Pont-du-Gard, Provence

News & Features

"Breakfast for two please" An elderly retainer wheels a packed breakfast trolley towards the presidential suite after Nicolas Sarkozy’s first night in the Elysée Palace on 17 May. He taps discreetly on the door and it is opened not by the new President but by Ségolène Royal, wearing a translucent Chanel nightgown that leaves nothing to the imagination. Find out more >>

Fabre Museum spreads its wings Closed for two years, and undergoing renovation for the last four, the Fabre Museum in Montpellier has finally reopened to the delight of art enthusiasts everywhere. Almost 63 million Euros have been spent, doubling its size to 9,200 square metres, and enabling 800 works of art, half its entire collection, to be on permanent display.   Find out more >>

Boost for Bergerac Air connections to the Dordogne continue to improve, with Manchester, from 3 May, and Gatwick, from 12 May, the latest airports to offer connections to Bergerac. Find out more >>

£1 crossing on the way out When 140,000 Britons bought shares in Eurotunnel back in 1986, long before the tunnel was operational, they did so predominantly because of the privileges offered to shareholders. Most of them were allowed to cross in either direction as frequently as they wished for £1 a journey.  Find out more >>

How Errol Flynn almost went to the Cannes Film Festival In 1939 the French Minister for the Arts, Jean Zay, proposed to start an international film event at Cannes. The war intervened however and that September, when Zay should have been in Cannes opening the festival, he was instead on his way to the front. Find out more >>

577 Not Out Each May the good burghers of Orléans celebrate the city’s delivery from a long siege in 1429 with the help of Joan of Arc by means of a festival that has already taken place on 577 previous occasions, surely itself a record. Find out more >>

Anti babynap bracelet Private hospitals in France are considering whether to fix an electronic bracelet to the ankle of newly born babies, to alert to a possible kidnapping. The bracelet would be programmed to sound an alarm if the baby were taken out of the maternity unit. Find out more >>

You could save up to 12.5% in 2007

If you* have travelled with us since 2004 you are entitled to the following financial benefits:

• A reduction of 5% on your 2007 booking
• Plus another 2.5% if your first 2007 booking does not include
  the period between 30 June and 1 September 2007
• A 5% reduction will apply as well to a second booking taken in any one season 
  
      * You qualify if you were a member of a party, not necessarily the person who booked
  
  Reductions apply to the villa portion only of the holiday 
  Reductions do not apply to bookings made via Travel Agents
  
  More offers for our Villa Club members >>