Archive for January, 2010

A new museum celebrating the Dordogne’s most famous contribution to world cuisine has been opened in the village of Sorges, near Perigeux.

After an extensive renovation of the building’s interior and exterior, an old country house that was once home to famed French composer Cecile Chaminade has been transformed into a museum dedicated to the Perigord black truffle. The ‘eco-museum’ has opened just in time; later this month the annual Village ‘Truffles Truffles’ season of events will go ahead.

During the week of the ‘Truffles Truffles’ season, access to the museum will be part of the town hall tour tickets, which will be half price for the duration. On the 30th and 31st of January the traditional regional celebration of aromas will be celebrated at the museum. Saturday will see cooking demonstrations and competitions based around the popular truffle omelette dish, as well as lectures on regional food. On Sunday, there will be a small market, folk entertainment and a special meal at the museum.

It will also play host to a regional event entirely unrelated to the gourmet mushrooms of the Dordogne. On Sunday the 24th of January the museum will be the site of a sports car exhibition, featuring Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini Lotus and other cars.

This February, the Didascalies theatre festival will celebrate its 20th consecutive year as it brings the visual arts of France into the heart of the Dordogne.

Nearly 300 participants are expected for the annual arts and performance festival, hosted in Perigeux and Boulazac. Didascalies will start on the 16th of February with an anniversary party at Perigeux’s theatre. The festival brings together eighteen groups from across the Dordogne and other departments in the Aquitaine region of France. Some of these will come from Perigeux itself and the nearby town of Bergerac, but others include groups from Excideuil, Riberac, Terrasson, and even as far away as the Corsican region of Ajaccio.

Although the festival is reportedly operating under a tighter budget than in previous years thanks to the affects of the economic downturn on public and philanthropic funding, the organisers say that they expect to meet the same high standards as in previous years. The programme will feature workshops and performances from theatre, circus and dance groups.

Highlights of the festival reported on Sudouest.com include a visual and audio exhibition of the artist Cecile Lena, titled “space fades”, hosted at the Palace of Perigeux. There will also be a live music and film performance of the Sleepers group adaptation of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, the famous Louis Stevenson novel. One unique attraction will be a performance by the National Institute for Deaf Children, who will perform entirely in sign language.

Often if you’re on a French holiday then the only music you’ll hear is what you brought with you. However, France has plenty of music venues and the Dordogne is no exception. If you’d like to hear some of what French popular music has to offer in person then you may be interested in the latest local websites to be featured on news site Sudouest.com.

The news site’s journalists recommend that anyone looking for gigs and music venues in the Dordogne check out the websites Sans-reserve.org and Rocksane.com. Both sites are named after their venues, and are described by Sudouest as “well documented, easy to navigate, [and] they make you want to come back and enquire”.

Sans Reserve, or ‘without reserve’, is the website of a popular music venue in Perigeux. Without Reserve has been refurbished twice in the last ten years, once in 2005 and again in 2008, and was formerly known as The Tank. Benoit Faure, the designer of the new layout, said that he was inspired by national-level venues to have a clear and dynamic design for the music rooms in Pereiguex. It features concerts every month, with the next being a performance from rock hand The Hellbats on January 23rd.

Rocksane can be found in Bergerac, and as well as concerts, the venue acts as a school for aspiring rock musicians. Rocksane is decorated with historic programmes, flyers, posters and merchandise from France’s history of rock music, as well as of the venue itself. The venue also features stand-up performances and the first acts of 2010 will be Les Comedians De Naillac. The first performance from a band will be The Control Band, a big beat/rock band that has just toured in Paris, on the 13th of February.

One of the Dordogne region’s largest banks is pioneering eco-friendly technology by replacing its traditional heating system with a self-powered wood-burner.

The headquarters of Credit Agricole in Bergerac, one of the largest banks in the Dordogne, is breaking new ground as the first major contract for the technology. Amazingly, the new system’s boiler is powered by nothing more than wood pellets – and can heat 7000m2 of office space.

The bank seeks to reduce its carbon footprint for both its sites in Bergerac and Charente-Perigord. It is predicted that the new heating system will lower the 9000 tonnes of CO2 produced by the insitutions by at least 2000 tonnes each. To make a saving on its annual heating budging of 260,000 euros in advance of predicted carbon-taxes by the French Government, Credit Agricole turned to pioneering green technology firm Grasasa.

Gregory Grange, executive of Grasasa’s domestic operations, explained the benefits of the system to Sudouest.com. “It’ll make better and better use of the wood over time”, resulting in lower fuel costs, lower maintenance costs and unlike other standalone heating systems, will have an entirely safe form of fuel storage.

Grasasa’s methods of producing energy dense wood pellets have been in use across the Dordogne for many years, though this is the largest single installation. Since 2005 sales of pellets have increased from 50 to 5000 tonnes, simply to individuals and greenhouses across the Dordogne and nearby departments of Lot-Et-Garonne and Gironde. Gregory Grange says that Grasasa is now “convincing elected officials to consider a territorial development of wood heating”.

The small village of Saint-Geyrac is to join France’s high-speed digital communications network in 2010, thanks to the efforts of its ongoing local development plan.

Like many smaller villages and towns in the rural areas of the Dordogne, Saint-Geyrac is outside of the current broadband-capable telephone system. Similar to some of the most isolated places in the UK, the idyllic pastoral countryside of the region has had its drawbacks for the residents.

But Saint-Geyrac’s mayor, Jean-Francois Mathieu, has told Sudouest.com that the new year will bring new services and continued regeneration and development for the village.

Since 2006 the town has been pursuing a local development plan that saw $100,000 of work undertaken on local roads in 2009. Mayor Mathieu has promised his 230 constituents that though the plan will come to an end in 2010, he is confident that the town will not sink into depression “after so much effort”.

