Archive for the ‘French Holidays’ Category

P&O’s Pride of Bilbao passenger ferry has docked in Portsmouth harbour for the last time, after the ferry operator scrapped its route to northern Spain after 17 years.

The twice-weekly crossing between Portsmouth and the Spanish city of Bilbao has long been a popular starting point for Britons embarking on a French holiday in the Pyrenees.

However, falling passenger numbers and increased competition from rival firms has forced P&O to cancel the service. With it, P&O’s 45-year presence in Portsmouth will come to an end, reports BBC News.

P&O spokesman Brian Rees said that efforts had been made to make the vessel profitable, but that in the end the firm was forced to take the difficult decision to scrap the route.

“We just can’t make the sums add up,” BBC News quoted Mr Rees as saying.

“It’s a desperately sad day – there is a very tight-knit ship’s company. Unlike the short crossings, you really get to know the customers,” he added.

Regular passengers on the Pride of Bilbao are sure to be disappointed by its demise, but they will be encouraged by news that Brittany Ferries has stepped into the breach and will operate its own service between Portsmouth and Bilbao.

Brittany Ferries group commercial passenger director Mike Bevens told The News that the route still had a great deal of potential, and that he was sure the firm’s new service would be popular with passengers.

“Despite the Portsmouth to Bilbao route being dropped this month by a competitor, we are confident of making it a success,” Mr Bevens said.

“Also, our marvellous French crew provide outstanding service, which results in high levels of repeat business and loyalty amongst our customers,” he added.

The new Brittany Ferries service between Portsmouth and Bilbao will start in spring next year, with services departing every Sunday and Friday and returning Tuesday and Saturday.

France’s national meteorological service, Météo-France, has issued a severe weather warning for 11 departments in central and southern areas of the country.

According to Le Monde, the alert covers southern Auvergne, Languedoc and western parts of Paca and the Rhône-Alpes, and will stay in place until 7am on Wednesday.

At the moment, the departments on alert are the Ardèche, Bouches-du-Rhône, Drôme, Gard, Isère, Hérault, Loire, Lozère, Rhône and Vaucluse.

Météo-France expects up to 25cm of rain to fall today, with 10cm anticipated in the Ardèche and around Montpellier, Nîmes and St Etienne. Lyon is set to experience its heaviest rainfall for 10 years.

Le Monde say that school bus services in the Gard department have been cancelled, while many schools are likely to remain closed until the worst of the weather has passed.

Britons currently enjoying a French holiday should take extra care if they plan to use the roads today, as driving conditions are likely to be hazardous. Small country roads in particular are best avoided, as there is a high risk of flash flooding.

“The weather front will continue to move across the country on Tuesday, with a mixture of rain and storms,” Météo-France said in a statement cited by Europe 1.

“Rain will be particularly heavy in the South East and over departments where severe weather warnings have been issued,” the Météo-France statement continued.   

There is no doubt that one of the most enjoyable parts of any French holiday is sitting in a traditional bar, sipping a coffee and soaking up the unique ambiance.

Indeed, France’s café culture has long been a major draw for visiting tourists. However, a report by RFI suggests that many of the country’s traditional café-bistros are struggling to make ends meet and may be forced to close.

According to the RFI report, the number of cafés in France has fallen from 200,000 in 1960 to fewer than 41,000. The situation is particularly difficult for rural cafés, which rely on regular visitors and tourists for their income.

Cafés have been hard-hit by the economic downturn. Not even Paris has escaped the damage, with more than 2,000 of the capital’s cafés closing down in 2009 alone.

While the financial crisis has played a major role, experts have also laid much of the blame on the smoking ban, as well as tougher measures against underage drinking and drink-driving.

However, industry expert Laurent Lutse believes that many cafés are closing purely because they have failed to move with the times and are unable to offer a service to suit modern-day standards.

“Many [traditional cafés] were obsolete anyway and not up to the standard. You have to provide something else, invent a new concept,” RFI quoted Mr Lutse as saying.

The good news for regular visitors to France, though, is that café owners will be upping their efforts over the coming years as they look to improve their service and win back customers from modern chains. Expect more comfortable seating, friendlier service and wider access to wi-fi connections.

A quick glance at today’s ‘Education’ columns could leave potential learners of French wondering if it’s really worth the effort.

