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Everything you always wanted to know about France |
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France Voila Newsletter #40 September 23 2000 This week 1. "To see ourselves as others see us"2. Pocketmail 3. Yoga Courses in the South of France 4. Airlines, Tickets and Problems 5. Weather Forecasting 6. Useful Links 7. Recipe of the Week 8. Gallaghers "Tip of the Week" # 11 9. The Nizas Project === http://goto-france.com/ Travel In France http://1stvacations.com/ Worldwide Tours === 1. "To see ourselves as others see us" In our village of Nizas in the south of France, near the Mediterranean, most people work in the vineyards or are involved in the wine business in some way. Like most of the villages near us, agriculture has been the main work of the people here for thousands of years. The Romans and the Greeks and, even before them, the Phoenicians and Egyptians had an interest in the local fields. Not always wine, although the Roman Empire had to restrict their imports of the wines from this region because it was so good it threatened their local Italian produce. Today the farmers use more machinery, but the harvest, the vendange, is still dependant on the weather. Many people live in the village houses which are in the streets laid out a over one thousand years ago and which still have the same walls and stone window frames cut by masons in the 10th century. Some Roman arches have the chisel marks a workman made 2000 years ago. Nizas has a population of about 540 people , I only know of four homes who have access to Internet. There are friends of our kids who have never been on a train and who have never traveled further than the next town. So what do the people of Nizas think of the visitors who come here each year from countries which they have only learnt about at school. How do most of our neighbors "see" visitors from new Zealand, Canada the United States and other countries which they have only seen on Television. Our personal experience has been one of warmth and welcome, neighbours have left bags of fruit and vegetables and bottles of wine at our door and we have been greeted into homes and parties in the village. This has also been the experience of many of the visitors from all over the world who have stayed with us in our apartments over the last three years. In general, the French people are polite, they are proud of their heritage, they work hard and they treasure traditional family values. Combine this with the Mediterranean passion for life and traditions of the "Midi" which have changed very little in centuries and you have a secure confidence which shows in the open and friendly way you will be welcomed here. In Nizas, as in most French villages, you will never be judged by your accent, your job, the clothes you wear or the car you drive. So how will you be "seen" when you are here? That depends on you, don't forget you are an ambassador of your own country. Be polite, say "bonjour" and "merci", smile, be open and warm to the people and their way of life and you will find this will be returned many times over. Here, you will only be seen for what you are. === 2. Pocketmail I had this letter from a reader which may be helpful for travelers. If any of you have some experience of this product I would welcome you comments. Like Jessica I have no relationship with the product. = Dear Tony, I mailed you several weeks ago regarding something called Pocketmail that I thought might be of interest to you. I was hoping to use Pocketmail to access email while I was in France and you had warned that the French phone system might not be especially cooperative. I wanted to write again and let you know that since arriving in France, I have successfully sent and received email from several public phones in Paris, Avignon, and St. Victor La Coste. No problems at all! You may want to look at the website, http://www.pocketmail.com/, again and consider letting people know about it if they are interested in having email access while traveling. And no, I don't work for Pocketmail! I just think it's a great option for those who would like it. I hope to be near Nizas the first week of October. Maybe I'll look you up! Sincerely, Jessica = I will make sure we have a bottle of wine ready Jessica Bonne Route === 3. Yoga Courses in the South of France There are some new pages on our site at... ....about a yoga vacation from July 6 to 14 next year. The organizer, Anne, has the following request --- "I need a cook for the Yoga meditation vacation, The cook would get free tuition, room board and gas if they own a car, or rental car paid if needed"--- I wish I could cook, but I doubt if spicy meaty pizza will be acceptable!!! === 4. Airlines, Tickets and Problems We had a guest who came this year from Texas who has been before (hello Dani and Fruitcake). Dani missed a connection through no fault of her own and , unfairly, incurred extra expenses, I have already written about the bad service and attitude of