Newsletter 11 March 2012

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Carolevr Tidswellvr

Sending you a warm and friendly greeting from the south of France.

My newsletters about France have been sent for over 15 years. This newsletter is being sent to over 10,000 subscribers.

I really welcome your comments and I try to help if you have questions about life in France and I do my best to reply personally.

Please let me know what you would like to read about. Property, art, rentals, renovation, health or any number of subjects about life here. Our business is offering accommodation in our own B&b and apartments at https://villaroquette.com we are open all year and you can stay for one day or as long as you like – we have apartments often let for six months or more when a guest wants to research or write a book, or look for property to buy.

My personal passion is photography, I plan to start courses for Zone System chemical photography agian as soon as I can, but I have been saying this for a few years – it will happen. So if you would like to come to the South of France and work with me – you are most welcome, I need a reason to get started again.

All our marketing is through our own Internet efforts, so I have many years of experience in this and I am working on some new ideas.

One new initiative is not just for France, it is truly world-wide and may be relevant for you.

We have a new group of B&B owners all over the world and have created a Wiki website to share our experience and to help ourselves find ways to serve our guests better. This is on a website called http://wikibnb.org – this is a non-profit, no fees, open source and co-working concept anyone can join. Like wikipedia, the aim is to get everyone interested to contribute and correct information about needs and wishes.

This is also for guests and travelers to join in and comment – perhaps to help plan a trip or look for people to share with. It can be whatever you want and, hopefully, it will keep on target and be useful as everyone will ensure that any false or bad influences are self-regulating.

If you own any accommodation for rental, anywhere – or if you travel for business or pleasure anywhere at any time (I guess this is just about everybody) then this is for you.

Please join and tell your friends about us – we will be using Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter to reach out to people, so please keep in touch this way as well – you can join in with my personal pages for now to get the news.

Tp make it more interesting and to give everyone something in return for feedback and interest – I am also building a competition, game, puzzle project with rewards of free accommodation, travel and services.

I will be (I hope) launching this new idea in a couple of weeks, but this is the sneak preview her, for th firt time ever new idea.

On many B&B websites all over the world there will be pages with a QR code on. These will reveal the location of a series of photographs, which themselves are coded – collect a set and, as you collect them, post them onto a Pinterest board (we may add to Facebook as well but Facebook can be a bit ‘iffy’ sometimes about this sort of thing) – tweet us when you do and you will get moved onto new pages and new links.

You can collect vacation days this way and there will be surprise prizes as well. If this gets enough coverage there could be substantial prizes, air fares, vacation packages etc – but at the very least we at Villa Roquette will be donating some accommodation prizes.

I guess this is a sort of; Treasure Hunt – Golden Hare – Pokemon game using mobile phones, iPads and social networks (probably 4square as well.

OK, I need to smooth out some rough edges, I only thought up the idea this morning (but already have a couple of other B&Bs offering places in other countries. And the QR code game may not suit everyone, but this could be a while new market – I wonder if I can patent it, now I have published it nobody else can 🙂

Again – come and join me in this I cant do it all on my own.

Better still, come and visit us here in the South of France and let’s talk it through over a glass of wine or cup of coffee (can someone bring me some Pete’s coffee please)

Hope to hear from you, or better still, see you soon.

Tony

Our apartment and B&B accommodation –
http://www.VillaRoquette.com
http://facebook.com/VillaRoquetteFrance
Follow me on Twitter –
@villaroquette
@montblanc

Join me on Facebook –
http://facebook.com/VillaRoquette

Newsletter January 12 2012

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Carolevr Tidswellvr

Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.

Apart from Languedoc being thought to be the only place where the end of the world is not going to happen on December 21st, there are plenty more reasons to visit this heartland of ancient cultures and civilisations, much older than that of the Mayans.

With the dollar and pound getting stronger, owning a property in France gets more attractive. How about this barn on offer in Languedoc (the Real South of France), with approval for use as a home, for 19,000 euro? http://www.buymybarn.co.uk/ a private sale, direct from the owner.

Flying to the South of France – Ryanair – you either love them or hate them, but they offer a fantastic deal to get to the South of France with many fares through till March for under £10, come to Languedoc for some winter sunshine. There is talk of big fare increases and very big baggage handling charges, so book early and avoid bringing suitcases. – Beziers airport is only 20 minutes from our front door and Carcassonne, Montpellier and Perpignan all under an hour from us.

But coming on vacation with just hand baggage is not possible, is it?

Well, yes, it can be if you stay with us, we provide everything you need for a vacation, all linen and towels of course is part of the accommodation, but we also provide beach towels, beach equipment, a lot of leisure equipment such as golf clubs, bikes, fishing tackle, picnic items, guide books and maps – we have a library of thousands of books and videos – rent a car and we can provide car seats for kids etc – we pick you up from the airport or station – we can provide a computer for you. Let us know any special needs or equipment and we will try to provide it. We make no added charges for any of these services.

Many guests send a suitcase on ahead by courier at a much lower cost than the airlines are charging. You also don’t have to lug cases around the airport, check luggage, collect baggage from the carousel (or lose it) and perhaps have to unpack at customs. You do have to plan ahead a few weeks and we will look after your cases or baggage when it arrives here. We can also arrange for the collection by the courier whan you leave.

For twelve years now I have sent out notes and comments about our life in France, to share with readers our pleasure of living near the Mediterranean in Languedoc, the problems, pitfalls and perils of paperwork and bureaucracy and the joy of seeing our family grow and blossom. Over 2000 articles and stories are in various archives and blogs scattered all over the Internet.

We offer accommodation in our home and can help and advise with property purchases in France, no fees, no charges, no hassle, just sharing over 20 years of my experience buying, renovating and selling property in the South of France.

Follow me on Twitter and join me on Facebook (and like me please) for the latest news, special offers and great deals in renting or buying, or write to me about anything you like.

– By reading the same lines? O then come hither,

And lay my Book, thy Head, and Heart together. –