Eiffel Eyeful

January 4, 2010 by tony · Leave a Comment 

Photo by Brian Tibbets, (www.tibbets.
Image via Wikipedia

I thought I had written about this before. When you are in Paris you can book your ticket for the Eiffel Tower online and print it out. This official service is at Tour-Eiffel.fr

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Beziers the Gateway to the South of France

December 30, 2009 by tony · 1 Comment 

Our home in the village of Montblanc is between the towns of Beziers and Pezenas. We are a few minutes from the Mediterranean, and are now the focus of a communications network of airports, motorways and high speed rail connection – yet we nestle in a calm and tranquil river valley which has not changed for centuries.

Millau Bridge
Image by tibchris via Flickr

I am busy sorting out the marketing for our Apartments and Bed and Breakfast accommodation in our home and
we are offering some great deals and discounts for 2010 in our January Sale.

These are exciting times, the new Motorway from Paris, the A75, a

rrives a few kilometers from us. You cross the highest viaduct in the world, often above the clouds, at Millau.

For centuries, over 800 years, after the crusade against the Cathars, Languedoc was a forgotten backwater, lost in time. The combination of sun, soil and steam-trains in the 19th century brought enormous wealth to this quiet paradise, but not many visitors. The Internet has changed this – in under 20 years, Languedoc has become not only the most desirable place to live in France, but the wines, once considered a vast lake of  cheap plonk, are now rated as some of the best in the world. The sun shines longer in Languedoc and communications are the best in France with the best road, rail and air connections in France.

 

A high-speed double-decker TGV train in Toulon
Image via Wikipedia

 

At the center of Languedoc is the city of Beziers. An ancient Roman town which still has bullfights in the arena each year. Famous for the birthplace of the Canal du Midi, a World heritage Site and also for the massacre of thousands in the crusades against the Cathars in the 14th century.

Beziers is coming back to life with a new airport and new ideas to show the world how Languedoc became the cradle of Western Civilisation in the age of the courts of love of the troubadours.

A new website from Beziers begins to show the return of this cradle of enlightenment.

 

The Canal du Midi, approaching the round lock ...
Image via Wikipedia

 

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Bonjour Paris

September 27, 2009 by tony · 1 Comment 

A very good newsletter and valuable website for anyone thinking of visiting or living in Paris is . Karen Fawcett puts a lot of love and effort into these friendly and helpful pages

Enjoy Your Paris

September 27, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment 

Another service I found on my Facebook wall is EnjoYourParis – like TripBod , this gives you a person to person experience on your travels.EnjoYourParis takes this a stage further and gives you (the possibility of) an instant social life with contacts and opportunities to discover people with similar interests.

I don’t suppose I will ever meet more than a tiny fraction of my Facebook ‘friends’ – if I did write to some of the more interesting sounding people on my wall, I assume that they would assume, at best, that I am a sad and sorry specimen (no comments necessary) – but the team atEnjoYourParis seem genuinely welcoming and offer a friendly service – I may even contact some of them when I am next in Paris

From Paris to Languedoc

September 16, 2008 by tony · 3 Comments 

It is nearly three months since I last posted on this blog – I went to Paris to work on a new project and changed not only my home address for a while, but seemingly my whole lifestyle – blogging and photography went out of the window and the noise and scrumbles of city life took over.

I will be writing about my bizarre experiences dealing with Parisian business, but not until I can put some distance, thought and balance into the perspective.

Needless to say I am much much happier in the South of France, not only because I am with my family, but just about everything is better, food, weather, space, the countryside and friendly people – like most cities, Paris is great to visit and even better to leave.

OK, so this is a short note – but it is the first time I have felt like writing in a dozen weeks.

Paris is Planning for the Future

June 8, 2008 by Tony · Leave a Comment 

A recent article in the Telegraph by Henry Samuel, announced Sarkozy’s ambition for a new Paris – President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has tasked a group of top architects, including Britain’s Richard Rogers, to dream up a Grand Paris to rival Greater London that could stretch as far as the Channel – Read the Full Article.

I find this very interesting and exciting – Paris is forced to be a small city, the peripherique is a beltway containing the posh and touristy bits inside and much of the real world outside. Public transport is absolutely brilliant inside the peripherique but poor to non-existent outside.

Over the next few months I am going to be spending a lot of time in Paris on some new projects, so the opportunities simply thinking and planning an initiative like this open up are perhaps those which come only rarely in a lifetime – watch this space.