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
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!!
Kelly
My husband and I just returned from a 9 day trip to Burgundy and Provence. We had fairly high expectations based on all the reviews we had read about France Just For You. I must say, the trip far exceeded those expectations and was such a memorable experience. The B&Bs recommended were right in line with what we were hoping and the hosts were …
Gabriele
This trip was such an awesome cultural adventure and we can not say enough about Emilie and France Just for You. This service was outstanding, well planned according to our interests and the B&B's were all wonderful. Each B&B was different but all fantastic in their own way. The suggestions Emilie made all worked amazingly well and so did the …
Elliot
You gave me so many good suggestions that honestly, I just walked everywhere you recommended, with something breathtaking around every corner. The guidebook was great and the suggestion to make an effort to try French was a solid one. I did much better once I got comfortable trying. I will recommend your service to anyone I know thinking at coming …
Grace from the US
A Fabulous Honeymoon ! We found France Just For You (FJFY) while doing a google search of places to honeymoon. After reaching out to Laura and Emilie we were immediately met with professionalism and enthusiasm. This trip was flawless in every way possible, any question we had about traveling to a foreign country had been thought of and answered by …
Mervyn
My wife and I and two friends decided we would like to visit France and by chance I found Emilie's website and initiated an online conversation with her over a year ago. We really did not know what we wanted to do, nor where we wanted to go and so our planning became a moving feast, most ably supported by Emilie. How she ever put up with our …

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