There is much to contemplate as you cycle through this area in the south-central part of France, not to mention the exceptional scenery. The stories and legends seem as endless as the rolling French roads decorated by countless villages. The architecture in these 5 departments is amazing. Examples are the Cité de Carcassonne and the Ste-Cécile Cathédrale in Albi. This guidebook focuses on 18 cycling routes around Carcassonne, Albi and Foix. There are 51 remarks on villages, a canal, rivers and points of interest. Included with each route is the latest method for listing Waypoints that locates its longitude and latitude in degrees, minutes and seconds, and in digital format. Basic data are included on selecting a community and a gîte, bringing your bike or renting, having a vehicle, driving in France, what to bring, and buying groceries. As with all other BICYCLE YOUR FRANCE guidebooks, this guide also offers a companion, QUEUE SHEETS, with just the Waypoint GPS located listings, route maps and elevation profiles. Details: 114 pages; 11” x 8.5”; English; 17 two-page and 1 single-page color route maps; 19 town maps and descriptive graphics; 188 color photographs. In addition to the print format, this guidebook and the Queue Sheets are available for Kindle devices and in the Adobe Digital Editions for Apple iPad devices. Route maps graphics and photographs are presented in two halves in 800x1260 pixels appropriate for the 7” and 8.9” Kindle Fire HD.

There is much to contemplate as you cycle through this area in the south-central part of France, not to mention the exceptional scenery. The stories and legends seem as endless as the rolling French roads decorated by countless villages. The architecture in these 5 departments is amazing. Examples are the Cité de Carcassonne and the Ste-Cécile Cathédrale in Albi. This guidebook focuses on 18 cycling routes around Carcassonne, Albi and Foix. There are 45 remarks on villages, a canal, rivers and points of interest. Included with each route is the latest method for listing Waypoints that locates its longitude and latitude in degrees, minutes and seconds, and in digital format. Basic data are included on selecting a community and a gîte, bringing your bike or renting, having a vehicle, driving in France, what to bring, and buying groceries. As with all other BICYCLE YOUR FRANCE guidebooks, this guide also offers a companion, QUEUE SHEETS, with just the Waypoint GPS located listings, route maps and elevation profiles. Details: 116 pages; 11” x 8.5”; English; 17 two-page and 1 single-page color route maps; 13 town maps and descriptive graphics; 159 color photographs. In addition to the print format, this guidebook and the Queue Sheets are available for Kindle devices and in the Adobe Digital Editions for Apple iPad devices. Route maps graphics and photographs are presented in two halves in 800x1260 pixels appropriate for the 7” and 8.9” Kindle Fire HD.

An E-Guide for the inquisitive, bicycling tourist centered in the Provence Region of France around the Luberon, the Vaucluse Plateau and their valleys, plus routes from Digne-les-Bains and to the edge of the Gorges du Verdon. Why Provence and the Luberon? For beauty, history and lifestyle. Motorists are courteous to cyclists. Buy farm goat cheese, a bottle of wine at a vineyard or sausage in a morning market. Ride across a 2,000-year-old, stone bridge or photograph a château from the Middle Ages. A long list. You will return. Details are here for unstressed travel to this area, arriving relaxed. Includes data on selecting a community, gîtes, bikes, renting a vehicle, driving in France, what to bring, buying groceries and a bit on restaurants. 16 routes are mapped and profiled. Each one reviews a few villages and points of interest. All are on paved roads with light vehicle traffic. All photos, route maps and village detail maps are in color.

My second guidebook and friend, BICYCLE YOUR FRANCE: SECRET BURGUNDY, now has a facelift, all redrawn maps, waypoints with GPS data and renamed as BURGUNDY SECRETS. All sixteen of the original route maps are included, but now easier to understand and navigate. Elevation data was acquired every 200 meters on each route and new profiles drafted. All routes include discussions of a few villages, historical personalities and points of interest along the way. Included with each route is the latest method for listing Waypoints. Now each Waypoint locates longitude and latitude in degrees, minutes and seconds (to the hundredth), and in digital format. Cyclists with GPS-enabled smartphones may check each of the turn instructions while their companions either wait around or get on with the ride. As with all other BICYCLE YOUR FRANCE guidebooks, this guide also offers a companion publication, QUEUE SHEETS, with just the Waypoint listings (with GPS), route maps and elevation profile.

Geographically, this guidebook focuses on the Roman Provence Region of France of the northern Gard and western Vaucluse Departments, the Drôme Department north and east into the Rhône Alpes, and the southern Ardèche Department. The routes start from three locations: Crest in the Drôme, Vallon-Pont-d’Arc in the Ardèche and Pont du Gard west of Avignon. The Gorges de la Baume & Cirque de Combe Laval route is the outlier due to the staggering beauty of the area. Why this area of France? Not for the industrial Rhône Valley. But, if you wander 20 to 30 kilometers east or west of the Rhône Valley you will find the medieval hilltop villages, deep gorges with rushing rivers, Roman structures and very hospitable people that want to help. Fifteen routes are mapped in detailed color with elevation profiles and exacting, step-by-step directions (data gathered to the nearest 0.2 kilometer). There are 149 color photographs for these surroundings.

