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Everything you always wanted to know about France |
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France Voila - Newsletter #56 Nizas France November 1 2001 1. How Safe is it to be in France ? 2. Buying Property in France 3. Paris Apartments 4. Provence Homes 5. Owning a Car in France 6. Insurance 7. Pen Pals 8. Boating in France 9. Nizas - Wine; Women and Song == 1. How Safe is it to be in France ? "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" (the more things change, the more they stay the same) . The world has certainly changed since September 11 - life continues and from my office (which was once the outdoors privy of our medieval house) the view over the fields of vines around Nizas looks just as beautiful and peaceful as ever. I believe we are right to fight hatred and prejudice, we must not give in to threats but continue our lives, always remembering those who died and those who are grieving, We are all affected by recent events, in our own little business we can see that fewer people are traveling, many visitors last month said flights were almost empty. We had a few cancellations from families worried about air travel. Paris restaurants are very easy to get served in and my friends in London say you can get seats in any theater. I have had many letters and calls from people all over the world asking if there is any anti-American or anti -Semitic feeling in France. One e-mail last week said ... ((Dear Tony, I am almost packed ready to go to Nice for six months and a group of friends and family are passionately trying to persuade me not to. One of their reasons is they have heard TERRIBLE REPORTS of anti-Semitism in France forcing French Jews to desire to seek flight to Israel or USA. They say French sympathy is slanted towards the Arabs and anti-American or at least Jewish. They are telling me stories about demonstrations that turned ugly/violent in Paris & south of France. Do you know what they are talking about?....)) Having heard nothing about this either in the French or UK press, I checked with friends in Nice, Paris and London and asked the editor of a national American newspaper if there was any basis for this concern, the answer was no - the French people are definitely not pro Arab or anti-Jewish, quite the opposite, there is a very strong feeling of support and sympathy. We received this e-mail from a guest who stayed with us recently... ((I want to thank you for the kinds words about the attack. We Americans have been flabbergasted by the incredible outpouring of support from other countries in this difficult time. It brought tears to my eyes to visualize the ceremony in the square at Nizas, which my family enjoyed so much when we visited you there. Most Americans think the French hate us. I wish they all had a chance to travel to France and experience the warmth and kindness which we have always met there.)) I did trace one report of October 10 to CNN/Reuters which links the trouble in the middle East with graffiti in Paris, a march in Spain and slogans shouted in Brussels by Palestinian groups - this is not fair, true or objective reporting. In the last two weeks we have had an increase in reservations and bookings for this winter and next spring for the South of France. With all the problems in the world, this is a good place to be with a family, where traditional values and respect for one another are part of the way of life. ===== FREE ADVERT: Tour Operation for Sale in Paris: successful tour operation offering custom-designed tours of Paris and France. Immediate, steady clientele and very nice income. To be featured this fall in American Airlines' first class magazine and on the Discovery Channel. For more information: +33 (0)1.43.73.72.33 or email mailto:lgreene@noos.fr ===== 2. Buying Property in France A large proportion of the e-mail we receive is from people interested in buying property in France. To answer these questions and to help with sources and information, we started a monthly, paid subscription, magazine to supply timely and accurate advice and information. http://french-property-digest.com/ For many reasons this got stuck in August, but the good news is we are now starting again with a better and stronger publication and all of you who have subscribed will be hearing from us very soon. In fact it is very simple to buy property in France but you do need to understand some of the legal requirements and restrictions (like the tricky inheritance laws). Prices are rising steadily and good homes in the south of France are getting scarcer. We are now working closely with two specialist companies, both based here and in the UK... http://www.LeisureandLand.co.uk/> and http://www.Latitudes.co.uk/ Leisure and Land, as the name suggests, specializes more in commercial properties such as vineyards, hotels and leisure properties in France. Latitudes offers over 4000 residential properties and investment opportunities in France. ===== 3. Paris Apartments If you look at our site at... http://RentalsFrance.com/ You will see that we have now added links to Paris Apartments. This is something we have been planning to do for over a year and we are delighted to add 50 of the best apartments to our booking service. Through our association with "Chez Vous", you can now book your accommodation in Paris through us. We are extending our services to include guided tours, transport and you can select from a number of vacation offerings - how about a week in a superb apartment overlooking the river Seine in the heart of Paris and a week on a luxury cruise on the river Loire. Look at this... http://rentalsfrance.com/paris/cv/334.html and http://rentalsfrance.com/francevoila/canalcruises/ There is so much to see and do in and around Paris that we are building a new web site... http://ParisVoila.com/ which will have news and information on tours, trips, shopping, events and everything for "le Weekend". One of the specialist tours is for wine lovers... http://parisvoila.com/winetours/ Another is from one of the Paris Voila team who gives personalised tours of Paris... http://parisvoila.com/brass/ ===== 4. Provence Homes What have Australia and Provence