Product Description

This Essential guide to living and working in France is a ready reference for new and established resident and home-owners. You need not read it cover-to-cover to glean information, as it consists of more than 1,000 encyclopaedia-style entries, each containing key facts and many with references to more comprehensive printed and online publications for further information. Moreover, there are two indexes, one in English and one in French, so you can rapidly find facts by starting from either language.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #166408 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
'This encyclopedia-style handbook leaves no stone unturned, covering every aspect thinkable for those relocating to France. Essential for new residents, a complete reference guide. A thoroughly informative book.' French Magazine'The information within the guide is catalogued in logical sections, with a useful index and is clearly laid out. In addition, the text is broken up with numerous illustrations, diagrams and tables to further ease reading, all of which makes it an easily navigable manual that will greatly benefit any newcomer to France' Living France

From the Author
The approach is bottom-up. This is a book about France and
the French as they are, not as they might be seen from somewhere else. So,
save for international statistical rankings, there are no comparisons of
the country or its inhabitants with other countries or peoples. The entire
book was meticulously copy edited by a native French editor, to ensure that
the French terms and expressions are correct and current and that the more
than a thousand entries are objective and accurate.

From the Back Cover
The Essential Guide to Living and Working in France is a Ready
Reference for New and Established Residents and Home-owners.

You need not read it cover-to-cover to glean information, as it consists of
more than 1,000 encyclopaedia-style entries, each containing key facts and
many with references to more comprehensive printed and online publications
for further information. Moreover, there are two indexes, one in English
and one in French, so you can readily find facts by starting from eigther
language. This is the one book on living and working in France that you
can't do without.

Customer Reviews

An invaluable source of information
This is not a book to be picked up and read as a novel but it is a wonderful source of information for anyone considering a move to France or for those individuals who have recently moved here. I have lived in France for almost three years now and know (or think I know) what to do but much of the information in this book would have been very welcome when I first moved here. Knowing what I know now the important factor is that the author has really checked his facts so that this book is 99% accurate - there are still a few areas which could be wrong or debateable but since EU bureaucracy changes by the month nothing will ever be totally accurate.

There are too many books written by people who have never lived in the country about which they are writing and who are simply attempting to cash in on the relocation bandwagon - this is definitely not a book which falls into this category. If you are moving to France or you are a recent arrival in France buy this book and keep it close to you - you will find it invaluable. It certainly has pride of place on my everyday bookshelf.

Mixed!
On the one hand, it is very comprehensive and covers huge areas of French life. But on the other hand, it is full of small errors. Not just out-of-date, which you accept in printed guides, but errors of fact, many irritating spelling errors and mistranslations from French to English.

Sort of Useful
Recently purchased this book and some of the information is useful, but the majority of it I would class a common sense really. With the information available on the internet and through specialist forums you can find out most of the information you would need without having to buy this book.