Reviews for Through the French Canals

The average rating for Through the French Canals based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-12-09 00:00:00 William Bitting ASCENT - THE MOUNTAINS OF THE TOUR DE FRANCE by Richard Yates is the worst book I have read about the Tour de France. Why? 1. The book is 8.5" x 11" so it looks like it like a coffee table book. However, as a coffee table book it fails. It is mostly (boring) words and not mostly pictures. It does have some good historical photos but it has only a few full page photos. To give the book a vintage quality all the pictures are brown and white. Also the picture captions are all written in difficult-to-read peach colored ink. 2. It is not about the Mountains of the Tour de France. It is a general Tour de France book that like all tours does go over some mountains. But it spends just as much time covering time trials, sprints and other non-hilly aspects of the race. It does occasionally have 2 to 3 paragraph sections highlighting some of the most famous climbs. These include a very simple gradient chart and a simple map. These sections have far fewer details than a mountain article in a bicycling magazine. 3. The writing is boring. One race blends into the next in a way that numbs the brain. I would not be surprized if I am one of the few people who actually read the book from cover to cover. The best writing is on the inside flap of the cover of the book. I expect this was written by an advertising writer who knows how to making the written word exciting. Unfortunately what is written on the cover has little to do with the contents of the book. What is good about this book? The front cover is very eye-catching. If you saw this book in the book store shelf, you would want to buy it. Probably this book was written as a quick money maker. The list price on the back of the book is $39.95 (2008). It was printed in India. If you find this book on one of those discount tables selling for about $2.50 buy it. It will look great sitting unread on your cycling bookshelf.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-12-31 00:00:00 Romain Gilson More than a coffee table book...really interesting notes and touristy information. Gorgeous images. It'll make you want to move to Provence.