Another chipper installment from Rick Steves's indefatigable travel series, France: Paris, Normandy & Brittany takes us to the regions' most noteworthy and often least crowded cultural sights. Starting in Paris, Steves adroitly whisks us around the city, emphasizing use of public transport, including buses, and walking. Ever the decisive traveler, he wisely suggests skipping the hotel breakfast and hitting the bakeries and brasseries. "Pick a neighborhood and settle in" is his mantra for a week in Paris. Steves is a history and architecture buff, and this reflects in his choice of stops: Hotel des Invalides, San Chapelle Cathedral, and Chantilly, outside of Paris. Skip the crowded Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, and Versailles, he advises. Steves's best meal and view in Paris turn out to be just as surprising and "insider" as the rest of his suggested Paris stops. Leaving the "city that could teach us all about fine living," Steves rents a car and takes off for Normandy. Here the video spends most of the remaining time, only touching briefly on Brittany. Ever the "taste-bud traveler," Steves extols the virtues of regional specialties calvados, seafood, crepes, omelets, and cheeses, as well as the breads of the region, and he provides some mouth-watering footage of chefs at work concocting wondrous dishes. Also noted is the scenery and the military and religious history of the region. Steves visits the D-day beaches, Mont-Saint-Michel, the Bayeaux tapestry, and the quaint streets of port village Monfleur. Blessed with perpetually good weather it seems, Paris, Normandy, and Brittany beckon through Steves's appealing introduction. --Gilia Angell |
