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Everything you always wanted to know about France |
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France Voila Newsletter #49 February 25 2001
In this issue
1. Win two Ryanair Tickets
2. Everything You wanted to Know About Property in France 3. Good Service from Ferrysavers 4. Castles In Spain 5. Insurance 6. Cashing Cheques in France 7. Keeping in Touch by e-mail 8. Credit Card Surcharges 9. Nizas - Jazz - Paris and the Hanwell Viaduct ===
Archives.
There are over 450 articles and features which have been published in
these newsletters. You can see them on-line at...
If you are thinking of coming to France for a visit - or longer -
there is a lot of useful help, contacts and advice from experts and
specialists (as well as me) about property, travel and a lot more.
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1. Win two free tickets from Ryan Air
Ryan Air...
......fly from the UK and Dublin to 7 destinations in France. Their
services are very popular and so are their prices.
With an exclusive deal with Ryan Air we are jointly sponsoring a
competition through our web sites and giving the winners two tickets
each month for the next three months.
The entry form is on our subscription page at...
......entry is FREE, you DO NOT have to subscribe to the digest to
enter the competition.
Fill in the form with your name and e-mail and we will send you
details of the competition for the first two tickets.
There is no catch, you do not have to buy or sign anything and we
promise not to pass your details on to anyone.
If you have any problem accessing the form, please write to me and I
will send one by e-mail..
Competition one will be closing soon, you can still win, no one has
the exact number for question #6.
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2. Everything You Wanted to Know About property in France
In January we did it, we published the first copy of the French
Property Digest. This is a paid subscription on-line magazine written
by qualified professionals. It's aim is to supply accurate and
detailed information about all aspects of buying, owning or renting
property in France. There are "life-style" features, book reviews and
letters, but the strength is the relevant and informative information
given, plus the ability for you to ask questions.
The fact that we give you a bottle of wine for each month you
subscribe may be one of the reasons we have been rushed off our feet
with subscriptions.
This is not a "once a month" static publication, subscribers get a
constantly growing and adapting digest which keeps up to the moment
details on changes in the laws and taxes related to living in France.
Changes in property legislation, building regulations, and hundreds of
details about French life and living.
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Just the February menu page is worth the subscription - look at
this!!!
GAMBAS EN PAPILLOTE -
TAGINE OF LAMB - FRESH DATES AND HONEY - ORANGE AND BLACK OLIVE SALAD - JEWELLED COUSCOUS - FIG TATIN =
For all those who have filled in the subscription form on the page
at...
and wondered why we have not asked you for money yet, there are two
reasons.
Firstly we have had so many subscribers that I have to make a
completely new password allocation and subscription script. I got
most of that working only today, and secondly we are not happy with
the credit card and payment facilities we were offered. I have been
promised all will be in order this Friday, so subscriptions will be
going out next weekend.
It seems that I need to have a US and a UK office, so if anyone is
interested in working with us on this project, please contact me at...
You can subscribe now and see the pilot (free) issue to give you an
idea of our format.. .
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3. Good Service from Ferrysavers
We had a mail this month from a subscriber to this newsletter who had
booked a Channel ferry ticket through Ferrysavers and asked our help.
There had been a mistake made and he had meant to book from France to
the UK, but in fact had confirmed and paid on-line from the UK to
France. Ferrysavers said they were not responsible for the mistake
and that a new ticket would have to be booked and paid for.
We contacted Ferrysavers and are pleased to report that a new
crossing was offered by them and a full credit was issued for the
mistaken booking.
To me this is straightforward customer goodwill and it is reassuring
that Ferrysavers will go the extra mile even though the margins and
commissions are small.
A lesson from this - double check and check again the ports, dates and
the routes.
Perhaps the website should be clearer and I can see how this mistake
can be made. Dover-Calais-Dover means just that, you start and finish
in Dover. Sometimes the ferry companies will not have the same fares
for the same crossing from different directions.
We have nothing to do with Ferrysavers, no agency and no commissions.
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4. Castles in Spain
Well - a few castles, mostly villas. We are adding over 300 villas
and homes in Spain and Portugal from March. If you are looking for
accommodation there, please write to me at...
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5. Insurance
We do encourage everyone travelling to take out adequate insurance and
we do recommend - and earn a commission from - Universal Travel
Protection
Use our service or ask your travel agent, but please do make sure you
have the cover you need.
You can get details and a quote on-line at...
Do please make sure you are covered for missed flights, lost booking
deposits due to cancellation and all the usual luggage and medical
cover. Credit cards are getting more "selective" as to what they
cover and a strike by porters or air traffic control is now being
called "an act of God" and you may not have cover from the airline or
your credit card.
In the case of a bankrupt airline, some credit card companies will
tell consumers that they are not liable to act as an insurance company
for the carrier. The Federal Trade Commission, which enforces the
Fair Credit Billing Act, says the provisions apply even in the case of
a bankrupt airline.
On the subject of Insurance, I regularly read this fascinating
newsletter ..
The writer is Andy and he keeps traveling from money his website earns
from adverts displayed there, so if you go to his main page he earns
3c. If you all visit his site he can stay in Brazil another year or two.
He writes about the pleasures and the problems of travel and is
reporting stories of theft, giving hard earned practical advice. It
seems nowhere is safe anymore and you must take precautions.
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6. Cashing Cheques in France
Dear Tony,
In July or August we were seeking assistance in locating French
Banques which would not charge a commission or fee to cash travellers'
denominated in French Francs, without a well defined answer from any
source queried. We would like to relate our banking experience during
the eight weeks we spent in Nezignan L'Eveque and Uzes during
September-October 2000. It may be of help to others with whom you
correspond.
