Ever been torn between holidaying or relocating to the North or South of France? In the September issue of French Property News, two French Connections gite owners talk about living and running gites in their corner of the country - one in Brittany in the north, the other in l'Hérault in the south.
France is a large country with massive variations in landscape, weather, culture, local produce, sights and activities. Whether you love to go on holiday or long to relocate, it can be tough to decide which region would suit your taste and lifestyle priorities. Our gite owners are located all over France, but especially in the popular holiday areas – and some of them clearly have terrific enthusiasm for their corner of France. So we asked two such owners to explain the appeal of their region.
Read more: North or South of France? September’s French Property News features our owners
Long sandy beaches combined with France’s second sunniest climate make Charente-Maritime a mecca for families, couples and groups in search of swimming and water sports in an unspoilt location. There is plenty of space and great facilities for enjoying boating, surfing and beach sailing – and when you want an evening out or a day away from the beach, choose from lots of events and interesting places to visit.
Old Port of La Rochelle
This beautiful historic harbour has three outstanding medieval towers and is surrounded by stately buildings The harbour is also the biggest yachting centre on France's Atlantic coast, so you can spend many happy hours wandering through the old streets and looking at the boats. There is a real holiday buzz here with street performers, a fabulous selection of fish restaurants and welcoming bars. Elsewhere in La Rochelle are an aquarium and France’s largest zoo.
From 17th – 22th September , La Rochelle is host to Le Grand Pavois, one of the most important boat shows in the world with more than 750 boats on display, 89,000 visitors in 2012 and covering an area of 100,000 square metres.
The following month, music takes centre stage with the Jazz between Two Towers festival - one of the best known in France attracting stars such as John Scofield, Joe Louis Walker and Michelle Hendricks. The beautiful setting between the towers of the old port adds to the atmosphere.
The Sixteenth Jazz en Ré Festival will take place from 22nd to 25th August on the beautiful and popular Ile de Ré. This is an island where life is lived at a delightfully slow pace and is a great place to enjoy cycling and watching birds on the nature reserve – and maybe spotting a few of the celebrities who have homes here.
Boat trips
Boats leave La Rochelle harbour for trips to several destinations, including the many islands off this part of the coast. The voyage to the Island of Aix includes sailing around the ancient Fort Boyard, an impressive and photogenic sight.
Oysters and Fort Louvois
Marennes is home to the largest oyster cultivation area in all of Europe, so you’ll have the opportunity to see the growing and refinement process and also enjoy savouring oysters really fresh from the sea. Between Oléron Island and the Marennes Basin, is Fort Louvois, a 17th century coastal fort built on a submerged rock between 1691 to 1694. Today, the Fort is open to the public, offering a fascinating visit.
Shopping as it used to be
The Musee des Commerces d'Autrefois is a private museum in the town of Rochefort, south of La Rochelle. It vividly brings to life the shops and daily routines of this busy port in the early 20th century, with a bar, a dental surgery, chemists, hairdressers, general hardware shop and more – all equipped with the products and machinery of the time.
For more ideas, travel information and a fantastic range of holiday accommodation, check out our complete guide to Charente-Maritime.
Big news! The prehistoric Chauvet cave in the Ardèche region of France has been granted World Heritage status by the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO. At a recent gathering in Doha the delegates at UNESCO's World Heritage Committee voted to grant the status to the Grotte Chauvet after considering cultural and natural wonders for inclusion on the UN list.
UNESCO said the Grotte Chauvet 'contains the earliest and best-preserved expressions of artistic creation of the Aurignacian people, which are also the earliest known figurative drawings in the world'.
The cave itself is hard to access and now sealed to all but archaeologists as a conservation measure but, as I explained last month, a near perfect replica is currently under construction. I am in the Ardeche as I write, enjoying the rivers, rock cliffs and forests and taking in panoramic views across the Coiron plateau to the Alps from the beautiful La Mirande farmhouse. I had hoped to visit the replica site once more, to see progress. But the site is now closed for two months to all visitors while work is carried out involving heavy machinery.
