writing for "the guardian", historian andrew hussey described it as an "elegant, entertaining and occasionally brilliant overview of france past and present", noting that despite robb's academic background in french literature, it is written in the style of an accomplished novelist, and lamented that the "discovery" of this element of french history was identified by an english writer, and was yet to be "discovered" by the french themselves. in the "boston globe", richard eder suggested that the time spent on the bicycle provided robb with a fresh approach to telling the history of france, but the four years he spent in the library meant there was a "conscientious pursuit" of detail within the book, covering such a wide variety of topics such as road building, touring, postcards, seaside development, spas, cave exploration, marsh reclamation, and the mountaineering vogue, which weighed the book down and detracted from the core themes.