For lovers of France
If you have a Rational FX account you can benefit from happy hour today between 4 and 5pm exclusive to French Connections. This means you can get very close to the published mid-market rate and make considerable savings. And there are No Transfer Fees to send money!
Just quote the code AB21. For more details or to register for an account follow this link.
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– May 24, 2011
With all the warm weather we’ve been enjoying in Europe lately, a short break to France is made all the more tempting by the prospect of doing it at a bargain price! Rail Europe are currently offering a whopping 75% discount on a number of Standard and First Class routes on their Intercités and Lunea services.
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– May 11, 2011
The May edition of French Property News features an article on creating rustic interiors with all mod cons for holiday lets, using two French Connections owners and their houses as inspiring examples.
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– May 10, 2011
Marlene has been teaching English in the French School System for several years. It has been challenging and interesting, and she has had contact with many hundreds of young French and foreign children from the surrounding villages and towns.
Until two years ago she was working for the French Academy, but in the last few years the number of English speaking assistants or “Intervenantes Extérieures” has been reduced in an economy drive which has seen the reduction of English lessons and the importance of English in the French education system.
I find this curious as, if it were not for the English Speaking Peoples of the World, the National language of France would have been German. But I suppose that memories are short and that the world moves on.
So now Marlene works as a “Formateur Vacataire” or as an “Animatrice en Langue Vivantes” depending at which school she working. This has involved jumping through many hoops and over many obstacles and the end result is that her children are learning to say “THe caT saT on THe maT” rather than “Zer Ca’ Sa’ on zer Ma’ ”.
Her pupils have all done so well when they move onto college compared to their peers that she has now been retained by a Private School that used to be a Catholic School but now seems to have only a small Catholic influence. Here she has 200 pupils each week that she has to manage in a mere two days. As you can imagine it is exhausting but she enjoys the teaching and the children, and knows and remembers them all.
For me it is also rewarding, because Marlene has 200 grandchildren with whom to interact, and I don’t have to remember a single name or a single birthday!
However, a month ago disaster struck.
Fifteen were kidnapped.
It happened during the lunch break which, for those of you who are not familiar with France, is a two hour suspension of activity during which food, wine and friends come before any National Catastrophe or Emergency.
It was a bitter blow.
These were all little friends who had participated in the classes of the children and had been active in their lessons. They all had names and sometimes were even allowed to “sleep over” with certain children who had performed well in class, or who had tried hard.
Of course, I must mention, they were Teddy Bears.
Marlene had collected them from “boot-sales” over the last several years and they were all friends. Some of them were from one family, as they were identical. Every time I saw a stranger in the house I would ask Marlene, “Where did this come from?”
She would reply, “Oh THAT one, I’ve had him for YEARS!” or “Oh, Janine gave me that one for my birthday!” or “I found him in the Attic!”
I couldn’t argue, because they all look the same to me. Like other peoples’ children.
The children at school are bereft. Now their little companions with whom they conversed in “Eengleesh” and learned to say “Ow R U?” are gone.
Of course there is a suspect.
His name is Dylan. He has been suspected of stealing sweets, pencils, toys and now Teddy Bears. He is also suspected of being involved with the theft of a mobile phone, which was found later, missing its Sim Card (whatever that is). The only Dillon I can think of is Marshall Dillon of Hollywood fame, so I don’t know who he is named after, but I suspect that he is training to be a future French Great Train Robber, or perhaps just a Politician or a Banker.
However, every cloud has a silver lining, so they say.
It means that Marlene now has a reason to go to all the local Flea Markets, or “Puces” to find replacement Teddy Bears.
There are almost always Teddy Bears on sale, from 50 centimes to sometimes a heady price of two euros. Marlene loves them all, even the ones with eyes dangling on their cheeks or ones with threadbare noses where they have been rubbed and worn out with love and cuddles. There are ones with cockeyed hats and buttonless waistcoats. It doesn’t matter, they will all be gathered in to the Teddy Bear basket, brought home and given love.
So now I am condemned to driving around with Marlene on Sunday mornings to local villages, with a mission. In the past I used to take her on the motorbike, in a vain attempt to limit her purchases, but that didn’t work, as by lunchtime we would be riding home balancing a hall mirror and a standard lamp on the pillion.
Later I tried limiting the purchases by using the little sports car, but that didn’t work either, because there was always something irresistible, like a Louis Fourteen hand-carved dining room chair with a tooled leather seat, a little fragile, but worth ten euros. Occasionally I have also been tempted by a wagon wheel or some antique tools for décor in the Old Forge.
So now it seems that I shall have to use the large car, perhaps with a trailer.
I wonder, do I need to get a special permit to transport Teddy Bears across “Frontières Départemental”?
Posted in French Bread.
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– May 6, 2011
WE SEEM to have been very popular just lately. No idea why. Three invitations at least. Well, one was more in the nature of an appointment card, so perhaps that doesn’t count. Let’s get this one out of the way first.
In 1994, years of a self-inflicted school canteen diet mostly consisting of jam doughnuts and custard and a local confection called Hungrie Boie Pie finally caught up with me and I was obliged to see the inside of the cardiac unit and the ceiling of the operating theatre at the excellent Clinique Pasteur in Toulouse. (I should observe in passing that the description of my school diet is a gross exaggeration and that we did in fact teach modern spelling, the Shakespearian spelling of HBP being an inexplicable foible of the school cook.)
