France Voila Newsletter #43 November 6 2000

This week

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1. New Websites

Well not all new, but I have completely rebuilt my first sites at..

I am also updating the main information site at..

There are a lot of reasons for this, but the main one is that I intend to survive in this rapidly changing Internet world. To do this, the most important thing is for the websites to have good content and be simple to use. You can help me a lot by telling me what you like, what you want to see and, very importantly, what you don't like about my websites. There is a free bottle of wine for every bad link you report and every letter I receive with comments and criticism, you will have to come to Nizas to collect the wine or I can, if you wish, drink the wine for you and send a certificate of thanks and appreciation.

On the main site at...

....you will find a lot more advertised than just holiday homes in France. I am making the 1stVacations.com site into a much broader vacation site, you will find Tours to Italy, Switzerland and France, a Grand European Tour, guided tours of Paris and, further afield, a Nile Cruise, African Safaris and Tours of the Holy Land.

These are not just adverts or vague references to pad out my own French rentals, but all new full websites I have made and which I am responsible for. The tours are planned and conducted by highly reputable companies and I am working with them to offer you the best value on the Internet.

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2. Newsletters

The aim of this newsletter is to share with you some of the information we find and websites we know, which may help you to plan a trip or to help you find a place to stay in France.

It all started three years ago when we advertised our own home here in Nizas. We had many questions from all over the world that to make a regular newsletter and to put them in an archive seemed a good idea. You can see the archives at ...

I am working on a new website and a property newsletter which is aimed at everyone who is looking for or already owns property in France. This will cover topics such as legal and financial, building and repairs, permissions, sales, rentals plus transport lifestyle etc. I have had a lot of subscriptions already and plan to have this up and running before Christmas (this year). Please write to me with topics you wish to read about and to subscribe.

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3. Weather

According to the weather forecast yesterday, I am supposed to be in the middle of the storm which is wreaking havoc in the rest of Europe, water lapping at the front door and trees blowing past me like a scene in the Wizard of Oz. In fact it is a beautiful warm and sunny day now and as soon as I have written this paragraph I will take Suissy and Sally (our dogs) for a walk in the vineyards.

The South of France has a mild climate, our region, Languedoc Roussillon, gets an average of over 300 days of sunshine a year, enough rain to make the best wine in the world and vary rarely frost or snow. The evenings are getting colder now and we have already had a log fire in the kitchen some evenings.

In the south of France there is a big difference in the regional variations, to the East of us, the Mistral regularly blows from September to May. Before you go to Provence I recommend that you read a good article written by Michael Tommasi , you can see this in the back issues at...

To the west there is the Tramontane, this is not as fierce as the Mistral, but it can be a force to contend with. Near Narbonne and up through Carcassonne there are big wind powered electricity generators and I assume they are there for a good reason .

I am getting some excellent information from a regular reader, Nicholas Yamoshuk. You will find a series of his tables and charts for the Mediterranean on our site at...

If anyone has more information or is a specialist in the studies of weather patterns and records I would be delighted to hear from them.

We all enjoyed the walk, if you get the chance try and visit the south of France the first week in November, the colors in the vineyards are fantastic, I will get a webcam one day to show the fields around Nizas as they change through the year.

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4. Car Rentals - a Cautionary Tale

This problem just arrived this morning in an invoice from "Europcar".

This August Carole went to the UK with our children. I had arranged a car rental for her from our own website through "AuroEurope" and she collected a car from their agents "Europcar" when they arrived in Stanstead.

A week later on August 22 she returned the car, handed in the keys and received back her security deposit. Today, October 6 we got an invoice for £250 for damage to the car.

On phoning their office they say that a hub cap was scratched and that we must pay the standard fixed excess of £250. They agreed that the car was not inspected until hours after it's return and they said the damage has been repaired and that our credit card has been charged for this amount. I was also told that if I do not agree to this I will be taken to court to uphold this action.

The Europcar office confirmed on the phone to us that the car was in their car park for some hours before it was inspected and this scratch reported. Carole is sure there was no damage and we completely refuted this claim.

As it happens, we paid by cash and the cash deposit was refunded on the return of the car. When I explained this I was promptly informed that we would be blacklisted and the matter was closed.

This brings up some points which I recommend everyone renting a car considers

Insist on having a person from the company inspect the car on taking and returning the vehicle and make notes of all scratches and dents. This is a real time waster and is often inconvenient for everyone, but it seems to be necessary. If they decline, take you business elsewhere or get them to sign an acceptance note.

Look carefully at the rental companies excess waiver insurance clause. It seems that if you do not pay this excess fee, in our case an extra £25, then no matter what the damage, you pay their fixed amount, in our case £250, even if the damage is trivial. it seems prudent to pay this excess so take this into account when comparing the true rental prices between companies.

A lot of people arrange their rentals through our websites so I am putting this note on the car rentals pages as a warning to carefully check the real price of a car rental, not just the comparison of the basic daily rate.

Regarding car rental Prices... Last week a friend came to see us, he happened to have rented a car (also from Europcar) through his address in the USA although he lives in and was travelling from the UK. He collected the car from Montpellier, he paid half the price that he would have paid if he has simply walked up to the airport desk and rented the car or had booked it from his UK address. No special discounts, nothing, same man and same car but over 3000FF difference. I know that some companies have a scale of charges which apply for the same car for the same conditions but this seems ridiculous.

If you have had any experiences with car rental companies I would be very interested in hearing. Perhaps it would be useful if I could get a clear list of prices of the "true" cost of renting a car.

