frogsider blogs

After the news that P&O are soon to be challenged on the Dover-Calais route by two other ferry companies, it is hardly surprising that they would come up with what is known in the media as a “spoiler”.

Having had only SeaFrance with their unreliable timetable, ill-maintained ships and appalling customer service,  as competitors for the last few years, P&O now faces some eager new challengers on the Dover-Calais route.  Not surprisingly they are responding with a pre-emptive “Special Offer” in an attempt to to retain as much of their market share as possible during the new lines’ start-up period.

The limited duration P&O offer comes into effect from today, coinciding with the launch of their brand new ship the Spirit of France (commencing service on 9 February), which joins her spectacular sister ship Spirit of Britain.

TRAVEL ON SPIRIT OF FRANCE OR SPIRIT OF BRITAIN
BOOK BY 14 FEBRUARY, TRAVEL BY 13TH DECEMBER (T’s and C’s Apply)
The offer is available online from 10am today and is only available to book for a short time, so make sure you don’t miss out on a great opportunity.

Subject to restricted space, sailings and dates. Price shown is only valid for travel on the Spirit of France or the Spirit of Britain. Book by the 14th February with all travel to be completed by the 13th December. Price shown includes £2.50 web discount. P&O Ferries reserve the right to withdraw or amend the offer at any time without notice.   From £39/47 euros each way for peak periods: 30th March – 15th April 2012, 1st June – 10th June 2012, 20th July – 2nd September 2012.

France's Nuclear Power Stations

Yesterday, Tuesday 7 February, with most of France at freezing or below freezing temperatures, a record was broken. France consumed more electrical enrgy than ever before in a single day.

At 19h00 on Tuesday consumption was at a record 100500MW.  It would have been more, but in several areas the distribution system was unable to cope with demand and thousands of homes were without power.

Although it is well-known that France generates most of its electricity in nuclear power stations, at the peak of Monday’s demand these non-polluting generating plants could only supply 60% of the total needed. Hydro-electric and tidal plants contributed a further 13%.  All France’s remaining fossil fuel (coal, gas) fired power stations were incapable of supplying more than an additional 5%, while spewing noxious particulates and toxic gases into the atmosphere as a by-product.

Wind powered generators managed a pathetic 2% of the total demand.

France had to import the balance, to meet its internal energy needs, from its neighbours, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Britain.

When France goes to the polls in a couple of months time, the Socialist Party will be campaigning on a promise to close down France’s nuclear stations. Instead of planning to build new reactors for limitless, clean, cheap, nuclear generated power they favour windmills to replace the nuclear generating capacity.

It’s not hard to forecast what will happen if they put this misguided, crackpot, flowers-in-your-hair, open-toe sandal, long-haired hippie policy into effect.

Vote Socialist and freeze to death in your own home!

Frogsiders has received news from DFDS, the owners of the successful and popular former Norfolk Line ferry service, that they are to start a new Dover-Calais Ferry Service in association with LD Lines, starting on February 17, 2012 .

We are delighted to announce that a DFDS Seaways and LD Lines joint initiative will launch a new Dover-Calais ferry service, starting 17 February this year.

Together with our thriving Dover-Dunkirk operation and now, LD Lines’ Newhaven-Dieppe and Portsmouth-Le Havre routes, we are able to offer an unrivaled choice of ferry routes to France.

We look forward to welcoming you onboard during 2012!

***SPECIAL OFFER!***

To celebrate the launch of our Dover-Calais route, we have released another fantastic special offer.

LOW SEASON – Car plus 4, £29 each way

HIGH SEASON – Car plus 4, £39 each way

CLICK HERE! To find out more about the DFDS Dover-Calais Launch Offer click here, then follow the Dover Calais Special Offer link

If you enjoy singing there’s a choir in Boulogne that would like to hear from you. This e-mail message has been passed on to Frogsiders from The Anglican Church in the Pas De Calais.

Hello.

I am conductor of LYRIADE 62 in Boulogne and we are recruiting new
members for 2012. We are just about to launch into a project on André
Campra’s Requiem and would like to invite any singers who may be interested to join us Tuesday evenings 8pm at Boulogne Conservatoire.

The choir is currently 40 strong and of good quality and an informal audition of 10 mins is asked of new members. Possibility of a visit to Southend next year to sing with the Southend Choral Society.

