Paris

Authors & publisher might wish there was a 2 1/2 star option, because that would be more accurate. But no way does this sketchy guidebook deserve a 3.

It's a good size to carry around and there are some really nice little tidbits of background reading. But there is a real lack of practical usefulness with this guide. I really needed my other guidebooks, too, which is a shame... if you're in one foreign city, one good guide book should suffice. This one didn't, quite. I think it would suffice for someone coming in on the kind of package tour where all decisions are already made about where to eat every meal, and where to go. But if you travel independantly, this book simply doesn't measure up.

The book provides a good, simple overview map of the city, which is good for the main streets and subway lines but I like to see neighborhood maps, too (which you will always find in the Lonely Planet guides). None were given. Transportation section in the beginning makes it sound like bicycling is a great way to get around, so it was very annoying to find, on the authors' suggested 3-day sightseeing itinerary, that a bicycle won't do, since so many of the crucial streets are closed to bikes. Why didn't they choose an itinerary that would include some of that cycling they espouse? No walking tours are suggested, either.

I found the local expat weekly pulp magazine, Shanghai Scene, I believe it was called, a lot more helpful for finding great restaurants, shopping tips, and other meaty, useful info. In fact, the weekly gave phone numbers for all the museums I needed to go. This book gives none. Granted, Shanghai is the world's fastest changing city and no book can truly keep up with all the new hotels and nightspots, but things like the lack of phone numbers (of museums and restaurants) meant I was always referring elsewhere for additional info.

The shopping tips provided were minimal and without embellishment. I passed lots of great neighborhood markets that would probably have been mentioned in other guidebooks but not this one. And text mentions the area where bookshops are to be found but neglects to mention that this same street is where you will see all the great traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting supplies. I wonder what other unique Shanghai gems are ignored.

So while the book is glossy with photos and full of fun cultural sidebars, it lacks the nuts and bolts of a real traveler's guide book.

Amazon and the publisher should be ashamed to still be selling this book! It has a "2nd edition" and a copyright from a couple of years ago, but that is a lie. This book is obviously a decade old information. It does not even mention the Studios park or the Disney Village area. It is completely out of date and utterly useless! First book I have every returned to Amazon. This book should be pulled from the shelves immediately! Don't make plans based on this book. Don't buy this book. Look for something up to date!

Having just returned from Disneyland Paris, I can tell you that the ONLY thing this book got right was the information about how to get on Space Mountain just as the park opens to avoid the lines.

This is old, outdated information. The author apparently has bias that he doesn't like thinks European intruding on his Disney experience. In MY experience, this is the most beautiful of the three Disneyland Parks (I have been to all three) and the unique rides are terrific. The food is actually quite good at some of the restaurants in the park (the author thought they were tasteless and overpriced).

More seriously -- this information is so old, it doesn't even include Disney Studios or the Village...the Village has now been there for years and the Studios have already celebrated their first year anniversary. What a great park that needs some mention somewhere.

Finally -- and most disconcertingly -- I wrote a 20-page updated information letter to the author after my visit almost a year ago -- no thank you, no response, as if he doesn't even care to incorporate changes.

I do NOT recommend this guide -- but if you go to one of the stores that has the book, take it with you to the coffee shop area and thumb through it for a basic (OUTDATED!) overview.

Ok. So I have no immediate plans to visit Disneyland
Paris, but, as a committed Disneyphile, I decided to
check this one out, to see if, if and when I DO
someday go to Paris, it would be worth a visit.
Now, I don't know for certain how identical DLP is to
Walt Disney World, but from the guidebook, you would
think they were virtual clones. While DLP has a few
unique rides (which get their own, original descriptions),
most of the ride descriptions, and the guest comments,
are lifted directly from the other guidebooks. Isn't it
AMAZING that a mother visiting DLP with her son had
EXACTLY the same experience on Dumbo as a mother who visited
WDW a decade or more ago? Much of the other information
(advice on visiting with kids, planning your day, understanding
traffic flows, meeting characters, etc.) is also reprinted,
virtually word for word, from the other Disney guides.

Of course there is some unique information. The hotels and
restaurants are described (the latter very briefly indeed -- 3-10 lines per restaurant, with no real description of the food, and only the most general indication of cost); you can apparently buy cigarettes in the park in Paris, and the few rides unique to DLP are described. (Interestingly, he doesn't seem to care for most of them.) He also gives basic information on getting to Paris, finding in-town hotels, and so on.

But most of it is just a tired rehash. Instead of giving us
a generic "DisneyX" book, why couldn't he focus on what makes
DLP different from the other parks? I'd guess that most readers, at least most American readers, have already been to either WDW or DL, and already know the basics. They are not going to be planning a trip to France JUST to take Junior to DLP as their first visit to a Disney park.
If Sehlinger REALLY doesn't want us to
go to DLP (he doesn't like most of the unique rides; the few rides for which he mentions differences from the U.S. version [for example, the French "Haunted Mansion"], get a poorer review here, and he thinks the food is lousy and overpriced) why not just say so, and save us the cost of the book.

OTOH, if you've never been to any Disney park, and never read a
Disney Unofficial Guidebook, this might be of some use.