It seems that the car rental agreements are getting long and complex they are now like a software agreement (does anyone ever read them?). They protect the car rental company and not the consumer. I thought there were laws about this.

I have the webspace, does anyone want to make a Car Rental Comparison and Fair Deal Campaign site with me?

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5. Did They Really Write That?

We are fortunate to have as neighbours in Nizas a very special English couple, Julian and Miranda. Both are artists and Julian is also a writer and art historian.

Here are some clips from leaflets translated from French to English which Julian has discovered in local tourist offices.

Quotations from "Guide Touristique du Canal du Midi"

Spotted, collated and presented by Julian Halsby!

The year 2000 did arrive and the Canal du Midi which connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Garonne river and over the Atlantic Ocean for more than three centuries. Once he has been used for transport of goods; today he is a delight for tourists coming from all over the world in discovering our region in an unique matter by strolling on boatside

Come and immerse you in the memory of another century when everything was going calmly, the barges, the horses and men taking like today the most beautiful of the Canal at the pinnacle of its beauty when it crosses, our village snowed under the sun.

(Villeneuve les Beziers)

Equipped with a new harbour permitting an easy drawing alongside the quay for many chips of every size, Beziers welcomes you and suggests you to visit it.

A ballade in the surrounding of the domain lets you discover the sights, interesting points and construction works.

(Port de Guery)

Capestang, main tow of the canton disposes on several commercial activities, small-scale productions and services.

Capestang, a village where you like to do a call.

Trebes is also built like a modern city and you can enjoy the covered swimming-pool, the tennis court and even cabs.

Numerous artists shall display and became charmed by a site where 15 centuries carved a patrimony which spelled their sensitivity. The serenity which comes out of the old stones turn to get favourable to creation. Accredited by this atmosphere, numerous exhibitions are succeeding in an authentic Languedoc frame.

What I don't understand is why these translations are allowed to be (very expensively) printed , OK I make typos in my newsletter and on the website (a bottle of wine for everyone you report - subject to the usual conditions), but apart from sounding funny, they show a slapdash attitude to tourism in this region.

So if you have any good ones to publish, please send them to...

mailto:tony@france-voila.com

...and I will try to get the local Mayors to get their publicity correct and more useful, ( I will leave in the best ones though).

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7. Recipe of the week #4

BLANQUETTE D'AGNEAU LANGUEDOCIENNE

• 1 kg. Lamb shoulder - cut in large cubes
• 1 mild onion diced
• 1 Bay leaf 1 cup of sliced mushrooms
• 1 Tbls flour diluted in 1/3 cup of milk
• 1 egg yolk diluted with fresh cream

In a large heavy saucepan or dutch oven, heat oil and butter; brown meat and onions. add bay leaf, salt and pepper. Lower heat to very low and cook for 10 minutes, all the while make sure that meat does not stick to pan.

Add enough water to cover and mushrooms and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Slowly, stir the flour which was diluted in milk; let simmer for 10 minutes longer.

With tender loving care, on LOW HEAT stir in the egg yolk/fresh cream mix and continue cooking for 3-4 more minutes. DO NOT LET BOIL AT THIS POINT OR CREAM WILL CURDLE.

Serve on a bed of rice or fresh potatoes.

A bottle of well chilled Rosé from H. and V. Thalic of Nizas is highly recommended with dish.

You can find this recipe and others on the site at

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8. The Nizas Project - Yes, the Barrel Has Moved

The north of Europe is being lashed by storms and gales, floods are the worst for over 50 years, yet Nizas has a warm and sunny week with mild weather. Is is possible that there is some similarity to the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamen (or however you spell it no wine prizes for this spelling) to the moving of the demonic barrel of Nizas. Is it mere chance that by returning to his country of beer, boredom and bureaucracy our neighbour has taken with him the spells and mutterings of the wise women of Nizas.

The school break brought our neighbour back for a few days to Nizas, he was seen staring at the barrel, he uses it to block the road to enable him to aim at his garage, which was last moved out of the highway by Mme J... .and our postman Mr F..... , in a trice he had moved it back into the middle of the road and there it stayed and still remains even after his departure. Fie to him and may rain fall upon his head in the city of Christmas vegetables.

No doubt the barrel will move again, but I have much more interesting things to report.

Last week was the wine festival in Nizas and our village of only 540 people certainly knows how to celebrate the first wines. Nizas, like all the villages around here, is first and foremost a wine making village. Most people here still make their living from the vineyards which surround us and wine is very important. On Friday we had a storyteller in the library, an author giving a lecture on wine in our region - wine of the highest quality has been made here for over 2500 years - a top wine maker giving talks and then in the evening, we got to sample the wine, had sausages and chestnuts and some music from live bands in the village hall.

The price was very high this year, we has to listen to eight speeches. Usually you can time your arrival just right so that you miss most of them, but do not seem too rude. This year the mayor had a cunning plan, he had a band play for an hour, then he had the speeches. Terry and Barbara turned up just as these began and for the first time had to sit through them before getting to the main attraction.

Terry is a &world class" jazz saxophone player, 20 years ago he decided that travelling around the world and being away from home for months at a time was not good for family life. So he and his wife Barbara just sold the house in London and left. They seem to have forgotten to have told their sons who were living in the house at the time, but Terry says as they were over 30 years old it was about time they left home anyway. When you are here we can let you know where Terry and the "Ray Trop" sex/quin/quar/tri/du/solo are playing (the number depends on how many are sober when you arrive).

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