Eiffel Tower at Night

I  have one VERY exciting piece of information to share with you, about a tour company for Independent Travelers–just our speed.

First a few odds and ends:

We’ve launched the France movie marathon on my Netflix account, using many of the recommendations you showered upon us when I proclaimed Amelie the best French movie ever.

1. First up: Charade, with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, and despite those stars, plus the worthy costar of various Paris locations (about 20 listed in Paris Movie Walks), it was NOT made by Alfred Hitchcock, as I erroneously assumed. Despite a laughably phony background on a float down the Seine, you’ll see some great Paris scenery, and Hepburn and Grant at their charming best.
2. Second: Paris, Je T’Aime. I did not really count, but I believe that movie was mentioned more than any other movie in the comments section of my post on Amelie. Thanks to all of you for the recommendations. We saw parts of Paris we’ll never see in person–and some we probably would just as soon NOT see. (Ken, by the way, has decided he will NOT go to the Tuileries stop on the Metro–and those of you who saw the movie may remember why.)

Brushing up Le Francais.

1. I like the Lonely Planet Phrasebook because it seems easy to find things, and has a good section on food, which always tends to be my main interest in any foreign country. (What? You mean You don’t hide the phrase book under a napkin and surreptitiously look up chaudrée when your waiter isn’t looking?) On the other hand, I’m not sure what use I will make of “Tu es de quel signe?” “What is your sign?” or the more direct, “Est ce que tu as un fetiche?” “Do you have a festish?”  And hiding the phrase book under a napkin is one thing, but under the pillow while you’re looking for “Easy, tiger!” (pg.117) is something else again.
2. Another recent discovery that has given me a lot of fun every day is the terrific blog, French Word A Day, by a fellow Arizonan who married a handsome Frenchman and lives with him and their two children on their vineyard where he makes wine and she writes and sells books. Sigh! This is a blog for lovers of France, lovers of dogs, lovers of photography, lovers of words in either French or English.

Books and Maps

1. When we visited Carmel recently, my brother and his wife kindly loaned us their (autographed–which means they think we’ll be honor-bound to give it back) copy of Around and About Paris by Thirza Vallois. This volume covers the 1st through the 7th arrondissements in much greater detail than anybody really needs, but like the Strolling Istanbul Guidebook, it is meant to be savored.
2. While buying a Michelin France road map, I spotted a new-to-me map of Paris, called MapEasy’s Giudemap to Paris, and had to have it, too. It claims to be waterproof and tear resistant and it is colorful and looks easy to read and use. The proof is in the pudding, so I’ll take both it and the Streetwise Paris map (which turns out to have such small print that I have to carry a magnifying glass.)

The Most Important Tip I am Going to Give You

Check the NEW web site of France Made Easy.  Marie Cruikshank, a lovely Scottish lady, started a company called Scotland Made Easy many years ago, and because she loves France and is fluent in French, she has added France to her trip planning business. She plans the kind of tailor-made, exclusive trips for discerning travelers that have large travel libraries and watch lots of travel movies and want to know about the real country and the people who live there, not just the people who sit next to them in the tour bus. (Just like you and me).

Marie is helping Ken and me with a lot of the details of our trip and I know that I can trust her advice because she has personally checked out these places and knows whereof she speaks.  I’ll talk more later about the details of some of the wonderful plans she has for us in Normandy and Brittany, but I’ve gone on long enough for today.

If you have questions for Marie, please feel free to post them here, and I’ll ask her to drop by and try to reply. But do take a look at her web site first to get a feel for what she does.

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Strange Maps Cover

Destination: The World

Book: Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities by Frank Jacobs (Pub. date 10/29/09)

My name is Vera Marie and I am addicted to maps. What is more, I do not want to be cured.

What traveler does not love to thumb through an Atlas, or twirl a globe? Come on, admit it. Somewhere in your house you have a drawer full of road maps. In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I even love an old book of historic maps that show me what the boundaries of Europe and Asia looked like from the Roman era to World War II.

Frank Jacobs has cleverly played to the weakness of the mapoholic in a blog, and now a book,Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities. Resistance is futile. You WILL either ask for this book for a Christmas present, or buy it for someone near to you so that you can surreptitiously thumb through the pages. Just do not try to use these maps to get from here to there. A travel book, it is not.

Some of the maps at the beginning of the book are of the “Where dragons be” variety. They were created back in the day when fanciful cartographers drew maps that led gullible mapoholics like Columbus and Magellan to venture beyond the known world. But most of the fanciful maps in this book go beyond geography as we know it.

The beautiful creatures of the Aleph maps that created anthropomorphic maps of European nations. Or maps of the world as someone wished it were divided, like  a 15-state USA, or divided the way it might have if the Great War turned out differently.

And what a shock to learn that when I dug in my back yard as a child and found a rubber band, my father’s explanation was wrong. He said I had dug all the way to China and found the rubber band from a Chinese pigtail. The Antipodean map shows that I would have struck salt water–not a Chinese pigtail, because none of the United States lies in a straight line through the globe to China.

But stop me before I thumb through the 229 pages of this book and 100+ images and tell you about every single one! (Disclaimer. The publishers sent me a copy of this book, making them an enabler in therapy talk.)

