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Everything you always wanted to know about France |
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France Voila Newsletter #52 June 24 2001
In this issue
1. Last Minute Bargains
2. New On-Line Guides 3. Cruising on the Canal du Midi 4. Paris Notes - 10 Minutes From My Keyboard 5. 15 Minutes of Fame 6. Working and Living in France 7. Paris Exchange 8. Hotels in France, Spain and Italy 10. Nizas - Spectacle and Kermesse 11. Montpellier feature, by Caroline Jackson ===
There are over 500 features and articles in these newsletters, some of
them are even useful !!! You can see the archives at . .
===
1. Last Minute Bargains
(see also item 3. about the canal du Midi in this newsletter)
In the five years we have been offering vacation homes though Internet
sites, each year we have seen a difference in the types of inquiries,
guests and properties being offered. This last year has been markedly
different, I believe for two main reasons.
i) There are far more people using Internet services to choose their
travel and vacation requirements and ii) There are now many more
properties being offered for self catering accommodation.
The number of visitors to France last year was a record at over 73
million, but this is an increase of about 3% over the previous year .
However, the numbers of properties being offered for self-catering
rental has more than doubled in the last 5 years.
Some very good value properties are still not fully booked for July and
August. So if you are looking for a last minute bargain you may be
lucky. In general prices for rental properties have not increased for
two years, but the standards demanded by visitors is much higher.
Large beds, more bathrooms, swimming pools and quality kitchens are
expected for villas and comfort, sun terraces, charm and pleasant
surroundings for village homes.
We always do our best to select the best value properties to offer
through our rental sites at . . .
There are some super places with accommodation available in August and
I know the owners will give some special offers. For example, look at
or mail me with your dates and requirements and we will do our best
===
PENPAL
Any kids want a pen pal in England? here is a mail from Luc , if you
want to write send me your email and I will pass it on . . .
"please find me a penfriend anywhere. My name is Luc Chignell and I
will be 7 in August. I live in England. I would like to write to
someone."
Write to me at . . .
===
2. New On-Line Guides
There are now a total of 7 guides available from . . .
These are all kept up to date by the writers and you can only get them from
this site as a download, you cannot get these guides anywhere else. More
are being added each month.
The guides available now are about . . .
Good Value Eating in Paris
Good Value Hotels in Paris Cycling in Paris Gay Paris Working and Living in France Gumbo Cook Book All the guides are written by professional writers here in France .
If you are thinking of living in France or buying property in France
then you can subscribe to the French Property Digest at . . .
All these are published by our sister company . . .
I have had some mail asking if "Frog" is an insulting word to a French
person, the answer from every French person I have asked is definitely
not, many of my French friends have had the nick-name "Froggy" or
"Frog" and it is thought of more as an endearment.
===
MAILBOX
Dear Tony and Carole,
We have been looking for a place to find out what the accepted (as to
not look like the ugly American) attire is in France. We will be
visiting during June 2001 and will be going to Southern France, for
the most part. We will be spending about 4 days in Paris at the end
of our trip. Is it acceptable to wear jeans? Are casual cotton
slacks OK for men as well as women? I have heard you should dress up
(?) to go the museums. True? Are shorts OK? Walking (longer ones)
or not (shorter ones - mid thigh)? Are we worrying too much?
Thanks in advance!
=
Hi
What an interesting question! I do think you are worrying too much
but clothes are always so interesting. Basically, you can dress
casual anywhere, and jeans are just so fashionable at the moment
(again). The American stereotype tourist stands out by being 'loud'
in color choice, so dress simple but stylish if you want to blend in.
French people are quite discreet dressers and don't like too many
colors and designs all mixed up together. Beachwear (swimming
costumes, etc) would not be suitable for visiting churches and
museums but otherwise anything goes in terms of jeans/slacks/shorts
for men or women.
bonnes vacances!
Carole
===
3. Cruising on the Canal du Midi
A "World Heritage Site" the Canal du Midi was built in the 18th
century to join the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. I have read (not
counted them) that there are 2 million trees planted along the banks
to give shade from the sun, many of these trees are now over 200 years
old.
The canal goes through some of the most beautiful parts of France and
it is an engineering masterpiece.
A new company has just been started by a friend of ours in one of the
best parts of the Canal du Midi at le Somail, near Narbonne and
Carcassonne. You can see his new site at . . .
I know they have some boats for late availability at special prices,
some are even available from next week, so to really make your visit
to France a unique and relaxing experience, book one of these
traditional steel-hulled canal boats which are fully fitted and very
comfortable.
Or write to me at. . .
