Paris-Lille-Brussels: The Bradt Guide to Eurostar Cities

Having spent a busy weekend sightseeing, shopping and eating in Lille thanks to this amusing and shrewd guidebook, I have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone else travelling in France and Belgium. The book had all the information we needed for using public transport, getting to know the locals and seeing the sights without ever making us feel like hicks or gawping visitors. We will be in Paris this Easter and have already chosen our hotels and at least two restaurants from the same book. Does this guy write about anywhere else? If he knows other cities like he knows this one, I want to read about it.

Laughter and good food make an excellent combination. This book is full of annecdotes and gossipy tips and snippets, yet it also is as mouthwatering as a recipe book. The author reviews restaurants without resorting to fashionable cosmopolitan cliches. Your mouth waters as he remembers succulent sauces and naughty desserts, you smile as he gossips about the waiters and restaurant owners, you want to linger on the salivating detail of every favourote dish and each evocative evening spent in cellars and dining rooms. Yet, when he talks of history, you are as enchanted by the true human nature of kings and artists that he conveys. I love his casual and very individual approach to sightseeing. He can give equal status to a shop selling haute couture for dogs as an art gallery or monument, and he seems to know where all the good stuff is hidden away from the coach trade. I have queued for hours at the Louvre and Musee d'Orsay in Paris, yet this guy knows of a private house with dozens of Monets on view. And best of all he knows where to find the best meals in town without breaking the bank. This book is hot on the practical side of travelling as well. Following his tips, I found out how to travel first class on Eurostar for less than the price of a second class ticket. My only complaint is that this is not part of a series. I travel all over France and Europe and would love to listen to this author's advice on the rest of the country and the continent.

Don't read this book when you are hungry. the food descriptions will make you drool. I used this guide when friends from London came over for the weekend. Mouth-watering restaurant reviews and spot-on opinions and advice about Paris. Useful, good value and sometimes very funny. The book also has full sets of city maps and subway guides, and give very clear directions with every listing. I reckon it would be a great read on the train or the plane as well.

I laughed out loudIt is a long time since I have enjoyed a travel book so much that I laughed out loud. However, I have found myself smiling and chuckling on the metro each day since I picked up this hugely enjoyable read. The author provides us with plenty of invaluable tips on where to go and how to get there, with hundreds of restaurant and site reviews. But the great thing about this book is that everything has been tried and tested by one man, and he is a man with a top sense of humour and a fund of hilarious annecdotes about his fellow diners and visitors. I have worked in Paris for many years and I recognise so many of my favourite places in his stories and listings. Yet this fellow Englishman seems to know of many absolute treasures that have been hidden under my nose for years. I cannot wait to try more of them. I might even treat myself to a visit to Brussels, on the strength of his suggestions. An enjoyable read and a genuine key to any city.

Just returned from road testing this book in Paris and found it to be absoutely spot on. We found ourself visiting bars and cafes and even museums that we must have passed a dozen times before, and discoverting a genuinely local welcome in the big city. The hotel listings are fabulous, the food reports astute and the insiders' perspective is invaluable. I lent my copy to a fellow passenegr on the TGV train home, who told me that the Lille pages were just as accurate. All I have to do now, is plan my next trip at my leisure. Buy this book. You will save the over price on your first day's eating, shopping or partying.I must have a dozen guide books to France, but this is, without doubt, the most candid and passionate. I never felt as thougb I was being prushed or processed through the tourist traps.