THE NEW MICHELIN GUIDE FRANCE 2010 HAS ARRIVED

The Michelin guide France 2010, available from 4 March, features a selection of the best restaurants and hotels in France. The new edition includes over 100 newly designated Bib Gourmand restaurants, exclusive offers in more than 1,000 restaurants during the Printemps du guide Michelin and a boxed set of regional guides (not available in UK and Ireland).

The Michelin guide France 2010 has expanded its selection of restaurants offering excellent value for money, listing almost as many Bib Gourmand restaurants as “starred� restaurants. In all, 105 new Bib Gourmand restaurants are featured this year, making a total of 555 dining establishments with menus priced at less than €29, or €35 in the Paris area. The selection covers all types of cuisine, from local and family-style cooking to highly creative, exotic or classic dishes.

The Michelin guide France 2010 has awarded stars to a total of 558 restaurants: 455 one-star restaurants (of which 47 just awarded their first star), 77 two-star restaurants (10 newly promoted) and 26 three-star restaurants (one for the first time).

To help readers get to know the selection, Michelin is organising the Printemps du guide Michelin from March 21 to June 21. During this three-month event, more than 1,000 restaurants in the Michelin guide France 2010 will be offering special deals for the guide’s readers.

Restaurants in all categories, from the simplest bistro to the most elegant “starred� restaurant, will be providing customers with exclusive offers. These include special affordably priced menus, visits to food markets, restaurant open-houses, guided tours of wine cellars with tastings, and special rates for cooking classes, wine lists and menus. To take advantage of these offers, the customer simply shows the restaurant manager a pass that is inserted in the MICHELIN guide France 2010.

The pass is valid for two people and can be used and re-used in all restaurants taking part in the Printemps du guide Michelin. On Monday, March 1, the list of participating restaurants and their offers will be posted on a dedicated website: www.printempsduguidemichelin.fr. Thanks to an application developed by ViaMichelin, the website also allows visitors to search for a restaurant by region or city, for example, and access a personalised itinerary.

Taking a more regional approach this year, the Michelin guide France is now available as a boxed set of six regional guides. Each guide corresponds to a large geographical area in France and features an introduction where readers can search by category for a Bib Gourmand restaurant, charming hotel, guesthouse or “starred� establishment. The selection is presented by region, by department and then, in alphabetical order, by city. In addition, each guide contains a number of regional maps and an index of towns and cities that enables readers to quickly locate hotels and restaurants included in the guide. Consequently, travellers no longer have to take the entire Michelin guide with them for short trips to Brittany or Provence. The lighter-weight regional guide is all they need.

Released alongside the Michelin guide France 2010, the Michelin guide Paris 2010 presents a selection of 60 hotels and 424 restaurants – of which 65 newly selected – for a total of 484 establishments. The guide now features a practical information section, 11 themed categories for differing reader tastes and budgets, 20 Paris district maps and a detachable map of the entire city.

For more than a century, the Michelin guide collection has made travelling easier by providing a selection of the best restaurants, hotels and guesthouses throughout the world. Today, the 25 guides in the collection cover 23 countries on three continents and include more than 45,000 addresses around the world.

Details of the Michelin guide FRANCE 2010 are as follows:

â– 8,072 establishments, of which 4,104 hotels, 515 guesthouses and 3,453 restaurants
â– 558 star-rated restaurants including 455 with one star (47 just awarded their first star), 77 with two stars (10 newly promoted) and 26 with three stars (one for the first time)
â– 555 Bib Gourmand restaurants, including 105 that have just been awarded the distinction
â– 281 Bib Hotels, of which 28 awarded the distinction for the first time
â– 1,920 pages – ?£15.99 (€18.99 in Ireland)
■Price of the box set: €34.50 (in France only)
â– On sale Thursday, March 4, 2010

Details of the Michelin guide PARIS 2010 are as follows:

â– 484 establishments in the selection, of which 60 hotels and 424 restaurants
â– 64 star-rated restaurants including 41 with one star (two just awarded their first star), 13 with two stars (one newly promoted) and 10 with three stars
â– 65 Bib Gourmand restaurants, including 17 that have just been awarded the distinction
â– 448 pages – ?£11.99 (€14.99 in Ireland)
â– On sale Thursday, March 4, 2010