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Book Review
Guide De La Nature En France

Published by Bordas, Paris. 504pp, 1979

The recent publication of Guide de la Nature en France (1979) (Bordas, Paris) is, in my view, an outstanding event both in the field of travellers, trampers and nature enthusiasts' “Guides”, and in conservation. Here in handy format (in spite of its 504 pages!) is the ideal companion to either a day's walk or a long tour. Here also is concise information — effectively blended with good local maps (although not road-rail maps) and splendid photographs — to tempt anyone with the slightest interest in landscape or wildlife to plan new excursions. It is a book to integrate local natural history information with that provided by standard plant or bird identification books or other accounts of geology or general natural history.

The Guide is aimed at a wide range of enthusiasts for the countryside; it is in the highest degree practical! Who could resist its advice to take one of the “randonnees a bicyclette” (“reméde aux problèmes du pétrole”), or the tours by air, canoe trips, or even “randonnées à skis” so imaginatively described?

The text is the product of a distinguished and experienced group of scientists, ecologists, journalists and photographers assembled under the direction of the Groupe Paul-Emile Victor — the group includes as well as Paul-Emile Victor, such eminent writers and conservationists as Alain Bombard and Jacques-Yves Cousteau. (The group exists “pour la defense de l'homme et de son environment”).

It is of particular interest that New Zealand has just recently begun to develop guides with emphasis upon landscape and natural history; two fairly newly issued volumes are the:

AA Book of the New Zealand Countryside (Lansdowne Press: first published 1978, 3rd edition 1980); and Wild New Zealand (Reader's Digest: 1981).

The New Zealand volumes are also splendidly illustrated, as might be expected in view of the distinguished work being produced by a number of landscape and natural history photographers. Neither is in the compact format which distinguishes the French volume, and makes the latter so useful for ready reference and transport. But it is in the sheer assembly and condensation of information in digested form that the French Guide is so outstanding and surpasses anything yet achieved here. In part this doubtless reflects the comparatively advanced stage which has been reached in the ecological investigation of the European country and landscape. Understanding of our own landscape and ecology is still developing actively and this will naturally be incorporated in guides to the countryside in years to come. Our knowledge of New Zealand's plant and animal life has advanced dramatically in the past half century and this is reflected in the excellent local coverage which has been possible in recent books on our landscape, including the two named above. Perhaps the main criticism concerning these and other recent New Zealand volumes of this type is that travel brochure eulogies of the landscape still creep in — a feature happily absent from the French volume which nevertheless never fails to convey its enthusiasm for the diversity of scenes and landscapes which it describes.