Fodor's French for Travelers for your first trip to France!, July 3, 2000
Reviewer: A reader
I purchased Fodor's French for travelers a short time before a weeklong vacation in Paris. The audio cassettes are extremely helpful! They contain phrases that are spoken clearly and cover nearly every travel situation you might have on a typical vacation. This is by no means a comprehensive language course, but you can learn some useful basic phrases that will help you to get by and be understood while on a trip to a french speaking city or country. The tapes are organized by travel situation, such as "At the Airport," "Going through Customs," "Socializing," and "At The Restaurant." There is even a section for communicating with Doctors and Nurses in case you become ill while on your trip. The compact size of the book made it easy to carry with me while traveling, so it was easy to look up whatever I needed to know at the moment I needed to know it. Not only is the phrase organization of the book good, but it has many helpful and useful tips for getting around France. It helps you to understand the customs of French politeness and manners that someone not native to France would necessarily know. I think this tape is good for those who have little or no knowledge of the language and would also make a quick refresher for those more advanced in the study of French. I recommend this book and its accompanying cassettes (there are 2) to anyone traveling to France for the first time. I know my trip was more enjoyable because I spent some time with this program.

A must if you're traveling to a French-speaking country!, April 22, 2004

Having had a year of French in college, I was concerned that this Audio book would be too basic for me, but I found out it wasn't! It does cover some very basic things (greetings, numbers, etc.) which would be more helpful for beginners, but it also covers typical situations in a trip (airport, restaurant, accommodations, etc.), for which the vocabulary and grammar may not be learned until advanced level courses.

It comes with 2 Audio CD's of about 70 minutes each, broken into 12+ lessons. The book has all the phrases/conversations in the CD's, plus some additional tips/info, as well as a dictionary section with vocabulary targeted for travelers. The book has 260+ pages and it is of very small size, so it is ideal for carrying it around in your trip.

I listened to the CD's while driving, though I recommend reading the corresponding lessons afterwards or in advanced to listening to the disc, as it helps to associate the spelling to the pronunciation. The CD's mostly have words and phrases in them, but they also have small conversations at a bank/restaurant/hotel/airport depending on the lesson. Each word/phrase in the disc is spoken once in English and then twice in French, so you can't miss it if you're paying attention.

I strongly recommend this item, even if you already have basic understanding of French, as it will help you communicate and get around in your trip!

Stop thief!!, December 30, 2004

Get this set if you plan on having a bad time. Barely will you be in to 'Good evening' when the lessons quickly turn to "Stop thief!" or "He stole my watch" or better yet, "I want an attorney" -- all of which are phrases I have NEVER used in France. Fodor's should have had the good sense to give practical lessons first, etiquette, directions, service, culture etc. before launching into rude commands and pick-pocket paranoia.

thank goodness i saw this in the store!, March 7, 2004

i just returned from my first trip to paris. although i had two years french in college, that has been ~14 years and i was fairly concerned about being able to communicate well. i did some review work with conversational french tapes and was going to depend on that when a friend pointed this book out to me. i bought it to take along.

this book is a treasure trove of useful phrases and cultural information, a lot of which is not in the travel guides. the dictionary at the back was very useful, although i wish it had been a bit more comprehensive. between the dictionary and some college french, i was able to enjoy paris IN french, instead of broken english. i hope it brings you the same benefits.

Fodor's French for traveler's, May 6, 2002

I used this book to review my french before a trip to Paris. I've used several similar books by other authors in the past. This one is the best. The dictionary in the back, and the section on grammar were very helpful. Highly recommended.

Good little book, July 30, 2001

Very through book. I took French in high school and this was a great refresher. I should have bought this book when I was in class because it would have helped. Learn a bit of French before you go over so you do not get labeled "American".