The songs from two books on Diana Krall from Hal-Leonard do not represent the actual recordings. You will be disappointed. To get the real thing go to www.musicroom.com and search Diana Krall. You should find two song books called The Collection and The Collection Vol 2. Both contain faithful representation of her recording with the most beautiful and accurate chords!

If you're expecting the same arrangements as heard on the Diana Krall: Live in Paris DVD or CD, you'll be most disappointed as I was. This Hal Leonard publication includes Hal Leonard arrangements of the tunes from Diana's live concert. Nope, nothing by Claus Ogerman in here. I don't even know if they're in the same key as from the concert. I already have some of these exact same arrangements in other books of standards for piano. If you want original transcriptions of pieces performed by Diana Krall in Paris, this is nice. If you want Diana's version of Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You" or Diana's version of anything for that matter, this is not it.

This is only a few page play, not worth nearly the price quoted. Nothing else needs to be said except do not buy!

I ordered this sight/review-unseen: what a mistake. If you are looking for a 15 minute junior high school one act play, buy it. If you're looking for one Sherlock Holmes pastiche, pass! The plot takes place during the Great Hiatus, with Holmes chasing after poisoners in the Folies Bergere. Rather predictable, rather mundane but as I said, if you are looking for a one-act for pre-teens, it may work for you. I was hugely disappointed:P.

A total waste of money. The edition I purchased was published prior to the opening of the second park onsite, Walt Disney Studios (a Continental version of Disney-MGM Studios), so includes only perfunctory publicity blurb about the forthcoming attractions therein. Nice colour pictures and nice presentation but not as critical or useful as "A Brit's Guide to Disneyland Resort Paris" by Simon Veness or Tania Alexander's "Disneyland Paris: The Mainstream Unofficial Guide".

This book is more publicity for the restaurnants than a useful guide. There is very little critical analysis of the food and a lot of pretty pictures. If you want to see a photo of a restaurant or get the phone number it may be helpful, but you can find the same information at the best restaurant web site.

I spend several months each year in Paris. A wonderful city that is beautiful, safe and above all...French. Something which Suzy seems unable to comprehend.

She seems to know little of the city. Street names are mispelled. Suggestions for lunch are directed to overpriced mediocre tourist traps. Stores are noted at addresses that are years out of date. She suggests getting your hair done at the head office of L'Oreal. Suzy???? This is an office building without a salon in sight. Do you take your car for service to the head office of General Motors? She sends to you to a well known Parisian leather shop that has not been at the address offered for years. She tells you to arrive a couple of hours before opening at the St. Ouen Market. She even offers a cute way of pronouncing the name. Thanks so much Suzy. However, arrive a couple of hours early at the market and all you'll get is nasty remarks from vendors who are setting up and trying to enjoy their first cafe of the day.

She offers all the standard silly warnings about subways, pickpockets, "rowdy boys" and dangerous French traffic. The subways are clean, always populated, remarkably convenient and I suppose there are a few pickpockets lurking somewhere; but this is the method of transportation in Paris and I have never encountered one bad incident. I don't know what Suzy means by "rowdy boy". I have never seen one.....nor heard of problems with them. I wonder if Suzy gets out much? Regarding traffic, it's like any big city and appropriate precautions are needed. Things like looking both ways when crossing the street are probably in order. Suzy, I suppose you live in some protected suburb of middle America and are unused to seeing more than a few cars at a time.

Suzy has problems with ATMs and seems to think that the purchase of your Carte Orange is a difficult task that can only be accomplished at one ot two subway stations. As usual, Suzy's problems are remarkably unique.

And most offensive is Suzy's obvious lack of knowledge regarding French manners and society. If you don't like differences Suzy, stay at home and go the mall where you can feel very comfortable at your Wal-Mart.

Suzy says she spends hours relaxing on her bed and in her tub at the Hotel de Crillon. Suzy might I suggest that you spend less time in the tub and a little more time researching your book.

Suzy and Frommer's should be embarassed that they actually published this book. Shame to all involved.

I didn't remember reading this book three years ago until my partner bought a copy. Naturally a restaurant book written several years ago will be somewhat out of date, but this one is laughably out of date. When I tried to find a restaurant in 2000, I was usually disappointed, because it wasn't there. Now even fewer can be found in Zagat's Survey. It was hard to locate them with the maps, because of numerous errors. Not only will you be horribly served by this book, you will waste a lot of time.

I completely disagree with the editorial review of this book. It was dry and boring, and Reynolds recounted the deaths of Pasteur's daughters with as much emotion as she described a chemical reaction. Reynolds did not tell this story "succinctly and accessibly." It was such a chore to read that I began to read it aloud (I had to read it for a school assignment) and my mother and brother couldn't bear to hear it and screamed for me to stop. My father got the book Microbe Hunters out of our local library and I read that as a supplement. It covered virtually the same material as Reynolds attempted to write about, only it was far more compelling, vivid, and easier to read.

The journal of a monk, Matthew Perry, was preserved, translated,and chopped up. Some pieces were then placed in a book for publication. Disjointed, obscure in many instances and almost impossible to read without a reference library close at hand, The Illustrated Chronicles.., is a chore to comprehend with little reward for your effort. Advertised as some kind of entertaining historical memoir, it is anything but. Not for most and definetely not for me.