===
NEWSCLIP
The French national railway SNCF opened a new high-speed line that
will sharply reduce travel times from Paris to southern destinations,
according to the International Herald Tribune. The TGV Mediterranee
will travel from Paris to Marseilles in 3 hours, down from the current
4 hours 20 minutes. The popular destination Aix-en-Provence can now
be reached directly in 2 hours 54 minutes versus the current
connection that takes over five hours.
===
4. Paris Notes - 10 Minutes From My Keyboard
I am writing this letter from my apartment (cupboard) in Paris, I
explained why I am here in #51, you can see this in the archives at .
The weather the last month has been mostly hot and sunny so I try to
get out each day away from this computer. Once upon a long time ago I
was a photographer, so I make a point of taking my camera with me
while I eat my corned beef and condensed milk sandwiches with a flask
of tea and sit by the river or on one of the bridges over the Seine.
Within 10 minutes walk of my artists studio (read - dark stuffy room)
there are most of the great palaces and monuments of Paris. I have
put the first of these personal pics on the site at . . .
I have a theory that this moment in time may be the best time it has
ever been to see Paris. Most of the magnificent buildings and
monuments of the last 500 years have been cleaned and repaired in the
last decade, many large open places have been cleared and re-paved,
the trees are now mature since all being cut down in the 19th century
in the troubles and sieges of the time. Yet the old Paris is still
there, the city is a city of the people. Paris is not just great
building, but thousands of wonderful homes, some 400 years old which
have recently been carefully restored by their proud owners.
But the heart of Paris, like any great city, is the people. On
Thursday evening it was the "fete de music", I emerged from my
subterranean burrow to get some last minute sun (the longest day of
the year) and found myself surrounded by music and singing. It is no
exaggeration to say that in central Paris there was music on every
corner. From groups of people just singing, all strangers, all ages
laughing and singing anything - to huge rock groups with their road
crews and convoys of lorry loads of lighting gear.
The party went on all night, at midnight the Bvd St Germain, just
round the corner from me, was solid with hundreds of thousands of
people, cars gave up trying to move and the drivers just got out and
joined the party.
Friday morning and the tons of bottles and paper had disappeared,
business as usual.
One aspect of Paris music I am not so excited about is the bongo
drummer. These "artists" bash away on tuneless tubs for their own
pleasure, I am happy for them to be expressing themselves, but their
tedious thumpy stuff can be heard for a mile so one is never out of
range. On the other hand I did see one bagpiper last week, so things
could be worse.
===
CLASSIFIED
Dear Sir
I am looking for a small country/village house to rent as my permanent
home, probably from September of this year. I would need 2 bedrooms
and a small garden. Can you help? Regards
Margaret James
====
5. 15 Minutes of Fame
Andy Warhol said (something like) "everyone will be famous for 15
minutes". Last month I sort of made it, the mail box was on steroids.
A wonderful and obviously very intelligent and beautiful journalist
(Kitty Yancey) ran a piece about us in USA Today . . .
You can see it on our site at . . .
Please tell all you friends, tell your local TV station to sign me up,
I want to be famous !!
Reality check - I am in a one roomed cell, OK it is in Paris, but not
one movie producer has called in the last month.
===
MAILBOX
Dear Tony and Carole:
My wife and I are retiring soon. We are considering buying a house or
apartment in a medium-sized town in France and retiring there. I
appreciate the information you provide about tax and real estate
issues in France. But what about immigration issues associated with
moving to France for retirement? We anticipate living in France for
up to 11 months each year. Does France have a visa that permits
Americans who purchase homes to reside in France for all or part of
the year? Thanks for your help.
Lance
=
Hello Lance
We have just published a guide about living in France, you can see
details on our site at . .
Yes you can get a full time residents permit and it is not a problem
to live here full time.
Please let me know if we can help (and purchase our guides)
best wishes
Tony
===
6. Working and Living in France
Dream of working and living in France but don't know how to go about
simply DOING IT. Rose Marie Burke's Working and Living in France: the
Ins and Outs tells you how.
This guide gives you the information from the INSIDE -- how others
like yourself have managed to work within the French system. Written
from personal experience and including lots of individual stories,
Rose describes how it can really be done, with the right information
and the right skills.
===
QUESTION
Hello
I love your site and wish that I'd known about it before my recent
trip to France! However, things went very well, we had a good time,
and we did as you suggested and stayed in Paris only a few days to see
the important sites and then to the country by car. It was great!
I have a question. We seemed to wait endlessly for our check in
restaurants. It was never brought unless we specifically asked for it
after many long waiting periods. I realize that in America, they
sometimes throw it at you before you've finished, but this was the
other extreme. Why is this and what is the correct procedure to
obtaining the check? What we ended up doing was asking for the check
by using the term l'addition.