Never mind, I had a really complete guided tour back in March and this project is even more exciting now the UNESCO World Heritage status has been granted to the cave itself. The organisers of the replica project are hoping for 300,000 to 400,000 visitors from around the world each year when it is open to the public next June.
The nearby Pont du Gard, a well preserved Roman aqueduct across the Rhone river, is a good example of the impact that this status bestows. Around ten years ago, there was a steady trickle of visitors but after it was given a UNESCO decree, tourism really built up and even in March this year I saw around a dozen coaches in the parking area. In summer, it is heaving.
The Chauvet Cave replica project promises even more to see. The Razal site, on the hills of the Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, seven kilometres from the actual cave, is the location for the replica, the biggest perfect replica of a prehistoric site in Europe. Set within a vast wooded area covering 29 hectares, the site will include (alongside the replica cave) a discovery centre and a permanent exhibition dedicated to the Aurignacians and wall art, as well as five sheltered interpretation stations, a temporary exhibition space, an educational area for young people, an events centre, shops, cafes and restaurants.
The project is funded by the EU, the French government and the Ardèche regional authority. I was really impressed by the fact that almost all the work involved is being carried out by local companies and craftspeople, most from the Ardeche. Also impressive is the environmental and ecological sensitivity of both the building designs, which will blend into the landscape with their living ‘green’ roofs, and the site works, using stone already on site to make paths and retaining every possible tree and shrub.
More next month about the paintings and how they are being recreated. Meanwhile, to plan your visit, take a look at accommodation in our guide to the Ardèche.
We are having the most wonderful summer at the moment and I for one am extremely happy >with this. I am one of those people who simply dislikes cold weather so you never hear me complain when it is hot.
I love being in the garden, even though it is not a big garden, it is so lovely to sit and listen to the birds and simply relax among the shrubs and my herbs. Yes, I have a small patch of herbs that have done so well this year, I am amazed. That as you may guess is how good my gardening is – a little hit and miss affair!
Bouches-du-Rhône, our region of the month, is a fantastic destination for sun lovers, with summer temperatures around 30C. It lies on the Mediterranean, further west than the Cote d’Azur, and there’s a great mix of mountains and sea, history and nature – especially in the capital city of Marseille and the legendary wetlands of the Camargue.
In the heart of the Alpilles mountains is a magical and unusual place that delights both adults and children. Located at Les Baux de Provence and called Carrières de Lumières, this is essentially a multimedia extravaganza where images are projected on to the walls and ground of a giant cave-like quarry, accompanied by synchronized music (see photo). This year’s theme is the artist Klimt and his native Vienna and visitors are raving the remarkable experience - one of those projects that are so well done in France.
A top new attraction in the cosmopolitan capital city is the History Museum of Marseiile, which tells the story of the city from its ancient origins to current day, including the various transformations made in the Middle Ages and 19th century. After a visit, enjoy a stroll in the grounds to explore the ruined fortifications of the ancient Greek port. The old Roman port is just a short walk away at the Musée des Docks.
For lovers of the outdoors, Montagne Sainte Victoire is very popular. It’s near the historic town of Aix-en-Provence, some time home to the artist Paul Cézanne, and this majestic mountain was the subject of several of his paintings. Enjoy a hike enhanced by the fragrance of wild rosemary, sage and pine and marvel at the view of a huge dam with a lake of turquoise water at the centre.
Our holiday rentals in this region include country cottages set amongst olive trees, farmhouse gîtes, stone village houses and majestic villas with their own pool. Travel is easy with a choice of flights to Nimes, Avignon or Marseille for easiest access to Bouches-du-Rhône, and by car Marseille is about an eight hour drive from Paris. Find more information and places to stay in our guide to Bouches-du-Rhone.
Gardens have always been a bit of a mystery to me really. Don’t get me wrong, I love and admire them and, over the years, have come to enjoy the therapeutic nature of a little trimming, pruning and weeding and even planting a few carefully researched shrubs. But, as for garden design, well, I’ve always considered myself a bit herbaceously challenged.
So, that left me with a problem. I want to grow vegetables but, and don’t laugh, I want them to look nice…I’m a designer, ok!
