 |
Everything you always wanted to know about France |
|
|
Rentals-France Newsletter November 6 1999. Number 11
======================
1. History, Nizas and Provence The new owners of an old wine estate in Nizas had a shock recently when, digging the foundations for a swimming pool the came across a human skeleton. By digging further, in the archives, the area was found to be on the site of an 11th century church which was totally demolished in the French revolution in 1790/91 and had completely disappeared. Records revealed that older Roman remains were found when the railroad was built at the beginning of this century and many other tombs and ruins were discovered during agricultural work in the last war. It is not really surprising in a region where people have lived uninterrupted for thousands of years that traces of older habitation can be discovered like this, but I am constantly surprised by the seeming lack of interest this has for the local people. In this case the police were called in and someone had to say this was a normal 10th century burial, (there are no suspects) but every day I see evidence of living history and very few people seem interested.
We are looking forward to welcoming some guests who will
arrive for the new year and are staying with us. They are
coming from the USA and one reason that they are coming
here is to greet the new millennium in a home where people
have lived since the last millennium, a real link with the past.
== 400,000 YEARS OF PROVENCAUX After six years of preparation, it has been announced that Europe's biggest museum of prehistory will open its doors next May. The project was conceived by Professor Henry de Lumley, director of the Natural History Museum, creator of Marseille University's anthropological laboratory and discoverer of the skull of Tautavel Man. It is the result of his years of research in the caves of the Gorges du Verdon, which disclosed the footprints of the earliest inhabitants dating back 400,000 years, as well as many other treasures - tools, artefacts and skeletal remains. Laid out over more than 4200 square meters, the museum's two levels incorporate an auditorium, library, lecture rooms and display areas using the most modern communication techniques to bring to life the everyday world of man's earliest ancestors. It also includes a life-size replica of the vast Baume Bonne grotto, where the footprints were found. Professor de Lumley hopes that eventually the museum will become a pan-European research center with its own laboratories where the contents of the archaeological sites can be analyzed and inventoried. A massive project, the museum cost 65MF underwritten by a combination of regional, state and European resources. The building which houses it was commissioned from the leading British architect Sir Norman Foster, who has designed it in the typically Provencal shape of an almond. It is sited in the tiny Var village of Quinson (population 350), close by the Baume Bonne grotto. Thanks again to www.frenchnews.com ======================== 2. KUDOS OF THE WEEK Dear Carole and Tony. it's hard to believe that our week has already come to and end. We've had a wonderful time getting to know Jack and the animals (see drawing Sarah 5), thanks so much for the baby sitting, the wine advice, putting up with my incoming faxes and (not least) the noise from Sarah and Theo, Cheers Harvy , Belgium (by way of California) ======================== 3. MILLENNIUM RENTALS Spend the Millennium in a real Chateau. This one sounds really special. I have not been there yet so I am going on recommendations, but there is a 12 Page feature on this property in "House and Garden" (US, October Edition, Page 174).For full details contact the owner direct: Comte Charles-Henri de BARTILLAT Chateau de Saint-Loup F 79 600 SAINT-LOUP LAMAIRE tel : 33 (0)5 49 64 81 73 fax: 33 (0)5 49 64 82 06 E-mail CHdB@compuserve.com http://www.chateaudesaint-loup.com/ ====================== 4. BULLFIGHTS Not all visitors to the South of France realize that bullfights area tradition here. As in Spain, the fights are held in the open arenas, the most important in France being in Beziers, only 10 miles from us. Far from being a thing of the past, it is growing in popularity and all the attempts of the anti bullfight groups have little effect. As in Spain, the fight it to the death (of the bull). In August, the Feria in Beziers is a week where accommodation cannot be found and the city center is blocked with a festive crowd that perhaps has not changed much in two thousand years. It is a long time since I have been to a Bullfight and I am not sure what my reaction would now be if I were to see one now. I reprint an article from www.frenchnews.com/about a recent application to build a new arena in Toulouse. It writes about both facets of the bullfight. == CORRIDA BACK IN TOULOUSE? A major dilemma has been preoccupying Toulousains since the summer: a project for a new bullring. On one side is M. Robert Marg , a cattle breeder, initiator of the project and director of the amphitheater of Beziers. Five years ago, he came to Toulouse for some bull-fighting conferences and was pleased to see an audience of 1500 and afterwards met 200 business managers. Obviously, he thought, there is business potential and a public in Toulouse and the area.Last year he also took part in the official delegation which went to Mexico with President Chirac. From then on the idea of creating a major event took shape: a real feria near the greatest city of the South-West centered on the bull but with all the traditional setting of horses and Flamenco. When asked about opposition to the corrida, M. Marg declares: "That is not the question, there is very little in the South. It has been a tradition for centuries". He continues, in a more political vein, "It is forbidden to forbid, whether the corrida or woodpigeon shooting, that is why parties like Peche, Chasse et Tradition are getting stronger in the South nowadays." As a subject for their masters, two students at Paris' Ecole d'Architecture chose to study a project for the Soleil d'Or arena. This was the amphitheater which stopped holding corridas on October 3rd 1976. Since then it has been demolished and the Lycee des Arenes built on the site. To the anti-corrida faction, they retort that "the corrida creates jobs and benefits local tradesmen." Mystical Neither of them enlarged on the more poetic aspect of this tradition: the corrida is a symbolic fight between light - the torrero - and darkness - the bull, a sort of mystical and pagan meeting which has evolved with Christianity. Indeed a veronica, in bullfighting language, is a pass in which the matador slowly swings the cape away from the charging bull. The term is thought to derive from the gesture made by Saint Veronica when she wiped Christ's face on his way to crucifixion. Animal defence In the other camp, an association from Nimes is campaigning for the abolition of corridas. The Alliance pour la Suppression des Corridas is a member of the World Society for the Protection of Animals. The A.S.C. argues that the bulls are subjected to degrading treatment before being finally put to death. The afeitado, the practice of sawing 5 to 10 cm into the living horn and pushing back the nerves toward the root, deprives the animal of its spatial perception, since horns are a kind of antenna for the bull. As for the picador, he thrusts a 30 cm-long spear into the beast's neck in an attempt to cut the ligament and force the bull to bow its head. He then opens the wound by sticking in the banderilles (6 to 7 cm long) to provoke external bleeding. Eventually, the animal is put to death by a sword and a dagger, with "a repulsive record to date of 34 attempts!" concludes the A.S.C., which is now reassured that there won't be any arena in Toulouse since M. Baudis, the mayor, has written to them confirming his opposition to the project. M. Marg is prospecting in the suburbs for another suitable site.