TENORS PARTICULARLY WELCOMED!! (same problem here as in UK)

Thanking you.
Faithfully,

Ian Ward.

ps – I also conduct a choir in Hesdin so this might be of interest to your
congregation there as well.

To be put in touch with Mr Ward please contact Frogsiders via our Contact Form, and we’ll reply with his contact details.

Even if you reject the hysterical claims that burning fossil fuels for our energy needs will inevitably and imminently cause sudden catastrophic climate change, it makes a great deal of sense to consider the advantages of modifying your own behaviour. Now that energy costs have become the second largest item in most family budgets, the first and best reason to use a lot less energy is to save money that you could enjoy using in some other more pleasurable, but still economically useful way. By “economically useful”, I mean spending it on things that you will enjoy and that will help to keep the wheels of industry turning, which means almost any activity except tucking your savings away under the mattress, or burying gold bars in your garden.

If you drive a car or heat your home with oil or gas, you will be aware that the cost of  petroleum products only ever goes up. Nothing now seems to halt the rise in price of oil, so dependant have we become on it. Even global recession seems to have no effect on bringing the price significantly down. That’s because oil and gas production is in the hands of a few enormously rich individuals and organisations, and they can afford to simply turn off the tap when there’s any suggestion that an excess of supply over demand might lead to lower prices. You can’t really blame them for this. It makes perfect economic sense for the owner of a scarce and finite commodity to maintain a high price by limiting supply. After all, when the day comes that it’s all gone, they’re going to have to work for a living, or hope that the investments they’ve made with their oil fortunes will sustain them. In the meantime, by buying Ferraris, huge yachts, gold bath taps, and football clubs, and by building palaces and golf courses in the desert, they are at least helping to keep a lot of other people in employment.

How a Passive House works. (Passiv Haus Institute, Germany)

In France, the government, like others in Europe, is anxious to be seen to be making efforts to keep to their Kyoto Convention commitments, even if the cost to consumers and taxpayers is out of all proportion to any small and meaningless reduction in CO2 gas emissions. Starting from 2013, therefore, all new houses built here will be required to conform with the “Batiment Basse Consommation” (BBC) standard. This calls for buildings that are sufficiently well insulated to require no more than 50 kWh per square metre a year (kWh/(m2a) to heat.

However, if you are considering building a new home, you might be well-advised to think about going for the more stringent German “Passivhaus” (Passive House) standard, which calls for much lower heating energy needs – less than 15kWh/(m2a). The standard has been named “Passive House” because the passive heat inputs delivered externally by solar irradiation through the windows and provided internally by the heat emissions of appliances and occupants, suffice to keep the building at comfortable indoor temperatures throughout the heating period. In other words no heating bills at all. The Passivhaus standard is so energy efficient that houses built to it in Germany, Holland and Scandinavia are usually completed without any conventional heating system.

A Passive House by Hanse Haus, Germany

France intends to catch up with the Germans, though. From 2020 French law will require newly-built homes to comply with the French BEPOS standard – homes that deliver positive energy. In other words, houses that are so bristling with solar panels and wind generators, that they can generate more energy than they use.

Be warned! The technical equipment to meet the BEPOS standard is likely to be expensive to install and complicated and costly to maintain. So, if you are considering selling up at some time in the foreseeable future and building a new home, you should think about building to the Passive House standard, and doing it before 2020, when the Kyoto-inspred building legislation becomes energy positive – or positively barmy, depending on your point of view.

Wambrechies Whisky

by Ian Blackshaw

I have written about English ‘Champagne’, but never imagined that I would write about French Whisky! But, there you are, life is full of surprises!

I was introduced to the French version of the famous amber spirit last Saturday evening when we were invited to aperitifs by some French friends of ours. Our host is an aficionado of Scotch, so I was surprised to see that he produced a bottle of French Whisky! I was completely unaware that such a drink exists, but, then, one learns something new every day!

As readers of my wine articles will recall, generally speaking, I am not a fan of spirits, but stick to wine. However, I was intrigued and keen to sample this French Whisky, which I was assured by our host and, although not – by any means – being a connoisseur of Whisky, was very good. I tried a wee dram and found that it was, indeed, as our host claimed, very palatable and quite smooth.
I was informed by our host that there are a number of distilleries around France producing Whisky, for example, in Brittany, but the one I tried came from much nearer home.

