Foreign Perspectives

No matter where you live in the world, you’re pretty much sure to have at least some tourists coming to see things which you pass by every day.

We were just the same in Northern Ireland. In the three or four months before we left, we made a point of visiting as many of the tourist sites that we’d not gotten around to in the preceeding decades and I’m sure the majority of you are the same.

Over here, we’re just as bad. That’s a photo of Querbus Castle which we can see every day we go out the door yet we’ve not once been to see it up close!

So, when the holidays are over for you, why not allocate a few weekends over the coming year to go out and visit the tourist attractions that are on your doorstep? I’m sure you’ll be quite surprised to see just how many there are when you call in at the local tourist office!

We’ve just received the bill for the health insurance for the coming year…. EUR 10,047!!

Yes, ten thousand euros.

As with all French administrative organisations, the health insurance people take an incredibly optimistic view of the income that a business is receiving when they make their estimates. Start-up business are assumed to make tens of thousands of euros even after all their start-up expenses have been taken into account.

By year three we are apparently supposed to be making around EUR 155,000 before expenses are deducted, hence the somewhat ridiculous figure of EUR 10,000 that they want us to pay at this point.

Why the estimate though? Well, our accountant still hasn’t gotten around to doing the books for 2005 and recently announced that they need more information for 2006 despite assuring us nearly six months ago that they definitely had everything that was required.

Now that we’re into the lull in bookings characteristic of weeks 2 & 3 of September every year, we’re resuming our weekend daytrips aimed at seeing the region properly and adding to our stock of photos for the guide.

Why the lull? Well, the French stop taking their holidays at the end of the third week of August more or less en mass which gives us a drop in bookings in the fourth week. That changes dramatically in the first week of September when Visa pour l’Image (the photojournalism festival) is on in Perpignan as it pulls in vast numbers of both tourists and photojournalists from around the world. For the 2nd and 3rd week of September most of the hotels around the beaches are still open but there aren’t so many tourists about so occupancy drops. By the end of the 3rd week they’ve pretty much all closed but the number of tourists hasn’t dropped much so we usually get a fair jump in bookings from then.

But what about the daytrips? Well, yesterday we were off to see Lastours which is a Cathar castle that you rarely hear about. It’s quite unique too as it’s the only one where construction was started by the Cathars and finished by the French (three of the four towers are Cathar). Along the way we managed to call in at Aquilar (the smallest of the Cathar castles), the abbey of Lagrasse and even Carcassonne not to mention fitting in a brief stop along the Canal du Midi. Quite a full day for sure but one which has let me add articles on Carcassonne and the Canal du Midi to Whole Earth Guide this morning.

We’re hoping to get to the other end of the Languedoc in the coming week to see the Pont du Gard, Aigues Mort and one or two other things around the Nimes area.

If you’re a blogger you certainly should because growing numbers of your colleagues are in jail in China.

Have you ever called for the government to change? That’s what Guo Qizhen did and he’s been in jail for the last year because of it with no real prospect of release before the Olympics are over.

Many bloggers will have their little rant now and again about something annoying that their government has gotten up to. That’s OK in a democratic society but try it somewhere like China and you can easily end up in jail.

Run a political blog? Not an option in China unless it’s one that consistently supports the government.

So, if you value freedom of expression, make a point of saying so now and again.

As we move out of the Summer, the number of opportunities available on the pay per post sites is increasing quite rapidly as indeed is the range to choose from.

Surprisingly, included among this increased number is a large number of tourist/travel related ones which is perfect for me as they’re by far the easiest ones to write and they fit well into the overall theme of this blog too. However, it gets better because a number of them are in areas which I’m developing for our Whole Earth Guide ie people are paying me to write stuff that I’d be writing anyway!

What would be really nice is if I could get some of these folk paying for individual posts to sponsor the guide but perhaps that’ll come in due course. After all, I’ve only just started the first phase of promotion for the guide.