Getting to Know France
Overview of the Country
Reading about France
Books & Encyclopedias
Browsing Areas and Subject Headings
Newspapers
Travel Guides
Travel Web Sites
Films
Geography and Maps
Language
Maps and atlases are great tools for getting a feel for the landscape and geographic borders of your area. Many geographical resources are available to you at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Maps in Print
A wide range of maps can be found in the
Maps Collection. The
Undergrad Library and
Davis Library have many types of atlases, including international and historic. They are on atlas cases in each library's reference section. A few useful atlases are:
National Geographic Atlas of the World. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.
Undergrad Library Reference G1021 .N38 1999
Davis Library Reference G1021 .N38 1996
Oxford Atlas of the World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Undergrad Library Reference G1021 .A7545 2003
Davis Library Reference G1021 .A7545 2004
Atlas of Western Art History: Artists, Sites, and Movements from Ancient Greece to the Modern Age. Ed. John Steer and Anthony White. New York, NY: Facts on File, 1994.
This atlas covers the history of Western art in a primarily chronological manner. Readers can see how French artists exchanged ideas with artists of other parts of the world throughout many centuries. Numerous French villas are also marked on a map of significant Western European architecture.
Davis Library Reference: Atlas Case
G1046.E64 S7 1994
Atlas of World History. Ed. Patrick K. O'Brien. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Maps in this atlas will help you visualize France's roles in European and world history since ancient times. Migration and conquest are recurring themes.
Davis Library Reference: Atlas Case G1030 .O85 1999
Maps Online
For an extensive collection of online international maps, search the University of Texas's Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection. Here you can find maps of France.
Do you rely on MapQuest for planning your American travels? You can use it to find French maps, or even plan French road trips too! Instructions are a little different for each type of map. Look close to the boxes where you enter an address for your destination. On some screens you will need to choose "Outside the U.S. or Canada;" on others you will choose "Europe" or "France."
The MultiMap web site has interactive maps of France. Click on your destination to zoom in. Most regions can zoom in to the highway level, but you can see major streets in urban centers.