An article by BBC News highlights a 45% fall in the number of pupils taking GCSE French since 2002, and suggests that Britain as a nation is gradually falling out of love with the language.

According to The BBC, most pupils decide not to study French simply because the exams are difficult, and because they doubt the relevance of language skills for future careers.

“The core reason [for pupils avoiding French] is because pupils know French is difficult to pass, and difficult to get something out of it,” language learning expert Paul Noble told BBC News.

“With French or any language, you either know how to say it or you don’t – you can perhaps be a bit more vague with subjects like religious studies,” he added.

With foreign languages no longer compulsory in many schools, it would be easy to assume that Britons have given up on language learning, and that taking French classes is something of a waste of time.

The fact remains, however, that a basic knowledge of French – even just a few words – can add a whole new dimension to your trips abroad and make your French holiday an altogether more enriching experience.

Even if you mispronounce a word or make a small mistake, French people will genuinely appreciate the fact that you tried. So don’t give up on French just yet; the warm smile you receive at the end of your first sentence will be enough to make all your efforts worthwhile.

France’s tourism industry enjoyed a strong month of July, thanks mainly to a significant rise in the number of overseas visitors.

According to a report by Le Figaro, the majority of the international visitors who enjoyed a French holiday this summer came from European countries such as the UK, Holland and Belgium.

However, a significant number also came from Russia and China, as holidaymakers looked to benefit from the weak Euro.

French hotels and holiday industries endured a fairly grim summer in 2009, as many UK households in particular felt the financial squeeze and decided not to holiday overseas.

However, recent French tourism figures suggest that visitor numbers are gradually returning to pre-recession levels. France’s Minister for Tourism even went as far as describing the 2010 holiday season as “highly satisfying.”

The French tourism industry recorded a 4 per cent rise in overall visitor numbers compared to 2009, thanks mainly to an influx of foreign holidaymakers. In addition, foreign tourists injected as much as 2 billion Euros into the tourism industry this summer, according to tourism experts Protourism.

The report in Le Figaro says that luxury holidays on the Côte d’Azur were particularly profitable. Chinese tourists were the biggest spenders in this domain, closely followed by visitors from Russia and the Middle East.

“Visitor numbers in France are back to pre-recession levels, with a rise from 5% to 10% in the number of European visitors and double-digit growth in visitors from further afield,” Protourisme analyst Thierry Bouriat told Le Figaro.

Ferry firm LD Lines has confirmed that it will end its Dover-Boulogne service from next month, after failing to hit the passenger targets it set when the route opened two years ago.

The cross channel firm said its Norman Bridge and Norman Trader vessels would continue to run a passenger and freight service until the end of the school holidays on September 5.

All passengers with bookings up until that date will be unaffected by the route closure. However passengers travelling after September 5 will be offered places on other routes, as well as special offers on future crossings.

The announcement is sure to come as a blow to many travellers. Boulogne’s location makes it a convenient starting point for Britons embarking on a French holiday, but they will now have to find an alternative route or change ferry companies altogether.

LD Lines’ managing director, Christophe Santoni, explained that low passenger volume was behind the company’s decision to scrap the route, but suggested that a reduced service may still operate between Dover and Boulogne in the future.

“Whilst we are disappointed to have to announce the ending of a tourist passenger service between Dover and Boulogne, as the addition of a second ship has not generated the extra traffic volumes we had hoped for, we will continue to explore every option to try and maintain some form of ferry service to Boulogne”, The Independent quoted Mr Santoni as saying.

Holidaymakers in Boulogne got a scare yesterday after a crocodile alert forced local authorities to close the area’s beaches.

The beach closures came just a matter of days after a shark alert spread panic among beach-dwellers on the French Riviera.

The alarm was raised after local newspaper La Voix du Nord received a letter from two men claiming to have seen a metre-long reptile swimming around tourist vessels near Boulogne’s port.

“We would like to inform you that we saw a young crocodile of roughly a metre in length near the small pleasure boats,” said the letter sent by a pair known simply as ‘Pierre and Laurent’.

“We’re quite certain that someone must have got rid of it when it was a baby,” the message went on.

The senders left no phone number or contact details, which has led to some speculation that the alert was a hoax. No reptiles had been reported missing by local zoos, but local authorities decided nonetheless to close the beaches as a safety precaution.

