knutson@ut-ngp.UUCP (Jim Knutson) (02/24/84)
If you plan on driving in Europe, you MUST have your international drivers
liscense (~$5), valid state side liscense, and your passport. I would also
suggest getting ahold of any information on international driving laws and
signs and study them. Get the best maps you can find. You have to know
what town you want to be in next to find your way around. If you're just
touring around trying to see the sites, there is a green book that has
pretty much all the sites with a 1-4 star rating in them, how much they'll
cost to see, when to see them and directions. This is a must. Have fun
on your trip (we did) and don't let the weather get you down.
--
Jim Knutson
ARPA: knutson@ut-ngp
UUCP: {ihnp4,seismo,kpno,ctvax}!ut-sally!ut-ngp!knutsonsaquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) (03/02/84)
The "green book" mentioned by somebody is actually a Michelin guide. These guides are french, but they are available in many different languages. They are very useful guides and very well respected. There are guides available for each country, or in France for each department or region of significance (e.g Les chateaux de la Loire). They have ratings on Restaurants, hotels, places to visits with good descriptions + a few pages giving the history of the region. They are a bit on the expensive side, but are worth their price, much better than any of the "Let's Go" or other guides that I have seen around here. Sophie Quigley watmath!saquigley
flinn@seismo.UUCP (E. A. Flinn) (03/03/84)
Sophie is mixing up the two different kinds of Michelin guides, red and green. The green Michelin guides are for sightseeing, and have nothing on hotels or restaurants. They have now been published for most western European countries, as well as for different regions of France, and those for the areas most popular with English-speaking tourists are published in English as well as French (Paris, the Loire Valley, etc.). Those for German-speaking countries are also published in German. These guides are tall thin green paperbacks. The red Michelin guides are fat hardbound books that contain really exhaustive information on hotels and restaurants, with a bare-bones summary of sightseeing spots. They contain really excellent detailed maps of most cities of any size, showing exactly where everything is. The red guides use a lot of cute symbols. Any restaurant that is mentioned will be *good*, and the really outstanding ones are awarded one, two, or three stars, and eating in any of them is memorable although *very* expensive indeed. When the French say that a certain restaurant is worth a special trip, they are not kidding. I am a graduate of the Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine et de Patisserie, and my one experience in a two-star restaurant was awesome. Hotels are given in categories indicated by house-like symbols that designate price and luxury - one-house, two houses, etc. The ratings are reviewed frequently, and seem to be reliable. Although pricey, both books are indispensable. The first time I spent a few weeks driving around France I started out thinking I didn't need either kind, but quickly saw the light. For example, hotels in small towns in France are usually on the main square, and racing motorcycles up and down the main streets all night is a favorite sport in France. The red Michelin guide has little symbols for each hotel, one of which is a rocking chair to indicate that the hotel is quiet. There is an endpaper map of France showing the sites of rocking-chair hotels, and you can do worse than to hop from one to another. For gourmets, there are also endpaper maps showing where the starred restaurants are, too. When I'm going to a European city where I haven't been before, I first go to a big bookstore and (1) buy the green guide for the area, if it exists; (2) thumb through the red Michelin guide and write down the name, location, and telephone or telex number of the least expensive two or three hotels in the one-house category. Then I call one of them for reservations, and confirm by telex. With the red guide you know exactly where everything is, how to get there, and what to expect. For example, in Paris I stay at the Hotel Residence du Champ de Mars, near Unesco and the European Space Agency, a block away from the Ecole Militaire Metro station, quiet, comfortable, run by a family with cats, and it costs $18 per night - the cheapest hotel in the one-house category in the 7th arondissement. Get the Michelin guides.
drm@sdchema.UUCP (03/08/84)
It is not the case that you need an Internatioaln drivers licenses in Europe. West Germany, France, and Britian will all accept valid State's licenses. Doug Manatt