the airline so I will not repeat this tale, but I have found a piece in another newsletter which I am reprinting here. = Paper tickets vs E-tickets is now the debate. At first it seemed the way of the future, and I am sure it is, but maybe the future is not now. If your flight has been delayed or canceled, like the thousands of flights this summer that have been scrubbed amid labor strife at United Airlines or delayed by Midwestern storms or just held up by something, but you hold no ticket in your hand, do you have a problem? The airlines say there's no meaningful difference for the typical leisure traveler. But some people report differently. We have found you're better off, at most times, with a paper ticket. But there are so many wrinkles to this. When Electronic ticketing began in the early 1990s it saved airlines the cost of printing and delivering tickets, and it's convenient for travelers, who don't have to wait for the tickets to arrive or worry about losing them. Though customers can request paper tickets at no extra charge, most have followed the carriers' e-ticket encouragement. Because your reservation is stored in the airline's computerized records, you need only appear at the airport on your day of travel and show photo identification (and perhaps, if asked, the credit card you used to secure the reservation which presents a lot of problems for people who are prepared to display it, but that's another story). You can't lose your ticket, if you need to make changes before your travel date, you can do so by phone, probably with a fee. Once you're at the airport with your ID, the gate agent can issue you a boarding pass. Simple yes? But there are catches. If the computers crash while you're in the check-in line, holders of paper tickets may get boarding passes while e-ticket travelers are delayed. If a reservation agent finds that your booking has unaccountably vanished, an e-ticket traveler may have only a confirmation number, while a paper-ticket holder has a document that airlines are bound to honor. These are relatively rare occurrences. The biggest question about e-tickets is this If your flight is delayed or canceled, the best way out may be to book a flight with a different carrier. Nine of the 10 major airlines (Southwest is the exception) will accept each other's paper tickets when circumstances force re-bookings. (If you change to a Southwest flight but are already ticketed on another carrier, you must request a refund from the first carrier and buy a new ticket from Southwest.) If you have an unrestricted paper ticket, it is easily transferred to another carrier. But if you have an unrestricted e-ticket, you'll need to get a paper ticket, which could mean a long wait in line which could even make you miss a flight, then take it to your second choice. But this is for an unrestricted ticket, which most leisure travelers have, but restricted tickets have more rules. To change carriers after a delay or cancellation, travelers on restricted fares typically must get a paper ticket, get the first airline's endorsement on it, then present it to the second airline. Consumers who arrive at the airport with paper tickets sometimes can head directly to the second carrier's desk, and the second carrier's gate agent will get endorsements by telephone from the first carrier. Delays and cancellations have been epidemic at United this summer, partly because of a labor dispute with pilots that has forced the airline to cancel in advance 3% of its scheduled departures in September and October. Many other flights have been canceled on shorter notice. To avoid airline cancellations and delays, here are some tips Book flights with early departures; delays tend to increase later in the day. If you have connecting flights, don't settle for the "legal minimum" connecting time (usually about an hour for domestic flights). Give yourself an extra half-hour or hour. Before leaving for the airport, find out your flight's status. Write down your travel agents phone number, so if delayed they can get you another seat on another flight, so when you go to that carrier they will have a seat assigned for you. Take a cell phone with you so you don't need to stand in line to make any calls. Cell phones calls costs about the same, or less as hotel or pay phone calls today. Write down the phone number of the airlines that may be able to get you to your destination. Arrive at the airport knowing your options if something does go wrong--the next two flights to your destination, for instance. It also helps to know what the airline is required to do for you. If you find that staffing or weather problems have forced a delay or cancellation, the airline's legal responsibility is fairly limited. For instance the carrier's only responsibility is to refund any unused part of your ticket if you decide to cancel your trip. Though they often seek to find seats for frustrated travelers, airlines are not required to do so. Ask your travel agent for a copy of the US Govt. Rules on What