FRANCE ON $50
By Sydney A. Clark '12, Robert M. McBride Co., New York.
This stumpy little volume of 255 pages will be of great value alike to the traveller returning to France and to the traveller making his first visit. The volume is a practical one and is packed full of interesting and valuable information. Names and addresses of hotels and restaurants are given, as well as information about the Metro, bus lines, and train service.
The author in his fifty dollar tour of France has us travel third class. At this point some readers may object and say that such travelling is of course impossible. However, Mr. Clark has tried it out and more and more people are finding that third class in continental trains is entirely acceptable, at least for short distances. At any rate, if one wishes to avoid tourists, the ordinary "American trippers" and to become intimately acquainted with French life such a method of travelling is most desirable. Mr. Clark allows us a budget of forty francs or $1.60 a day for board and room. He finds that in Paris lodging and breakfast will consume about one-half this amount and that there are numerous restaurants where adequate meals may be obtained for six or eight francs. We are given three full days in Paris in which to see the main sights of the city and find that we have spent but ten dollars. From Paris we are allowed to take a two-day chateaux trip, two cathedral trips, a trip to Normandy and thence to Brittany, and then return to Paris. For our fifty dollars we are not allowed to see the Riviera or the Pyrenees unless we substitute these trips for some of the others from Paris. The author, however, discusses trips to these places, giving very definite information. Trips are also suggested for those who feel that they can spend more than fifty dollars on their French visit. This book is so full of valuable information that I can see many travellers taking it with them to France this summer.
