France Voila Newsletter #42 October 14, 2000

This week

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1. The Vendange

The "vendange" is the French word for the grape harvest, it mostly applies to the grapes, but here it includes harvesting the olives. I have made a page and put on some photographs at...

You will see Akiko from California, who stayed with us a while this year, picking and pressing grapes here in Nizas last month. She will also be fondly remembered for her skill at drinking a good proportion of last years vintage.

Now we are waiting for the first wines to be presented at the series of wine festivals in every village, the "Vin Primeur".

These fetes will have music and food with lots of wine and most are free, apart from having to listen to long speeches from the Mayors, the trick is to time your arrival just right.

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2. Our Property Newsletter

In #41, http://francevoila.com/archives/41.html I mentioned some properties we have been asked about advertising, and asked if anyone was interested in a special newsletter. The response was huge and it is taking me time to get this organised. I will not change this newsletter from a general interest journal so I am getting some specialists to help me write useful and informative pieces about the legal, financial and practicalities of buying and renting property here.

The first issue is almost drafted and I hope to start the new journal in the next few days. I have not decided on a name for the newsletter and the website, so any ideas will be welcome.

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3. Provence and Corsica on $50 a day

This contribution is from Adrian Leeds, a hard working lady who lives in Paris and produces a series of e-books about Paris.

To give you the full flavour of her writing and the photos I have put it on-line at..

http://francevoila.com/leeds/prov.html

I have made a whole directory for her as I hope to receive many more features (hint). Meanwhile - here is an excerpt.

........"We spent five sultry days meandering through Provence, seven dreamy days soaking up the sun on the beaches in Corsica and two "not-a-moment-to-be-wasted" days of just "getting there" and "getting back" (from and to Paris). Every element pre-planned months in advance managed to work out to almost virtual perfection. No one was more surprised than myself.

The four of us traveling together were myself, my daughter and we each invited one of our closest friends, Dale and Clara. We chose to travel by car after considering the cost of a rental car, the high cost of gas (four times what an American pays for gas), the tolls on the Autoroute, and all total that was still less expensive than four traveling by train or plane. Besides, if you're planning on exploring any part of Provence or Corsica, a car is absolutely essential".......

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4. New Properties - New Websites

Three years ago, I started to advertise our own two apartments in Nizas on the Internet. I had no idea I would end up sitting in a cellar in our medieval ruin, looking at a computer screen for 10 to 15 hours every day. My friends here call me "The Monk" as I spend all my time in a cell looking at icons. perhaps I could get into the record books by having the oldest house in the world with an ethernet network in it, (our house is over 1000 years old), drilling walls over 10 ft thick was a problem but the cables are great for hanging Christmas cards on.

New properties this week include....

A http://goto-france.com/vesvres/

B http://goto-france.com/vidger/

C http://goto-france.com/weavers/

I mention these three as they are all made in different formats. A problem with property rental on Internet is getting enough photos on the pages and making the pages load quickly so you can look at other properties. I partly address this problem on the main list of properties with the "pop-up" photo, but I would value your comments as to which is the best method of making a web page. If you have time and would like to dream a little about the south of France, please look at these pages and let me know what you think works best.

mailto:Tony@Nizas.com

I am also making travel and tourism websites for other people now, do have a look at..

http://1stvacations.com/

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5. Paper Airline Tickets

A few weeks ago I commented on the possible problems with electronic ticketing being introduced by the airlines. I received this comment from a travel agent...

"Hello, Tony,

I am writing to thank you for providing such wise advice about E-tickets to your readers. As a travel agent, I am all too well aware of the misfortune that can result from having an e-ticket. My travel agency provides only paper tickets to our clients and I will not sell an e-ticket because I honestly don't believe that e-tickets are in travelers' best interests.

The airlines rushed the e-ticket product into the market place without ensuring that the underlying technology and customer service structure was as sound and reliable as it needs to be to protect travelers when something goes wrong.

As a professional, I would urge all your readers to insist on paper tickets whenever they travel whenever they travel by air.

Best regards,

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6. Recipe of the week #3

This week it is ..

RAGOUT D'ESCOUBILLES (Odds and Ends Stew)

Full details are on..

http://nizas.com/recipes/003mj.html

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7. Insurance

In every newsletter I mention the topic of travel insurance. I get a lot of mail from visitors and travelers all over the world who tell me the importance of making sure that you have full travel insurance. The cost of a comprehensive package is about 3% of your trip, this will cover you for missed flights and connection, lost deposits and rental fees for cancellations.

Health and medical cover and many other small things you just don't want to worry about on a vacation.

There is a page at...

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

Which has some information, we have tried to recommend some good ones (and yes we do earn a small commission) but do shop around and do get insurance cover.

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8. Travel Advice

There are a number of travel tips pages on the Internet. I will try and make a "page of tips pages" soon but here is this weeks...

To identify potential problems have a look at this good website which also shows the "World Travel Watch" column published in several US major newspapers

http://www.travelerstales.com/wtw/

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9. The Nizas Project

With the activity of the vendange and a few days of rain, the Nizas barrel (see # 40 and #41) has not noticeably moved. Mme J... daughters have visited without any problems and F... the builder has not been seen.

Interestingly, the house of his father, B.... the master builder, is on the market, it is unusual in that it has a large swimming pool on the roof, not just an elevated pool, but a full sized pool and it is literally where the roof used to be on the old village hall.

The fact he does not actually have any planning permission for this pool could be why he has not has any offers, actually it is not the planning permission for the pool which could be a problem, but the fact that he has removed the roof. In France what you do inside your house is entirely you own business, in the case of B.... he has every right to make an Olympic pool in his house if he wants to.

When I was rebuilding our medieval pile of rubble, I had every right to take down and rebuild walls which were hundreds of years old inside the house.

However, the outside of the house, and especially the roof of traditional Roman tiles, is within the control of the Mayor. After a century of few regulations, the appearance of every village is now a matter of pride and concern, so the buyer of any property must beware of unauthorised alterations which may prove v

Our street has been animated this week by the arrival of a class of English ladies on a one week painting holiday, four were staying in our house. Our next door neighbour is a professional artist and these were some of her students.

Every corner of Nizas seemed to have an artist painting it during the last few days and last night was the Vernissage (private viewing) of their work. I am always delighted to see the way the light here is captured by painters and photographers and this was a splendid effort.

Celebrity guests were Julian, an author, artist and art critic and his artist wife Miranda, staying in their Nizas home, they gave a warm and constrictive critique of the weeks efforts. For an example of Miranda's work look at the new home page at...

http://rentals-france.com/