Having kitted me up with stents, in the process serving wine with every hospital meal except breakfast, the Clinique Pasteur turned me loose and apart from one or two minor wobbles everything has gone well since. The French National Health Service continues to keep a watchful eye on me, which is very good of them, and every now and then I have to undergo a stress test. This involves going to a hospital a bit nearer than Toulouse but nevertheless 90 minutes away, stripping to the waist, having electrodes stuck all over my manly torso, mounting an exercise bike and pedalling against ever-mounting resistance until . . .
. . . they tell you to stop. By which time, on this last occasion, I was utterly exhausted and was very glad that I’d taken the precaution of arranging for someone to drive me home again. There was a slight problem here, because my wife Josephine had been unexpectedly called away to England. Someone else had to be found. I canvassed around friends, including my small choir, Les Jeudistes. A willing volunteer was found in Barbara, who is as tall as I am medium-sized, is blonde and beautiful and young enough to be my daughter. (I assure you she isn’t.) Barbara sings alto alongside Josephine in Les Jeudistes. To stifle any possible argument, I style them both head alto.
But when an elderly codger in shorts turns up on the arm of a beautiful blonde, even in France glances are exchanged, nudges are nudged, giggles are suppressed in the back office, and somehow explanations that the lady is one of my head altos aren’t altogether convincing. In fact my cardiologist, an exceptionally polite man who usually addresses me with an almost forgotten old-world courtesy in the third person (How is Monsieur today? Is he at all breathless?) went out into the waiting-room-cum-corridor to have a look and came back addressing me in the second person (If you’re expecting some slightly saucy innuendo I’m sorry to disappoint you).
While I was pedalling Barbara was being fully entertained. This hospital is absolutely split-new. It’s like a giant cruise liner which has somehow run aground in a massive field of sunflowers. It’s so new that staff haven’t yet found their way about in it. Doors to sensitive areas only open when an authorised card is flashed at them.
An assistant came past wheeling a bulky piece of hospital equipment, a sort of patient-hoist so big and unwieldy that it was fitted with wing-mirrors. She pushed it down the corridor, stopped at the double doors and put the brake on. She flashed her card. Nothing happened. Eventually she realised with some annoyance that these doors only opened when flashed from the other side. Abandoning her monster, she sighed deeply, trudged back past Barbara and disappeared into who knew what maze of lifts, stairs and corridors in order to reach the double doors from the far side. She flashed her card. Obediently the doors started to open, outwards, but only a fraction: there was something blocking them. With heavy heart she realised that the culprit was her wing-mirrored monster. She’d left it too close. So near, yet so far . . . there was nothing for it but to slog all the way back again, take the brake off and pull the mighty beast clear. Meanwhile the slightly-open doors had timed themselves out and had closed again. So she set off back yet again, darkening the corridor with muttered oaths. We never saw the end of this French farce. She may be still there, of course.
* * *
THE OTHER invitations were to two concerts, within a couple of days of each other. Last year Gilbert, an old friend of this column, the choirmaster and restaurateur who until he retired a month ago used to spit-roast legs of lamb or pork, capons and sometimes geese of a Sunday on his open-fire rôtisserie, took his choir on tour to Belgium, where they had a high old time. Their Belgian hosts were invited back to the Languedoc to sing, which they did the other day with great spirit and gusto. The venue was the salle polyvalente, the sort of all-purpose hall you find in most French villages, in St Etienne d’Albagnan, just along the valley from us, and Josephine and I were invited because Gilbert sometimes makes outrageous claims that I taught him all he knows about directing choirs and I wish he wouldn’t because this might be taken two ways.
Gilbert’s 20-strong choir kicked off first with their usual medley of popular French songs. Little three- and four-year-old girls congregated in the space between the stage and the front row of a packed house to vie with each other in jumping up and down and waving their arms in time to the music. One petit bout de choux (literally ‘little cabbage-end’), i.e. tiny tot, insisted on bringing her push-chair as a kind of dancing partner, and the whole recital was punctuated by the struggle between this wilful infant and her scandalised granny. The 50 or so Belgians followed with an extraordinarily mixed programme ranging from the Hallelujah Chorus to Abba selections, which we enjoyed a lot more than the pathetic Belgian joke someone told us. Belgian jokes to the French are like Irish jokes used to be to the English. Ready?
Belgians have a great affection for the British royal family, none more than Belgian truck drivers. To celebrate Her Majesty’s recent 85th birthday, 85 of them were drawn by lot to cross the Channel and drive to London in formation to present their greetings in person. Such a manoeuvre needed practice, of course, not forgetting that in the UK they drive on the left, not on the right like they do in Belgium. So they bore this mind when practising in the streets of Brussels . . . wasn’t worth it, was it?
The second invitation was to a private recital in someone’s house, where a visiting tenor with guitar accompaniment sang songs by Kurt Weill, a composer best known for his The Threepenny Opera, with words by Berthold Brecht. We were invited to eat first, alfresco finger-food on a roof terrace, where I chatted to a very small man who had spent his life climbing mountains and Josephine chatted to a rather sad woman who at one point said her son était parti dans l’univers, literally ‘had gone away into the universe’. Josephine wasn’t certain whether this meant he had simply left home or that he’d died, a dilemma which made her very guarded about the rest of the conversation. We’d been invited as part of the local musical establishment, and I was asked to outline what my choir did.
This was a splendid opportunity to tell everyone – and of course you, dear reader – that Les Jeudistes are about to embark on a concert tour of Scotland, a great adventure. If you’re anywhere in the region of Ullapool, Nairn or Grantown on Spey on the evenings of May 6th, 7th and 8th, please come along. We’ll all be there, two sopranos, two tenors and two basses, plus Christine our pianist. Plus Barbara and Josephine, the two head altos, of course. And that stress test was entirely positive, so I ought to be in good heart too.
