French Film The Artist wins at Golden Globes

The French Film, The Artist, has deservedly won a Golden Globe award ! The male lead, Jean Dujardin won the Best Actor Award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where the film premiered. The film was nominated for six Golden Globes, the most of any film from 2011, and won three, including Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy.

One of a few great French films from 2011, (others include Intouchables (The Untouchables) and The Well Digger's Daughter), The Artist is set in Hollywood between 1927 and 1932, just as the era of silent movies is ending.

The film is filmed entirely in black and white and largely without speech, this modern film made in the style of a silent movie with all the plot conveyed purely in facial expression and body language ! The two lead actors were unknown to me but they manage this wonderfully. The plot revolves around the male lead, a silent movie icon (played by Jean Dujardin) whose career is dwindling with the advent of the new talking films and the female lead  (Bérénice Bejo) who is an up and coming talking movie star. The film is romantic and a delight and I think it is one of 2011's  "must see" films !
The film is directed by Michel Hazanavicius and was released in UK cinemas with a PG rating on 20 November 2011 and the DVD has still to be released.


Have you seen it - did you enjoy it ?

Update - 20th February - After further success at the Baftas and Madrid film festivals, The Artist has been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars on 26th February : The Artist is nominated alongside The Descendants, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life, War Horse

Which ones have you seen - who do you think will win ? I have read "The Help" and enjoyed that although am reluctant to go to see the film as I enjoyed the book ..... And War Horse is a classic although I think I enjoyed the stage show more.

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The Le Mans 24 hr race

The Le Mans 24 Hour Race starts today, 11th June at 14.00 hrs and runs through to tomorrow at the same time. The race itself is on roads which are normally open to the public.

The cars are driven continuously through day and night by a rota of three drivers. The cars themselves actually cover more distance in the one race than a Formula 1 car does in its lifetime ! The cars can reach a speed down the straight of 20 mph faster than a Formula 1 car and yet are 40% more fuel efficient.

Watch out for Alan McNish, the Scottish driver who has won previously in 1998 and 2008.  He is driving for Team Audi and their main competitors are Team Porsche.

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When is the best time to Book your Summer Camping holiday ?

If you are planning to go on a Eurocamp or Keycamp holiday then you might wonder "When is the best time to book your holiday ?"

There are usually early booking offers and late booking offers, but the particular campsite you have chosen may get booked up quickly. So the question is when is the best time to book ? 

If you are going in High Season of July and August you will really need to plan ahead if you want to go a particular site.

I have just scanned the holidays which are still available at the start of March 2011 for this summer 2011. I have found pretty good availability even for the peak of the High Season at the start of August. Only the most popular sites have limited availability.

If you are going to a very popular site you may need to book early. For example La Garangeoire in the Southern Vendee and Les Deux Fontaines in Southern Brittany at the beginning of March already nearly booked up for certain weeks of July.
The good news though is that you can reserve holidays with Eurocamp and Keycamp for as little at £100. So if you have a fairly good idea of where you want to go on holiday why not reserve it early on and then as it gets nearer the time to pay in full, you can see if you can afford to go ahead with the holiday. In these Credit Crunch times with lack of job security this is a good idea.

Two years ago we holidayed at Les Deux Fontaines in Brittany and we get to the site in late June/early July and wondered how was it so difficult to book two weeks holiday when many of the mobile homes seemed to be empty. We discovered that this is because they were maybe booked out for a holiday that started towards the end of our stay. So a holidaymaker only overlapped with us by 2 days but that meant that that particular mobile home was unavailalbe for the particular 13 night stretch that we were looking for.  However, if you are willing to move mobile home half way through your holiday or even to change site then you may find there are still options available to let you holiday in the sites or area that you have chosen.

If you are feeling adventurous and want to try "real camping" then the good news is that the Eurocamp or Keycamp tents are often the last things to book up on a site. Mobile homes seem to be more popular.

If you would like some more information to help you plan your holiday, we now have 20 different campsites in France which you can read about on our website http://www.bestfrenchcampsites.com/.


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Monte Carlo Rallye 2011

On the chilly evening of 27th January 2011 around 70 cars with two drivers each set off on the Monte Carlo Rallye 2011 from Blytheswood Square in Glasgow on their 2,000 mile journey to Monte Carlo via the Alps ! The drivers had come from all over the world but included a number of UK teams and French teams.

The Rallye had returned to Glasgow as a starting stage after a break of about 30 years. There were other possible start stages such as Warsaw and Barcelona but Glasgow proved to be very popular with a good number of teams choosing to start from there.

Unfortunately I have not yet mastered using my camera in the dark so these were the best of my photographs. Some of the cars are setting out on the actual rally while some were joining in the heritage run to show some of the historic racing cars from the past.

The latest news is that Glasgow will again feature as a start town for the Monte Carlo Rallye in 2013 !

If this all puts you in the mood for a camping holiday in the Alps, Pyrenees or Provence then have a look at some great campsites at : http://www.bestfrenchcampsites.com/

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2 Great Christmas Present Ideas for Francophiles and Lovers of French Holidays !

Here are some great Calendars as Christmas present ideas for people who love France. There's the 365 Days in France Calendar 2011 which is a Picture-A-Day Wall Calendar with full colour photographs from all over France accompanied by some texts. And if you know someone who is interested in learning more about French language and culture then the French Daily Phrases & Culture Desk Calendar 2011 would be perfect with a whole year of different phrases, cultural comments and trivia for each day of the year !

             

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Tour de France Route 2011

Here is a nice video of the route of the Tour de France for 2011.
It starts at Ile de Noirmoutier then through Vendee and into Brittany so there is lots of action for us campers who like to camp in the North of France. We should be able to get to see this great spectacle of a race.

http://www.lemonde.fr/sport/video/2010/10/19/le-tour-de-france-en-3-minutes-40_1428401_3242.html

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Tour de France 2011

Why not plan your campsite this year so you can have a day watching the Tour de France ! We did this two years ago and thoroughly enjoyed the great carnival atmosphere surrounding it all. There is a parade beforehand -"the Caravane" which travels an hour ahead of the Tour and throws out various goodies to the crowds. All good fun. We nearly missed the actual cycltists in the end as they went whizzing past !

The tour this year starts in the Vendee on the Ile de Noirmoutier ! The cyclists will travel over the narrow causeway which should be a great spectacle. So why not camp this year in the Vendee or find out the route of the rest of the Tour !
http://www.letour.fr/2010/TDF/COURSE/us/grand_depart_2011.html#zone4

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September Sun Selection from Eurocamp

September holidays are becoming more popular for Eurocampers every year. It's a great time to get away. For exploring, excitement or escape, whatever your reason for getting away you'll find some great options in Eurocamp's September Sun Selection.

More details of this offer can be found here:

Link to Eurocamp

Don’t forget there are great savings to be made if you book your 2011 holiday or at least reserve it. You can make savings of up to 30% off next year’s holiday.

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Keycamp Celebrates 35th Birthday !

Keycamp are celebrating their 35th Birthday by allowing you to reserve your 2011 Holiday for only £35 !!

There may also be lots of last minute summer bargains as according to the Radio 4 news this morning holiday companies are reporting low bookings in Europe for this year.

Click here to book a last minute 2010 holiday or look at holidays with Keycamp for next year ! www.keycamp.co.uk

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