Plug Stupid
October 30, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
I saw this link on Facebook today explaining why electrical appliances around the world have infuriatingly different plugs and sockets.
Now I understand a bit about why there are two voltages – plugs, I have seen at least ten in the UK and France alone in recent times – why AC not DC, OK that is simple physics – but the most annoying for me is the AC frequency of US and Europe if you have a timer or clock set to the Hz setting – my darkroom clock is American, so my head has a completely different timeset, a minute at 60 Hz is not the same as a 50 Hz minute.
Thanks for this link Steve for the info – hope to see you in Paris soon
Biking Through France
October 27, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
The next upside-down year will be in the year 6009, so I doubt I will be around for that, but I was around at the last one in 1961. That year was a really interesting one for me – I was 16 and it was the beginning of a decade where the world recovered from a global war and just about everything changed.
I started the 60’s at school and ended it with a family, a successful business and a lot of memories In that time I did many things from working as a research assistant with the first commercial computers to being a stunt man in the movies (yes I did earn my actors equity card).
I have had an old photo album which by some miracle has survived and the photos are hilarious, I will try to save them and scan them onto Facebook and this blog so my kids can fall about laughing – they will never take me seriously ever again.
Here are the first two of a trip I made with a friend, Bob Mollison, on a BSA Bantam motorbike (125cc) traveling all around Europe. We had very little money and I remember the whole trip, including fuel, cost us less than 15 pounds sterling each for over two weeks.
Our top speed was under 25 mph unless we slip-streamed behind a truck and then we could reach 30 mph. Going over the Alps from Italy, the bike would not take us both up the St Gothard Pass, so we took it in turns walking up while the other used the bike – walking was quicker.
French Letters
October 26, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
Alexandra, my daughter, helps me a lot with translations. I am impressed with the letters she has composed for me. However she has a secret weapon there is a website www.Conso.net which gives help and one of their services is a set of standard letter templates for all manner of things.
Interestingly I also picked up a reference to this site on my Facebook pages today and found links to this site posted on other blogs and websites.
Guide2Languedoc
October 26, 2009 by tony · 4 Comments
I went to Bristol in the UK for a few hours last week to meet a publisher who is developing a network of websites.
Beziers airport is only twenty minutes from our home at VillaRoquetteand with Ryanair, if you select tour dates, you can fly to the UK and back for less than the price of two cups of coffee, including all charges and stuff.
I have been interested in Internet publishing since I started making websites twelve years ago – I tried to build my own services with names like Goto-France, Wotspot, a publishing idea called Chez Frog, the French Property Digest and a raft of others – it is a huge amount of work and with the techical problems of secure hosting, keeping the hackers out etc all these have slipped quietly away.
I have also met and talked to other publishers looking at a local operation, the best for information is an excellent group of sites based around AngloInfo – their local site is operated by Caroline and from one operation in place when I first met them, they now have many franchisees around the world. Their style is to give local information and keep a discussion forums which attract advertising. Anglo Info has a good directory about local laws, services and regulations and is a big help to ex-pats where English is their first language.
Perhaps I should have considered their Languedoc franchise, but their style is not mine, and I do not like the word ‘Anglo’.
Other information sites in France include French Entree and locally there are several good information sites for Languedoc including Creme de Languedoc , The Languedoc Page , Languedoc France , Herault Whats On , BlaBlaBlah and Languedoc Sun – so is there a market for a new site called Guide2Languedoc?
All these sites survive on advertising and, although Languedoc has the biggest concentration of English speaking ex-pats in France and is now the most visited region in France, is it a good time to bring another online service focused on this region to scratch for the advertising euros?
Taking on this project is a huge amount of work – the rental accommodation in our home, Villa Roquette, is (nearly) finished so I will have time.
What attracts me about the Guide2 websites is the plans they have to make their service a community and to give good relevant news and information.
I would welcome any comment and ideas from readers, your opinion is valuable to me and I hope to hear from you.
Now I have Stopped Working – Not
October 17, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
Now that I have stopped working (well almost) on the house, I am back to marketing and getting guests for our apartments and BandB. We first started this in our old home in Nizas 12 years ago and did all our marketing through the Internet – hopefully I can get back into the same flow as before, there is a lot more actiity on the internet now and the days of getting to the top of Alta Vista in a couple of hours are long gone – the tricks I used then would get me banned from Google for life. I am looking at what is on offer for help in Internet marketing, the rules and ruses seem top be the same, just follow the Google motto of ‘Do No Evil’ – a good website I found is http://www.nikkipilkington.com/about-us/ – Nikki looks good too! (plus she’s a biker)
Hopefully my 20 years experience of Internet marketing will get me started, but I will always look for good skills and help. I don’t have the strong websites I used to own, which got to the top of all French accommodation listings, but I will – Start All Over Again –
If you are thinking of coming to France – stay with us – I will try to make you an offer you cannot refuse.
Villa Roquette
A Bargain Property in the South of France
October 17, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
Would you like your own home in the South of France? It is a dream shared by most of the visitors I meet here and, after a quiet year with most of the world (according to the Daily Mail) hopping from one crisis to another, people are beginning to look for bargains for sale – there are a few still around.