It was a Wambrechies Whisky, and is produced in the charming town of the same name, which is north of Lille, and is situated on the banks of the river Deule. In fact, it is possible to visit the distillery and afterwards sample their product. There is a small entrance charge for the privilege.

The Claeyssens distillery, which originates from 1817 and is housed in an old water-mill and classified as an historic monument, produces two single malts – one of three years old and the other of eight years old – the latter was the one I tasted at our French friends. The Whiskies are 40% proof and are sold in 70cl bottles.

What my brother-in-law, who lives north of the border and is a connoisseur of Scotch would make of French Whisky, I shudder to think! However, the next time he visits us, I shall offer him some Wambrecchies Whisky with some haggis that we have in our freezer!

A personal breathalyser from Amazon £2.82

A new law aimed at reducing road deaths and injuries takes effect in France this spring. It will require all drivers to carry a breathalyser kit in their car. Kits are reported to be available at under €5 and the penalty for not having one could be a fine of around €17.

The question is whether this measure will have the desired effect. Will it reduce drinking and driving, or will the universal ability to measure blood alcohol content by means of a personal breathalyser lead drivers to try keep drinking right up to the point where they are just a fraction below the legal limit?

Will it, in fact lead to more drink driving rather than less?

Personal Breathalyser

by Ian Blackshaw

Chatus - an ancient grape variety from the Ardeche region

Traditionally, New Year is the time to make resolutions. Many of us do and, by the end of January, many of us have already broken them! A case, perhaps, of the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak!

Here are some of my New Year wine resolutions which I hope you may find interesting.

Bearing in mind the health warnings of over indulgence of alcohol, my first resolution this year is: to drink less, but drink better. My brother-in-law, who is also a wine buff, has followed this practice for a number of years. His philosophy is: if you are going to drink wine, then drink good wine – not plonk! Why settle for less and endanger your health!

Another of my 2012 wine resolutions is to seek out wines from unfamiliar French wine regions. For example, wines from the Ardeche, where there is a long history of wine production dating back to Roman times. Many of the Ardeche wines are white, but, in 2000, an old grape variety from the region, known as the ‘chatus’, was revived. The wine produced from it is similar to that produced from the Italian nebbiolo grape variety, which is the grape variety behind the fine Italian red wine, Barolo, which I like very much. The production of wine made from the ‘chatus’ grape in the Ardeche is still limited and sells out pretty quickly. I must certainly get my hands on some this year!

O'Syrah from O'Vineyards

Another example of an unfamiliar wine is the wine from the Carbades region, just minutes north of the historic and medieval city of Carcassonne. The wines of Carcassonne have been hailed by the well-known wine writer, Jancis Robinson. So, it is worth finding out more about them. For example, O’Vineyards are promoting wines from this region and their 2009 Cote de Carcassonne O’syrah – 100% syrah grape variety – I am looking forward to trying.

There are many other ‘undiscovered’ wine regions of France, which, I am sure, would repay further research, and such wines served at dinner parties would certainly provoke much interest amongst wine lovers. I shall look forward to finding out about them and trying them. One way of doing so is by visiting the region concerned. An excuse to further my knowledge and appreciation of such a vast and diverse country as France.

A further New Year wine resolution of mine is to take more care about serving wines at the recommended temperatures, and so I shall make more use of my wine thermometer – a gift of many years ago from my wife!

Also, I intend to decant more of my old red wines, especially after my brother-in-law, who has been staying with us for New Year, complained of sediment in his glass of a fine 1998 Fronsac! Again, my wife provided me with the decanting wherewithal some time ago; so, again, no excuse for not using it!

I could go on, but I will not bore my readers with other things that I intend to do this year to enhance my knowledge and appreciation of fine and different French wines. Siffice to say, however, that I am sure readers will have New Year wine resolutions of their own, which they might like to share with other readers of ‘Frogsiders’, who, like myself, appreciate the wide variety of wines that are produced and are on offer in ‘La Belle France’!

Happy New Year to all.
This is what happened on New years Day at Le Touquet beach.

2012 : bain du centenaire au Touquet par France3Nord-Pas-de-Calais

Looking for something to do on New Year’s Day? Will a bit of fresh air, salt water and adrenalin cure a hangover?

Why not find out at Le Touquet on Sunday January 1, 2012?