Free flights to France

I have another upcoming trip to France thanks to Ryanair who were giving out free flights recently to all kinds of places in Europe. It then occurred to me that a lot of independent or budget travellers who live outside of the UK may not be aware of these occasional offers by the cheap airlines. It could be worth putting your name on their mailing list if you are planning a tour around Europe, as it may be cheaper to fly to the UK and connect with another flight to France or elsewhere in Europe.

Anyway, back to Ryanair. I still had to pay for checking in baggage - well I do need a change of clothes if staying for a week, but a lot of people don't take any if they have second homes out there - and I had to pay a fee for paying with a card online (not much choice there) although travel insurance was optional. So my 'free' flight ended up costing £32.02 but a bargain return flight nevertheless:
Total return fare: 2p
Taxes: nil
Passenger fee for baggage: £16.00
Passenger fee for airport Check in: £8.00
Debit card fee: £8.00

Don't forget it is half that amount if travelling one way.

I decided to book a flight to Montpellier in the south of France as I never got around to seeing it last time, but will take the train to other places during that week. The hostel there had been fully booked last February, as the girl I was sharing a room with in Carcassonne told me she couldn't get a booking there when she was travelling to all these places from Nice.

So I was surprised at how easy it was to book the first 2 nights in the youth hostel for October 14, but maybe that's because I'm giving them 2 weeks notice. You pay a ridiculously small deposit online to reserve your room, but be warned that they will charge your credit card if you don't turn up or if you cancel without giving sufficient notice. I didn't want to book more than the first 2 days mainly because if I need to get out then I can book another hostel (or cheap hotel) in another town.
Most hostels will sort out your next hostel booking for you free of charge once you are there.

Ryanair has a very low baggage allowance (15kg) unlike Easyjet. I have now bought some scales so I don't accidentally go over my limit as I had to pay quite a lot excess baggage fee when I returned from France last time I flew with them. I wasn't told when flying from London that I was over my limit, and had bought nothing to really add to that when when coming back. They get you on the return journey, but it is good practice for me to travel lighter although I'd only packed 2 weeks worth of clothes last time I flew with them. Also, any containers that are capable of holding more than 100ml of liquid (even if clearly empty, as in my case) will be confiscated. I'm still annoyed with them for throwing away my vintage perfume bottles - put anything like that in your case rather than hand luggage. I only took mine out as I was over my baggage limit and that was the only thing I'd bought myself that was extra to what I flew in with.

Ryanair has flights from all over the UK, not just from London. The London ones are actually from Stansted airport, which is about 40 miles from central London.
To get there by train by the Stansted Express from London (Liverpool Street station) takes about 45 minutes. Single fare costs about £17.00 with an open return costing £24.00 (if returning within 30 days).

Getting to Stansted by bus or coach, I always use Terravision which leaves from behind Victoria station (as it's just down the road from where I live). It takes around 75 minutes (subject to traffic conditions) and costs £9.00 one way or £14.00 return. You can buy them in advance from the little shop near where the Greenline buses depart in the shopping mall, or you can buy before you board. If you reserve a seat you have to say which time bus you are getting.

Flight changes (subject to seat availability) for Ryanair can be made up to 4 hours prior to the scheduled flight departure time either online or via a reservation centre (subject to opening hours). If booked online the rate of £28/€35 per one way flight/per person applies or if booked at an airport or reservation centre the rate of £44/€55 per one way flight /per person applies.

Thoughts on France

I keep telling myself I "should" be out there looking for properties right now (or locations at least) but somehow "should" isn't part of my vocabulary, and quite honestly I don't feel like going anywhere just yet.

From what I've heard around the blogs it sounds as though they are having freak weather there too, so perhaps it's just as well I'm feeling lazy. A bigger concern has come my way, namely that I would be better off starting an online business here in the UK first, before permanently re-locating. Moving to France without an income, or at least with some trading figures to show the French authorities for "permission" to do what I want on a self-employed basis in France, was starting to feel a bit precipitous. Living off my savings account is eroding my capital and I'm also wondering whether plunging headlong into the remote countryside, coming straight from a large city with everything nearby that I need, wouldn't be a touch foolish at first, even for me, especially as I don't drive.

So yet another decision has been made which feels right for now. After realising that I get culture shock when the shops are closed two days a week (Sun/Mon) in France, and that the energies in France feel too economically stagnant to get any business off the ground, and the fact that I need to take driving lessons in order to live in the countryside, would be to take it all in stages.

It is so much easier and less expensive to launch a business from here in the UK. It's not what I originally planned to do, but I need to trust my gut feelings.
I also don't intend to be one of the 50% or more Brits who end up returning to the UK because they hadn't thought enough about how they would maintain themselves financially in France, and even though I'd planned to let out a couple of spare rooms to holiday-makers during the high season, that really is only a supplement rather than an annual income. I love trading online and I know I can have a website wherever I live, and for those first couple of years I wish to devote as much time to establishing a business before transferring it elsewhere and having to deal with even more projects to sort out once I get there. One step at a time.

