France Travel Guide

Before you go, your best source of information is the French Government Tourist Office (www.franceguide.com), which can be reached at the following addresses:

• United States: 444 Madison Ave., 16th floor, New York, NY 10022 (tel. 514/288-1904; fax 212/838-7855); 205 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60601 (tel. 514/288-1904); or 9454 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 715, Beverly Hills, CA 90212 (tel. 514/288-1904).

• Canada: 1800 av. McGill College, Suite 490, Montreal, QC H3A 2W9 (tel. 514/288-2026; fax 514/845-4868).

• United Kingdom: 178 Piccadilly, London W1J 9AL (tel. 09068/244-123 [60p per min.]; fax 020/7493-6594).

• Australia: 25 Blight St., Sydney, NSW 2000 (tel. 02/9231-5244; fax 02/9221-8682).

Although AAA has road maps of France, the best are cartes routieres (road maps) published by Michelin. Both map books and fold-outs are available at almost any large bookstore in Paris and other French cities, and are sometimes available at news kiosks. The Michelin maps offer alternative routes de degagement, which you can travel to skirt big cities and avoid traffic-clogged highways. We recommend the France Tourist and Motoring Atlas (No 20197).

Useful Websites

• www.franceguide.com: The official website of the French Government Tourist Office, with helpful trip-planning information.

• www.franceway.com: A helpful site for dining, hotels, and transportation, with detailed Paris listings.

• www.parisinfo.com: The website of the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau provides information on hotels, restaurants, attractions, entertainment, and events.

• www.parisfranceguide.com: This site has plenty of useful information about Paris, with current nightlife, restaurant, music, theater, and events listings.

• www.chateauversailles.fr: The best site for the major attractions visited outside Paris.

• www.normandy-tourism.org: This site takes you to Normandy, land of Calvados and the D-day beaches, with info including the most visited gardens in the region.

• www.brittany-bretagne.com: This site tries to lure you away from Normandy to sample the offerings of its neighbor to the west, with information on places of interest, hotels, transportation, and a calendar of events.

• www.nice-coteazur.org: It could be more helpful, but this site provides hotel data and a calendar of events.

• www.cannes-on-line.com: This site offers hotel data, a map of Cannes, and a calendar of events.

• www.sncf.fr: The official website of the SNCF (French National Railroads) provides timetables and fares, and sells seats online.

• www.mappy.fr: This useful site for motorists gives precise directions and toll prices, and estimates the amount of time required to drive to towns and cities in France.

Telephones

To call France: 1. Dial the international access code: 011 from the U.S.; 00 from the U.K., Ireland, or New Zealand; or 0011 from Australia.

2. Dial the country code 33.

3. Dial the city code, which is always two digits, beginning with a zero, but drop that first zero, and then the eight-digit number.

To make international calls: First dial 00 and then the country code (U.S. or Canada 1, U.K. 44, Ireland 353, Australia 61, New Zealand 64). Next, dial the area code and number. For example, if you wanted to call the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., you would dial tel. 00-1-202-588-7800.

For directory assistance: Dial tel. 12 for assistance in French; in English, dial tel. 0-800/364-775. For international inquiries, dial tel. 08-36-59-32-12. This will link you with a bilingual (French and English) phone operator. You are allowed to request only two numbers for which you pay a service charge of 3? ($3.90).

For operator assistance: If you wish to use an operator to call your home country, you dial the toll-free number of tel. 08-00-99-00 plus the digits of your country code (example: tel. 08-00-99-00-11 for the U.S. and Canada).

Toll-free numbers: Numbers beginning with 08 and followed by 00 are toll-free. But be careful. Numbers that begin with 08 followed by 36 carry a .35? (45?) surcharge per minute.