France Voila Newsletter #37 August 15 2000

This week

===

1. Price Guarantee

When I was a small boy, I remember department stores in England who had a slogan "Never Knowingly Undersold", for years I had no idea what this meant, but I liked the store because they seemed to be talking to me personally with this slogan.

Most of the properties we rent have the prices shown in US$, I do this to try to give some uniformity and because the US$ is the only real universal currency, we have guests from over 80 different countries.

I try to work closely with the owners of all the properties which we rent through the web sites including..

http://goto-france.com/

http://RentalsFrance.com/

http://GoTo-Languedoc.com/

We do not act as exclusive agents and we encourage all owners to advertise their properties through other sites.

This week I have found that the prices of the same property shown on some other sites are different from the prices shown on our sites. Some of this is due to currency fluctuations, the US$ and Sterling£ are much stronger than the euro.

To make sure that you get the best deal I have added a price guarantee to our home page and I can now proudly say "Never Knowingly Undersold" !!

===

2. My Mailing List

Building this newsletter to the thousands of readers which we now have has been a lot of work My aim is to give you straightforward and honest information about visiting France. I make money only from renting our own apartments and the other properties listed on the sites. If I don't give good value, we don't eat. (Wife and three kids to support).

Everyone on this list has to request the newsletter, either by submitting a form or writing to one of my e-mail addresses. I have used simple filters to check incoming mail and use words in the "subject" line to recognise newsletter requests. I regularly get over 600 e-mails a day, about half is junk but many others are newsletter requests, so this automation makes life easier.

Recently this system picked up an incoming mail and added the addresses to my list. Unfortunately the sender of this mail had made a mistake and accidently included their own mailing list in the heading. This meant all the addresses, I guess 200 to 300 have been added to this list. I have no way of knowing which are new addresses and which are duplicates. I apoligise to anyone who has received an un-requested newsletter and there are simple instructions at the end of this newsletter to unsubscribe.

===

3. Fetes and Bullfights

Since the last newsletter we have had the Nizas "Fete" and the "Feria" in Beziers. Both are local traditions going back centuries and are part of the living culture of the south of France. In Nizas our population of 540 trebled for a long noisy weekend of revelry. Live music on Friday and a dancing group on Saturday with a disco on Sunday kept the village awake until 3 am. The center of the village had a fairground, roundabouts and sideshows. A large stage was erected outside the town hall and rows of tables set up for the meal on Saturday night, a huge Paella for all the village, with unlimited free wine made the occasion "relaxed". I will have photos on the Nizas project as soon as possible.

http://Nizas.com/

Also on the Nizas.com site, I will be adding photos of the Feria in Beziers. From Nimes and Westwards to Spain there are regular bullfights. This is a tradition going back to Roman times and the bullfights are held in the old Roman amphitheater in Nimes for their Feria. This is a corrida, the bulls are killed and the format is the same as it is in Spain. This week over 2 million visitors are expected in Beziers.

In issue 11 of these newsletters I published two pieces about the bullfight from different points of view (although neither was from the Bulls viewpoint)

http://France-Voila.com/archives/11.html

===

4. Special Deals

Tourism is officially now the main industry in the South of France in all southern departments from Italy to Spain. With well over 70 million visitors each year, tourism is a vital industry for the whole of France.

Part of the attraction for visitors to our region is the unspoilt charm and the feeling of "timelessness". Many of my friends in Nizas do not understand why anyone would want to come to such an "ordinary village". The fact that some of the houses are over 1000 years old and that many aspects of the way of life have hardly changed for centuries is taken for granted by the families who have lived here for generations. "What is so special about a old medieval village, surrounded by vineyards in a sun soaked countryside near the Mediterranean?". "Who would ever want to come here?" they ask.

But as more people discover the charm and magic of this region, new facilities can be developed, there are now good restaurants, golf courses, flying and gliding, climbing, white water canoeing, wonderful cycle trails and a lot of the more traditional seaside activities all within a few miles of us.

I am starting to talk to these new businesses and am negotiating discounts and special deals for our guests, 10% off the green fees at the golf course, a free aperitif, reduced entry charges. It shows that the people and the region are pleased you are coming to see them.

===

5. The Nizas Project

The ladies of Nizas have been busy and we now have 5 local recipes on the site at...

http://Nizas.com/

And I hope to have a lot more photos of the fete on-line later this week . I have started the portraits of the villagers and I am getting archive photos copied.

If you are in the south of France, call in and be a part of the project.

===

6. Insurance

I strongly recommend that you take a full insurance package whenever you travel. Make sure it covers not only the health and medical needs for you and your family, but things like lost luggage, missed connections and flights and cancellation of your bookings and your deposits.

You can get some quotes from our site at

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

===

7. Boats

Our village is on the main route from Agde, a port for thousands of years and one of the oldest ports in the world. We are also only 25 minutes from Beziers, the "birthplace" of the canal du Midi, one of the most amazing engineering feats in history. The busiest port on the Mediterranean is at Sete which is only 35 minutes from us. With all this on our doorstep it is not surprising that many visitors hire boats or take a boat trip.

I have just started a new section for boats, for hire, sale and for boating tours. You can see some links from the Index and others on the links pages on the site at

http://goto-france.com/

===

8. Mary Gallagher is a Journalist and TV presenter. You can find out more about her specail flair for living on her own site at

http://GallaghersTravels.com/

This weeks tip...

When traveling empty your wallet of unnecessary cards, credit or otherwise. Macy’s were not in the Caribbean so leave store cards, membership and library cards home. Keep cards separate from travelers checks and cash.

Leave excess keys home too. I carry a few large safety pins for pinning keys inside my carryon or purse.

===

That's all this week, I have a lot more to say but I promised to keep these letters short.

Let me know if you would like any special information or help

Tony