got in common? For over three years I have been exchanging mail and had meetings with Geof who created the "Chez-Oz" website. This has grown to a listing of over 50 special vacation homes in and around Cotignac in the heart of Provence. We have now listed these on our site at... http://rentalsfrance.com/co/provence1.html ...this is a sort of "super link exchange" and we plan this to be the first stage of a closer cooperation. Geof and I both believe that all travel websites should try and work together, if you are in the travel business perhaps we should be talking to you. ===== 5. Owning a Car in France The very interesting mail just came in... Q. (( Hi, I am buying house in France and wish to leave an old car at the property for use on holiday. How do I go about taxing, insuring the car? As it is over 3 years old do I have to get an MOT (road-worthy test certificate) by returning it to UK every year. I can insure it in UK and take European cover, but only for up to 6 months. Do I have to reregister? Can you help? Regards, Stephen )) A. In France all cars have to have valid insurance and if over 2 years old, a road-worthy test (control technique). At present there is no road tax for cars. It is simple in France to get insurance cover on cars from the UK and other European countries from the large French insurance companies, although not all agents will bother to do this for you. Any car coming in from other EEC countries can retain the registration for a maximum of one year. After that it must (should) be registered in France. I happen to know many cars from the UK that have been here for years with UK registration plates, (especially old Ford Transit builders vans). Technically this is illegal and the owners may find that they have no valid insurance if there was an accident. Re-registering a car in France was a nightmare and very expensive (over £1000 for a VW Passat from Germany when I did it for a client three years ago). I am told it is much easier now (why?) but I do not happen to know anyone who has done this recently. My advice is not to bother with an old UK car, buy an old French one here. I would welcome any advice or information from anyone with more knowledge on this. ===== MESSAGE Friends we have not heard from for a while Dani (and Fruitcake) - Debby K - Kathy H - Alex and Myra We hope to see you all soon ===== 6. Insurance In every newsletter I mention insurance, please be sure to get adequate cover for your trip, not only for accidents or lost luggage, but also for lost deposits and rentals through cancellation, extra hotel bills due to missed connection or flights and extra costs of getting home in an emergency. There are many policies, your travel agent can advise you or you can arrange it through our site at... http://rentalsfrance.com/insurance/ We do earn a (small) commission if you book through us but please be sure to get adequate cover. ===== 7. Pen Pals In the last couple of newsletters I mentioned people who are looking for pen pals. This seems to have taken off, I have had hundreds of responses. My problem is that I am reluctant to put these on an "open" site as I wish to protect the privacy of each individual. I think I have found a way of "posting" all these e-mail requests on a separate web-page so you can safely exchange some information before sharing your personal e-mail. But rather than reinventing the wheel, if anyone knows of the software to do this or can advise me I would be most grateful. Meanwhile for all those who have written to me for a pen pal, please wait a little longer, I can't put you all in this newsletter or it would be too long. ===== CLASSIFIED ADS You can place free classified adverts about Paris and France on-line at... http://parisvoila.com/parisvoila/classifieds/ ===== 8. Boating in France We can offer you self-drive or "skippered" boating on the beautiful Canal du Midi http://rentalsfrance.com/francevoila/minervois/ The Canal du Midi is a world heritage site and Minervois Cruisers specialise in renting traditional "narrow boats", made of steel wood and brass instead of the usual "tupperware". You can also arrange a week or more in a Gite, a villa or in Paris plus a week on the canal through us, or we can combine a tour of Paris, the Wine Regions or the Cathar Country with a canal trip. ===== 9. Nizas - Wine Women and Song Well - wine, some singing and ... The wine festivals are here to celebrate the finish of the wine harvest. The "vin nouveau" is in all the shops and every village around us is having a series of staggered festivals (some are very "staggered"). We took a bottle of our local "primeur" to a friend last week, the look on his face was one of crystallized disappointment - why we drink this new wine which tastes like old bananas is one of the mysteries of life in France. In our region we can make some of the finest wines in the world, quaffing headache juice at one euro a bottle seems a bit peculiar. If you want to see a professional opinion about our wine and Nizas in particular, do subscribe to the surreal newsletter "Wine Iconoclast". The Summer 2001 issue has a feature which includes Carole and I at a dinner party with the publisher who goes by a number of different names, the nearest to the truth seems to be "Rupert Mayfluff", but it may be "Robert Mayfield. I got suspicious when I saw the photo credits were to "Antsy Adams" and they have a staff writer called "Luigi Bord" good reading... mailto:wineicon@aol.com Whenever there is a party in our village, there is always singing. Music and singing is encouraged from an early age in every possible way. One of the first questions I was asked when we moved here was "what instruments did I play", to my shame I admitted none. Everyone we meet can join in traditional songs, many have complex and beautiful melodies, at any party, once the food has been enjoyed, there will be songs. Thanks to everyone who corrected me about my comment in the last newsletter about "baited" breath, it is of course "bated breath" meaning abated or held back. I always wondered about this I have mentioned wine and song - but I am running out of space in this newsletter, so the third part will have to be done in the next issue.... ===== |