Posted in Campbell's Diary.
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– May 1, 2011
If you love peaceful countryside and scenic views, enjoy walking and boating, appreciate good food and wine, then the Dordogne will delight.
Down in the gentle south west of France, inland from Bordeaux, the Dordogne river threads its meandering course through some of France’s most idyllic countryside. The first time I saw Dordogne country, I thought I’d discovered Tolkein’s arcadian Middle Earth..
Drive along quiet, winding roads through manicured villages, past lush waterside meadows and picture book farmhouses. Turn a bend to see dramatic cliffs or a rocky outcrop topped by a mouthwatering chateau..
The Dordogne is a great holiday area. The climate is warm and sunny and it’s reachable in a day by car from the channel ports. Main towns like Perigeux, Bergerac and Brantome are small and welcoming, with fascinating markets and museums, arts and crafts. Prehistoric painted caves deserve awed exploration. The countryside is perfect for walking or cycling and the river ideal for canoes, kayaks and slow cruises..
Country restaurants, from simple to luxury, serve fresh local produce bursting with flavour. Duck’s a speciality, used in confit, cassoulet and foie gras, while truffles are also on the menu. The wine is from Bordeaux or Bergerac, as full-bodied or fresh as you wish..
Holiday lets in the Dordogne range from quaint village houses and romantic rural cottages to luxury villas and easygoing family farmhouse conversions. The area is ideal for families because it’s easy to combine days by your own private swimming pool and nights around the barbecue with interesting outings and reasonable meals in a friendly auberge.
Posted in France Lovers.
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– April 24, 2011
I have been living in France for more years than I would like to admit, and I have often wondered why.
Obviously there was something that I had to learn, because the purpose of Life, so I am told, is to improve myself or to be “improved”.
This week I have understood one of the lessons that I am supposed to have learned during my sojourn here.
I am supposed to have learned how to trim a hedge!
You see, I suffer from that malady common to English Speaking People, in that I believe that Nature is beautiful when left alone and allowed to recreate itself, with freedom of expression.
I like my garden to have “wild” areas where birds can nest and red squirrels can scamper, or hedgehogs can lurk. But now I realise that I have been wrong for years.
The purpose of my life should have been to have a straighter, neater, more exactly cut hedge.
The precision hedge
I am surprised that I have been allowed to live in this community for so long, without having a Mayoral Decree delivered, or at least a mumbled “word of advice” given, regarding my property perimeters.
And as for walls!
Here I am seriously at fault.
I had to repair a section of wall which was destroyed by raiders when they stole some heavy equipment from the Old Forge when the property was abandoned, before I bought it. As the old red bricks were lying everywhere in abundance I thought it would be fitting to build the wall in a slightly haphazard fashion, in keeping with the wild variety in the shapes and sizes of the bricks.
The haphazad wall
And, even worse, to build a flower bed along the top of the wall so that trailing plants could hang down and waft in the breeze.
Sacré Bleu!
Who ever heard of such a thing?
All walls must be dead straight and level on top, and must have roof tiles all correctly sloped like military bayonets at an Army Parade.
No… Now that I have realised my shortcomings I will be at pains to rectify this deplorable attitude that I have, and learn to trim my hedges with a theodolite, prune my roses with a power cutter and lop branches off my trees with a chainsaw.
I have to learn about this historical fascination for guillotining heads off things to create a new social order. I have to learn that destruction is beautiful. I must get used to straight carrots and geometrically perfect beans.
Yes, I know at last why I am here.
But perhaps… Perhaps…. I will wait until they make a wine bottle in the shape of a cube… then I will know that the curve is gone forever!
Oh dear… they have… Wine is now available in a cardboard box!
I wonder if the French Lady’s bra will suffer the same regimented fate and be made to look like the rear light of a Renault.
I do hope not.
Posted in French Bread.
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– April 14, 2011
Last month I talked a little about Paris. This month we will venture away from Paris and towards another beautiful area of France so often called the Garden of France and the cradle of the French Language. It is of course the Loire Valley.
The Loire valley is a very popular tourist area and once you have been there you will be smitten. Not only is it a most beautiful part of France but it also has so many things to see and do for everyone, young and old. If you are holidaying with your family or on your own it is the ideal place to visit and stop over for a while to absorb the culture and cuisine which is just fabulous.
Chateau Chenonceau
It is great for walking holidays and also if you are a cycling enthusiast as the countryside is breathtaking. It was also a area popular with the French Royal families too in years gone by especially for hunting and relaxing away from the busy city of Paris. The French Royals have left a legacy for all to see with the most beautiful chateaux, gardens and parks. I love the chateaux and am quite content just strolling around absorbing all the surroundings and the history.
Although the Chateau Chenonceau is considered to be the loveliest of the Loire chateaux, my favourite has to be the Chateau at Villandry.
There is a great love story attached to Chateau Villandry. A young Spanish doctor, Joachim Carvallo, came to France in 1893 and he fell in love with a young American girl called Ann Coleman. They married and lived in Paris for a few years and had three children. They saved enough money and eventually bought the castle of Villandry which at that time needed restoring. The doctor became a French citizen and during WW1 he converted part of the estate to make a hospital for the wounded soldiers where he and his wife cared for them. They continued to restore the castle following the war and designed the most beautiful gardens that we can see today.
Villandry Gardens
A life times passion for this loving couple created a beautiful place for us all to enjoy and I guarantee you will love it too. I just love the kitchen garden and wish it were mine! The gardens are truly amazing and in fact they are described as a ‘true Renaissance-inspired masterpiece’ as their geometry is perfect and their paths intersect at right angles.
