Brittany and Pays de la Loire - France

On the trail of George East… Mont St-Michel

Martin Jarvis — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:36:22 +0000

George is a former nightclub bouncer, private detective, radio DJ, pub landlord and gravedigger. He is now 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. I read and enjoyed the book and thought it would be a great idea (with George’s permission) to publish passages from the book here, in a series that we are going to call ‘On the trail of George East’. The excerpts are 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 excerpt I have chosen one of the most famous of French landmarks…

Not counting the Eiffel Tower, Mont St-Michel is the most popular tourist attraction in France.It is also not technically in Brittany. Standing on a tidal island in the bay of the same name, the Mont is still the cause of a degree of ill-will between Normans and Bretons with long memories. The Mont was technically Breton and an Armorican focus of Romano-Breton culture and power in the 6th century until it was annexed in 933 by William Long Sword, the first duke of Normandy. After the monks gave their support to the invasion of 1066, the monastery of St-Michel was awarded properties and lands in England, including a small island off cornwall where the mini-version was to be built.The influence of the Norman abbey waned with the onset of the Reformation, and it became a prison until being declared an historic monument in 1874.

When we arrived, we had to fight our way through the throngs of Japanese tourists and touts promoting the tacky wares of the shops lining the ascent. After a lung bursting, elbow jostling climb, we pitched up at the main building entrance to find it would cost a small fortune to go further, and our dog would not be allowed at any price. Unimpressed, we made the long descent and headed for the nearest chippie.

Let us know your views on the Mont St-Michel.

French Impressions – Brittany is published by La Puce Publications and can be purchased here.

En route for the Loire Valley

Anne Williams — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:00:56 +0000

In France at last, and raring to start on our mission….

From Dieppe all main roads south go through Rouen. Having negotiated the town centre successfully we opted to take the A13 west, towards Caen and then to follow the newly opened A28 to our destination.

Some six hours later we arrived at the gîte which was as good as its description. Perfectly situated on the edge of the town and a few minutes’ walk from shops it offered a perfect base for our house-hunting forays. We had a few days on our own before being joined by our son and girlfriend, our daughter and my brother and his wife, so we set to the task immediately. Top of the list was location, then accommodation adequate for family gatherings, some outside space but nothing too maintenance heavy, and that indefinable je ne sais quoi – charm, character, lifestyle – that would tip the balance.

Plan 1

We approached estate agents in the town and viewed various houses which on paper fulfilled our requirements. But the wow factor wasn’t there. They passed the ‘baguette test’ (my husband’s term for being within walking or cycling distance of a boulangerie) but either there was not enough open living space, or the bedrooms were poky, or there was too much for us to do. We were realistic about our DIY skills so anything requiring immediate structural work would probably be too much of a challenge. Feeling somewhat deflated we turned to plan 2.

Plan 2

Before leaving home I had contacted an English company specialising in selling French properties to English people. They had an office just north of Tours so we arranged to spend the day with one of their agents. Back up the motorway we went for a 10am appointment.

The agent was extremely efficient and, using our wish list, had compiled a pile of details of properties for us to view. We looked through them and selected about ten. We were still reluctant to relinquish hopes of finding somewhere near the gîte we were renting as we loved the rolling countryside and the walks beside the river Creuse and were sceptical about the attractions of the northern Loire. Gradually, however, as we drove from property to property we began to warm to the gently undulating hills, the wooded valleys, the vineyards and orchards, and the pretty towns and villages all in much closer proximity to one another than those we had explored in the last few days. One of the properties in La Chartre sur le Loir appealed to us: it was right behind the town hall, so got a big tick for the baguette test; it had four bedrooms, a lounge-diner and a separate fitted kitchen; and we could envisage living there with a punt on the river Loir at the bottom of the garden. Nevertheless, prudence prevailed, so we left the agent with the promise to return with the family, whose opinions were crucial. Already we started to imagine parties and celebrations with them.

Eyes wide open

How perspectives change when approached with cool heads and sharp eyes! The house was judged on the small side, the river level was studied suspiciously, the mesh grills on the windows were pointed out as a sure sign of mosquitoes, and to cap it all, our son’s girlfriend realised that the front door opened onto the main one – way system through the town…… On our first viewing we had arrived at about midday via the car park, which probably explained why there hadn’t been much traffic.

Chastened but not deterred we told the agent to keep us informed of any property that he thought would interest us, as we had no more days left this time and returned to the gîte to pack our cases.

Lessons learned…

On the journey back to Dieppe we assessed our progress. Certainly there was no dream cottage in the offing, and we felt we had had a lucky escape. From the negative experience of half falling for an unsuitable house we had gained a lot of practical tips: view a property at different times of day; take note of any extra equipment such as fly swats on the wall or mosquito netting; look at the land around the property and see if there are signs of redevelopment; get someone else whom you trust to give an honest opinion; don’t jump at the first possible property. In addition, and perhaps most importantly of all, we knew that we had found the ideal corner of France for us.

