Hip Hotels: France (HIP Hotels®) Book

The word "HIP" emblazoned in big white letters on the sumptuous red cover gives some indication of the cool elegance that lies within the covers of Hip Hotels: France. Combining the slick of City with the variety of Escape, this fabulously well-designed book is a must. The ultimate marriage of travel guide and aspirational coffee-table book, Hip Hotels: France offers the discerning traveller, the design aficionado and the gourmet a bounty of beautiful places in which to stay. Author Herbert Ypma, founder of the award-winning magazine Interior Architecture and self-confessed Francophile journeyed through the famous cities and forgotten corners of France to put together this inspirational collection of hotels. With his warm, unaffected prose and sumptuous photographs, Ypma manages to conjures the France of our imaginations--the Camargue where "the vast flat expanse where the sky and the sea meet in a composition of bold horizontal stripes", or St Martin on Ile de Re "the kind of town that makes you want to buy a 2CV, learn to play boules and never again drink anything but wine". The hotels themselves reflect the incredible diversity of the French landscape--elegant townhouses, medieval chateaux, farmhouses, alpine chalets and modern architectural splendours such as Le Corbusier's utopian dream, Unite d'habitation--all are wonderfully unique and many are more affordable than you might imagine. Like any good guide book Hip Hotels: France has a clear format which is easy to navigate. The regions of France in which the hotels are located are laid out in alphabetical order and each establishment is accompanied by details of its history, its surroundings and the noteworthy signatures in its guest book. Contact details (address, telephone, fax and room rates in French francs) are also included. Lavish full-page shots of the interior and exterior of the hotels combined with smaller photographs of interesting design features make it abundantly clear what makes the selected hotels so special. If anything is going to tempt you across the channel, this book is it. --Sarah CrawfordRead More