Archive for November, 2009

Traffic on the Dordogne river is busy, and competition for trade between the passenger barge companies that run the route has been fierce. So fierce in fact, that the municipal authorities in the area have been forced to limit activity on the river to two companies with two boats each.

This limit has inevitably led to even fiercer competition between the companies who hope to attract foot passengers for a trip down the Dordogne. According to a report by SudOuest.com, the news provider for the region, one company thinks it has found an advantage – through technology.

Barges Caminade offers tourists wishing to spend their french holiday exploring the riveira a high-tech accompaniment to their traditional experience on a river barge – GPS audio guides.

Starting this summer, Caminade has been running these guides on its boats. They are available in eight languages as well as French, and provide information directly related to wherever the user is currently located. The guides contain both current and historical information about the Perigord region – the historical name for the area which roughly corresponds to the modern Dordogne department.

Peter Van Nifterik, the current owner of Caminades and the great-great-great-great-grand-son of its founder, Mark Caminade, said that the guides were very popular.

“Tourists are fond, they join right away.” he said. “It is a real innovation.”

Van Nifterik said that he plans to expand the guides in the near future; “We’ll be able to go further because there are ways to add images to audio, [and] you can go up to 120 languages”

All of the companies who run barges on the Dordogne use modern replica’s of the traditional Gabare, a type of riverboat that was historically particular to the river and its tributaries. These modern versions generally seat between 25 and 48 passengers, and travel at a constant but sedentary 7km per hour.

The Dordogne river runs cuts straight through the departements of Dordogne, Gironde, Lot, Correze. Each year, 40 to 50,000 passengers use barges to see the many attractions which line its banks. Throughout its route french holiday attractions and locations have developed over time.

The quaysides of local towns, famous for their medieval architecture, are said to be lined with eateries and bars. As the valley widens in the Perigord region some of the country’s most famous culinary attractions can be seen.

This saturday and sunday the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will be hosting a festival for children and their families in Perigeux, the capital city of the Dordogne department.

Events will be running throughout both days, and are open to children from anywhere – not just locals. For families with children who are currently on a french holiday, the events offer an opportunity to entertain children whilst exploring the town’s more cultural attractions.

The two days were chosen as part of the international celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the International Conventions on the Rights of the Child. The theme of the event has been described as an invitation to “come play and learn”, as well as demonstrating international solidarity with children around the world.

The events are aimed at people between the ages of 3 and 17. As well as familiar games such as snakes and ladders, sports clubs such as Boxing Club Perigord or Judo-club De Perigueux will be performing demonstrations and inviting children to discover different activities. Boxing, basketball, judo and other sports will be on offer to children in the Dordogne region throughout the weekend.

In order to encourage the theme of the day, children who visit the festival will also be given a souvenir – a passport. This will be stamped each time they participate in a game, and a certificate listing all the activities they have done will be presented to them at the exit.

For parents and older siblings, more cultural entertainment will be on offer. At the Perigueux conservatory, the resident Symphony Orchestra are set to give a free performance on the Saturday. Fans of French literature will also be able to meet and speak to the author Jerome Le Dorze.

The Dordogne is well known for its historic buildings and heritage, after holidaying in the Dordogne, most fall in love with the area and now there are more chances than ever to buy a medieval building as your own home. A 12th century converted hospital which was built by famous Christian military order the Knights templar is just one of many significant old buildings which are being sold as homes.

The history of the building includes many theories, warrior monks were said to have found the Holy Grail during their time at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The building was built by French knight Hugues de Payens in 1118 to protect pilgrims on their way to Holy Lands. This specific property was once a Templar hospital, and is set near Bergerac in the Dordogne.

Fans of the Da Vinci code would be right at home in a property such as this. Managing director of Sextant Properties, Matthieu Cany, said: “The Knights Templar have shot to new levels of fame and entered the Hollywood stratosphere thanks to Dan Brown’s cult book and the Tom Hanks film adaptation. For that reason, and the fact this is a very reasonably priced and an absolutely stunning character property, we expect code breakers and bargain hunters to want to snap up this piece of history right away.”

This particular building is priced at £770,000 and is now completely renovated into a five bedroomed house, which comes with 29 acres of land which includes a natural spring and a barn.

The Dordogne region is set to be a film-buffs favourite destination this month, as the line-up for its Documentary Film Month is announced.

For those who want to experience contemporary culture whilst on their French holiday, the film festival is a golden opportunity to learn both more about the national film industry and the country itself. Of course, speaking French will be a benefit.

Organisers Cinè Passion have made their line-up of films public to Southouest.com, the news website for the south west of France. Not only will two of the films be new to both the Dordogne department and the wider Aquitane region, they will be of direct relevance to Dordogne.