Our first newsletter

Martin Jarvis — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:32:25 +0000

Why you?

I created the Brittany and Pays de la Loire blog back in January from the ashes of my old French property rental website which was no longer needed. I thought it would be a good way of sharing my own (and others) experiences and interest in the area whilst at the same time showcasing my website development and traffic building skills to a niche audience. It’s not unique – there are many hundreds of good quality blogs covering the same ground as this one, nor is it the busiest blog – yet, but it is moving in the right direction and the addition of a small-but-growing group of guest bloggers is certainly helping to keep the subject matter broad and interesting.

Back to the ‘Why You?’ question. If you are not already one of our regular contributors….

We now think that the blog has developed into a really nice resource that we think you might like to take another look at, and which might be able to help with your business too. More of that later, and we hope you choose to read on.

Moving to France?

We have several guest bloggers who are at various stages of relocating to France and who are diarising their personal and business experiences for the benefit of our readers. Philippa Lyall has just relocated permanently to France and is trying to establish a couple of businesses; Len Clark is renovating an old farmhouse in the Loire Valley; Anne Williams is documenting her own move to a quiet village life in the Pays de la Loire.

If you have anything to add to their posts – to reinforce the point with your own experiences, or perhaps to give a different point of view, why not contribute the occasional comment? It’s easy to do – just click on the post title, scroll down the page and add your comment.

200 Years of ‘Boites de Conserve’

Did you know that the process of conserving food by heat treating it and hermetically sealing it in a container has just celebrated its 200th anniversary, or that it was invented by a Frenchman? Or that more French people live in London than in Nantes? Or that Champagne can cost £45,000 a bottle?

If you read the blog you would know these things – and much more as we bring you quirky, interesting articles to supplement the regular contributions from our guests.

Are you a holiday property owner?

How have your 2010 bookings compared against 2009? Have you witnessed a slowdown? What’s been the biggest cause – economic slowdown, exchange rate, prices charged for accommodation, or perhaps a combination of all three?

Take our bookings poll and add your own comment

Can I help you?

From helping to vent your frustrations with French bureaucracy to building the trust of like-minded individuals, a regular blogging spot could be for you. It costs nothing but a little of your time and as well as enlightening our readers it could help you to do more business – blogging is a great way of developing a passive following from people who could be more inclined to do business with you if they can see that you have a knowledge of, or interest in, a subject relevant to their needs…

Find out more about contributing regular posts

My blog is based on WordPress architecture, and uses a premium theme to deliver what I think is a neat design. Whilst WordPress has traditionally been associated with blogging it is rapidly becoming a framework suitable for the development of fully functional websites too, with integrated blogs, nice SEO features, and an easy content management system so that website owners can add and edit pages, add images, change navigation etc without having to ask an expensive web designer to do it for them.

If you are thinking about a new website and would like a little help setting up, building and hosting your WordPress site, please get in touch. Here’s an example of a WordPress site that we built for a client recently…

Normandie Rentals Website

Until next time…

Martin Jarvis, Blogger and Website Developer

Ce n’est pas difficile

Anne Williams — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:56:27 +0000

“Ce n’est pas difficile!”

Woken from my slumbers after a hard day’s work I could hardly believe my ears! My husband was sleep-talking in French. When studying languages at university I had been told that to dream in a foreign language was a sure sign of progress. So there we were, in our recently acquired house in the charming little village of Marçon in the Pays de la Loire region of France, and already its magic had worked where ‘O’ level French and many annual holidays and visits from French friends over the years had failed.

"Our" church

The prospect of having our own little pied à terre in France had always appealed to us and although we had holidayed in other countries and had even toyed with the idea of buying property there, in our heart of hearts we knew that there was no contest – it had to be France.

And my husband was right. It wasn’t difficult. In fact, it all happened within four months of making the decision to take the plunge and look in earnest.

However, although the decision was a long time in making we didn’t tumble headlong into the process but marshalled our thoughts, dreams and priorities before embarking on our quest.

First thoughts: where?

With no immediate plans to retire nor to make this a permanent move, we considered carefully how long the journey from home should be – from door to door. Happy memories of sun soaked holidays in Provence did not cloud the issue, we wanted to be able to snatch long weekends from our working lives as well as enjoying longer stays, so our search was to concentrate on destinations within a reasonable drive from the Channel ports. Newhaven is a mere 20 minutes from our home so Dieppe was our natural starting point. We studied the maps and reckoned up the kilometres in road hours. My parents, inveterate Francophiles and responsible for introducing me at an early age to the delights of French life and language, always returned to the Loire and now, looking at the map, it was the area that answered our initial criteria: half a day’s drive from the Channel, a climate of warm summers and crisp winters, bathed in history, endowed with beautiful architecture, the birthplace of poets and scholars, and the blessing of verdant, fertile land – truly the garden of France. To crown it all, the French spoken in the region is crystal clear and is indeed reputed to be the purest in France.