A wholly original history of France, filled with a lifetime’s knowledge and passion—by the author of the New York Times bestseller Parisians. Beginning with the Roman army’s first recorded encounter with the Gauls and ending in the era of Emmanuel Macron, France takes readers on an endlessly entertaining journey through French history. Frequently hilarious, always surprising, Graham Robb’s France combines the stylistic versatility of a novelist with the deep understanding of a scholar. Robb’s own adventures and discoveries while living, working, and traveling in France connect this tour through space and time with on-the-ground experience. There are scenes of wars and revolutions from the plains of Provence to the slums and boulevards of Paris. Robb conveys with wit and precision what it felt like to look over the shoulder of a young Louis XIV as he planned the vast garden of Versailles, and the dangerous thrill of having a ringside seat at the French revolution. Some of the protagonists may be familiar, but appear here in a very different light—Caesar, Charlemagne, Louis XIV, Napoleon Bonaparte, General Charles de Gaulle. This extraordinary narrative is the fruit of decades of research and thirty thousand miles on a self-propelled, two-wheeled time machine (a bicycle). Even seasoned Francophiles will wonder if they really know that terra incognita on the edge of Europe that is currently referred to as “France.”

For Paul Howard, who has ridden the entire Tour de France route during the race itself—setting off at 4 am each day to avoid being caught by the pros—riding a small mountain-bike race should hold no fear. Still, this isn’t just any mountain-bike race. This is the Tour Divide. Running from Banff in Canada to the Mexican border, the Tour Divide is more than 2,700 miles—500 miles longer than the Tour de France. Its route along the Continental Divide goes through the heart of the Rocky Mountains and involves more than 200,000 feet of ascent—the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest seven times. The other problem is that Howard has never owned a mountain bike—and how will training on the South Downs in southern England prepare him for sleeping rough in the Rockies? Entertaining and engaging, Eat, Sleep, Ride will appeal to avid and aspiring cyclers, as well as fans of adventure/travel narrative with a humorous twist.

Bicycle near the Lot River and through the Lot Gorges as they wind their serpentine journeys through the spectacular and historic settings of southwestern France. This exceptional book guides cyclists through an area that for 25,000 years has evolved a civilization based on community and family. Eighteen routes (4 with alternates) are mapped in detailed color with elevation profiles and exacting, step-by-step directions. There are 234 color photographs for visualizing surroundings. The routes are loops that end where they start. This concept is to stay overnight in one place for a week and get to know something more about that place and the people who live there. To increase the value of your precious vacation or holiday time, the guide helps you anticipate what to expect, thus reducing travel stress, and manage costs. To expand your scrutiny, the guide includes 49 notes on history, geography and nonhuman creatures. Details: 102 pages; 11" x 8.5"; English, 18 two page color route maps; a single page color overview map; 4 color town maps. Also available is a companion guide, LOT VINEYARDS TO TARN GORGES QUEUE SHEETS. It is 9" wide by 6" high and fits in many bicycle handlebar-mounted map cases. The detailed segment directions, elevation profiles, individual maps and appropriate village detail maps for all 18 routes plus 4 alternates.

Geographically, this guidebook focuses on the eastern part of the Burgundy Region in eastern France. There are 15 cycling routes mapped and profiled. The routes also include 47 discussions of a few villages, historical people and points of interest along the way. Included with each route is the latest method for listing Waypoints that locates its longitude and latitude in degrees, minutes and seconds (to the hundredth), and in digital format. As with all other BICYCLE YOUR FRANCE guidebooks, this guide also offers a companion, QUEUE SHEETS, with just the Waypoint GPS located listings, route maps and elevation profile. My first guidebook and old friend, BICYCLE YOUR FRANCE: EXPLORING BURGUNDY, is renovated and revamped as BURGUNDY EXPLORATIONS. All eleven of the original route maps have been redrawn. Four new routes are included. Elevation data was acquired every 200 meters on each route and new profiles drafted.

"A witty, engaging narrative style…[Robb's] approach is particularly engrossing." —New York Times Book Review A narrative of exploration—full of strange landscapes and even stranger inhabitants—that explains the enduring fascination of France. While Gustave Eiffel was changing the skyline of Paris, large parts of France were still terra incognita. Even in the age of railways and newspapers, France was a land of ancient tribal divisions, prehistoric communication networks, and pre-Christian beliefs. French itself was a minority language. Graham Robb describes that unknown world in arresting narrative detail. He recounts the epic journeys of mapmakers, scientists, soldiers, administrators, and intrepid tourists, of itinerant workers, pilgrims, and herdsmen with their millions of migratory domestic animals. We learn how France was explored, charted, and colonized, and how the imperial influence of Paris was gradually extended throughout a kingdom of isolated towns and villages. The Discovery of France explains how the modern nation came to be and how poorly understood that nation still is today. Above all, it shows how much of France—past and present—remains to be discovered. A New York Times Notable Book, Publishers Weekly Best Book, Slate Best Book, and Booklist Editor's Choice.