This review published at The Children's Book and Media Review run by Brigham Young University.

When Mr. Brown announces that the family will be going to France for their summer holiday, Paddington is excited to take his first real holiday, especially when he is put in charge of the itinerary. He decides that going on holiday is a special occasion so he takes money out of the bank, gets stuck talking to customs over some confusion about a passport, makes a meal of escargot for the family, visits a fortune teller, goes fishing, and joins the Tour de France before returning home to London.

This book has a more coherent theme than the other books because the whole book describes Paddington’s adventures getting ready to go to France and then his time there, but each chapter still tells an individual story about things Paddington is doing. No matter where he goes, however, Paddington will always end up in some sort of trouble. Readers will enjoy Paddington’s adventures in a new place and enjoying the holiday with his family. ( )

I loved the Paddington stories as a child, even though, by the time I was introduced to them in the early 1970s, they were probably already a bit out of date. Indeed, I imagine that they were already rather dated even when they were first published – that is one aspect of their charm. Another is the fact that, unlike the recent films (highly entertaining though they are), all the mishaps and adventures that befall Paddington arise from everyday activities. The normality of the context serves to accentuate the humour and delight of the stories.

I first read [Paddington Abroad] nearly fifty years ago, at a time when I myself had never been abroad. I was, therefore, utterly intrigued with the accounts of Paddington’s preparations for his first foreign holiday with the Brown family, and enchanted by his adventures once he arrives in France. Now, nearly fifty years later and reading it to my great niece, that enchantment remains intact. The stories work just as well now, and my great niece was as delighted with this book as I had been.

Michael Bond’s trick is to write with great simplicity, and he never patronises the reader, of whatever age. His humour works on to levels, delighting his child readers at the most direct level, but also appeals to parents (and great uncles). Paddington has an occasionally alarming honesty, which, supported by his disarming ‘hard stare’, enables him to cut through facades.

In this volume, some of the highlights include Paddington causing consternation at his bank when he attempts to withdraw some money for the holiday, falling foul of passport control, playing the big bass drum in a parade through a French village, and finally even participating in the Tour de France. All very funny and marvellously handled. ( )

Paddington's adventures continue, with one subtle difference. After three books of Paddington misunderstanding the basic day-to-day life of post-war Britain, most of this book is taken up with the Browns' holiday in France. For the first time, the child reader misses out on much of the vicarious pleasure of being "ahead" of Paddington, and Michael Bond seems to try and compensate by making his little calamities overly simplistic and even stereotyped. It's all as gentle and sweet as usual but somehow less fun. The best story by far is "A Visit to the Bank," a wholly London-based pile-up comedy of errors in which Paddington empties his savings account only to discover that all his nice polished coinage has been "replaced," and interest on one pound, three shillings and sixpence simply isn't very interesting! ( )