Guidebook company Bradt has assembled a great collection of tales that range in wrong from “that’s unfortunate” to “how did he survive?” Among the gems: Michael Palin’s attempts to lasso camels, Rolf Potts stumbling onto a secret society in a Jordanian movie house, and Christina Ammon wine shopping in Morocco (a version of which ran in The Chronicle). Typically, we shun the “listification” of travel, reducing history, culture and people to a Top 10 for readers with no attention span. While overall this is one big list, it’s really more a 100-chapter love letter about France and a manual on how other women can best find that love. DeSanctis’ short entries, which range from more narrative to more reportage, include plenty of spots in Paris (obviously), as well as meaningful locations in other regions — the lavender route of Provence, the Bayeux Tapestry in Normandy, the toothy peaks of Chamonix. Using a format employed by Nat Geo and Lonely Planet, the book offers a few glossy pages — a summary and food and cultural highlights, as well as the kind of photos you expect from Nat Geo — for each of 62 cities in the world, arranged in size from Tokyo to Vatican City.