Preparations

Thank heavens for the Internet! In the past I had perused the holiday pages of the Sunday Times to find accommodation for our summer break and had always been lucky. But now I needed to cast my nets more widely to pinpoint a town where we would base our search. After several surfing sessions I ended up with a list of potential gîtes scattered around the northern and southern Loire, and the next stage was to call the owners to find out the exact locations and to ask questions about the area. We had both decided that much as we love the countryside and the solitude it provides, our dream property was likely to be in a town or village for the kind of services and support we would need, particularly as we would be absent for long periods – in the foreseeable future at least.

Lift-off

Having whittled down the possibilities we plumped for a little market town about an hour’s drive south of Tours, and, with the car packed to the brim with bedding, provisions and a large folder for notes and property details, we set off full of hope and trepidation on our voyage of discovery…..

How do you choose a new house?

200 years of the ‘boîte de conserve’

Martin Jarvis — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:14:37 +0000

It is exactly 200 years since Nicolas Appert, a Frenchman, invented the process of conserving food by heat sterilisation before placing them in a hermetically sealed container (originally glass bottles, but more recently in metal boxes) and went on to create the first conserving factory in the World. The invention changed the lives of so many people, including sailors for whom the invention meant less chance of scurvy and other maritime ailments.

How many of us today can deny the contribution that the humble ‘boîte’ makes to our own lives, always there in the cupboard when we need a snack or a meal in a hurry and do not have the time to shop or cook? Pretty much anything is available, from the most humbe ingredient to the more exotic, and with a range of prices too!

My wife and I have become rather fond of Conserverie La Belle Iloise, founded in the 1920′s, and based in Quiberon with outlets all over the region – we visit La Turballe, Le Croisic and Le Pouliguen for our regular ‘fix’. They have a superb and constantly evolving range of high quality seafood-based conserves, along with recipes, including Soupe de poissons, various chowders, mackerel and lentil salads, as well as the traditional mackerel in Muscadet and Sardines in olive oil. The shops generally have a few taster products to try. I generally grumble when I see the price, and you generally need to buy in packs of at least 3, but. as my lovely wife reminds me, I have generally forgotten about this when it is served up for lunch.
Joyeux anniversaire, and here’s to the next 200 years!

Usborne English Books in France

Are you Number 10?

Philippa Lyall — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:26:12 +0000

Had a very busy Sunday this weekend as we attended the AIKB Kermesse fete in Laniscat, selling both my Usborne Books and also promoting our new Internet Marketing business, www.myshoppinggenie.com/smartsavers. I’m especially excited about it today as we’ve just received our first commission cheque!

Did you know that 9 out of 10 people do not recognise a genuine opportunity when they see it? Well, we are looking for Number 10!

There must be some other self-motivated entrepreneurs out there who want to earn some extra money? The best bit about it is that you earn money by giving away something for FREE How cool is that? It’s a great online shopping tool that will save everyone money when they search or buy products online.

Please do install it and use it for FREE from our website, and if you ARE the Number 10, just drop us an email: joinsmartsavers@aol.com and we’ll send you more info.

As for Usborne, I’m going to run an event at ‘Elizabeille’ in Laurenan on Wednesday 6th October 2.00-5.30pm to celebrate Children’s Book Week. There will be a selection of Usborne Books to browse and buy, or order from the catalogue, storytelling, children’s craft activities, free book marks and entry forms to the Usborne Young Writers Award. There will also be advice from ‘Read-Anglais’ about encouraging or teaching your children to read confidently in English.

As usual the Tea Room, artisan and brocante stalls will also be open to browse around, so it should be a good event. If you have children from tots to teens, why not come along?

How do you choose a new house?

Len Clark — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 16:04:58 +0000

So, why did we choose that one? What are the criteria for making the selection?

I can’t really tell you what you should do but I can tell you what we did … and didn’t do!

General Location

I guess that’s the first issue to be sorted out and, if you are making a group purchase – like us – this could be a non-trivial task.

We can assume that you would be seriously thinking about France (although I think the principles would apply anywhere else), but where in France? If there’s one place you go back to year after year, it may be a no brainer – but, even then, isn’t it worth checking out whether you wouldn’t prefer to be somewhere else.

