Author: Craig McGinty

IS your holiday home website getting the attention it deserves? If not it may be because it is suffering from some common mistakes, writes Bob Toovey.

For gite and holiday rental owners your website is your shop window and often is the only way a potential client can see what they are going to get.

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IT can come as a bit of a shock to see a hunter crossing your property with a gun slung over a shoulder and a pack of dogs in tow.

But there is a way to ensure your land is not used by la chasse and here environmentalist Chris Luck outlines the basic steps.

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INTASURE’S property insurance is designed for expatriate owners of property in France.

Their property insurance is designed specifically for expatriates living in France. It offers comprehensive cover underwritten by one of the world’s leading insurers, Norwich Union, that includes essential features such as cover during letting and protection when the property is unoccupied.

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AS the cost of oil and gas gets more expensive, the increased popularity of wood burning stoves and heating has seen a 23 per cent rise in their use in France.

Figures from ADEME, the energy ministry, show that in 2005 sales of wood burning stoves, fireplace inserts and boilers topped more than 430,000, in the previous year the figure was 348,000.

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WHEN Simon Longe suffered a serious car accident, and spent five years in a wheelchair, the decision to move his family to France was not as straightforward as that of others.

But having come from an agricultural background, and in particular farming rare breed pigs, the accident did not stop him from establishing a farm in France and a reputation as the person to talk to for all things pig.

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ONE hundred and fifty years ago homesteaders looking for a place to live in the Californian sun faced the same questions posed by a tough 2000-mile journey across America that confront today’s migrants to the sunspots of Europe, writes Simon Marshall.

The settlers could go DIY with their own wagons or hire wagons with or without the services of experienced wagon masters who knew the route and its dangers.

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FOR writer Heidi Fuller-love a move to France meant dealing with a troublesome 2CV, strange bathroom arrangements and non-existent heating in a draughty house.

But when her plans to open a gite with her French partner were met with indifference, ridicule and veiled threats, most people would have headed back home.

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