Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

This is one of the busiest weeks of the year for French tourism. Not just the French either as a number of countries in Europe have chosen this particular week to have a major public holiday.

Anyway, net effect of that is that just about all accommodation in France is full this week and has been for several weeks if not months. That, of course, doesn’t stop the last minute people trying to get somewhere to stay and, if they’re determined, most people will manage to find somewhere. So, the morning was filled with phone calls from increasingly desperate French who, for a change, rarely quibble about the price or even whether the room is ensuite or not. Usually you get people phoning to ask for particular dates but by now they’re not picky and will take more or less whatever is available: more “what have you got, we’ll take it” than “we want X”.

To top it all, we’re down a few rooms at the moment as we were getting air-conditioning installed in one room today and are upgrading two others. Still, they’ll be in good time for next year.

Unfortunately, the large number of people trying to book “something” leads to some days with a lot of over-nighters. We’ve been quite lucky this week with almost everyone staying a few days and one family just about half-way into a two week stay but tomorrow just about everyone is leaving so it will be all hands on deck.

We’ve three separate rooms booked for people coming from the UK who’ve not cancelled yet but with all the security hassles on today I’m not sure if any of them will manage to make it. As you’ll gather from the above, we’d have no problem rebooking the rooms even at this point but since all three are guaranteed reservations we need to hold them which means a “no-show” charge if they aren’t able to make it here tomorrow as all three have already passed the free cancellation period.

Arnold

If you were thinking of going somewhere for a dirty weekend, where would it be?

The French are, of course, totally open about such things and commonly arrive at their accommodation with their mistress for an afternoon and leave the pillows in “interesting” positions.

In France, your first thought would probably be Paris and who am I to argue if you’re thinking romantic night-time cruises on the Seine? However, for an actual dirty weekend, Mas Camps near Perpignan seems to be gradually moving up in the stakes. Already it’s been referred to in Cosmopolitan by one couple who stayed a whole week and didn’t leave the room.

Anyway, for your next dirty weekend, why not try Mas Camps. Simple direct flights from London Stansted, Birmingham, Southhampton and Manchester with a pickup service taking you straight to your room.

Arnold

We made it to the bull run in Millas, or rather the bull stroll. The large scale fencing to keep the tourists safe seemed way out of proportion to the danger involved in this very tame version of Pamploma.

Today is the last of the Millas fair with the celebrations running well into the night, although at a fairly sedate pace in comparison to the equivalent events in Spain. I guess the French have been suppressing the Catalan culture for so long now that everything has declined in comparison to the original Spanish version.

Being the last day, the crowds had grown considerably from yesterday, mainly I suspect people wanting to see the bull running and the bullfight that follows a few hours later.

One odd feature of Millas is the fountain just off the main square. The locals believe that it has magical powers to cure and therefore you see a continual stream of people stopping by with anything from a small bottle to a van load of crates of bottles to fill up from the fountain. Don’t know about the magical powers but the water tastes nice and is cool even on the hottest day.

Must head on… it’ll be a busy day tomorrow as we’ve yet another almost complete changeover of rooms to do not to mention having to take the resulting mountain of sheets off to the laundry, install a new toilet (more on that soon) and the usual assortment of daily tasks.

Arnold

We’re just back from our first proper holiday since we took over running Mas Camps in April 2004. It was strange to actually close up for the first time as we’ve been open non-stop since the day we arrived. Not that it made much difference in the takings as the riots in France seem to have put just about everyone off coming here this year: a year ago when we booked the holiday we thought that we’d have been losing quite a lot of guests by being closed in March/April but in reality it was probably only one or two at best.

Still, Easter is just around the corner and we are rapidly filling up with Spanish guests as usual. Not quite full yet, but there’s still another week of booking time to go.

Following the week in Turkey, we spent a few days in Amsterdam which is a bit of a nightmare in a car but a very walkable city with lots to see. This time (our first proper visit) we just strolled around the canals and visited Anne Frank’s house so we’ve a lot to see next time.

Next stop was the first World War battlefield memorials around the Somme in northern France. The memorials are much larger than I’d expected them to be.

We’d hoped to spend some time in Rouen but the riots forced a change in plans and we ended up in a lovely little hotel in Evreux instead. This time of year, most chain hotels in France are full so it forces an exploration of the smaller hotels around the countryside which generally turns up a charming, and cheaper, alternative to the standardisation of the likes of IBIS.

We’ve been here over two years now and have been meaning to take a trip on the Train Jaune (Yellow Train) for most of that time. Well, yesterday we finally got around to it.

The first half of the trip to Latour de Carol is, as you’d expect, through the mountain passes of the Pyrenees but after that it levels out into more normal scenery and finishes the run in the very disappointing Latour train station. In years gone by this must have been a major terminus when you look at the sheer size of the station but there’s little to show for all that past glory now so most people seem to take the first train back.

The whole route is very popular with hikers and the train needed to stop at almost all of the courtesy stops on the return journey to pick up parties of walkers.

The train has the ubiquitous open-top carriage but it doesn’t seem overly practical to me as three hours out in the sunshine of southern France adds up to a serious case of sunburn. To get the typical photos of the train crossing aqueducts etc. you need to be in either the first carriage or the last one. The “standard” photo of it is taken from the roadside between Villefranche and the first stop at Olette.

Although most people seem to take the train from the “start” of the line in Villefranche, a much better day-trip would be to start from Latour de Carol instead as Villefranche seems to be the only stop on the line where there is a lively and interesting town just beside the train station.

You can only book the train on the day which at least gives a reasonable chance of getting on the trip if you arrive early enough. It’s 32‚€ for the trip.

Our next adventure will be to take the Red Train though it doesn’t seem to be as interesting as there are none of the mountain gorges to pass through and besides you can drive along the entire route.

This is part of our guide to the Pyrenees.