Mayor Mathieu has said in 2010 a new forest road to the town will be constructed, as well as further development of the public spaces in the town centre. He also expects Saint-Geyrac to finally be connected to the ADSL broadband network, connecting the last remnants of France’s rural past to its technological present.

Sub-zero temperatures and snow blocked roads are likely making the morning commute even more of a struggle for workers across the UK as they return to day-to-day business in the New Year. But according to a report by The Daily Mail, people across the UK are already  planning how to escape their back-to-work stress; by booking a holiday online.

The Mail reports that a survey conducted by travel company Sunshine.co.uk found that increasing numbers of UK office workers are booking holidays online whilst still at work.

Apparently, nearly 64% of people organising trips for 2010 are likely to do so from the office, compared with 53% in 2009. The attractions of escaping on a French holiday seem obvious with workers struggling to get back into the swing of things and sat in front of a computer screen. Next month’s travel plans are only a click away after all, and though some guilt may accompany the frivolous use of time nearly a third of those surveyed said they compensated by skipping lunch breaks to make up for lost time.

Speaking to The Mail, Sunshine.co.uk’s managing director, Chris Brown, said “Booking while at work is bound to be popular because the ‘Monday Blues’ kick in and we all need cheering up.

“Also, with the current financial climate people are working extremely hard and extra long hours, people just need something to look forward too.”

The Eurotunnel and Eurostar services have returned to normal after the Christmas disruptions, allowing regular travel to France to resume for French holiday makers.

Before Christmas, hundreds of people seeking to return from the continent were left stranded as the Eurostar service suffered disruptions after trains broke down in the Channel Tunnel thanks to bad weather. The rush of festive British holiday makers and French residents seeking to return home meant that many people switched to the Eurotunnel service, placing a sudden increase of pressure on the alternative tunnel service.

On Tuesday the 29th of December nearly 400 vehicles suffered delays at technical problems temporarily shut down the Eurotunnel service. In order to prevent further disruptions, passengers were warned via on automated service that only advance bookings would be acceptable and those directly affected were offered ferry tickets as an alternative.

After the new year however, things have returned to normal and holidaymakers, tourists and French nationals are now able to travel between the UK and the continent with familiar ease. Though the Eurostar may be delayed if heavy snowfall and extreme temperatures occur again Eurotunnel is confident that it can provide a reliable service and will suffer no further problems.

Speaking to BBC news, a company spokesman for Eurotunnel said that the weather would not affect any of its services – and was not a factor in the previous disruptions. He said “The technical problems are not related to the weather and are being looked at by engineers who hope to resolve things as soon as possible”.

For those already on holiday in France over the new year who are looking forward to returning to Britain in January, the news is even more optimistic; throughout the Christmas period, the BBC says that “there were no problems reported from the French end” - only outbound travel was affected.

Big holiday firms have big flaws according to the findings of a new survey.

Some of the biggest holiday operators in the UK have gained some of the worst feedback from consumers participating in a survey rating customer satisfaction among holidaymakers for 2009. Which?, the consumer feedback site, polled 4,500 of its members to rate dozens of travel companies on the level of customer service, overall value for money and how satisfied they were with their holiday.

Whilst smaller operators shone, big companies like Thomas Cook or First Choice came at the bottom of customer opinion. With feedback criticising the big firms for unhelpful staff, poor customer service and poor value for money, it seems that when booking a holiday bigger is not necessarily better.

Overall, customers were fairly satisfied with holiday firms as the average score for 77%.

But some of the biggest names in holidays were among the nine firms in the survey that fell short of the mark; Virgin Holidays, Page and Moy, and Thomas Cook. Thomas Cook was the only firm to score a mere two out of five for its resort staff, but its similarly low score for value for money was shared with other holiday giants such as Virgin, Cosmos and First Choice.

Instead it was small companies which received the highest accolades from the survey, scoring around 89% in overall customer rating and gaining five stars in four out of five categories. Rochelle Turner, head of Which? Holiday research, said “It’s great to see the small operators doing so well. They have the advantage of being able to offer a more personalised service”.

The survey highlights the potential pitfalls of booking a package holiday with a large firm, particularly when booking a fairly local trip such as a french holiday; poor, impersonal customer service coupled with a high price tag.

Dordogne has long been one of the most popular destinations for people going on a french holiday. However, the latest French national census has shown that its also a popular choice for people permanently residing in France.

Over the course of the last year, the region’s population has increased by 0.6% from 417,011 to 419,494 inhabitants. Sudouest.com reports that many people are settling in the countryside of the Dordogne and the Perigord, with the greatest increase in the south of the region.

Whilst cities and other urbanised areas, such as the municipal towns, have seen a small decrease in population numbers, smaller villages have been more popular. The area with the largest increase was Boulazac, which rose from sixth place to fifth place among the most significant towns in the Dordogne. Over 350 people have taken up residence in the town, an increase of 5.6% between the last two censuses. This was the single most significant increase – other towns saw relatively small numbers of extra residents, with no other area attracting more than 100 people.

Although the increase in population was fairly small in the greater nation-wide picture of population growth, it is statistically significant as it shows an increase in the ‘legal’ population of the region. As SudOuest.com highlights, this is the basis for calculating regional funding and the power wielded by municipal councils.

In another report, Sudouest.com speculated that the coming year may see the Dordogne become an even more popular choice for residence. The French real estate market has reportedly stabilised after a turbulent period, and although the picturesque region remains one of the most desirable areas in the country, house prices have become more affordable over the course of the past year. Sudouest has predicted that this may attract English expatriates in numbers unseen since the property market for France became extremely competitive towards the turn of the century.