It would appear that we second home owners in France have had a reprieve. News is that the proposed extra tax on holiday homes has been scrapped. Presumably the French government has seen sense and realised the damage that such a tax could do to the property market and to tourism in general. Lots of sighs of relief all round!
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Calling all Lyonnais
Written on Friday, June 24th, 2011 at 8:35 am
Just recently we’ve had several large groups of family/friends staying for long weekends and discovered that they all come from Lyon. And, of course, when you think about it – it makes perfect sense. Lyon is just over 2 hours drive away – the perfect distance to jump in the car after work on Friday and arrive at Colombier in time for a leisurely evening meal. And if you don’t feel like cooking you can just walk a few yards up the road to the Charrette Bleue to sample Paul’s excellent cuisine. The advantage with a long weekend is that it can be a spur of the moment thing – to celebrate a birthday or anniversary, or to just catch up with friends away from the hectic pace of city life. More and more people are taking long weekends as a way of maximising their holidays and fitting in that so-necessary rest and relaxation.
Why not give us a ring – we still have availability for some weekends during the summer?
And for those who really need to go further afield…
Written on Monday, June 20th, 2011 at 8:41 am
Why not:
try making perfume at the lavender distillery in Nyons (full details on earlier post) and the kids can make soap
go to the cinema – the local one in Nyons is reasonably priced and comfortable – you can challenge your language skills by going to a French film or cop out and watch a VO (version originale).
visit the beautiful chateau at Grignan or the Palais des papes at Avignon – you’ll be under cover from the rain
go wine tasting – if you visit enough places you won’t notice the rain (but please get someone else to drive!)
go shopping at the Centre Commercial at Le Pontet (just off the A6 at Avignon Nord) – there are loads of interesting megastores including Auchan where you could spend many happy hours browsing for bargains (and our friend, Brian, does – even going so far as to invent a new slogan for them – Auchan c’est la solution!!!) and a huge shoe emporium to name just two.
visit one of the local museums such as the Olive Museum at Nyons and while you’re there pop into the Cooperative to buy some oil and lots of other interesting goodies
visit La Scourtinerie on the outskirts of Nyons where they still make vibrantly coloured provencal mats originally used for the tradition method of olive oil extraction
and after all this activity treat yourself to a Shiatsu massage with Jo at les Pilles!
What if the rain weren’t a bad thing?
Written on Monday, June 13th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Well of course, if you’re a gardener or agriculteur or house owner here in the south of France, we are delighted to have rain – especially after the particularly hot and dry spring this year.
But if you’re just here for a week – what do you do? It’s a not a problem you’ll often encounter – as the micro-climate in this area is famed for its 300 days of sunshine a year. But while we can confidently assure you that you’ll find great markets, great wines, and have a great time … we can’t always guarantee you wall to wall sunshine.
So – let’s say that the rain has set in. You could be grumpy and sulk and complain, and wish you’d gone to Devon or Wales or Ireland where at least the rain would have been expected.
Or you can embrace the challenge of making the most of some quality rain-days. Here are a few of my favourite things, mixed in with ideas for all ages and energies:
- light a log fire, grab a book to read, put a do not disturb notice on the Library door, light a candle, and lose yourself in another world
- make cupcakes, cookies and macaroons in the kitchen, and invite everyone to a traditional English tea
- choose a jigsaw and get stuck in
- have a board game (jeux de societe) champion/s league … everyone to choose a game, assign points for winning, best losers, must unusual attempt to cheat, age and IQ handicaps of course … appoint a non-playing impartial judge as arbiter and rule maker. Their decision is final. But they might be open for bribes if they too are a games player! (rummage around in the cupboards and the top floor large chest for games etc)
- start a murder mystery weekend (games available) or, even better, write your own Passion in Provence, Vengeance in the Vineyards, or Killings in Condorcet … (see self-catering blog for more on this)
- find boots and wet-weather gear (look in the laundryroom), or old trainers, and go off for a rainy, sploshy, muddy walk to the river
- go and fish trout for dinner at St Ferreol – the trout don’t mind it being wet, why should you?
- teach your group to play poker and you’ll be all set
- dress up and have a Casino in Condorcet evening … cocktails, roulette and blackjack
- how about bingo?
- plan and execute a You’ve Got Talent or X factor show
- learn to play The Moonlight Sonata on the piano
- dvds of course … a film fest of Hitchcock, Almodovar or Katherine Hepburn?
- go and collect the snails that will have come out in the rain. Have snail races … and then, please, let them free again AS FAR AS POSSIBLE AWAY FROM THE GARDEN!
- on the fishing theme again – how about the card game GO FISH, or cribbage, or canasta, or donkey, or chase the ace, or hearts … or make lots of noise with SNAP
- sing your favourite songs – as off key as you like. Check out the accoustics in the dining room
- sleeping is always good
- go the tourist office, grab loads of brochures, and make your own scrapbooks or collages
- make soup and home-baked bread
- set up a treasure hunt throughout the house for the juniors
- have you ever done a scavenger hunt – also good fun with a bit of setting up
- move all the furniture to the sides in the top floor space and you will be limited only by your imagination as to what to with the space. Party games please everyone … pass the parcel, musical cushions, that game where you have to pass an orange down the line without holding it and without it falling to the floor, pin the table on the donkey … think Jeux sans Frontieres on a domestic scale
- have a swim – with the cover on you’ve got your own inside pool; let the music pump out while you do your aqua circuits
Let us know your favourite rain-day suggestions.
