ALL THE BEST IN FRANCE,

By SydneyClark '12. Dodd Mead & Cos. 1947. 365 pp.$3,50.

Since the close of the war many Americans anxious to visit France have been deterred by the pessimistic reports on travel and living conditions in that country. This book, written in Paris during the summer of 1946 by an authority on European travel, should allaymost of their fears. Its reassuring picture of postwar conditions there will be welcomed by the prospective tourist and by all those who knew and loved the France of pre-war days.

The first section gives the practical information everyone should have, beginning with passports and ending with the sort of weather to expect in Paris. The reader is reminded that "They still speak French in Paris and to ignore the language deliberately is to impoverish one's travel almost to ruin.'

The next section sketches in the background of the picture with a rapid review of the dominating figures of French history from Vercingetorix to Clemenceau, followed by a chapter on the growth of Paris throughout its seven ages.

Section three introduces the traveler to Paris, with all its historical and artistic monuments, glamorous sights, cosmopolitan atmosphere, and its life of incomparable variety and charm. But Paris, for all its history and beauty, is not France. So, in the last section, the traveler is taken for short visits from the Capital, and finally for an extended tour through the provinces, where life and people are different.

Mr. Clark, well known for his series of travel books on Europe and the Americas, writes engagingly, with touches of humor, and with a sense of proportion about the France he knows and loves. Some Americans who spent last winter in Paris may think that he is too optimistic about living conditions at the present time, but those who know France well will agree with his general picture and be grateful to him for his outspoken confidence in her future.