Hotel Gems of France (Hotel Gems of the World Series)

Rating:
Summary: a great resource for anyone visiting the french countryside
Review: hotel gems is a great resource for anyone planning a visit to the scenic french countryside or searching for an intimate and classy place to stay in france's cities...it successfully manages to be both a useful guidebook to france's small upscale hotels and a beautifully photographed, written and edited coffee table conversation piece...it allows the imaginative reader to 'visit' these lovely hotels from the comfort of his or her own living room, at a substantially lower cost in both time and money than actually going to them!

Rating:
Summary: Superb photos; best-of-the-best in French country hotels
Review: The back flap says that "Luc Quisenaerts . . . has a passion for anything to do with hotels." After receiving this book as a gift, I consider myself lucky that Mr. Quisenaerts decided not to keep his passion to himself.

"Hotel Gems of France" is the first in a series of books profiling what one might consider to be the world's dream vacation hotels. To me, it's a perfect scaled-down blend between the "Resorts & Great Hotels" and "Architectural Digest" magazines. There are 34 "gems" in this book, each portrayed in four to eight pages of text and gorgeous photographs. The back of the book contains an excellent section of factual information (e.g., rooms, facilities, activities, location), plus a map of France pinpointing the location of each hotel.

I wouldn't necessarily use this book as a travel planning tool unless I had lots of time and was expecting to cover lots of territory. There are probably more than 34 hotels just in the Latin Quarter of Paris, so taking this number within all of France doesn't make for useful comparisons. Also, there are no rate listings for any of the hotels, but I'd guess that the term "upscale" would fairly describe the price, as it surely does the quality of the properties.

Still, for those who enjoy superb photography, or who wish to get an introduction to France's beauty, or who might REALLY go on a dream vacation, this is a wonderful book. If I were rating this with my heart and eyes only, it would be 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Superb photos; best-of-the-best in French country hotels
Review: The back flap says that "Luc Quisenaerts . . . has a passion for anything to do with hotels." After receiving this book as a gift, I consider myself lucky that Mr. Quisenaerts decided not to keep his passion to himself.

"Hotel Gems of France" is the first in a series of books profiling what one might consider to be the world's dream vacation hotels. To me, it's a perfect scaled-down blend between the "Resorts & Great Hotels" and "Architectural Digest" magazines. There are 34 "gems" in this book, each portrayed in four to eight pages of text and gorgeous photographs. The back of the book contains an excellent section of factual information (e.g., rooms, facilities, activities, location), plus a map of France pinpointing the location of each hotel.

I wouldn't necessarily use this book as a travel planning tool unless I had lots of time and was expecting to cover lots of territory. There are probably more than 34 hotels just in the Latin Quarter of Paris, so taking this number within all of France doesn't make for useful comparisons. Also, there are no rate listings for any of the hotels, but I'd guess that the term "upscale" would fairly describe the price, as it surely does the quality of the properties.

Still, for those who enjoy superb photography, or who wish to get an introduction to France's beauty, or who might REALLY go on a dream vacation, this is a wonderful book. If I were rating this with my heart and eyes only, it would be 5 stars.