The Answer
Written on Wednesday, June 8th, 2011 at 11:03 am
Warning this blog will make no sense at all if you didn’t read the previous post. I can hear some of my less charitable readers muttering so what’s new!
Yes, we Brits can now take not only our pet cats and dogs on holiday but also……… our ferrets! How many of you knew that? And how many of you are now queueing up to get your pet ferret microchipped and buy his ticket on Eurostar?
I did wonder if this is some sort of weird Defra joke?
Theatre buff?
Written on Wednesday, June 8th, 2011 at 11:02 am
Why not stay at Colombier while you soak up some culture at the Avignon Drama Festival this July. We are less than an hour’s easy drive from Avignon, and we have some special discounts running in July – see our Prices page.
Tickets for the 65th Festival go on sale on Monday June 13th – so you need to get your skates on as they sell out fast for the more mainline events. The fringe events are easier to get tickets for. More info at their website www.festival-avignon.com
Pet Quiz
Written on Saturday, June 4th, 2011 at 10:37 am
Since the introduction of the pet passport we do occasionally get asked if we accept dogs at Colombier and we are happy to accept small, well-behaved ones. We have had 2 visits from a German pug called Yoda and, of course, Sue’s miniature dachshund (teckel), Blodri, is a regular visitor in the summer. And once (what we do for friends…) despite not being a naturally doggy person, I managed to dogsit Sue’s dalmatian Gulliver (sadly no longer with us) who most definitely did not qualify as either small nor well-behaved!
Anyway, I digress – back to my mini quiz. Well okay, it’s only one question but it’s in the nature of blogs to exaggerate a tad, n’est-ce pas?
Under the passport scheme visitors from the Uk are allowed to take on holiday to Europe their dogs, cats and – what other animal?
Answer in next blog!
What if cooking during a self-catering holiday wasn’t a chore?
Written on Friday, June 3rd, 2011 at 8:42 am
It doesn’t have to be, especially here in Provence. Why not break all the rules and make the self-catering the holiday?
Here we often see the Le Colombier kitchen turned into a Masterchef laboratory. Different members of the house party group take it in turns to create their specialities, or try out new dishes. Hours are spent thumbing through the library of cookery books.
It can be Come Dine with Me every evening (the French version of which is Un Diner Presque Parfait, An Almost Perfect Dinner). Pick a prize in advance. Award the hosts marks out of 10 (a secret video diary would be a great souvenir for the cold winter nights back home). And reveal the winner at the end of the week.
Set yourselves some new rules for self-catering success and see what happens:
- supermarkets are banned – you get extra marks if you’ve bought fresh from the market, the farm producer, or have fished the trout yourself
- no pre-packs, or fast-tracks, or processed food; fresh or nothing (hint – herbs and everlasting onions make great veggie stock!)
- 7 days = 7 new recipes to try out (or 21 if you include breakfast and lunch as well as dinner)
- let the kids invite you all to their kids meal – just see how talented junior chefs can be (especially with some compliant sous-chefs who can hold their tongue and do what they are told as kitchen helpers)
- the tiled floors mop easily, so let the flour fly as you make homemade pastas and pizzas
- let the kids (and the kids at heart) put on a talent show as the entertainment for the evening
- make a different ice-cream everyday (blue cheese and walnut icecream is an acquired taste!)
- have a lavender-themed meal … every dish has to contain lavender in some shape or form
- have a picnic in the garden
- create a tapas style wine-tasting menu: lots of mini dishes to complement the wines you want to taste
- think food miles – only use locally sourced ingredients and recipes
- try a new food each day
- pick flowers for the tables and herbs and veggies from the potager
- how about a themed murder mystery evening? You’ll find a couple of box games in the cupboard in the ground floor corridor – and or let your creativity flow and make up your own murder mystery game. We can provide a title: Passion in Provence, or Vengeance in the Vineyards, or even Killings in Condorcet … (and a couple of characters .. Zut Alors the racing car champion; Don Pico, the goats cheese farmer; Olive de Fougasse — you get the idea)
- and on the final night – make it all finger food and paper plates so there’s no washing up.
What would your new rules be? And we’ll give a special prize for the best video diary of the season.
It’s taxing
Written on Thursday, June 2nd, 2011 at 8:39 am
It’s been a bit of a shock for maison secondaire owners to learn that there’s a good chance that we’ll get hit next year by another tax, apparently 20% of the notional rental value of our houses. The logic is that we should pay our share of the cost of national infrastructure – the 2 taxes we pay already, the taxe fonciere and the taxe d’habitation, go towards local costs, I believe.
Obviously we should contribute towards the infrastructure since we benefit from all the advantages of living here part-time. However part-time is the significant word. Many people only spend a few weeks in the summer at their houses, not using the services at other times. They don’t really put much of a burden on services. It looks as though the tax will take no account of this.
There is concern that a new tax may discourage foreigners from buying in France. This could impact on the French economy in so many ways. Restaurants, supermarkets, DIY stores, tourist attractions would all feel the pinch if second home owners decided to desert France. Also many Brits in particular buy houses in need of renovation and then use local artisans (builders, plumbers, electricians etc) and local materials to do the work. Many of the houses they buy are those that don’t really interest locals, who often prefer smart new villas or flats. These houses would just linger on the market and decay.
Colombier is a good example – floors and ceilings needed replacing, electrics renewing, heating putting in – and that’s just for starters.
For many who have retired to France, already hit by worsening exchange rates and substantial rise in cost of living, a new tax could prove the last straw.