France Cote d?Azur by Chris Craggs ? Rockfax
23rd Nov 2011
Chris Craggs has been writing guidebooks, many for Rockfax, for a long time now, mainly to interesting foreign destinations so it should come as no surprise that he’s found another. Well, when I say found, it’s always been there, but we Brits have a habit of going to a few key honey-pot venues. This 400 page monster covers the following crags, many of which I have never previously heard of, such is the wealth of amazing climbing in France:
Sainte Victoire
Les Calanques
Toulon Area
Chateauvert
Chateudouble
Verdon Gorge
Massif de l’Esterel
Gorges du Loup
Saint-Jeannet
Monaco Area
One of three Rockfax guides currently in print to the south of France (Langeudoc-Roussillon and Haute Provence), with another on the way (Ariege), it genuinely seems unfair just how much quality limestone they have, and just how many pretty settings the limestone is to be found in!
The guide itself is as inspiring as any other modern Rockfax, packed full of decent photos, clear topos, useful information such as GPS coordinates for parking areas, the standard icon-based classification system, and some intro pages in foreign languages.
At the latest Banff Mountain Festival there were just three books in the mountain composition category (guidebooks to you and me) and they were all British. We ought to be very proud of our standards.
Retails at £24.95