• Mapping out the future of A Traveler’s Library is easy–
• One and sometimes TWO Newly Published or Sneak Preview Books each week for the next few weeks.
• Thursday the first of two Truly Frightening Halloween posts.
• And  Friday–a new feature–French Fridays, starting with the NEW edition of Hemingway’s Moveable Feast. (Continuing until we run out of books about France)
• Some excellent Guest Posts will show up over the next weeks and Tuesday, November 3–a GREAT treat–No, I am not telling–you will just have to come see. (Clues: Author, debunking)
• Make it easy on yourself and subscribe so you do not miss any of the excitement.

Your turn–do you care to confess to your mapoholicism? And tell us your particular symptoms?

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library

©2010 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Keith Jenkins

Guest author: Keith Jenkins

I am very happy to welcome Keith to A Traveler’s Library to write about a book that inspired him to travel. And travel he has. He has circled the globe and writes beautifully about his observations and experiences at Velvet Escape.

Keith has also inspired me to start a new series of writers talking about a book or movie that lit the fire in them that made them want to travel. If you write about travel and would like to join the party, please let me know.

All Keith’s friends wished him well when he flew home to be with his father who was recently gravely ill…

As I looked at my Dad lying in the hospital bed, I couldn’t help but reminisce about his career with the airline and how that ignited my boundless fascination with travel.  For comments and He was always on the go, traveling to the four corners of the globe. Each time he returned, he told me many stories about the places he’d visited and the people he’d met. As a kid, I was totally struck by awe. I would sit on his lap and listen intently while I made silent notes.

When I was eight, my parents bought me a 20-plus volume encyclopedia called The World & Its People. It was fantastic: the detailed stories about our world, history, cultures, geography, etc.. backed by gorgeous photos (unfortunately, the last edition of it dates back to 1980). I would look up the places my Dad had been to and read more about them. I would pull out the encyclopedia and point to the pictures of the places he’d visited and try to visualize him standing there. He would look over my shoulder and tell me about the sights that were not in the pictures. Each time he told me about his travel journeys, I would ask if he’d seen this place or that, or tried a certain food – I had so many questions, I bet he was sorry he bought me that encyclopedia!

That was the start of my love affair with travel really. When I was in my early-teens, my sister bought me a thick Dorling Kindersly book called Geography of the World* . I was stunned. The rich & colourful illustrations & photos, plus the data of each country in the world just caught my imagination. I was already a statistic & geography freak at the time so it wasn’t too difficult to get totally smitten with this book!

When I started traveling, I had every statistic firmly implanted in my head. I could rattle off data like the size of the country, its population and GDP, the most important economic activities, the major cities and the most popular tourist sites. I was literally a walking geographic encyclopedia! My Dad loved it. He began to take me along on his flights and we visited places like Hong Kong, Sydney and London together, and I dragged him to every place or attraction I’d read about!

My Dad is a lot better now and has been discharged from the hospital. The time I spent at his side in the hospital and the memories that conjured was priceless. I owe much to him but most of all, he instilled in me a great spirit of adventure and a profound desire to see the world and experience its many wonders.

I’m Keith Jenkins, a thirty-something based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Travel and writing are my biggest passions. I’ve traveled extensively across 60+ countries on six continents. The experiences I’ve gained from traveling are priceless. You can read more about my adventures on my blog, Velvet Escape.

*A DK Children’s book recommended for ages 9-12, latest edition 2006.

Thanks, Keith, for reminding us how important it is to introduce children to geography while they are still at the “age of wonder.” Readers, would you like to try to stump Keith with your geography questions? I’m sure you must have some questions for him about all the places he has traveled. Let’s talk.

I have one question. Since he grew up in the southern Hemisphere, was Keith confused by the maps which almost always are from a north-centric point of view?

And  if you like Keith’s post about his inspiration for travel, please pass on the love with one of the buttons below referring people through Stumble Upon, Facebook, Twitter, or one of the other avenues of social media. Thanks!

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©2010 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

The Whole World in Somebody's Hands

Added August 29, 2009, a note from Kerry Dexter. I will let you know if Laura starts up again with the geography site, but meanwhile, here’s another suggestion:

Did you know that Free Rice a site that uses vocabulary games to generate donations of food for the hungry, now also has locate that country and name a country’s capitol city games you can play to donate in this good cause as well? doesn’t cost anything tp play, donations are made by sponsors for each right answer. might be a fun way to add to your learning. (Kerry Dexter)

Back to original post:

No matter how much I travel and how much I read about travel, huge swaths of the world remain for me terra incognito.  You know, those lands that lie on the edges of old maps, designated by the mapmaker as the home of dragons?

My mother’s library included a great book, which I still dip into from time to time, Don’t Know Much About Geography by Kenneth Davis. The latest edition is eight years old, and my mother’s was older still.

Despite trying,  I struggle with certain parts of the globe–particularly Africa. I have never been to Africa, and country’s borders and names have changed dozens of times since I was in school where I allegedly learned geography. (Next she will be saying the dog ate her atlas!)

Now I have an incentive to pore over the World Atlas and some web sites and fill in the blanks in my mind map.

Laura Byrne Paquet, prolific author and blogger, has started a new blog tracking her intention to learn the basics about all the countries in the United Nations in the next year. At Year of Geography you can follow along, and maybe learn something to boot.

Go Laura!!

Photo by Notice LJ, courtesy of Flickr

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©2010 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.