If you are coming from Paris by car it is about 240 Km : A10 exit 24 (Joué-lès-Tours) then A85, direction Saumur, exit 8 (Villandry).You can take a train from Montparnasse station then taxi from Tours or Saint-Pierre-des-Corps stations.
Other areas and towns to enjoy are Amboise, Blois, Chinon, Chinon, Orléans, Saumur, and Tours simply because we love the history surrounding them, the old buildings and the heritage.
Samur is a pretty little town, with it’s buildings of white tufa stone and sits on the banks of the Loire river. It is a welcoming place to stop for a rest and refreshments and you will find good inexpensive places to eat. It also has a beautiful chateau which you will want to stop and admire.
If you love horses, then you are in the right place as Samur has a long history with horses. It was home to the French Calvary Academy, and is home to the Cadre Noir horsemen. A visit to the French National Riding School is an experience not to be missed as you will see the riding tricks and skills of the best horsemen in the world. The annual Carousel (an equestrian show that takes place in July) draws thousands of visitors.
Another fascinating place to visit and especially good for children is the famous Troglodyte Village of Rochemenier. Here you will see dwellings or homes that have been dug out of the soft tufa stone and are called Troglodytes. Part of these are now a museum and show how they were used up until about the 1930′s. They were said to keep a constant temperature of cool in the summer and warm in the winter. You will see some farm houses and even a chapel carved out of the stone. It’s difficult to imagine people actually living in houses created in this fashion but they did and in fact people still do in some even today – wealthy Parisians have some for second homes!
If you want a place to eat you will find many restaurants to suit all pockets and all will provide you with the best of French food. The Loire is famous for it’s fresh fruit and vegetable produce as well as it’s dairy food which it supplies to the rest of France.
If you are self catering you will have no problem purchasing the best of food for your meals and the markets are the best places to do this. Fish is plentiful as well as poultry and cheeses, with goats cheese being very popular.
To close our trip to the Loire this month I have included a recipe using fresh fish and the speciality Loire butter sauce. I hope you like it and if you are in France, do try to sample the real thing as it is just divine!
Saumon au Beurre Blanc
This is a really beautiful dish using fresh salmon which in the Loire is fresh from the river. It can also be made with pike-perch called zander. I have used fresh salmon which is so good accompanied by the Loire speciality of a melted butter sauce flavoured with shallots and white wine vinegar. It is easy to make and if you are on holiday you can choose to make your own but it would be a shame not to taste the real thing if you are in France.
The butter sauce can be made ahead of the vegetables and the fish and kept in a vacuum flask, or you can make it as the vegetables are cooking. It will take about fifteen to twenty minutes. The fish will take about ten minutes.
Ingredients for 4 people
Butter Sauce
Method
Place the shallots and white wine vinegar in a pan and bring to the boil over a medium heat.
Cook until the liquid has reduced leaving about one tablespoon of juices.
Add the cream and mix well with a whisk.
Reduce the heat and add the butter a little at a time whisking as you do.
Continue to whisk in all the butter, lowering the heat or removing from the heat if it melts before it is well blended.
Finally add the chopped tarragon.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Cover the pan and keep in a warm place. (You can put it in a vacuum flask if you wish)
To cook your fish you can either dust it with seasoned flour and lightly fry it in butter and oil or you can steam it for about five minutes. I have steamed the salmon in the photograph here.
Serve with the butter sauce, small potatoes and French beans.
Bon Appétit!
For more French recipes from Gaynor, visit French recipies to love
Posted in French Recipes to Love.
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– April 11, 2011
Air France has launched a new service flying from London City airport, direct to Pau in the Pyrenees. The flight will be operated by its subsidiary City Jet.
Posted in France Lovers, News.
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– April 6, 2011
Sophie's Salon
HAVE YOU ever had your hair cut in a foreign country? For some, particularly women, it’s a daunting thought, unless of course you live abroad all the time. I don’t know if it’s easier for men? It must be, if your coiffure consists of the shortest of crops or even a bald and polished pate, but if you’re a woman who cherishes your crowning glory then the thought of surrendering yourself while on holiday to the local Mr Teasy-Weasy must be quite frightening. Indeed I’ve known expat ladies who will deliberately plan a few days in The Old Country just to get their hair done.
In my early days of living in France (it will be twenty years ago in October), tiring of constantly flicking my hair out of my eyes, I braved the local Sweeney Todd in his salon de coiffure in the village of Labastide Rouairoux, where I lived then. First impressions were pretty unnerving: the previous customer was having a naked candle-flame applied to his scalp and the place stank of burning hair. Not very promising, even though Monsieur Todd was flourishing a sort of funnel made of paper to catch the molten wax. But with true British grit I saw it through, and discovered that this was no demon barber, but a mild and mannerly chap who not only knew how to do short back and sides but displayed an unexpected interest in church music.
In due course I moved on from Labastide to Olargues, the village where we live now, and meantime my hair didn’t stop growing, by now in all the wrong places, back and sides rather than on top. Via the choir that I conducted at the time, choirs locally being a yet more buzzing forum for the exchange of gossip and misinformation than barbershops are, we discovered a travelling hairdresser who would come and do the needful in the comfort of our own home. So Sandrine would turn up with all her material, set up in the bathroom and do us both in half an hour, chatting away the while, and all went well to start with.
Maybe there’s a supposition among the French that the Brits in their midst live in their own little ghetto-like worlds of inward-looking expatism, never venturing out much among the natives, so that they’re very unlikely to know Monsieur X or Madame Z. While this may very regrettably be true in some quarters, it isn’t in ours. Sandrine turned out to be too much of a gossip to last long, so we moved on.
