French Travel Guide. Wouldn't it be great to have one? I mean - your own personal French Travel Advisor? Sure there's no end of great French Travel Guidebooks. Guidebooks on Paris, the Eiffel Tower, Cannes, Nice, the French Riviera, Mont St Michel, the Loire Chateau's, Provence Lavender, Camargue horses etc.
Plus all the "Charming" guides. Charming Small French Country Hotels and Inns , charming chambre d'hotes, charming Gites, charming B n B's.
But, here's the thing. 99% of these guides are from folks who only visit France.
Now if you had had a French Travel Best Places Guide that was written by someone who lives there - wouldn't that be the cat's pajamas? (Not the mention the "Bee's Knees?")
French Travel Tipster
Well if you don't already have a French Travel Expert you can call on - now you do. He's the Author of this book.Christopher Strong. The "Bicycle Gourmet."
French Travel Advice
He not only lives in France, but for 15 years (and counting) he's travelled the French Country backroads spontaneously experiencing authentic French Country Life, and sharing those experiences in his lifestyle/adventure series"Treasures of France", his book series, "More Than a Year in Provence<", his blog, and articles in the Huffington Post and elsewhere.
French Travel Accommodation
Now, for the first time, he's opened his personal rolodex of exceptional French places to stay in every corner of "la Belle France."
Unlike other French Travel Guidebooks, French Travel Finds features the words and pictures of the owners. No Editorial fluff. Just the straight skinny from the people of all Nationalities who've chosen to live and share their French Country Dream. (Kinda like the Bicycle Gourmet)
Large French Postcards
French Travel Finds images are large and in full color.( As you would expect from a guide complied by a Photographer.)
And, happily, no French Travel Phrasebook or French Vocabularly needed!
What are you waiting for?, Stop dreaming and Look Inside!
Christopher Strong certainly isn't the first person to write a book about travelling through France by Bicycle. But he may well be the only one who's done it for more than ten years, with no money for food or accomodation. (Europe on no dollars a day!)
Relying solely on his faith in Human nature, Christopher cycled the French Country backroads with no fixed itinerary. Guided only by the sights, sounds and smells of each day. (What the french call : ''au pif'' - ''by the nose'') Each Night his faith was rewarded with genuine and sincere hospitality. And each new day filled with spontaneous adventure.
Fortunately, for us, Christopher filmed those adventures. Initally just for himself. But finally realizing the uniqueness of his experience and wanting to share it - his travels birthed a lifestyle/adventure series - ''Bicycle Gourmet's Treasures of France." His book - ''More Than a Year in Provence'' is based on those singular adventures.
For me, what makes - ''More Than a Year in Provence '' so exceptional and important are two things : The uniqueness of his adventure. And His faith in Human nature. Never doubting that ''people will always be kind'' - Christopher experienced the proof. Each day. Each Night. For more than ten years. In a country where, when he began, he could barely speak the language. If effect, the ''Bicycle Gourmet'' is a digital cultural anthropologist. He's returned from the field. After meeting, eating and drinking with the natives. Sharing their lives. Their hopes and dreams. Success and failures. Their uncrushable spirit. All with the intensity that briefness brings.