The first movie will be a movie tracing the history of the artist who created the iconic character Bibendum – known in the UK as the ‘Michelin Man’. The movie, ‘O Galop’, explores the life of Marius Rossillon, and was directed by his great-grandson, Marc Faye. Rossilon was also a pioneer of French animation, and hailed from the former province of Perigord – now known as Dordogne.

The second movie will be “6TKC, the Son Of Caudeau”. This movie aims to show how city policy has transformed the district of La Catte in Bergerac in the north west of Dordogne. The film will feature testimonials from local people directly affected by the renovations made to the area.

Dordogne’s Documentary Month will finish out with a series of screenings of French documentaries already in theatres, as well as a showing of two British movies at the National Museum of Prehistory in Les Eyzies to celebrate the bicentennial year of Darwin’s origin of the species.

The French documentaries will be themed around the subject of wind, and will also feature the fictional movie Si Le vent Souvele (“If the wind lifts the sands”) by Marion Hansel as well as short animated pieces. At the Museum of Prehistory, viewers will able to see the English language movie Darwin and the Science of Evolution and Species of the Species, accompanied by French subtitles.

Bergerac Airport, the principal air travel hub for the Dordogne region of France, is reportedly under threat from smaller, cheaper rivals in the region.

According to the French news website, Sudouest.com (South West), Bergerac faces being undercut by three competing airports in the south west region. Smaller facilities in Brive, Bordeaux and Agen have begun to compete fiercely with the larger, more established Bergerac.

It is believed that the smaller airports are likely to undercut Bergerac by establishing regular flights with discount airlines such as Ryanair or Easy Jet. Airport and local business officials know that this could drastically change how air passengers enter and travel through the region.

Jean-Pierre Belves, the president of Dordogne CCI for international flights, said that “If Brive opens a line to London with Ryanair, it is clear that [Bergerac airport] will lose 30% of passengers who come from Sarlat”. Sarlat is a medieval town in the North of Dordogne that is extremely popular with visitors taking a french holiday in the region.

Gribelin Olivier, director of Bergerac airport, reportedly believes that the new Brive airport and the tiny facility of Agen pose a serious question to his business. The new airport is explicit about its target; its full name is the “Brive-Dordogne Valley”, and it clearly aims to cut into the market for the Dordogne department and the wider Aquitaine region. And even though Agen airport has a runaway so small that it can only take flights from aircraft with less than 100 passengers, its position near Bordeaux and the southern border is threatening. Sudouest.com says that it could attract 22% of travellers who intend to travel to Lot-Et-Garrone or overland to Italy or Portugal.

Though the predicted expansion of the region’s airports through discount airlines may threaten the established order of Dordogne air travel, it is bound to be good news for anyone contemplating a french holiday in the next year. If the new airports can offer a direct flight to the area for British holiday makers, rather than the current route which involves a transfer at Perigeux, then travelling to Dordogne would be easier than ever.

France’s biggest retailer, Carrefour, will be selling the country’s trademark prestige drink on the cheap side this Christmas. Anyone who walks into its stores this yule season will be able to buy a bottle of bubbly for less than a tenner.

In a move that has angered many in the production side of the Champagne industry, the retail chain has announced that it will be offering champagne for “fewer than ten euro’s a bottle for the holiday season”. This is a remarkable discount on the price for both French and foreign drinkers, as the legally-protected name of ‘Champagne’ often carries both prestige and price.

For example, in the UK Carrefour counterpart Tesco sells no brand of Champagne for cheaper than £16. Whilst sparkling white wine is available for cheaper, to be called Champagne the drink must have originated in the Champagne valley of France and its ingredients must be of a high standard. Carrefour’s christmas promotion could give British holiday makers a rare chance to buy authentic French champage at an affordable price.

As Carrefour is the country’s largest retail chain, anyone on a french holiday this Christmas should be able to easily take advantage of the offer. The retail chain currently operates 1,021 supermarkets and 218 hypermarkets across France. There is usually at least one carrefour supermarket in each of the country’s ‘communes’. They are present nationwide, from Paris to the Bouluzac region of Dordogne.

Christopher Blaise, the manager for Carrefour in the Champagne region’s capital, Reims, explained that the promotion would be a “loss leader” and “will not target serious champagne lovers.” Though the reduced prices will benefit retailers such as Carrefour by attracting customers to their stores and will directly benefit customers, many in the industry have been critical of the promotion.

“It’s terrible to devalue the product in this way but given the financial difficulties its understandable” said Paul-Francois Vranken, chairman of Vranken Pommery, one of the most prestigious champagne brands.

Over half of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s 21 members were replaced last month at the group’s biannual session in Paris.

France, one of the founding members of the body, was one of those countries elected to serve a four year term on the committee. They will join existing members Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, Jordan, Nigeria and Sweden alongside countries including South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand and the UAE.