And this was at just about the time Sophie Frimousse opened her salon in the village. There’s a photo of it up at the top. I was struck by the name. It seemed unlikely that Frimousse was actually Sophie’s surname, because it’s the French for ‘smiley’, one of those emoticons, little round yellow smiling faces that people sometimes put in Facebook comments or website message-boards. It would be like assuming that the person who ran a sweetshop with ‘Tom Gobstopper’ above the door actually was a Mr T. Gobstopper. ‘Frimousse’ is well chosen, because Sophie is a very outgoing and spirited person and smiles much of the time.
Sophie Frimousse was a real find, and we’ve never been anywhere else since. I don’t trouble her much, not having much hair to trouble her with, and Josephine’s style is simple and compact in its elegance, so Sophie gets through the two of us as a job lot in under 15 minutes every six weeks or so. But it’s clear that some of her clients demand the Madame de Pompadour Plus treatment every now and again, paying vast sums for creations that the first puff of the Mistral or Tramontane is going to disintegrate into rats’ nests, and it shows how little I know about the finer points of Sophie’s mastery of French hairstyling when all I can add are the following two comments:
1. Inexplicably, several French hairstyling terms are English: un brushing, for instance, is a blow-dry, assisted by a brush to give some form after un shampooing (pronounced something like ‘shompwang’).
2. Many of Sophie’s customers, particularly the elderly, wait until the full moon before making an appointment. It’s firmly believed that hair grows more vigorously with the waxing moon, less vigorously with the waning moon, so that you get best value for your money and your styling lasts longer if you have it done at the period of minimum lunar growth. There couldn’t possibly be any truth in this, could there?
Sophie
During our most recent appointment Sophie was full of a visit she’d recently made to Brighton. Well, not Brighton exactly, she said, but somewhere near. She couldn’t remember the name of the place but it sounded like a sneeze. Neither Josephine nor I know that part of the world very well, but we put out several unsneeze-like prompts. Shoreham-by-Sea? Did that sound like un éternuement, a French sneeze? Sophie shook her head. We tried a few more, reciting names remembered from the atlas rather than places we knew. By no stretch of the imagination could Hove or Woodingdean be said to resemble a sneeze. We drew blanks with Southwick, Kemp Town and Peacehaven. Not even West Blatchington drew any response.
I played my last card. I remembered that in the Sixth Form at school, so hardly yesterday, I had once gone on an archaeological walking tour of the South Downs. For me it was less a case of discovering dewponds and Iron Age hill forts than finding suitably hidden burial mounds to have a fly smoke behind. We stayed a few nights at the Youth Hostel in Alfriston, near Eastbourne, and the final night in the Youth Hostel in Patcham…
Patcham! Sophie’s face lit up, with an ear-to-ear frimousse. Patcham! That was it! We’d got it! That was where she stayed! Josephine and I looked at each other, via the mirror: Sneeze? Patcham? What had Patcham to do with sneezing?
Ah well. The French don’t say Atishoo! to represent a sneeze. They say Atchoum! Atchoum!
Patchoum!
Yes, I see. Bless you, Sophie Frimousse.
Posted in Campbell's Diary.
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– April 1, 2011
Around one fifth of the British workforce will be looking to escape the UK for the long Easter and bank holiday break. Many will take off the three days between bank holidays, giving them a lengthy eleven days.
But many people will also want to avoid battling through the major airports or missing the big wedding.
The solution? Load everything in the car and hop across the channel to a cottage, villa or even a chateau in France. These days holiday lets often have flat screen TV with British channels, so you can stock up on vin du pays along with some fresh bread, pate and cheese and settle down for the royal event while the kids are happy in the games room or garden.
Holiday homes from home are still available throughout France, starting at just £200 a week. They range from romantic hideaways for two to comfortable farmhouses and chateaux where the extended family can relax.
With an early ferry crossing to Calais, you can reach Champagne country, Normandy, Brittany, the Loire Valley, Charente-Maritime and even the Dordogne in a day. And if you don’t want to travel far, there are some beautiful spots in the Nord/Pas de Calais, especially close to Le Touquet, Montreuil, Old Hesdin and St Valery sur Somme.
Posted in France Lovers.
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– March 30, 2011
France is considered home to a number of the world’s finest restaurants and bars. With such a rich culinary tradition, it’s hardly surprisingly to find that one of the top reasons holidaymakers chose to visit Paris is to sample the food.
To the delight of ‘foodies’ across the continent, Eurostar have announced they’ve teamed-up with Toptable (Europe’s premier online restaurant booking service) to offer an exclusive range of special discounts at the top 20 restaurants in Paris, Lille and Brussels. This deal is available to Eurostar customers booking via the Gourmet section of their web site.
And don’t forget, if you’re planning your summer holiday at the moment you can check out French Connection’s very own selection of special offers and last minute hotel deals.
Posted in France Lovers, News.
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– March 24, 2011
The Cantal department is one of France’s lesser know regions – and it’s well worth discovering if you hanker for lush scenery, peace and quiet and the great outdoors.
All France lovers enjoy discovering a new region of the country, getting a thrill from local accents, stories, sights, food and wine. The Cantal lies in the dramatic natural park of the Volcans d’Auvergne at the heart of France, where long extinct volcanoes have created a lush mixture of green mountains, high pastures, deep valleys and lakes.
