Reprising a Myth: Death of French Culture
Publishing an 3000-word article in Time magazine headed ‘The Death of French Culture’ is, one might think, a sure way to bring down the wrath of all France on your head. (Read more French News here) Strangely, according to the man who did it, former Time magazine staffer Don Morrison, it didn’t quite work that way. [...]
In France e-Bay is in the Streets – all Summer
Vide-greniers and Brocantes mushroom all summer long in towns, villages and hamlets across France, and are so-well organised, a national guide is published a year in advance. Long before the internet and e-Bay’s electronic alternatives, flea markets, car boot, jumble and bric-a-brac sales were and remain, a source of pin money for students and pensioners, [...]
Jet2.com Flying to Brive From May 2011
Barely two months after the new Brive – Vallée de la Dordogne airport opened, Jet2.com is signalling its confidence in the new route and launching a Manchester – Brive summer seasonal service from 21 May 2011. Jet2.com thus joins CityJet (an Air France/KLM subsidiary) and Airlinair to become the third airline to offer a vote [...]
Now Air France Loses its Cool…
Big “P” hype has put the frighteners on Air France-KLM, the European airline holding joint venture, and the French flag carrier has now ordered wide-berth demarcation between adults and children — as in unaccompanied minors — on all its flights. The goal, says a report just published in Le Figaro is to prevent accusations of [...]
WWOOF – An Organic Bite to that Holiday
Forget the bark, WWOOFers — a long-established world-wide movement — are a quiet sturdy breed, offering a different way of discovering another face of France. Hardy WWOOFers claim working holidays on farms around the country are a cultural experience, offering unique insights that are never forgotten. The WWOOF world-wide network started in the UK in [...]
Back in Business, the Troubled July 14 Site
France’s official website France.fr created to enhance the national image, is back up again, after an initial abortive launch July 14, sparked derision on the Web. Thierry Saussez director of the Government Information Service (GIS), said August 16: “France.fr reopened this morning. We consider that we are currently undergoing a large-scale test. The official relaunch [...]
Now Rent-a-Vine on the World Wine Web
Thought you knew all about wine, well until you’ve raised and bottled your own Château Bordeaux , from the comfort of your easychair, you don’t even rank. The ultimate for the wine snob in us all – must be owning one’s own personally-branded wine, grown under one’s own supervision on one’s own grapevine rented on [...]
Digital Dragon set to slay Rural Cinema?
French arthouse screens, rural and mobile cinema along with intimate neighbourhood cultural facilities are under imminent digital threat of closure, a group of rural cinema afficionados warns. On 16 June 2010 deputies in the National Assembly voted in a new law regarding digital equipment facilities for film screenings and set out in this bill. Before [...]
A Strap-Hanging, Low-Cost TGV by 2012?
Taking a leaf out of Ryanair’s book, France’s prestigious luxury high-speed Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) is planning a charge-for-the-loos, standing-room only, strap-hanging, low-cost service from 2012. Ouf, not what the Paris-Cannes travelling set expects! Describing “low cost” flights as a great success, the SNCF Board July 6 unveiled a plan to adopt a low-cost [...]
Official Unhappiness Over Holiday Home Lets
A boom in the use in France of specialist, person-to-person, second home and holiday rental sites, is leaving the national tourist authorities less than happy. Local tourist offices say should holiday-home owners continue to drift to such sites they will obviously stop using similar fee-based facilities offered by regional tourism boards – who have their [...]
25 Dead in Mid-Summer Flash Flood
The killer flash flood which struck the Var mid-June has left at least 25 people dead, with 13 still missing – among them holidaymakers in campsites, a baby and a number of elderly people attempting to flee their homes. Devastating storm waters rose more than 10m in a matter of minutes flooding homes and causing [...]
Festivals 2010 – The Very Best of France
Summer in France and suddenly there’s a feast of festivals, a banquet to delight even the most jaded palate. Music pours out of concert halls perfuming long evenings like lavender fields around Grasse. The festival culture grips towns, villages, hamlets, cities and regions which all compete fiercely to roll out ever more extensive menus of [...]
EasyJet’s Cloud-Cam to AVOID Chaos
The budget carrier EasyJet, has unveiled a ‘cloud-cam’ device to detect volcanic ash plumes and designed to ensure that the global flight chaos sparked by the Icelandic volcano will never happen again. The airline said the technology could detect ash clouds from up to 100 kilometres away. The technology developed by NILU-Norwegian Institute for Air [...]
You Like Old? This is Gold
New for old, this is pure gold, the Chantier Médiéval de Guédelon is the first castle of its kind to be built since the 13th century and the first medieval castle built anywhere for 500 years. Started from scratch in 1997, it is scheduled to take 25 years to build as it resorts entirely to the [...]
Volcanic Ash Returns to Haunt European Skies
The airlines’ nightmare — the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano with the unpronounceable name — has returned to wreak more disruption. Driven by a weather depression off Spain and Portugal, it is set to reach “high concentrations over southern France” by the end of the Saturday (May 8) public holiday, the national weather service – Météo [...]
European airspace closures lifting
France announced April 19 that corridors between Paris and airports in southern France would open 0800 Tuesday April 20. Flights between Paris and Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseilles and Nice would enable large numbers of passengers scheduled to travel abroad to re-route on international departures from southern airports. Eurocontrol the trans-national safety organisation, is establishing a no-fly [...]
CityJet to be First Low Cost Service to Brive
City Jet, an Irish-registered, Air France KLM group airline will launch a 3 flight-a-week route to London City Airport from June 25, 2010, Brive airport executive Jean-Claude Requier has confirmed. The initial schedule provides for a 95-seater AVRO RJ 85 connection on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The first outward-bound flight departs Fridays at 14.35 arriving [...]
Brive Airport to Open
The long-awaited, low-cost Airport at Brive, known as Brive-Vallee de la Dordogne, is officially due to open July 8