We didn’t really have any interest in the East of France but there are plenty of lovely parts to the West that we would have been happy with: Brittany, Normandy, various parts of the Loire and around the Dordogne. We wanted a reasonable guarantee of sun and – pretty as Brittany is – it and Normandy didn’t seem sufficiently different from the UK climate to attract us. In the end, the decision was a pragmatic one: how far south could we realistically travel by car in one day without knocking ourselves out. Our answer was the Loire valley.

Price

That was an easier issue: our bank balances were limited. Also part of the purpose was for Anne’s sister to spearhead a renovation project, so we didn’t want a house that was too finished.

Town or Country?

For some a flat in the heart of a thriving restaurant area might be just the thing. For others, perhaps, a small (or large) house in the suburbs of a town. Since ours was a holiday home, we weren’t so worried about schools or work, but that might be a factor for some.

So, we chose a fairly isolated country area near a quiet village but not too far away from a reasonable sized town. However, our initial search covered a variety of locations before we made up our minds – and I would suggest that it would normally be good not to be too isolated because that makes it quite difficult to build relationships with neighbours.

Transport Links

For younger folk, this will probably not be an issue – although think about your children and whether it will be good having them tied to you to be able to get around. As you get older, it might be more and more important to have an alternative to the car.

Other Amenities

How far is cheap food shopping? Do you enjoy book browsing or clothes shopping and, if so, are you going to have to spend hours to satisfy the shopping urge? For holiday makers, do you want a restaurant or bar within walking distance so that you don’t have to worry about your alcohol intake.

All questions that could affect where you end up.

Animals

If you have boisterous animals (a dog, rabbit or goat!), you will want completely enclosed land – or something you can enclose.

Add your own criteria

These are just some of the questions. You need to think about what are “must haves” wherever you holiday or live.

And, finally, there is that extra spark: does it do something special for you?

No related posts.

Usborne Books at Elizabeille

Philippa Lyall — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 08:03:16 +0000

Back in Brittany, after a busy few weeks seeing my son in Germany and then back to the UK sorting out bits and bobs. Just about cleared the house now. Haven’t had any interest in our house sale so it’s now on the rental market until things pick up.

I’m delighted to announce that there is now a permanent Usborne Books stall in Elizabeille, the artisan, craft and brocante gallery that’s just opened in Laurenan. If you’ve not been, it’s definitely worth a visit and Elizabeth has attracted more and more stalls. Tomorrow afternoon there’s a Farmer’s Market being held there from 1.30pm, with lots of local produce on sale and the chance to taste some home made jam and lemon curd! There’s also craft sessions running on a Wednesday and Friday afternoon for kids, so if you fancy having a cup of tea and a cake whilst the kids are entertained, why not go along? There’s full details on the website www.elizabeille.com

I’m off to the Vide-Grenier at Monterterlot on Sunday morning, and then next Sunday there’s the AIKB Kermesse near Laniscat where I’ll be taking my Usborne Books. I’ve also recently found out that there’s Noce Bretonne at Helleanon Sunday 22nd August. Last year two of our English friends were chosen to be the couple who were getting married, dressed in full Breton costume – They had only moved to the village a year before – What an honour! How’s that for Integration?

Le Foleux, Brittany – a pretty port on the River Vilaine

Martin Jarvis — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:15:26 +0000

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.

It wasn’t a big effort for us, as Le Foleux is only about 15 minutes from our house near La Roche Bernard, but we hadn’t visited before and thought that we should – as it was so close.

Le Foleux sits in a picturesque spot on a bend in the River Vilaine between La Roche Bernard and Redon. It has plenty of picnic areas, a Crêperie / Bar, a pretty marina with space for over 300 boats, shower blocks and a dry dock for boats. It is also on a couple of cycling and walking circuits in the area – bikes are available for hire.

Small boats are available for borrowing so that visitors can row across the river.

We liked Le Foleux – it was pleasant and peaceful without being too busy, and it is certainly less touristic than nearby La Roche Bernard.

More French people live in London than in Nantes

Martin Jarvis — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:50:23 +0000

This surprised me when I first heard it some months ago, so I thought I would do a little research of my own to validate the claims. Nantes is the regional capital of the Pays de la Loire region of France, has a population of just over 280,000 (many of whom will not be French, as it is a big University City and also popular with the British) and ranks as the 6th largest French city by population.

According to a BBC World Service report from a few years ago the number of French people living in London stood at over 300,000. I think that is quite staggering and would make London the “6th biggest French city” in terms of the number of French living there.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

I wonder which country gets the better deal here – or whether it matters. Most of the French living in London are likely to be young, salary-earning, tax-paying professionals, and so not a big drain on UK social care resources. I would imagine that a good many of the Brits living in and around Nantes will be a little older and so perhaps posing more of a strain on the French health system, but they would generally draw a UK pension and then spend the money in France. they might also operate a gite or other accommodation and so bring money into the area that way.

Any thoughts?