Here is nature wild, unspoilt and just inviting exploration. This peaceful natural paradise is perfect for lovers of the great outdoors, whether walking and taking in the stunning scenery and wildlife, doing a bit of fishing and boating or rushing down rapids in a canoe. The mountains are green with gentle crests and peaks, the pastures dotted with sheep and the famous Salers cattle that produce Cantal cheese – a tasty hard cheese similar to cheddar that features in ‘aligot’, a local dish of mashed potato and crushed garlic.
Most accommodation in Cantal is in attractive stone cottages or comfortable wood cabins with all mod cons, set in glorious countryside. But there are towns to visit, most notably the capital Aurillac, a market town with some museums, and Murat, where the Maison de la Faune is a resource on the wildlife of the natural park.
Posted in France Lovers.
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– March 18, 2011
Whether you’re plotting a trip to Provence, The Riviera or Roussillon, Eurocamp has over 100 locations throughout France to choose from! This limited-time offer includes up to three additional nights for your stay – absolutely free of charge. You could relax for longer by the pool, enjoy more time exploring the local area, or just lay back and enjoy the warm summer evenings.
If you’re planning a longer family holiday in France, Eurocamp also offers a fantastic deal which allows 7 additional nights free of charge when booking a 14 night holiday before 14th July 2011 or after 29th August 2011. If you want more time to relax and discover all that France has to offer then this is the ideal choice for you.
And don’t forget to check out French Connection’s own range of special offers and last-minute deals for a memorable family holiday this year.
Posted in France Lovers, News.
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– March 16, 2011
France is famous for its many local festivals held through the year, but throughout Europe you’ll also find some of the strangest festivals you’ll ever come across!
La Tomatina festival is held in Valencia on the last Wednesday of August – and is the world’s largest annual tomato fight! Thousands of happy festival-goers use truckloads of the fruit as missiles (all in good fun of course!). Rail Europe offer return tickets from London start at just £253. Why not experience this once in a lifetime event for yourself this summer?
The Sao Joao festival, in Porto, is one of Europe’s largest street parties – with fireworks, barbeques and live music. Over the years, a slightly strange tradition has evolved where thousands of people arm themselves with huge, multicoloured plastic hammers – used to deploy swift, soft blows to the heads of fellow revellers. Porto can be easily reached from Madrid, which is itself only £202 return from London.
For more information on Europe’s wackiest festivals visit the Rail Europe site for their latest travel deals and special offers.
Posted in France Lovers.
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– March 10, 2011
Do you fancy a glamorous weekend break for two at the Monaco Grand Prix, totally free of charge? Of course you do! Who wouldn’t?! Rail Europe is currently offering this once-in-a-lifetime trip as part of a competition, which includes…
- First Class return travel from London to Nice departing Saturday 28th May 2011, returning Monday 30th May 2011.
- Two return tickets from Nice-Monaco, Sunday 29th May 2011.
- Two nights accommodation at a 4* Hotel.
- Two seats in the harbour section of the Circuit de Monaco for Sunday’s race.
Head over to their web site and answer a simple question to be in with a chance of winning.
Monaco; the second smallest country in the world, and yet one of the hottest holiday destinations anywhere! Home to Monte Carlo – a favourite destination for celebrities and jetsetters from across the globe. As a result, accommodation in Monaco itself can be hard to come by and very expensive, but you can find a selection of great value holiday accommodation around the local area.
Posted in France Lovers, News.
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– March 4, 2011
I love Paris in the spring time
I love Paris in the fall
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles
I love Paris every moment
Every moment of the year
I love Paris, why oh why do I love Paris Because my love is here
I think this song written by Cole Porter just about expresses the gaiety and romance of this beautiful city. The song was written for the 1953 musical ‘Can Can’ and is now so famous most people recognise it. My own favourite has to be ‘Under Paris Skies’ or ‘Sous Le Ciel De Paris’ written by Hubert Giraud in 1951. I particularly love the accordion accompaniment to this beautiful piece of music – it gives it a much more French flavour.
This is the Paris I have come to know and love. It is a wonderful city at any time of year but more so in the spring. I was in my teens when I first visited Paris as a young girl and was very fashion conscious at that time. I just had to wear my stiletto heels (yes, it was the 60′s) and did I suffer the consequences!
It is good advice to wear a comfortable pair of shoes for site seeing in Paris as you can walk miles without realising it. There is so much to see and do in this vibrant, romantic city. It is a holiday destination for all ages, especially so if you are young or young at heart!
There are different areas of the city to explore with many famous places to visit such as the Cathedral Notre Dame, the Palace of Versailles, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Bastille and of course many more than I can name here. They are just part of Paris, part of it’s culture and history. Not to be missed especially if it is your first time in Frances’ capital.
For people with young families a visit to Disneyland Paris is only twenty miles from the centre of Paris in Marne la Vallee in the eastern suburbs. It has two theme parks and restaurants etc. Of course Disneyland it is not only for children it can be for big kids too!
Shopping and eating in Paris is the best cultural experience one can have. This is our way of enjoying Paris. We like to stay in a self catering property – you will find excellent ones at www.frenchconnections.co.uk of course! Feel free to enjoy Paris in a leisurely manner, go where you want when you want. You can do all the site seeing you wish and have a lovely Parisian apartment to go back to at the end of your day. A good time to open a bottle of French wine! If you want to buy your own food, there is plenty to choose from. The local markets have a personality all of their own and this is where you will find me! They are overflowing with fresh fruit and vegetables, wonderful cheeses, sea-food, poultry and meat. When in France we enjoy eating as the French do and that means shopping for our baguettes each day and choosing a dessert for our evening meal from one of the many patisseries in the area.
