Nice Carnival is here again. From the 13th February,  Nice will come alive with a fortnight of festivities: carnival processions, flower parades, concerts and fireworks. The theme  this year is  “King of Planet Earth” which focuses on enviromental issues. Most of the “Carnaval de Nice” festivities take place on the Promenade des Anglais, which runs along the waterfront. Not to be missed.

Breaking news: Air France is planning to launch a range of low-cost domestic flights linking French cities, taking on Easyjet and Ryanair as they are both already well-established in the French domestic flights market.

The number of Brits buying euros for property purchases has increased in the last few days after sterling reached a rate of €1.15 for the first time since August 2008.
Foreign currency broker World First has seen a 40% increase in clients buying euros, while new enquiries have shot up by 24%.
“A number of our clients in the market for euros are taking advantage of the improved exchange rate and buying their euros for overseas mortgage payments, property purchases etc now,” World First’s head of private clients, Elisabeth Dobson, told OPP.
“They are delighted to be getting a rate that is up to 12% better than the lows we have seen over the last 17 months. There are a number of clients who will have been holding off on property purchases and overseas investments due to sterling’s weakness against the euro. This rate move will certainly spur people on.”
A run of economic good news from the UK, including a fall in unemployment, rising inflation and an anticipation that the country is out of recession, has helped increase the pound’s strength. Meanwhile, economic problems in Spain and Greece have weakened consumer confidence in the euro.
Continuing improvements
Not all currency brokers have seen a substantial increase in business. “€1.15 is a bit of psychological barrier but most clients are still waiting for the magic €1.20 number,” Marc Morley-Freer, commercial director at Moneycorp, told OPP. “After the UK election we could see improvements that could push people to make lifestyle purchases – things are too uncertain before then.”
World First’s chief economist Jeremy Cook remains bullish following sterling’s 9% growth over the last year. “I don’t think this run in particular will last because it has happened so quickly, but the pound could be up to around €1.22 by the end of the year,” he told OPP.

Source: OPP- http://www.opp.org.uk/ 

For the fourth year running, France comes first in the  annual Quality of Life Index,  scoring high marks across the board. Its health care and infrastrucure were highly rated but obviously its lifestyle and quality of life is France main appeal: good food and wine, lazy lunches, great fashion, superb architecture and varied landscapes offer something for everyone. Vive la France

SERIOUS BRITS BRAVE SNOW FOR FRANCE SHOW
The first UK property show of the year drew determined buyers at the weekend, despite poor weather conditions.
Travel and property exhibitors at The France Show at Earl’s Court, London, reported a busy show on Saturday 9 January despite the total number of visitors expected to be around half of last year’s figure.
“Generally the quality of buyers was better than at other shows and a lot of people were going on visits in January and February,” said Chris Bishop, managing director of agent Latitudes.

December is the perfect time to search for a house in France – although in many parts of France you will be enjoying clear blue skies and sunshine, albeit with colder temperatures – you will be seeing it at its worst – bare trees, possibly bad weather, dark nights etc so what better time to choose where you would like to buy than now.  You will see any bad points and be able to make a much clearer decision.    Owners of properties are notoriously more negotiable just before Christmas as everyone would like to start a new year without worrying about anything and being able to get on with their lives in the way they would like to.    Flights are cheap at present and hotels too so why not make that trip that you have been promising to do all year and  visit some properties to get an idea of what you can find for your money as well as leaving time to enjoy some wonderful meals, often close to a lovely open fire.  You will also find that the agents have time to show you around the area as well as the houses during this quieter period – so dont leave it until everyone else is booking to go – give yourself an early Christmas present of a few days off and maybe pick up a bargain too.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a friend’s holiday home in the Pas de Calais in a village called Dompierre near to Hesdin. We left London at 2pm and drove to Folkestone to take the tunnel. By 6pm we were in the supermarket stocking up on delicious French cheeses, foie gras, bread, desserts and of course plenty of wine.

The house was delightful and immediately we arrived we called on our old girl guide skills and got a roaring fire going in the living room. The next day we explored the area and had a fabulous lunch in the village of Auxi le chateau in a restaurant called Canard Gourmand, which is, a small typically French family restaurant specialising in regional dishes. We ate well and washed down our lunch with a really delicious bottle of wine. After lunch we carried on to the town of Hesdin where we mooched about looking in shop windows and the delicious pastries. That evening we were back to the house with some veal chops and wild mushrooms we had bought – another delicious feast.

It was such a lovely break and really took no time to get there but got us away from the stress of London into the beautiful peaceful country life in France.

We managed to take hardly any luggage with us and filled the boot of the car with our supermarket purchases. The wines were excellent value and not one bottle was over €5.

I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and would highly recommend a visit to the area. . . . I shall most definitely be going again!

I spent a lovely weekend in Le Touquet. Went to the market there… Le Touquet market is wonderful with a very large variety of stalls: clothing, baskets, shoes are on offer but also beautiful vegetables, fruits, sea food, fish and cider… you will not go hungry nor thirsty for that matter. Not to be missed if you are in the area.

We went to a restaurant in Nice which we booked through Top Table, the offer was for a 3 course meal from a set menu which had three choices for each of the three courses, plus a half a bottle of wine per person, which was really good wine,  plus a kir royale and coffee or tea – so that there was absolutely nothing more to pay, service is included in France.   The restaurant was really cosy inside and there was an outside covered pavement terrace too.    The price for all this was only 25 Euros per person – so 50 euros in total for two for lunch or dinner.   All four of us thought the food was excellent and the service very friendly.  The restaurant is well situated in Nice near to the flower market.   I cant recommend it highly enough and we will go back, even without the special offer.

We have just come back from a great day in Italy which took us only an hour from Juan les Pins.   We arrived around 10am -  had coffee and pastries and then wandered around the market buying shirts and scarves etc.  We followed that with a great lunch of pasta and freshly made zabaione washed down with white wine. We ambled around the shops with friends finishing with tea a cake before  heading home – a grat day – and there are many more different ways to spend the day – head towards the Var and the Gorges de Verdun for some walks, visit Marseille and Aix en Provence and very shortly the ski resorts will be under 90 minutes away and well worth visiting as we can already sea the snow on top of the mountains as we sunbathe on the beach .   Corsica and the Porquerolles are just a ferry ride away  and if you really dont wan t to go far there are museums, exhibtions and cinemas within 15 minutes if the weather should let you down – which it hasnt yet!   Golf courses and tennis courts abound so no wonder we never get around to doing all the things we intend to do.     Prices are more reasonable than they were – the Euro is slowly improving again and this is always the time of year to be able to negotiate the price down the best – so what are you waiting for!