====================== I am including the links I listed in the last letter as they are very useful for any visitors to Paris. Some visitors we had last month also have a super site and are very warm and interesting people. Their wealth of knowledge about France is legion. They know some very special and secret places to stay, have a look at their site (they are based in Seattle) Hanri and Nancyhelen Fischer Many of you will visit Paris and we have just added a number of links offering information and accommodation in Paris. Recent links include : Leeds Good Value Guide to Paris Restaurants http://www.wfi.fr/leeds/ The Insider's Guide to Paris Hotels Under $100 a Night http://www.wfi.fr/parishotels/ The Best Biking Guide to Paris http://www.wfi.fr/bikingparis/ Rachel Kaplan's Best Buys to French Chic in Paris http://www.wfi.fr/bestbuys/ Parler Parlor French/English Conversation Group http://www.parlerparlor.com/
====================== Having worked as a professional photographer I am interested and delighted at the way technology is making some things easier. Digital photography for me is just as satisfying as is working with a simple clockwork camera and using the techniques of the 19th century in my darkroom. Tip : Most modern cameras are totally reliant on batteries. Always carry two spares.
====================== Subscribe free to the email newsletter sent to you every 3 weeks. Paris In Sites has the latest information about Paris and France on: travel and tourism, restaurants, hotels and castles, multimedia & training, education and language learning, books, art & exhibitions and more. It has what's new and news from the Star Community of Sites hosted on WebFrance International.
======================== by Julien de Savignac The '99 vintage has above all been a damp one! More rain than in 1997 and regular showers between March and September... on the whole, a year which was very hard to control in terms of blight, botrytis and pests. Nevertheless, efficacious modern materials combined with sensible doses of traditional preventive measures or increased vigilance on the part of the organic and affiliated growers have managed to keep the vineyards in good condition up to harvest time. The result has been a very pleasant surprise on the healthiest vines where they were not overloaded with a surfeit of grapes. Without the usual heat waves and droughts, the whites have kept a maximum of aromas and ripened happily in the heavy, stormy weather at the end of August. A good acidity count promises some well-balanced wines. Baby wine The sauvignon musts, now just beginning to ferment, have produced some very aromatic vins bourrus ('baby' wine: fermenting grape juice, delicious when drunk with roast chestnuts), tasting of a blend of ripe fruit with judicious overtones of box and black currant buds. Vineyards producing sufficiently rounded flavours can expect some rich keeping wines. The semillons are often picked after the mid-September showers. Less lively at the beginning, they help to add roundness to blends or, if vinified on their own, give simple, fruity wines with lots of character, ready to drink from the beginning of 2000. As for the reds, well managed vines everywhere have matured astonishingly well: the pips and tannins, normally difficult to detect at this stage, are very ripe and are already lending some woody, torrefied notes to the grapes. The earliest musts have a beautiful colour and, once stabilised through the appropriate vinification techniques, look likely to give some round, full-bodied wines with silky tannins which will be very drinkable early on. A damp year is never easy and demand extra sanitary and anti-fungal treatments, more costly thinning and green pruning operations and other methods specially adapted to each vat to bring out the best of what may, in the end, give disappointing results... All these vital tricks of the trade will reward the best winegrowers with some excellent, characterful wines this year. ======================== We've all heard about wine, particularly red wine, being good for the health. It started (at least modern man's realisation started) back in '93 when two Californian doctor/winegrowers wrote a book called 'The French Paradox'. They recorded their observations that the French eat a lot more fat - especially goose fat - than Americans and many other Western peoples, and yet their rate of heart disease is much lower. Conclusion: red wine is the secret. Since then, from time to time various studies have confirmed the doctors' findings - although a few have dismissed them - but now the French have done their own research: 36,000 middle-aged Frenchmen were monitored and it was found that moderate wine-drinking reduced the number of deaths from heart attack by 45%-48%. Drinking in general was given the green health light - providing it is not overdone. Even beer drinkers can rejoice - they are less likely to have heart problems than non-drinkers. As usual, and as for (nearly) all things, for the benefits to be really worthwhile, the experts insist on moderation - sadly, it's certainly not a case of the more you drink the fitter you'll be: three or four glasses a day, preferably with food, will do the trick. Just how many glasses depends on many factors, a major one being body weight, which is why, generally speaking, women can 'take' less alcohol than men.
======================== To Fruitcake, dogs can travel from the USA to France for about $80 ask you owners to bring you, I don't believe you can be as awful as they say (or can you); =
======================== |