Operation escargot 30th June 2008

I've been hearing from French friends that a national Operation Escargot in France is planned for tomorrow the 30th of June and that driving in France is going to be a nightmare.
Plan your route carefully and be sure to take a GPS or set of maps to enable you to navigate via the back roads if the operation escargot does in fact occur tomorrow in France.
Don't forget to have your fluorescent jacket and warning triangle in your car for the 1st of July - it will be mandatory for driving in France!

The Fete de la Musique in France

Saturday 21st June is the Fete de la Musique - Which will ensure many people living in towns throughout Brittany and France as a whole will not be getting to sleep very early tonight.

The Fete de la Musique usually involves free concerts and music in towns throughout France. In Brittany my local town of Pontivy will have several bands and different types of music spread throughout the town center. It's a night where the police will not be telling bars and clubs to turn down their music!

Get out there and enjoy the closed streets and the families walking from band to band soaking up the atmosphere and meeting friends.

The Fete de la Musique only happens once a year in France!!!!! Doesn't happen at all in the UK :o

IMPORTANT DRIVING IN FRANCE NEWS!

As of the 1st of July 2008 you are required to carry not only a warning triangle in your car but also a fluorescent safety vest while driving in France. In fact the safety vest must be carried inside the car and not in the boot.

If you are involved in an accident or breakdown whilst driving in France, or assit someone in an accident or breakdown in France, you are required to wear your reflective saftey jacket.

Read the full driving in France article click here!

Brittany Forum France

I recently moved my Dotnetnuke website to a new dedicated server. Sadly the old forum Dotnetnuke module that I was running was not compatible with the more recent version of Dotnetnuke so I ditched it and went with the default forum software that ships with Dotnetnuke. The real pain is that all the old posts are lost, well not totally lost because I have a backup of the Dotnet nuke database but it's too much like hard work to sort all that out manually - so I've relaunched the Brittany Forum and it's started from zero. So anybody out there interested in BRittany France, Living in France etc. feel free to register with my site www.brittany-internet.com and post questions and information about Brittany and living in France.

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Jules

Childrens education and schooling in France

Here is an interesting article I just dug up about the French education system. Covers some topics where I was a little lost myself! Things like what the classes are called -very useful when talking to your French friends and neighbours and they ask which class your child will be in next year!!!! Don't look ignorant, go and read it now! Click Here

It also explains some of the differences between French Public Schools and French Private Schools, not just simply that Public Schools are free in France but the difference in the way they operate - makes interesting reading.

New Website - Stages Aquarelles - water colour painting courses in France.

Currently working on a website for a french water colour painter: Gérard Bastien.

Gerard Bastien is running watercolour painting courses in France, mainly in Brittany and he attends art exhibitions throughout France and sometimes the UK.

The french word for a watercolour is Aquarelles - a watercolour course is Stages Aquarelles.

Visit his website as it takes form at http://www.gerard-bastien.com/

Brittany Gites

It's been a long time since I've posted in here - will get some more posts in over the comming weeks! Promise!

Currently updating http://www.gites-brittany.com/ as well as creating tons of new websites for clients and an exciting collaboration on http://www.angloimmo.com/ a new French property website that will have distinct areas for Brittany and every region of France.

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Julian

Brittany Maps and Satellite Photos

OK so it's not news that you can find great Brittany Maps, maps of France or anywhere in the world with Google Earth. It's not even news that you can incorporate Google Earth Maps and images in to websites.

So what is news?
I've incorporated a database with Google Maps which generates a database driven list of all of the communes and towns in Brittany France to generate links to display Google Maps and satellite images at the click of a button.

Ok it's not that pretty at the moment but it works and it's usefull - next I'm going to make the same thing available to generate town and commune maps for every town and commune in France. I've already got this working but would like to make it more attractive and searchable.

Enjoy :)
Jules

Hi

Thanks for the feedback Roger!

I'm in the process of setting up a news/forum website...hopefully unlike the other forum sites that appear to become petty and bitchy. I'm currently running it off the back end of my web design website please take a look. http://www.brittany-internet.com/BrittanyNews/tabid/53/Default.aspx I've just posted a piece of news I picked up about the Gendarms yesterday.

Feel free to register and post stuff into the forums. I'm about to start letting people know it's there and getting people involved in the site. I aim to get some select users involved to submit news and to help mediate the forums.

One thing I'm considering is adding something warning Brits over here not to become too much like some of our er... 'ethnic cousins' in the UK. It appears that lots of Brits are setting up their own clubs and are making very little effort to integrate with the French or learn the language.....If this continues we will be looked upon just like the Hindi speaking members of British society :( in our own Brit communities etc..... What do you think?

Jules