and outdoor pursuits, living and working in France, Travel Essentials), Guide, Contexts, Language, Travel Store, and Small print and index. So as you can see there is more than just the places but useful information on surviving your trip and avoiding any nasty surprises.

The cover I have to say was not so enticing to me. It showed a medieval fortress with a vineyard in front, which I suppose although is very typical of the region, looked a little dull to me. When I picked it up I was also surprised by its weight (456 pages long!) so carrying it around with me is a little annoying. Not like you can fit it in your pocket.

The Introduction is a good overview of the region and has colour photographs, whereas the rest of the book except a small insert is in orange, black and white. This is very colourful and a pleasant beginning but then you are slightly disappointed at the rest being so dull looking. They give you the average weather temperatures all year round, which is very useful and a nice description of what the region is like throughout the year. It then progresses on to "24 Things Not To Miss". This was very useful because if you only have a short trip you can easily extract some of the highlights and work your way around that as they are all explained in greater detail later on in the book and the page references allow you to easily find these sections. Me having a long time here, this was also good as I have time to see the 24 Things and allowed me to plan for the different destinations in advance and create a little tick list.

The Basics was actually probably at times more useful than the actual guide. It is not only for tourist information such as transport, eating and drinking and accommodation but also has a section on living and working in France. This gave me invaluable information regarding declaring myself, what I need to be able to work, how to obtain this, getting a French phone and even suggested jobs for English speakers. I thought this was brilliant because a lot of guidebooks only focus on the tourists but this saved me a lot of time messing around on the internet as it was written clearly and concisely for me over one page. For visitors it also gives you the opening hours of business, what to bring, information about safety and crime, local dos and donts as well as the little laws that we may not be expecting. My only criticism of this is that the information on opening times was slightly off. Obviously it is a large region and not everywhere will be the same but for example it says that opening hours are 8 or 9am to noon or 1pm and 2pm or 3pm to 6pm or 7pm. This is actually quite wrong as in some places outside of Nimes the shops open from 8-11am and are then closed until 4pm when they re-open and stay open until 8 or 9pm. This is not normal for us so I thought that it should have been mentioned because I had to really get used to the opening times and actually plan my day around the shops them as unless you have a car you can't get out to go to a larger place or supermarket. This would be highly disappointing if you travelled here and then everything seemed to be closed all the time! I thought they could have gone into more depth about this as later on in the book, it can ramble on a little so I felt that more attention to detail was needed on this which is quite important. The flight routes were also out of date and there were routes missing and routes listed that have been cancelled. It also states that bars are smoking in Nimes, which is wrong.

The guide section is divided into Toulouse and Around, Carcassonne, Upper Aude and Ariege, Albi and Haut Languedoc, Nimes and Around, Montpellier and Around, Narbonne, Beziers and Around, and Roussillon. The guide section is quite detailed and its not really a quick read. Sometimes to find the part you read previously can be a little challenging but it is very thorough. Each section begins with a bulleted list of the particular area's highlights, followed by an introduction and a small map. The map is actually not very useful at all and just provides an overview of the city centre. Many of the streets are not named, only the main streets shown and many a time I have walked off to where the map doesn't show so really it is a very basic overview. The guide from here is then divided into sections of the region, starting with the main parts and going off into other smaller areas and sometimes in my opinion, into areas that do not really need to be covered. For example talking about Beaucaire it tells us that the place does not "merit making any special effort to visit", but then continues for another 3 and a half pages to talk about it! It then tells you a short history of what the place is famous for and then points out the main sites. Eating and drinking, are split up by budget, although this doesn't follow suit for everywhere. Otherwise symbols are used to show how cheap or expensive a place is, often with an average meal price. It also gives you accommodation also very specifically categorised into sections such as under 30 euros, 40 - 40 euros, 40-55 euros etc. So you get the picture but the categories are extremely specific! Then it gives you the practicalities of transport, which is good because this tends to be a region that is not easily accessible at times without your own transport. A criticism of this is that sometimes they use French terms such as Gare SNCF and Gare routiere, which if you don't speak French could just confuse you. There is a glossary at the back but as this is done repeatedly throughout the text you would be flicking backwards and forwards a lot. Personally I also think it sounds a little pretentious. Finally the give you a list of important numbers and also every place that is mentioned has a contact address, number and where possible website and email.

Throughout the guides section there are little orange boxes, which give you little bits of culture, history and special things to see or things often missed on the general tourist track. There is usually a festivals list in one of these boxes so you can see whats going on when you are there. Based on previous mistakes, I'm not sure I would consider these accurate and would probably check before going to one but it is good for a general look at things happening. There are two additional colour inserts; one of wine and the other of the Cathars. I find it strange that they are shoved in the middle of the guides and its quite annoying to get to the end of your page and then have to skip through these inserts to find your next page, by which time you have forgotten the first half of the sentence anyway! It also means your book often falls on the same page and when you are flicking to find something you inevitably miss it because you are suddenly on the colour part, which is of thicker, glossier paper. I don't know why they didn't put them in the front with the other coloured section but I'm sure they had their reasons.

At the end of the guides there is a nice little history section, even though history is covered throughout, and also a guide to other books on the region and literature based in the area.

One of the most useful parts is the last section that covers language. I think it is great how they give you a few pages of survival phrases and a glossary of words specific to the region. There is also a little guide to pronunciation and explains about Occitan, Catalan and French, the three languages of the region. Although it does only give phrases in French as this is the main language and the others are used like a dialect for various groups of people, usually the elderly. The glossary gives you all those words you previously didn't get what they were when you were reading your guide and also specific words regarding art, architechture and archeology. The menu reader is also particularly useful when you are in restaurants but in my experience the French have so many different ways to say the same dish that this probably won't cover everthing.

The Travel Shop is basically Rough Guides listing their other books and encouraging you to spend your money on their products.

Overall this book was very useful, if at times a bit pretentious. At times it was not really casual reading as it was packed it dates and events throughout history but once you got to the bit you needed it tended to be quite thorough. I probably would buy a different book if I was simply going on holiday as although it is a large book, there will only be a small section useful for you and at RRP £13.99, you are probably better looking at something specific to the city where you are visiting. The best information was actually the Basics at the beginning as it was well laid out and simply put (although there were the mistakes). I would recommend it for anyone spending a lengthy amount of time in the Languedoc-Roussillon region but if you are just taking a week holiday buy a smaller one or a guide when you get there. There are some good little money saving tips but I have to say that when it tells me that 40 euros is a reasonable price for a meal I feel a bit looked down on being unable to afford it! If I see 20 euros I walk away! So apart from these criticisms, a useful read about this beautiful part of France.

Summary: An interesting read but I prefer something a little moer casual.