There are fast food chains to be found in Paris nowadays and many young people love these but no, no, no, we enjoy real French food and choose to eat only this! It is much cheaper to eat fresh food than any fast food chain food and much healthier too. Often it is just as easy to eat out as it is to cook your own meal. There is something to suit everyone’s budget in Paris from the smallest bistro to the more expensive Parisian restaurant. The small bistros are usually run by a family and although you may find some look a little tired with dingy paintwork and scrubbed wooden tables, the food is usually especially good, not haute cuisine but good old fashioned French cooking. You don’t have to buy a dessert, as I said earlier, there are the most wonderful desserts to be bought in the patisseries.
Paris does not have it’s own cuisine but rather, it has a collection of dishes from all the regions of France. Many of the chefs come from other regions and bring their speciality dishes with them. The worlds first restaurant started in Paris by a Monsieur Boulanger in the Rue du Louvre around 1765. Until this time, meals were only cooked in the home. Many local people in Paris eat out in small establishments where the food is relatively cheap. This makes much more sense and is what we do. You will find the atmosphere relaxing and the welcome is wonderful. Of course, you can if you wish, just join the ‘café culture’ and sit with your newspaper and a single cup of coffee for hours and watch the world go by. This is my husband’s idea of heaven!
In the heart of Paris is one of the oldest and grandest of streets, the Faubourg St Honore . It is to be found between the President’s Elysée Palace and the Ministry Of Interior. It is the greenest and less populated quarters and only the most wealthy of people can afford to live here. And again, only the most wealthy of people can afford to stay in the hotels around the Rue de Rivoli or dine in some of Paris’s exclusive restaurants. However, you can stroll and browse the area and as we do, look longingly at the art and antique shops or in the windows of the most wonderful jewellers! If you stop for a coffee in this area, it will cost you! You can sit by the fountain in the Jardin des Tuileries and watch the children sail their boats. If you walk eastward from here you will come to Marche St Honore which is a pedestrian area and where you will find many cafes at affordable prices. Here, the whole area is a gourmets delight and sheer paradise to me!
Anyway, this brings me back to my favourite part of French culture – food and French recipes. I thought you may like a recipe which you can make very easily for your breakfast or indeed anytime if you are self catering. It is quick and inexpensive and was in fact a recipe adapted by one of the famous Parisian chefs of the last century. There are several versions of this tasty dish which originates from the Basque region of France. This one has bacon in it and is my favourite.
LA PIPERADE Scrambled Eggs Basquaise) Serves 2 (or three)
Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon oil
½ cup (4oz) diced bacon
4 green peppers, seeded and cut in small pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
4 tomatoes, peeled, seeded
4 free range eggs, well beaten
Salt and black pepper
Method
Heat the butter and the oil in a frying pan.
Cook the bacon, green peppers, and onion over a medium heat until soft.
Add the garlic and tomatoes.
Season with salt and pepper.
Raise the heat and with a fork, crush the tomatoes and this will evaporate the juices.
When the vegetables are cooked, add the four well-beaten eggs to the pan.
Immediately mix a fork until the eggs are sufficiently scrambled.
Serve your La Piperade and enjoy!
This is an old recipe and it makes two very good portions! It would make breakfast or lunch for two or three people.
You can omit the bacon if you prefer but it does give a wonderful flavour.
You can also use red peppers but I think the green ones look beautiful with the red of the tomatoes.
If you would like a dessert, how about a famous Paris Brest – a delicious puff pastry ring with a creamy, almond praline filling. You will find these in many if the patisseries or if you would like to make one at home you will find the recipe for this and many others at it www.french-recipes-to-love.com
Bon Appétit!
Posted in French Recipes to Love.
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– March 4, 2011
WE’VE GOT a street map of Paris all over the kitchen table this morning. No, we’re not going there, except maybe in our imagination. We’re looking excitedly for certain streets. Here’s the Avenue des Champs-Elysées, which we’ve just learnt to equate with Park Lane in London . . .
. . . the other day there was a report on the French TV news on the growing popularity of board games, jeux de société in French. Among other things it featured a family of five (as iconic French families are often shown to be, in contrast to the usual US/UK quartet of Mum, Dad and two kids: social demographers will latch on to this straight away) round the table playing Cluedo, with an eight-year-old saying Je soupçonne moi-même, I suspect myself, which if nothing else indicates early development of the celebrated French logic. The report also featured a man whose passion for board ganes obliged him to park his car outside: his garage was packed from floor to ceiling with brightly-packaged Snakes and ladders, Ludo, Scrabble, Chess, Pik-a-stix, Draughts, you name it – and of course the inevitable Monopoly.
It’s possibly that many Brits living outside London gained their first acquaintance with the capital from playing Monopoly. How else would anyone have heard of The Angel, Islington, Coventry Street or Fenchurch Street Station if it wasn’t from trailing one of those tokens, boot, top-hat, racing car or little dog, round the board? What notions of social inequality were unwittingly derived from the contrast in rents between the Old Kent Road and Park Lane, and how far have they been reinforced in real life as a direct result? Why is the Old Kent Road coloured brown on the board and Mayfair royal blue?
Goodness, these are deep waters.
I wondered what the French equivalents of all these London streets were. Surely the French would have adapted the London-based version to their own capital, Paris? I started my investigations. I wasn’t certain that the results would mean very much to me, because my knowledge of Paris is very limited. This is partly because of a very curious circumstance. On holiday in France in the summer of 1989, before I came to live here, some very kind French friends invited us for a river trip, with dinner included, on a Bateau Mouche, one of those luxurious tourist boats that ply up and down the Seine through the riverside heart of Paris. We had driven in from near Versailles in two cars to the Bateau Mouche quay, and at the end of an unforgettable river trip and dinner our host Emile suggested that we might like to see Paris at night: if he led the way in his car, would I like to follow in mine?
