Brittany and Pays de la Loire – France

George East is an acclaimed travel writer who has been writing about France for more than thirty years. His latest book “French Impressions – Brittany” was published several months ago. In a new series ‘On the trail of George East’ we are publishing excerpts with George’s opinions of places in Brittany that he has visited and we would like you, our readers, to add your comments, letting us know if you agree or disagree with George.
For the first in the series we are travelling to Mont St-Michel, one of the most famous French landmarks…
Read George’s view of Mont St-Michel

We’re pleased to have sent the first newsletter to our growing membership – the first since we launched the site in January. It has generated plenty of traffic and feedback and so we thought it would be relevant to present it here on the blog for our visitors too.
Read the full Brittany and Pays de la Loire newsletter

200 years ago Nicolas Appert invented the conserving of food by heat sterilisation and hermetically sealed container. He created the World’s first conserving factory with an invention that changed millions of lives, including sailors for whom the invention meant less chance of scurvy. Read about conserving food & La Belle Iloise in Brittany

Following in the footsteps of George East (from his latest book French Impressions – Brittany), we decided to take a look at the area between Marzan and Béganne in Southern Brittany, in particular the pretty port of Le Foleux on the banks of the river Vilaine.

Read more about our visit to Le Foleux in Brittany

Nantes, the regional capital of the Pays de la Loire region, has a population of 280,000 and is the 6th largest French city. This is fewer than the number of French people living in London.
What do you think about London being the “6th biggest French city”?

Divers off the coast of Finland in the Baltic Sea have found 30 bottles of Clicquot Champagne on the seabed that pre-date the French Revolution whilst exploting a wreck. The Champagne is apparently still drinkable, due to the cold and dark environment, and it is expected that the remaining bottles could fetch up to £45,000…
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As a french property owner you are constantly competing for bookings with other owners in your area. In times when demand outstrips supply you should all be able to co-exist happily, but the number of available rental units has been rising steadily and exchange rate fluctuations and economic crises are conspiring to dampen demand too….
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The 14th July has been celebrated by the french every year since 1789, the year that citizens of France rebelled against the monarchy and stormed the Bastille prison where dissenters (in fact, anyone who disgreed with the way that France was being governed) were held. The storming of the Bastille marked the start of the…
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France is a great place for a family holiday, and is still the number 1 country visited by overseas tourists by quite a margin – 74 million international tourist arrivals in 2008 compared with USA in 2nd place with 55 million. The strong euro and credit crunch have no doubt hit visitor numbers in 2009,…
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The 78th Le Mans 24-hour race takes place 12th-13th June 2010 at the Circuit de la Sarthe near Le Mans in the Pays de la Loire. For the first time since 1969 the organisers have decided to revive the old tradition of having the 56 drivers race across the track before starting their engines and…
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