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee is the body in charge of cataloguing, naming and conserving sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humanity. There are over 890 properties on the world heritage list so far, with sites as varied as Stonehenge, the old walls of Jerusalem, or the Lascaux caves in the Dordogne region of France.

France is the country with the third highest number of protected World Heritage sites in Europe after Italy and Spain. It has 33 such historic attractions which form a draw for many people interested in taking a French holiday to see the country’s enormous cultural influence and history.

In 1979, the committee added several prehistoric sites in the Vézère valley of France to the World Heritage list. One of the most significant locations was the Lascaux caves in Dordogne, which features cave paintings estimated at over 16,000 years old.
Though visitors cannot visit the caves themselves due to the damage caused before they were closed to the public, in 1983 the ancient artwork was replicated in a nearby cave dubbed ‘Lascaux II’, which is a popular tourist attraction.

The original caves are seen as so significant and so vulnerable to damage that even scientific expeditions are limited to groups of two people or less, with access restricted to just a few days a month each year.

If you are taking a French holiday this year, why not head to a film festival? Sarlat is set in a small valley between the Dordogne and Vezere rivers, hosting its own film festival every year during mid November.

Sarlat has been used as the shooting location for well known films such as Cyrano de Bergerac, and The Bride and The Duellists. The film festivals have been running since 1981 and up to 80 long and short films are presented annually throughout the festival.

The town also boasts a prestigious theatre which attracts artists from all over the world. It too holds its own theatre festival every summer, which has been running for more than 55 years. As well enjoying the programme of performances and lectures, visitors can mingle with the plays’ actors and directors.

Hotel owners in Sarlat Diane and Pierre-Henri Toulemon said about their hometown: “It has an amazing setting, an emotion for your eyes and your heart. Festivals express themselves in a medieval Sarlat with our theatre and film festivals. The historic city all on her own takes a census of sixty six listed monuments. It is situated at the epicentre of prestigious pre-historic Unesco protected places of interest and of a myriad of castles which hang together as far as eye can see, making one of the most beautiful touristic framework in the world.”

Sarlat became a prosperous city at the end of the VIII century under the reign of Pepin le Bref and Charlemagne when the Benedictines established a monastery there. It has remained one of the towns’ most representative of 14th century France.

After wanting to write about a part of France which many Americans have never heard of, writer Lisa McClendon chose a quaint location in the Dordogne. Lisa’s research took her to the picturesque Bastide village, using Monpazier as her home base and staying in the Hotel Edward.

While most writers believe the research is the hard part, Lisa disagrees, believing it is the writing which can trip you up: “Readers sometimes are concerned about the poor author trudging through piles of mouldy books, but as a writer I can tell you research is the fun part. Writing the book is hard work. Researching a lovely village in southwest France where they serve truffle omelettes and wine the colour of blood? Let me check my calendar!”

Blackbird Fly is the name of her story based in a fictional village called Malcouziac. The plot involves an American woman whose husband dies unexpectedly, which is just the beginning of her troubles. She inherits a stone cottage in the Dordogne from him, something he had never mentioned while he was alive. His wife, Merle Bennett decides on a fresh start by revamping the cottage and moving to the Dordogne. She soon finds out why she had never known about this cottage in this location, it turns out there are a lot of reasons, all of which she has to face.

Situated at the heart of South-west France, this land-locked location is home to spectacular sites and monuments which provide endless opportunities for cultural discovery. The local way of life, prehistoric remains, famous castles, charming villages and stunning scenery all show in this novel. It is a well kept secret, untouched by the contamination of high commercialism, the author truly brings out the features of the Dordogne.

French holiday goers are being warned to make sure they have appropriate travel insurance before hitting the slopes this winter. As many risks are associated with action packed holidays, especially skiing on the piste, insurance companies are advising adrenaline junkies to bear in mind the dangers when holidaying to France and other ski resorts. With speed, extreme weather conditions and competitiveness all being major factors of these types of holidays, holiday makers are being urged to shop around carefully to look for the right insurance.

Policies should include cover of equipment, medical and ambulance costs, UK physiotherapy and piste closure cover. Sally Wilkinson, head of marketing at Direct Travel Insurance said: “Starting with a checklist of what you really need before shopping around can be very useful, whether you are an accomplished skier or a complete beginner,”

Ski operators are attracting more customers this winter by offering early season deals, the industry is also pulling together to approach existing skiers and snowboarders as well as first-timers. Information manager at The Ski Club, Al Morgan said: “The skiing market is resilient and operators are feeling positive about this winter season.”

France is one of the most popular destinations for skiing holidays, continuing to dominate the UK snowsports market with a 43 per cent share. This comes from the Ski Club of Great Britain who say higher altitude resorts such as Tignes are particularly attractive. The Ski Club also revealed the overall UK snowsports market now stands at 1.27 million people, and are anticipating a busy winter despite the state of the economy.