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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!zehntel!hplabs!hao!seismo!flinn
From: flinn@seismo.UUCP (E. A. Flinn)
Newsgroups: net.auto,net.followup,net.travel
Subject: Re: 2n try--motoring in Europe
Message-ID: <635@seismo.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 3-Mar-84 07:32:59 EST
Article-I.D.: seismo.635
Posted: Sat Mar  3 07:32:59 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 5-Mar-84 00:24:48 EST
References: <811@ihuxi.UUCP>, <320@ut-ngp.UUCP>, <7160@watmath.UUCP>
Organization: Center for Seismic Studies, Arlington, VA
Lines: 54


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.