All travelers that book a trip with France Just For You receive a unique personal guidebook (in both printed and digital formats) that is 100% customized for your trip. If you’ve visited France on a self-drive tour with France Just For You, you will probably still have your personalized guidebook as a lifelong souvenir.

France Just For You guidebook
France Just For You guidebook
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France Just For You

We mail out the printed edition to you a month before the start date of your trip, and it contains a wealth of information. This includes:

  • Your unique itinerary based on your interests and our expertise
  • Information and tips about cultural and social specifics of the French people
  • Books you might enjoy reading and movies you might like, relating to France and/or to the theme of your trip or the regions you’ll be visiting
  • Essential French phrases to help you during your trip
  • Maps and directions to your accommodation and places of interest

This video tells you more about the France Just For You guidebook.

Newly printed France Just For You guidebook
Newly printed France Just For You guidebook
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France Just For You

We also thought you may be interested to know how each guidebook is produced! 

We work with local printers Éditions La Simarre here in the Loire Valley, where we’re based. It’s a family business composed of a small team of three: Jean-Christophe (the owner), Laurent and Babeth (the employees - also husband and wife). Laurent and Babeth have been working there since Jean-Christophe’s parents were running the company. Jean-Christophe’s mother continues helping out.

Our trip planner, Clélia, went to visit them recently to find out more about how they work.

Laurent explained that all their clients are treated the same, whether they’re individuals or big companies. They give the same care and attention to detail to every job.

He also explained the different steps involved in getting each France Just For You guidebook printed:

1. When he receives the digital version of the guidebook from us, he sends specific high-quality printing instructions to a huge printer.

The printers receive the digital version of the guidebook
The printers receive the digital version of the guidebook
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France Just For You

2. Before the printing starts, Laurent always ventilates the block of paper so the sheets don’t stick to each other. It’s a real technique that can’t be improvised!

Ventilating the pages of the guidebook
Ventilating the pages of the guidebook
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France Just For You

3. The book pages are printed 4x4 on a big format paper

4. When all pages are printed, Laurent trims them to size, a process we call “massicotage”. He uses a different, even bigger machine for that. By now, Laurent knows the France Just For You guidebook measurements by heart, since he personally has already made 150 books for us!

Laurent using a machine to cut the pages of the guidebook
Laurent using a machine to cut the pages of the guidebook
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France Just For You

5. Once cut, all the pages have to be bound together (“le reliage”) and that’s Babeth’s job, which she does by hand. First she makes two holes with a hammer in the front and back cover. Then she has to make small holes in every page (there are up to 450 pages per book) with a special small machine, before linking them together with a metallic spiral that she presses hard to close. She finishes by adding the elastic that holds the book closed.

6. Babeth wraps each book in craft paper for delivery.

Babeth binding the guidebooks together
Babeth binding the guidebooks together
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France Just For You

7. Clélia goes to La Simarre printers twice a week during high season to pick up the books.

8. Back at the office we add the books to the travel packs and then mail them to our travelers about a month before they arrive in France.

Senior Trip Planner Laura adding the guidebook to a travel pack
Senior Trip Planner Laura adding the guidebook to a travel pack
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France Just For You

 

Clélia said of her experience: “I have to say, I was impressed by the tailor-made nature of the work they do to print the guidebooks. It’s very similar to what we want to deliver to our travelers when planning their trip.”

Handmade, tailor-made, a local company, a family business... it all sounds a lot like France Just For You, doesn’t it?!

If you like the idea of having us plan your self drive tour of France - just for you - we warmly invite you to browse our sample France package tours. All of these can be customized to suit your interests and preferences!

France Just For You

Experts in self-drive tours in France

Travelers Reviews

5.0
Debbi
We worked with Emilie to craft a 10 day trip that customized one of the trips on their website and were wonderfully pleased with our whole experience. The b&b hosts and various guided events we participated in all treated us wonderfully and were clear that Emilie had visited & vetted each property (and even rooms!) The personal tour book we …
DeLana
Emilie put together the best "bucket list" trip for my mother and myself. She listened to all of our requests and tailor made a vacation that was perfect. The attention to detail she paid our trip was mind blowing. She even had a full book made for us to guide us through our journey along with maps, tickets, etc. that were all date stamped …
Roger
For my wife and me, Emilie planned three weeks of wonderful experiences. She was quick to respond to questions and crafted an itinerary which suited us. The selection of places to see, things to do, and where to eat were superb. Emilie added a charming personal touch. As it was our 30-year anniversary, she arranged for an accommodation to welcome …
Jan & Ray
We were overwhelmed by the wealth of information available when attempting to plan our 6 week self drive holiday in France. Never having been to France before we found the task daunting and sifting through forums full of information only confused us. We have traveled in New Zealand using a New Zealand based travel adviser and decided to look into …
Daisy
We had an amazing experience visiting Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne in June 2018. We were a group of eight wine freaks and Emile & Laura organized an amazing itinerary with awesome attention to details. We definitely recommend FJFY!!
Natalie & Family
My husband was born in France and moved to Australia in 1970 when he was just 5. He went back for the last time in 1980 and had not returned since. In January 2017 I started to formulate an idea to surprise him with a trip back home. Being Australian, we love road trips but without his French language skills I felt a bit scared to start booking …

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