France "Voila", August 4, 2000, # 36

This week

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1. Once Upon a Time...

..I was a photographer, as a freelance I worked for some big advertising agencies for money and showed at "art" exhibitions for fun. Since moving away from London I have done very little (no commercial) work (if you are more than a five minute walk from an art directors desk, you may as well be on the moon).

When we moved to France, 11 years ago, I had the idea of running a series of photo courses, we made the accommodation in our home in Nizas with this in mind and my first web-site was to promote these "Zone System" workshops. However, we got full with regular guests and I have only had the space to run a few short workshops. Making Internet sites and looking after properties here has taken all my time, I keep saying I will do it next year!!

But this week I unpacked my ancient cameras and started to build a documentary about my village. Friends and neighbours are getting interested and I am building a website to document this project at..

It is just beginning , so please call back to the site regularly and watch it take shape.

All the ladies are providing their local recipes, the wine makers and olive growers are keen to be represented, the Mayor is interested and I am very pleased to be thinking about contrast ranges, brightness and shadows instead of XML, JavaScript and perl for a few hours.

I have a feeling that this needs to be done, it cannot be a commercial project, it needs sponsors, but the next 12 to 15 months could be very significant in the life of this village, and hundreds of others like Nizas. For over two thousand years people have lived in these villages to use the land - wheat, corn, sheep and now wine. The future is likely to be something else - tourism, information technology, retirement, vacation homes.

Whatever I do will not change anything, the French government has already set that in motion with the massive investment in new roads, a new high speed rail connection and new airfields opening for volume passenger traffic.

I would just like to share with you what we have today.

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2. Provence

Last week I said that I did not know where Provence was as it is not a department in France but part of the name of the Region "Provence-Alpes-Cote D'Azur" and covers half of the south of France. My thanks to a friend, Barbara, who has sent me this explanation about Provence.

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Hi Tony, You asked about Provence and where it is. Provence is an ancient province of France. Originally a large region from Iberia (Spain today) east to Italy and north to Vienne . The capital of this region used to be Aix en Provence. Greek Colonies were founded in Provence around 600 BC, the Romans came in 27 BC and created the senatorial Province of Narbonne. By the end of the third century this was split into Narbonnaise in the West and Viennoise in the East.

This was integrated in the "Franc" Empire of Pepin le Bref and later annexed by France in 1481 after the death of René d'Anjou, King of Naples, who was the last "Comte" of Provence.

Provence is now composed of the former County of Venaissin (Région d'Avignon) and the former county of Nice. So there are today 3 different parts

i. Provence Rhodanienne ( Crau, Camargue and Comtat de Venaissin et Pays des Plaines)

ii. Provence Intérieure ( Sainte-Victoire, Sainte Baume, l'Estrel, Maures), les Plaines de Provence from the "Plateau Valensole"

iii. Provence Maritime between the Rhone Delta and the Italian Border.

Barbara

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My thanks to Barbara. So it seems that Provence is bigger than the region which includes its name and That parts of Languedoc and Rhone-Alpes are in Provence. I will try to find out more, I have found a couple of maps which are helpful. You can find them from the maps page at...

http://goto-france.com/maps/

Many people wish to visit Provence, once I am sure where it is I can help and advise.

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3. Passports and Visas

If you need a passport or visa quickly, this web site can help, for a fee.

http://www.passportsandvisas.com/

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4. Getting cash, changing money

Use your charge cards as much as possible, but check that you are not surcharged by an extra 2 or 3 percent. Most banks make a transaction fee of 1 percent but some banks make no charges at all. Amex and Diners add about 2 percent but these cards are not popular in France. Ask you bank what they charge before you leave.

Get your local currency from the ATMs which are very common in France. You will pay about 1% for the currency transaction plus a fixed fee of about $3, so try to withdraw a larger sum. Make sure you have a 4 digit PIN number as this is required by all ATMs here.

Here are the sites for Visa and Mastercard giving International locations of ATMs

Using Travelers Checks or cash is an expensive way of buying foreign currency, if you have charge cards you get a much better deal.

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5. Road Signs

I mentioned a few things to watch for when driving in France in "France Voila #35", Sara wrote to me from Georgia with this comment...

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Tony, Just to emphasize your rule of the French roads. My husband and I have been to France many times, last year we were guilty of crossing a solid white line in the center of the road. We were not aware of this rule. The Gendarmes in an unmarked car immediately stopped us and the fine was FF 600, about USD100. The English speaking gendarme said he was sure the US had the same rule. Yes, the fine was on the spot. He actually asked how many FF we had and the fine was very close to this amount. However, he was very polite and courteous. Sara, Atlanta,

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I have always found gendarmes very polite and helpful.

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6. A Fishy Tale

A France Voila reader, Michael Moriarty, has sent me an amusing and informative story for the newsletter, here is an extract, you can read the whole piece on our site at..

http://goto-france.com/fishing/

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..."Boring stuff, this fishing, - the brain-dead after the mainly inedible." Such comments, learnt in casually overheard conversations in pubs and clubs, are generally the opinion of the ignorant, on the borders of which, I must confess, I have long hovered. Then I went to France. To Carp France, in fact. Carp France - or to give its full web-site name,

- is the business of fishing holidays in one of the most peaceful and tourist free regions of France.....

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7. Gallagher's, "Tip of the Week"

Mary Gallagher is a Journalist and TV presenter, her web site

http://GallaghersTravels.com/

Is a pleasure to read and is full of off-beat and up-beat observations of the travelers world..

I consider travel to and from days as throw away. Seldom are the flights on time, perhaps the luggage disappears, someone forgot how many time changes we were going through, my airport transportation never shows, I never eat or sleep well beforehand, and have finally decided instead of agitation and frustration just realize this is an expensive challenging period of time. I make no other plans than to get to my new hotel, acclimate, eat and rest. Perhaps a walk around the neighborhood or a swim in the pool.

Stress is a big killer and it uses massive amounts of energy, why put unreasonable demands upon yourself? Especially for things we don't have any control over like the airlines, the weather and extensive amounts of others general incompetence. With one day devoted to arriving or returning, I remain civil, perhaps tired but not stressed out.

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8. Fetes and the Feria

This weekend is the village Fete in Nizas, I will try and share the feel of three days of festivities on the www.Nizas.com website. The population trebles and a fairground is set up in our village square. We live about 75 yards from the roundabouts and dodgem cars, but with walls up to 10 ft thick in places we are well insulated from the "music". We often have our neighbours staying in our home as they cannot sleep in theirs. The "fun" goes on all night and there is a big community paella on Saturday in the square with unlimited free wine.

A week later is the "Feria", the bullfights, in Beziers, our next major city. Many people forget that this is a Mediterranean culture and the influences of Rome and Spain are still very strong. I wrote about the bullfights in an earlier newsletter, you can see it in the archives from the www.goto-france.com site. This year I have booked a seat and will show this part of our "culture" on the Nizas site.

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Let me know if you would like any special topic mentioned or if you have something to say please write to me at

mailto:tony@Nizas.com

Carole and the Kids are away next week so food parcels and invitations to candlelit dinners are most welcome

Best wishes

Tony