New Edition! The Beginner’s Guide to the French Riviera
Books on Provence · Inspire · Mary Kay Seales
The Beginner’s Guide to the French Riviera: Stop Dreaming & Start Packing, 2nd Edition by Mary Kay Seales
The Second Edition to The Beginner’s Guide to the French Riviera, with updates on restaurants, hotels, and day trips from your base in Nice or Villefranche-sur-Mer, has everything you need to help plan your first trip to the land of James Bonds, movie star after-parties, mega-yachts, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The secret is that you don’t have to be a movie star or millionaire to enjoy this sun-drenched strip of the Mediterranean coastline, the lovely blue, oh-so-blue Côte d’Azur.
What sets this guide apart from the myriad, and great, selection of travel books on the French Riviera is its helpful direction on where and how to start your exploration: which cities to choose as a base, the best options for accommodations, and a wide variety of day trips. It is told from the perspective of a solo woman traveller on a non-millionaire’s budget, a swimmer and hiker who thought this was a place out of her reach until she discovered it simply wasn’t.

Based on 20 years of return travel to France and the French Riviera, it is truly an insider’s guide from someone who has a love affair with the sun, the art, the beaches, and the colours of the Côte d’Azur, who can ‘show you around the place’ like a trusted friend:
“The Beginner’s Guide is written in a friendly, open style that makes you feel you are talking with a trusted companion. There are subtly lyrical moments of writing in this practical guide, and a bright sense of humor that makes it a joy to read. Gorgeous photography makes you feel you are already on the French Riviera, and clear information and advice makes you feel ready to pack your bags and go.” Liza Ketchum
Available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback versions, it is the perfect companion and guide to an amazing first journey, with hope from the author that you will also fall in love and return to the Côte d’Azur again and again.
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Mary Kay Seales
Mary Kay Seales was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest in Washington State, where she also teaches writing to international students at the University of Washington. As a lifelong traveler, photographer and writing teacher, her recent move into travel writing was a natural progression.
She has lived and worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Costa Rica, India, Azerbaijan and France, and her travels include Bora Bora, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Peru among other destinations.
She is the author of two guide books - The Beginner’s Guide to the French Riviera: Stop Dreaming & Start Packing, and The Beginner’s Guide to the Olympic Peninsula: Exploring the Wild Beauty of the Pacific Northwest - as well as a frequent contributor to other publications in France.
Her most recent blog is The Conscious Traveler.
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