Thank you. Maureen
=
Hello Maureen
Usually you only need to catch the eye of the waiter and make a sort
of writing sign as if you had a pen in your hand or, as you correctly
did, ask for "l'addition s'il vous plait".
All bills include the service charge, it is not necessary to tip on
top of this nor is it expected, but if you have had some very special
service then it is fair to add a bit extra, this is up to you.
The restaurant guides on the site at . . .
Not only tell you the best value restaurants in Paris, but also many
valuable tips.
===
7. Paris Exchange
You can log in, add and edit your own classified adverts FREE at
Please let me know if this would be a useful service on our sites. .
===
QUESTION
Hello..
I just discovered and began enjoying your pages today, via the article
in USA Today.
I live in New York State, and am in the process of planning a trip to
England and France.
I was looking at the rentals page and - being single - immediately
noticed that all accommodations are for two or more people. I
understand why, yet that not only leaves out a large potential market
of renters, but also leaves us singles literally paying double!
Perhaps you should venture down the unexplored avenue of rentals to
people traveling alone? There might be folks willing to rent a
bedroom in their home, or similar situations, and no doubt there are
many other singles in need of such accommodations.
Question: What months are the 'high', 'low' and middle rental seasons?
That might seem a silly question. I ASSUME that the high tourist
season would include July and August. But I've also learned, to my
dismay, what can happen when one 'assumes', so would rather appear
foolish than court disaster with an assumption. Thank you for
creating an informative and helpful site!
Ruth
=
Hello Ruth
Yes, most accommodation is for two or more people, there is often a
single supplement if a room is charged per person.
It is an interesting idea to offer a directory of single person
accommodation, I know some chambre d'hôte do this but there is not a
central reference point I can find;
If anyone knows about this please write to me at . . .
Regarding high low mid season, this depends on the owners of the
properties, there is not one agrees formula, some owners give us
charts with many different rates for each week of the year.
Basically in France July and August are high season, May June and
September are mid season and the rest low season.
===
8. Hotels in France, Spain and Italy
You can now reserve hotels on-line from our site in France Spain and
Italy . . .
===
QUESTION
I was wondering where I can hire road bikes, I am a new Zealander
coming over for 2 weeks in late August and need to keep training. I
will take any old road bike (we are not rich) do you have any ideas??
Alex Mann
=
Hello Alex
Bike rentals start at about 75 francs a day, these are only top
quality and new bikes. I have never found anyone renting cheaper or
old bikes, possibly too dangerous for insurance etc.
But you can buy a new bike in the big stores for as little as 800
francs and I have bought second hand bikes in some charity places for
as little as 30 francs and they have been very good?
An excellent charity reseller is Emmaus, they have outlets in or near
most large cities.
There is a lot of help in the new biking guide at . . .
Hope this helps
Tony
===
10. Nizas -Photo - Spectacle and Kermesse
Working away in my dungeon in Paris I have not spent much time in
Nizas, but I have been down for two long weekends in the last month
for the school photos for my son Jack, and the school "Spectacle" and
the school "Kermesse".
The school photo is fun, in the last 8 years the village school has
grown from just over twenty children to now 57 next year. There will
be 3 full time staff and three regular assistants.
The quality of French education is as good as any in the world. The
quality of a village school education in France is the best in the
world. (imho)
You can see the latest school photo at. . .
Last Friday was the school "spectacle", a fun evening where the kids
preform plays and we all eat lot of the famous Nizas sausage (singular,
as it can be over 50 ft long) and drink vast quantities of Nizas wine.
Jack was a monkey in the play, his photo is on the site at . . .
On Saturday was the Kermesse, this is a fete, a party and another
excuse to eat sausage and drink wine.
One very encouraging thing about the new mayor, he doesn't give
speeches, I have only heard him speak once in public. Normally an
audience waiting to get their teeth around the free bottles of wine is
forced to endure an endless presentation of talks and speeches on any
public occasion. I did notice that his false teeth whistled a bit, so
I must hope he never gets a new set, or we will have to hide them.
The Blue barrel has gone from the front of our street, the facade of
our neighbour looks great and, like Paris, Nizas is getting a
facelift. However, the summer vacation is nearly here so I assume
some artifact will appear to allow the Belgian behemoth to get into
the garage.
===
11. Montpellier feature, by Caroline Jackson
We are happy to publish features and articles you send in. I have now
made a special part of the site at . .
There is a new article about the main city near Nizas, Montpellier, by
. . . Caroline M. Jackson, Travel Writer
===
Our aim is to provide you accurate and relevant information about
France. If there is anything you think we should write about or if
there is anything you would like help with, please write to me at . .
A Bientôt
Tony
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