Bon Voyage!: An Adult Colouring Book for Lovers of all Things French Paperback – 14 July 2016

I loved Magical cities, but was very disapointed with this book. I was expecting the images to remind me of France, but most of them feel like generic doodles with some text in french. Also, everything feels rushed. Where Magical cities had mostly full page spreads of lovely images, here you only have a few full pages and the rest is just something in the middle of the page.

Love Lizzie's new book! Lots of intriguing, detailed pictures here, so looking forward to colouring them 😊 Paper quality is good and very similar to her previous books.Update: I've had chance to colour up a couple of pages from the lovely book! So much fun, with all the usual intricacies we love from Lizzie's illustrations.

One of the poorest of her books not very many good images lots of text amongst the images only one of the feiffel tower no arch de triompe no lourve very poor in my eyes on design,If any one knows any better paris themed ones in would be great

I am really enjoying the designs. I love the lettering on the french phrases. Some are intricate, some easier. Witty and full of zest. Highly recommended. Fine for Derwent inktense pencils and watercolours.

loved this book

Bon Voyage! is the first in a new series of books from the pens of Lizzie Cullen.Each book will feature a different country and culture. Coming next month is Buena Vista (Spain), Britain and then China, next year.So, first up, it's off to France we go!I've enjoyed all of Lizzie's previous three "Magical" books. They look a bit intimidating at first but they open up incredibly as you colour the images. I was expecting similar images in this book, although focused on aspects of French culture and geography.Here comes the surprise! You have to read the cover blurb carefully before you come to the hint.This is a book of French proverbs, mostly single-sided images, that are based more on the French language (quite literally interpreted at times), with added French iconic details. Within each image are aspects of French culture, some of them quite hard to find.Having coloured one image, the book is growing on me.In colouring these images, I think I'm going to see something very different to the usual French themed colouring books out there. The rewards will be there for those who love the challenge of finding them.Also it has a structure and research element that I enjoy in a book but - "quelle surprise!"You can read the full review and see a video flip through at my blog - Colouring Book Reviews with Prue.

This review is taken from my blog where I review adult colouring books from a mental health perspective. More images can be found here - colouringinthemidstofmadness.wordpress.comI received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book is 25cm square, the same size as her previous books and the bestsellers, it’s paperback with flexible card covers and a blue spine with blue accents on the cover. The spine is glue and string-bound and most of the images are contained to one side of the spread so not too many enter the spine. The paper is bright white, medium thickness and lightly textured, water-based pens don’t bleed at all and only shadow if you press particularly hard with a dark colour, pencils work fine on the paper and you can certainly blend and shade to create effects. The images are printed double-sided and are a mixture of single and double-page spreads but most are single pages with centralised images that don’t go near the spine. This book contains lots of images of French architecture, French food and other things inspired by Lizzie’s travels around the country. Each page contains a phrase or saying written in French and each picture contains a small hidden item that relates to that phrase. At the back of the book is a list of the phrases written in French, what they mean in English and what the English version of that phrase or saying is. Following this are thumbnail images of each illustration identifying what and where the hidden item on that page is. Each page in the book is numbered making it easy to identify the phrase and hidden items on the clue pages at the back. The imagery isn’t quite as French as I’d have liked but it does have some typically French things like cheese, wine, the Metro, sunflowers, the Moulin Rouge, the Sacré-Cœur and more. All of the illustrations are drawn in Lizzie’s signature fish-eye lens style so everything is warped outwards with few, if any, straight lines. Some of the images have the text externally and others have the text worked in as the main feature of the image. This book would be a wonderful present for someone who’s learning French or planning to go to France soon.In terms of mental health, this book is great distraction but can be quite challenging. Lizzie’s illustration style isn’t for everyone, the warped perspective of each image can make identifying the content quite difficult and so some people are put off by this, however, if you take time to identify each section and work out what parts should be what colour, the finished image can look incredible! The line thickness is consistent throughout and is thin and spindly thin. The intricacy and detail levels vary from moderate to extremely detailed so you will need very good vision and fine motor control to make the most out of this book. You will need a very good level of concentration in order to identify the image parts and to work out the perspective of each illustration. There isn’t a specific testing page at the back of the book but there are a number of pages where you could easily test your mediums to ensure that they don’t bleed through or react badly with the paper. The book offers a good level of escapism and transports you off to France through the food, scenery, and architecture that is unmistakably French. It even might help with your understanding of the French language as you read and possibly learn some of the phrases written throughout the book. There are quite a lot of centralised images where space is left that you could use to add your own drawings of backgrounds, however this is by no means compulsory and the images will look finished without any added features.Overall, this is a really nice book that is well thought through, the phrases and sayings written throughout are a really novel concept for a colouring book and a great way of theming the images and this book takes you on a lovely trip through France all from the comfort of your own home. The images aren’t as French as I’d have liked and the unique perspective of Lizzie’s illustrations does make identifying some of them quite tricky, but persevere and you’ll be greatly rewarded with some incredible finished artwork!