For a while I was selling property in France, I worked with an excellent company which I thoroughly recommend if you are looking along the Riviera. However, I found the local agencies are, generally, a bunch of thieving rascals – there are a couple I would recommend in Languedoc, so if you are looking here then do contact me first. I am happy to give advice, but I cannot charge and get no commission as I am not registered as an agent now. You get my personal opinion from 20 years of experience, preferably over a glass of wine
Most visitors fall in love with old beams and stone houses – many of these homes in this region were built over three hundred years ago – our first home here was first recorded in the 10th century – and has been lived in continuously for over 1,000 years – our present home is a mixture of 17th and 19th century, so is very modern in comparison.
But old houses, although built to last with stone walls sometimes two yards thick, need a lot of work if you need to renovate – I know, I have spent a lot of the last fifteen years with a hammer, shovel and pick.
One very sweet house I sold a couple of years ago is back on the market – here are some photos, it (very rare) comes with a courtyard garden and a fig tree. It need a lot of work, but is not too big and a realistic project. The village is just perfect, a classic Mediterranean village in one of the most beautiful parts of France. Contact me and I will put you directly in touch with the owner, a charming American lady who rides a Ducati (very fast). The price, I understand, is around 50,000 euro.
Starting a Business in France
October 17, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
Carole and I are back into the maze of French paperwork to get our gites and chambre d’hotes registered as a business – a new system, Auto Entrepeneur, now exists and we found an excellent site run by a charming lady which helps you get a business sorted in France, aptly called http://www.startbusinessinfrance.com/ – as an added bonus her husband has a business selling curries by mail – we bought some and they are divine
I discovered that that the Via…
October 16, 2009 by Tony · Leave a Comment
I discovered that that the Via Domitia starts at Pertuis , and will always definitely finish at eight o’clock – with a French lecturer.
Shades of Spike Milligan
October 14, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
I remember a 1950s TV show by the “Goons” called “Son of Fred”, I think there was one also called “Fred” – it was the early days of advertising in the UK so the piss was taken out of goons programms by Milligan, Secombe, Bentine and Sellers – my favorite advert was for “Footo” the wonder boot exploder, where a boot was blown up. This blog entry is being added by “Blogo” – I just hope my blog does not now blow up.
A Plague Upon Their Houses
October 13, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
I had a mail from an associate asking about real-estate advertising websites and earning commissions – I have been deeply involved in this over the last ten years and have strong feelings about it.
In my blogs, I have been less than polite about realtors dealing in France, I have had some of these parasites threaten me with legal action – but I have also met a few, very few, (in fact one), gentleman I would recommend .
Here is a reply to an email today, it is at the end of a thread about realtors etc, but it has encouraged me to set out a little more clearly what I am trying to do – Vlad, if yo are reading this we must get this software sorted, if you don’t have time then Richard and Raj, please work with me to make this your next app !!
===
Hi Steve,
My feeling is that real-estate dealing, and all aspects of property sales in France, is, at present, a “commoditised” business and is only attracting a rats-in-a-cage scenario. People will always make money out of selling what is to be sold, but, for-me, this is a bad/dead business.
As all property in France has to be sold through a Notiare, the value of an immobilier is zero – they do not act as true brokers, they do not assist either the buyer or seller, their only interest is to get a mandat and/or get a bon de visite and ensure an immoral level of commission for nothing – a plague on all of them and away with the scoundrels.
What is needed is a true brokerage service (buy it and resell it) or a true marketing/sourcing service (act for the buyer/seller) which clearly sets out the service offered and charges a fair price for the work.
However, to be able to offer any sort of viable and useful service in this area in France, a universal listing facility is needed and the corrupt and disgusting cartels done away with. Dream on.
I am working (too slowly) on software to scrap the useless listings of myriads of agents and simply give a complete “mashup” of all properties listed from existing Internet sources – then use techniques to identify these properties and give information about the seller/owner/agent dealing with it.
So in simple terms, anyone looking in a specific area or for a particular property can see, in one search, all properties, in detail, with full contact information, everything on the Internet which is relevant – this will represent about 80 percent of the relevant search criteria and be many mny times more relevant, efficient and time saving than trawling through the thousands of uninformative agency sites and for iPhone or Facebook would cost a user a very small amount. This concept is an “app” costing from zero to perhaps 4 euro. There are over 500,000 target clients for this.
OK, that is my aim – I cannot see any viability in any “new” listing site, only heartache and wasted time – those early Internet days are nearly gone.
Fractional Ownership is mostly marketed for the “almost” rich people who want a slice of something they cannot really afford – interestingly, in my opinion, it does have a place and is a good product and I would like to find the right marketing angle for this.
Without a license or correct registration, any commission you get on a sale is discretionary – 10 percent is the usual for a non-registered person, you can only do this two or three times with impunity – as an agent commercial I would demand 50 percent of the commission, most gave me 60 to 75 percent of their commission.
Lots to talk about