Airlines are Required to do for You if Your Flight is Cancelled. I reprinted this from a useful newsletter... http://www.onlywaytotravel.com/ === 5. Weather Forecasting I keep looking for weather sites which will give an advanced "guess" at the weather. Here is one I found this week, please let me know if you have any other sites which will give information. I have had some very interesting figures from a reader comparing temperature histories on the Mediterranean, they are too big to add to the newsletter but if anyone would like them sent as an attachment please write to me at. === 6. Useful Links I try to make the lists of links on our site at... ....a directory of other sites which are mostly to do with travel. Here are some new links sent in by readers, if you have any good links please write to me at... mailto:tony@francevoila.com Sent in by Colin Monk.... http://www.beyond.fr/ This has much useful information including a gastronomic dictionary (ideal for eating out) at http://www.beyond.fr/food/dictionary.html I found this one... http://www.imandi.com/ add it to your list of low cost air fare sites. From Nicholas Yarmoshuk... http://www.glad.fr/ provides one tonne of information. Wineries and restaurants as well. Another site I like.... http://www.franceonfoot.com/ A great name for the site. Sam Mooney is making a site for our neighbouring department of Aude... http://www.odetoaude.com/ === 7. Recipe of the week ALOUTTES SANS TETES (Headless Larks) The full details are at http://Nizas.com/recipes/001mc.html All the recipes can be found on the site at.. === 8. Gallaghers Tip of the Week #11 Traveling through several climates? Tired of your things during long journeys? Hit the thrift shops, trade in your old clothes for new. I was in Scotland and decided to go to Majorca. At a local charity thrift shop I donated my winter weight coat and a bulky sweater purchasing an unlined trench coat and a cotton cardigan === 9. The Nizas Project Recommended reading for any visitor to France is "Clochemerle", a story about life in a French village (about the size of Nizas) in the Beaujolais. The story, apart from the horizontal predilections of the inhabitants, revolves around a certain municipal "utility" which polarizes the village into warring factions. It never occurred to me when I started to uncover the surface of Nizas life that a similar theme could evolve here. But I was wrong. The municipal "utility" in question does not have the same function as in "Clochemerle" (except by the dogs) but it is creating a similar frisson here. It is a wine barrel the Mairie have put in our cul de sac to block a parking space. It started when a neighbour who has a vacation home near us decided to use the garage under their property for their car. New doors were fitted and varnished and the next holiday period they arrived with their newest car. I will not name the country they come from but it is the one with the world's worst reputation for driving skills and the capital of the country is the name of a vegetable. For many years, for the weeks when the family arrived on vacation, P..... has made a point of insisting that he park in front of his, formerly, unusable garage even to the extent of completely blocking the road if he found another car there. But now the garage is in use, he discovers that he cannot easily get into it and needs the whole road to navigate. It could be said that the problem is neither the car nor the road but with the driver, but I will not say this. The Mairie, ever obliging (it is election year next year), donated a 250 liter wine barrel (empty) to put in one parking space so that now a tractor could now park sideways in the garage if need be. The result is that where two cars could park easily, no one can now, except for P..., in his garage. For the few weeks each year when P.... came on vacation, the local people have humored this behavior, but now the barrel has appeared it permanently blocks the road and is not pretty, even with flower pots on it. The day after P.... went back to the frosty northern climes, the wine barrel, and flower pots, was moved away from the parking place and left, carefully with the flowers, against his garage. Today it has been moved back into the middle of the road by F...., a builder who lives further up the little road, for no reason anyone can yet determine as he cannot even see it from his house except when standing in the street. Feelings are running high, Mme H... a formidable senior citizen and pillar of the local church and Mlle B.. a retired teacher are directly affected by this barrel (technically a Bordelaise) for the parking and access to their own garages as is the bread van which comes every morning (except for Tuesdays and New years day). I have a suspicion that the barrel may move again. I will keep you posted of any new developments and also put some photographs and plans on the Nizas pages. === Please let me know if there is anything you would like mentioned in these newsletters, write to me at |