Rivières nature en Kayak Gonflable book review

By Peter Knowles

This is a brand new, exciting guide book to some of the best paddling trips on rivers in France – selected as those that are best for inflatable canoes. These are relatively easy rivers at grades 1-3, so I think this also makes it ideal for SUPs, open canoes and touring kayaks.

Rivières nature en Kayak Gonflable book review

Laurent Nicolet, the author, is a well known recreational paddler. He lives in the French Alps and has a lifetime’s experience of French rivers. Besides being a kayaker, canoeist and rafter, he has always been an enthusiastic inflatable paddler – so he writes with great personal knowledge and authority. (He was also a contributor to our best selling White Water South Alps guidebook).

This guidebook is high quality, full colour, with good maps and inspiring photographs. I showed the book to several friends and everyone was impressed and immediately wanted to browse it! Of course the book is in French, however the layout is clear and logical so even if you only have limited French you should find it easy to use.

The book covers 45 trips all over France, but understandably mainly in the south of the country. I was excited to see some trips on rivers that I have not seen featured in other guidebooks, in any language. There are also a few new trips on rivers like the Rhone, where recent developments have made them accessible for paddling.

In summary, I think this is a great buy for any paddler who wants more information on French rivers than are covered in our own Rivers Publishing guidebooks. I am told has been very well received in France and

Rivières nature en Kayak Gonflable book