Daily Archives: March 24, 2008

Catering for the handicapped

Travelling through France must be a nightmare for many disabled travellers as the laws regarding public places still do not cater towards those who have special needs, you will find this particularly in places like hotels. Many of the older establishments have several flights of stairs and no lift at all, we have experienced this with just a baby in a pram so I’d hate to think what a wheelchair bound traveller would go through.

When we moved here we decided to cater as well as we could to those with a disability and designed a couple of rooms on the ground level that could be used specificall by those with a mobility problem; we even went as far as placing shower chairs in the bathrooms so that the simple act of having a wash could be done with ease. Our attention to these details has mean’t that a certain number of guests have been able to enjoy their stay in relative comfort. This makes a huge difference to the lives of many people who otherwise would find getting around on holiday more trouble than it needs to be.

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.

Post-Easter indigestion

How was your Easter then? sorry if I come across a bit negative but out of the two main Christian festivals a year, Easter and Christmas, Easter has got to be the one which has become the most overly commercialised. The chocolate eggs hit the shelves almost before the end of January whilst we are still paying off the bills from Xmas and if it wasn’t for the shops full of chocolate eggs I wonder if people would bother with it at all!

Easter nowadays seems to mean a long weekend break; everyone jumps into the car with the intention of spending several hours of hell on earth by sitting in massive traffic jams. All in the guise of going away for the weekend. The kids get fed more chocolate in one day than they would eat in a month meaning by midday their eyes are dilated like golf balls and they are bouncing off the walls and ceilings. The chocolate these days consists of 90% sugar meaning the kids will spend half the day on insulin overload and the rest of the day on the toilet.

Somewhere along the way we seem to be reminded somehow about a person called Jesus who lived a very long time ago and actually started the whole thing…but I reckon that the Easter we have now is not the one he intended!

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.

The joy of selling then the nightmare of moving

We have had our place on the market for a while now and are keeping our fingers crossed that this year is the year that see’s us upping sticks and leaving for newer pastures. We’ve been painting and plastering in readiness for the next wave of sightseers to arrive; well, that’s what many of us vendeurs call those folk who really are not looking to buy your place exactly because ‘they are just looking around at the moment’. Time wasters…

Anyway, I remember what it was like when we moved here and intend to completely hand over the task of moving the furniture, etc, to professionals when it is time to leave this place. Just looking around over the weekend at what we have accumulated over the past four years has left me with a feeling of utter dread. I can honestly say we will not be renting a small van like we did last time…we will be looking to employ a serious team in the style of a  New York movers company; a firm who know exactly what they are doing seeing as we will be shifting home across the sea.

Then again I do intend to hold a massive moving house sale before we go; the only trick will be sifting through some of the other half’s pile of stuff and selling it without him knowing…he is a serious horder!

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.