A visit to a friends house offered inspiration. Her neighbour has the most beautiful potager. Voilà, that is what I need, a potager – a French ornamental kitchen garden. Wikipedia’s explanation sums it up perfectly – ‘The goal is to make the function of providing food aesthetically pleasing’. I can definitely go with that.
Now I’ve put a name to it and have conducted much research (thank you Google and Pinterest!) I’m thinking that designing a potager is not so very different to interior design, it has some basic principles to follow, and I’m a little less daunted, even excited, about my new project. I’ll share what I have learned so far.
1. Space planning – after considering it’s location in the garden (an accessible, sunny spot with access to water), you’ll need to consider what you want to achieve with the space you’ve got. Potager gardens rely on balance, symmetry and proportion – this counters the rather jumbled nature of the planting. Planting beds can be square, triangular or rectangular but remember to keep them to a manageable size to work on from the surrounding path without the need for an Osteopath afterwards. Paths should be wide enough to get your wheelbarrow down, come on – let’s not make it any more difficult for ourselves, and normally lead to a central feature, maybe an obelisk or a circular growing frame for strawberries or beans. If you have the space, the central point could be a fruit tree – perhaps even with a circular bench round it so you can take a well-earned rest after your labours – do you sense a theme emerging? I don’t approve of working too hard! Also worth considering is locating a compost heap close by.
2
. Style – formal, informal, traditional, contemporary. Your choice will affect the materials you use for paths, building the beds and, of course, the plants you select. A potager is a mix of the edible and non-edible, flowers, herbs, vegetables, trees and shrubs so really, the choices are endless. For me it’s traditional all the way and I’ll be looking out for all those glorious heirloom varieties, full of flavor and tasting as vegetables should but also looking like real vegetables and not the European definition of a vegetable.
3. Planting – now, I’ve already told you I’m no expert so I wouldn’t presume to tell you what to plant where and when. But here is where to consider the interior design rules of colour, texture, height – keep the tall plants at the back and look for interesting varieties of vegetables with great leaves, and colours – kale, raddicchio and some of the red leafed lettuces etc. The good news here is that you can mix in some pretty flowers, edible and non edible, such as lavender, chives, marigolds and nasturstiums. Bees and other pollenators will love them and many attract pests away from your precious crops. In fact, I fully intend having a cut flower bed in my potager and can highly recommend higgledygarden.com for a really informative, and entertaining, website with wonderful flower seeds and great sewing tips. Benjamin has a passion for flowers and will happily impart his huge knowledge and he’ll post to France too so no worries there.
With planting, as with interior design, go for what you love, there really is no right and wrong and the beauty is you need to rotate your crops each year so you’re not stuck with the same look for long anyway.
I’m very lucky in that my potager will be high on a hill overlooking our beautiful valley and I just know that it will soon become my place to lose myself and I can’t wait to reap the rewards.
Happy planting!
The exchange rate for British sterling to euros has gone above 1.2 for the first time in eighteen months. This summer, holidaymakers are getting more euros for their pound than in the whole of last season. At French Connections we allow you to find and order the best deal on euros for your holiday to France with the MyTravelMoney currency comparison tool – and at the best of today’s rates £500 will buy 614 euros.
A holiday rental in France already offers great value per person, with lots of space, privacy and freedom to relax in your own surroundings. Now eating out will cost less and you can indulge in just a bit more of that bargain local wine and luscious fresh food from the market. Exchange at the best rates and a 50 euro meal will cost £40.
And it’s not too late to book a fantastic value week in France this summer to take advantage of the exchange rates.
For example, for the last week of July, a couple can stay at the Petit Clement studio gite in the south of France, near Carcasonne, for just £299 for seven nights. It’s in a beautiful collection of converted mill houses that nestles in a private, peaceful wooded valley with its own trout stream and large swimming pool.
Closer to home, in Normandy, a family of up to five can stay for the same week at the two bedroom apartment at La Rosiere for just £340. This traditional Normandy house is set in the quiet village of Beaubec La Rosiere and has countryside views from all sides over the tranquil and peaceful surroundings with cows, horses and donkeys grazing in the fields.
There are lots more bargains to be had in our last minute deals and special offers on holidays to France