Also, I honestly don't feel that I could take on alone all the things I'd planned and wanted to do, without some kind of help from others. Even trying to get a team behind me in France by posting on the French messageboard shared by those of the same affiliation of teachers didn't bring forth any enthusiasm or offers of help, just mild curiosity. France feels too laid back to get anything done, even a driver to drive me around which I would have paid for seemed like asking for the impossible. I'm not blaming them or anyone, and I know from experience that if something is starting to feel like a struggle, then there is a better way. Right now I just want to take the easiest and less stressful route, regain my full health, and attend to my own immediate needs first.

So the urgency for finding a French house asap has dwindled and now the focus is on starting an online business first and moving out of my London flat to a larger place somewhere in the UK. It is just for the first couple of years, and I can then view property in France at a more leisurely pace as it takes the pressure off of my need to vacate my present apartment. It is too noisy here as there are building works going on all around me, I have no room to store anything, and I yearn for a garden. House prices here are falling fast so I may even pick up a bargain as it's a buyers market at the moment. Now I feel I'm doing the location search all over again, only this time in southern England.

5. Toulouse and River Garonne

Although when I first arrived from Toulouse airport I had no desire to stay overnight in Toulouse, I was actually looking forward to going back to a bigger town again as I was starting to feel a bit claustrophic in Carcassonne, having gone in all the shops more than once and not having a car to see other nearby places such as Rennes-le-Chateau, which is unreachable without a car. With blue skies and sunny for February, the temperature in Toulouse took a nosedive during my last couple of days and I just couldn't get warm even when wearing my thermal vest. The rain was very heavy too on one day, so I stayed in my hotel room for half a day watching CNN News, which was nearly all about the upcoming presidential elections in the US. Was glad to get outside once the rain eased off - it rains heavy here when it does fall - and didn't stay out in the evenings because of sub-zero temperatures, or so it seemed. Would just make a dash for the nearest Chinese take-away to have dinner in my hotel room and watch films dubbed in French.

Not as many sights to see in Toulouse apart from the Capitole building and an old church, but by that stage I felt more than ready to return home for a while, so there was probably much more I could have seen if I'd been in the mood for museums and galleries. For future trips to France I think I shall just go out there a week max at a time - that way I stay fresh and enthusiastic. I did enjoy looking around some of the secondhand book shops though, and some of them had a Spanish theme as Toulouse in not far from the Spanish border.

Interior of the Capitole building

Because of the cold, I would often go into a cafe or restaurant just to warm up again, although you have to sit outside if you want to smoke. This is a photo of one of the cafes I went in.




This is what Time Out says about Toulouse:

Toulouse, dubbed ‘Ville Rose’ because of its pink buildings, sits astride the Garonne river and the historic Canal du Midi, midway between the Med and the Atlantic. The heart of the town is the vast, arcaded place du Capitole, where the impressive, grandiose Capitole building forms the seat of local government. It is worth popping in, if only to see the floor-to-ceiling 19th-century paintings, including Henri Martin’s elaborate depiction of Toulousain life at the time. Inside, the Théâtre du Capitole has recently reopened following extensive refurbishment, which has brought the opulent gilt mouldings and painted cartouches back to their former glory.

Turn up rue du Taur to see the city’s finest building, the Basilique St-Sernin, built over the course of three centuries. Romanesque, with a wedding-cake spire, it was once a stop for pilgrims and so over time it accumulated an array of holy relics, most of which are on display.

South-west of the basilica is medieval Toulouse, which is dotted with a rich assortment of historic churches, including the Gothic Les Jacobins on rue Lakanal, where the Dominican order was founded, and the Notre-Dame-de-la-Daurade, a hotchpotch of styles presided over by a black Madonna.

That last sentence surprised me - you mean I could have seen a black Madonna after all? Oh well, next time. My room-mates at the hostel in Carcassonne didn't know what I was talking about when I was referring to wanting to see a black Madonna. At first they thought I meant the Mona Lisa, and then afterwards kept thinking about the singer Madonna.

On my last day (Wed) I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was market day in the square outside the Capitole building, with stalls selling all kind of goods including books and clothes.

I like it when I find a quirky corner of town like this Grecian monument or fountain or whatever it was - it looked purely decorative - and on the opposite side a Father Christmas decoration was still hanging outside a shop in late February.

I would have stayed in the Youth Hostel in Toulouse if it wasn't for the fact that it had been closed due to a fire. There are plenty of hotels to choose from in the area around the train station, and also down the side street immediately opposite the station. I can't imagine needing to book in advance unless you come in high season as there isn't exactly a shortage of hotel accommodation. There is also a metro here but I never used it, as I prefer to walk. As it was either cold or raining, I didn't take too many outdoor photos and concentrated more on some last minute clothes shopping before flying back to London. An airport shuttle bus takes you back to Toulouse airport from the bus station, which is to the right of the train station as you come out.


For gift ideas, one of the products that Toulouse is famous for is violets, and there are various gift shops selling violet sweets, soaps, lotions, perfumes, candles, chocolates, teas and anything else to do with violets.
Crystallised violets are real violet flowers coated with sugar.
You can order violet products online directly from Toulouse in France (site is in English) at Regals.

Toulouse also holds a Festival of Violet in February, so I must have just missed it.