Red flags were put up and a message was broadcast in French and English to warn local residents and any Britons on a French holiday to stay away from the shoreline.

“We made several announcements over the tannoy in both French and English to warn people that there may have been a crocodile in the swimming area,” a lifeguard told reporters from La Voix du Nord.

The port area was thoroughly searched, but no signs of a crocodile were found. Red flags were subsequently taken down and beaches were finally able to re-open at around 2pm.

Around 40,000 children have arrived in Paris for their first French holiday, thanks to a long-running scheme aimed at helping ‘forgotten’ youngsters.

The scheme, set up by French charity Secours Populaire Français thirty years ago, provides trips and activities for children from around Europe who might otherwise never have the opportunity to go on holiday.

Of the 40,000 children who arrived in Paris yesterday, around 3,000 of them came from countries outside of France. Youngsters from Spain, Poland, Germany, Tunisia, Turkey and Albania all made the journey, according to local news source France 3.

A large picnic took place at the base of the Eiffel Tower yesterday, organised by SPF as part of the Soleils d’Europe festival. Children were given the chance to visit twenty-five of Paris’s top tourist attractions for free, including Versailles, the Louvre and the national stadium, Stade de France.

2,350 children aged between 6 and 14 visited the Palace of Versailles yesterday, according to le Parisien. Around 500 SPF volunteers accompanied the young visitors to help make sure they had a day to remember.

“We’re really lucky to be here. We’d never have had the opportunity to come on our own,” a girl named Anaïs told le Parisien.

The palace was extremely busy throughout the day, and the SPF volunteers had to be on their toes to make sure that none of the youngsters got lost in the crowd. Staff from Versailles praised the charity scheme, and hope that it will inspire many of the children to return again in the future.

“It’s always nice to see a child, who has never been to a museum, get so excited after visiting the Hall of Mirrors,” employee Denis Berthomier told le Parisien.

“With a bit of luck, he might want to come back one day with his parents,” he added.

Pétanque, a version of the traditional French game of boules, has left its old image behind in a cloud of dust to become one of the trendiest summer pastimes in France.

As the Associated Press explain, pétanque has long been associated with pastis-guzzling, ‘flat-capped’ old French men, with the only physical exertion involved being the short walk to the end of the gravel track to pick up your boules at the end of a round.

Now though, the century-old French game is rapidly establishing itself as one of the coolest ways for French people to spend the long, hot summer evenings. Young people in particular are starting to embrace pétanque, possibly attracted by the game’s laid-back but highly competitive nature.

It is thought that around 15 million French people now regularly play pétanque, and the game’s popularity is said to be spreading around the globe. One English pétanque enthusiast explained why he feels so many Britons are becoming captivated by the game.

“Being English, I think it’s the closest thing to cricket,” John Morrison told the Associated Press.

“It’s a very relaxing way of passing the afternoon,” he added.

For any Britons on a French holiday this year wishing to give pétanque a try, The Guardian recently published a number of useful tips for success. Above all, players are advised to ditch their allegedly characteristic ‘British timidity’ and adopt a more ‘aggressive’ Gallic approach.

Airport operator BAA has struck a deal with trade union leaders to avert strike action that would have spelt chaos for thousands of travellers.

Workers at Heathrow, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports had planned the walkouts after a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. The strikes would have caused massive travel disruption during one of the busiest periods for UK airports.

Thankfully, Britons planning a late-summer French holiday can now relax, as ground staff have accepted a new pay deal. According to Reuters, workers will receive a 2 per cent pay rise and a one-off payment of at least £500.

Terms were finally agreed after marathon 9-hour talks between the Unite union and BAA. Reuters report that negotiations were intense, but Unite officials are confident that its members will be satisfied with the new deal.

“The negotiations were tough but Unite has delivered a fair deal for BAA staff,” Unite national officers Brian Boyd and Brendan Gold were quoted as saying in a statement.

For their part, BAA apologised to passengers for the latest period of uncertainty, which came just months after strikes by cabin crew and major disruption caused by a volcanic ash cloud.

“All parties brought a constructive approach to negotiations and we are sorry for the uncertainty ahead of yesterday’s discussions,” a BAA spokesperson told The Independent.

“We now look forward to working with our people to improve the service we provide to passengers and airlines in the weeks and months ahead,” he added.