Goodness knows where he took us. All I saw of Paris By Night were his tail-lights. Oh yes, I had the briefest nano-glimpse of the Moulin Rouge with its revolving red neon-lit windmill vanes, but otherwise I was so terrified of losing Emile in the swirling, darting, lane-changing, traffic-light-controlled dash that I didn’t dare for a moment take my eyes off him. Dodgem cars (in French, bizarrely, autos tamponneuses) were a doddle compared with this. The upshot was that I was none the wiser about the sights of Paris than I had been before. I’ve never been there since. Josephine is much more clued-up about Paris than I am. She spent several months there, on and off, on exchange in her student and gap year days, and even worked there for a few weeks.
I discovered – on line, where else? – a 1937 French version of Monopoly, probably the earliest. It may have been updated since, but I doubt it. In the UK version if you land, immediately after GO (DÉPART in French), in the Old Kent Road, in the French version you find yourself in the Boulevard de Belleville. If in 1937 any stigma attached itself to the Old Kent Road and the measly rents it attracted, the Boulevard de Belleville – there’s a recent photo at the end of this article – doesn’t seem all that run-down to me. Maybe in the intervening years a greater sense of social responsibility has tempered the grasping capitalism of Monopoly. If, naked capitalist that you are, you’ve contrived to build several hotels on Mayfair, the French equivalent is the Rue de la Paix, and you’ve probably won the game.
Josephine and I spent an enjoyable half-hour poring over the Paris map, identifying all the Monopoly streets. Some we knew, some we’d never heard of. For the record – and let it not be said that this blog is anything but complete – here’s the complete table of equivalents, with the stations thrown in. If you know Paris, it may speak volumes to you:
| Old Kent Road | Boulevard de Belleville |
| Whitechapel Road | Rue Lecourbe |
| King’s Cross Station | Gare Montparnasse |
| The Angel, Islington | Rue de Vaugirard |
| Euston Road | Rue de Courcelles |
| Pentonville Road | Avenue de la République |
| Pall Mall | Boulevard de la Villette |
| Whitehall | Avenue de Neuilly |
| Northumberland Avenue | Rue de Paradis |
| Marylebone Station | Gare de Lyon |
| Bow Street | Avenue Mozart |
| Marlborough Street | Boulevard St Michel |
| Vine Street | Place Pigalle |
| Strand | Avenue Matignon |
| Fleet Street | Boulevard Malesherbes |
| Trafalgar Square | Avenue Henri-Martin |
| Fenchurch Street | Station Gare du Nord |
| Leicester Square | Faubourg Saint-Honoré |
| Coventry Street | Place de la Bourse |
| Piccadilly | Rue Lafayette |
| Regent Street | Avenue de Breteil |
| Oxford Street | Avenue Foch |
| Bond Street | Boulevard des Capucines |
| Liverpool Street | Station Gare Saint Lazare |
| Park Lane | Avenue des Champs Elysées |
| Mayfair | Rue de la Paix |
If you don’t know Paris, there’s somewhere else where this insider knowledge may come in useful. There’s a town in the Vendée called Parthenay, in the Deux-Sèvres département. It comes into its own on July, when they put on a festival of games, in the town and in the surrounding villages. Not sports, games. Anyone can join in, old or young. No use taking your football boots or your tennis racquet along when they’re concentrating on mah-jongh or jigsaws, bridge or battleships, rummikub or Rubik’s Cube or for all I know Top Trumps and Twister.
And of course Monopoly. If you manage to build so many hotels that you bankrupt everyone else, I hereby claim 10% of your winnings. On the Rue de la Paix or the Boulevard de Belleville. Ça m’est égal, it’s all one to me.
Posted in Campbell's Diary.
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– March 1, 2011
For a limited time only, FlyBMI are offering fantastic deals on flights to a range of top European destinations in their new 5 Day Sale. Prices start from just £31 one-way. With popular routes to Berlin, Vienna and Basel, book now to avoid disappointment.
Fly BMI are also offering great special offers on a variety of domestic flights between London Heathrow and the major cities in the UK; including Manchester, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast. Why not act now and grab yourself a brilliant last-minute bargain?
And of course – those of you with an eye for a bargain would do well to check out French Connection’s own range of special offers and last minute deals for your holiday this Spring.
Posted in France Lovers, News.
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– February 25, 2011
French Connections are pleased to offer an exclusive 20% discount code on Halfords’ entire spring camping range. Simply by entering the code AFFCAM02 at the checkout, French Connections users can enjoy a fantastic discount on Halford’s spring camping collection; ranging from lightweight two-man tents, perfect for cycling holidays, right through to complete camping sets which are ideal for any families seeking an exciting activity holiday. (Valid until 3rd March 2011)
Thinking of booking a long camping holiday in France? Eurocamp are currently offering a brilliant deal that includes an additional 7 nights completely free when booking any 14-night holiday to be completed before 14th July 2011, or commencing after 29th August 2011.
For those of you with a keen eye for a bargain, Vacansoleil have numerous campsites in France which are offering a limited-time, extra discount on selected dates throughout 2011.
And don’t forget – we’ve also put together a great guide of idea, tips and destinations for budget holidays in France; proving that you don’t need deep pockets to enjoy a truly memorable holiday in France.
Posted in France Lovers, News.
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– February 23, 2011