We dealt exclusively with Credit Lyonnaise. In most locations they
would cash the travellers' without charge up to a daily limit of FF
3000-5000. In Uzes, there was no daily limit and no fee. In
Ferney-Voltaire, just outside of Geneva, Switzerland, there was a
charge of FF35, but no limit on the amount cashed.
We realize that the situation may vary from time to time, even on a
daily or regional basis, but we will certainly have Credit Lyonnaise
on the top of our list next year.
Hope this may help others consulting your web sites.
May we ask where one purchases the type of phone card to which you
referred on your site, not the French Telecom card, but the one which
can be used with any phone?
Hugh & Kay Fahy
(The last part, about the phone card is from the page on the site at..
I have added more information about where to buy cards etc)
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7. keeping in Touch by e-mail
Dear Tony,
I want to thank you for an outstanding newsletter. I have followed
much of your advice, preparing for and then enjoying my recent month
in the tiny village of Entrecasteaux.
I thought you might be interested that I had quite an easy time
preparing my laptop for use in France, and linking to AOL. During
weekdays, at hours of business in the U.S., it was almost impossible
to get on-line. What I did was to quickly save messages to a
correspondence file, and then read and respond in Word. Then later,
I'd go on-line after copying, and paste the message into my email. It
worked beautifully, and total costs will be less than $150.00 for a
month's heavy duty correspondence. AOL charges $3.50/hour. In that
way I avoided the French phone system, and as I have saved most of the
messages, they have become a journal which I will print and paste in
my photo album. Thank you so much for alerting me to the
communications problems, so that I thought this one through very
carefully before going.
Keep up your great, informative site! By the way, I used Chez Oz (one
of your suggestions) to rent my little house, and I was delighted with
their honesty and service.
Sincerely
Myrna Poticha
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8. Credit Card Surcharges
I recently published a piece from Adrian Leeds about credit card
surcharges, it seems that these hidden charges make their special
offers not look quite so special for travelers. I received this
letter from a reader with more information...
Tony,
We live in the U.S. but travel to France a lot (we used to live
there) and, we too, had been infuriated by the charges that the credit
card companies had stealthily added to our overseas purchases. As you
know, this can be as high as 4%. In response to Adrian's
investigation, we immediately called the credit card she mentioned as
having no conversion fees tacked on, i.e. United Mileage Plus, to
apply for their card. However, after calling them and checking into
this we find that there is indeed a charge ,albeit hidden. United
Mileage Plus do not charge themselves but the visa or master card
company that it is put through charge 2% so it looks like we are back
to square one. Of course, these charges can and do change frequently
and it pays to check with the credit card company before going
overseas to see what their current policy is. Of course, this is
different for those of you who live in France because you are using
your card all of the time and not just periodically like ourselves.
Anyway, this charge may have been instigated since Adrian did her
research, I am not sure, or she may have been misled by the fact that
United Mileage themselves do not charge (just the annual fee). If you
do find a credit card that truly does not charge a conversion fee and
that one can also accrue airline miles, we would be very happy to find
out.
Jean Yeck
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You can read Adrian's article at...
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9. Nizas - A New Mayor - Jazz - Paris and the Hanwell Viaduct
The election program is hotting up for the big day on March 11. Two
teams are coming together, one is so right wing it is falling over the
edge of the world, the other is so greeny liberal that the new Marie
may have to be in a tree-house. Interesting times, I am not sure I
wish to get in-between factions so opposed, it is like the English
civil war, do I join the floppy hats or the tin ones? Which is which
anyway? This could make the recent American elections look like a
library meeting, mind you the last library meeting here nearly had
swords drawn.
So I will not dwell on this and report a much more interesting story.
When we arrived in Nizas 6 years ago there was one other British
couple living here. We did not meet for over a year (in a village of
500 - typically British) but we have become good friends. Terry is a
professional Jazz musician, mainly clarinet and sax, he has played for
many big names and famous bands since the 1960's.
He plays a mean sax and practices 4 hours a day. Friends from all
over the world send him magazines and cuttings but he says that
these-days most of the people he knew he now reads about in the
obituary columns.
Last week he came in with a recent Jazz magazine reporting the death
of George McFarlane. Terry asked me to send an e-mail and photos of
him playing with George in the Hanwell Viaduct pub in West London in
the 1960's, to an address in the magazine. Since then I have been
relaying e-mails to fans and friends of Terry and George.
This was fun for me as I remember the Hanwell Viaduct pub, a little
later, as the scene of many happy hours and encounters.
We are often asked why we left the UK to come to live in France, our
main reason was the quality of life, family values and good
educational standards (our kids were 1 and 3 when we came here, Jack
was born here) offered in a Mediterranean village (this sounds almost
word for word what one of the election manifestos is saying). Terry
came here to relax after 30 years of travelling around the world
playing music to earn a living and living out of suitcases.
There are some photos of Terry now, and 40 years ago on the Nizas site
at...
If anyone happens to know the Hanwell Viaduct pub, near Ealing in
London please let me know if they have changed the ghastly wallpaper
yet.
===
I really try to answer all the mail I receive, I get over 600 mails a
day now, half is junk and I sort the rest into soon, now, urgent,
immediately and aargh!!!. However I know there are some I miss and I
feel bad when I find them in an old file months later. The same goes
for rental inquiries, we try hard to find other accommodation if the
requested accommodation is booked. I had an unfortunate experience
last month when I sent a large number of rental inquiries to an agency
and they told me three weeks later they couldn't help. This means
that those inquiries had not had a reply from me for up to a month.
If you write and don't get a reply in 48 hours, please write again.
Please always leave any reply and your earlier mail in the body of the
mail. It really helps.
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