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Vacansoleil Camping Holidays is the specialist and European market leader in luxury camping holidays and has just released its 2010 brochure. It has around 335 campsites, making it their biggest ever brochure!

New for the 2010 season:

35 new campsites in France, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Belgium and Holland. New to the brochure is Portugal with five top class campsites on the south and west coast.

New bungalow tents with a solid and adjustable wooden floor for added comfort. The canvas walls are also more upright so as to create more space inside, allowing room for four sleeping compartments.

The number of campsites with Vacansoleil Camping Kids entertainment programme has nearly doubled to over sixty due to its popularity. They have a new mascot called Zipp that will give everyone a hug on its adventures around the campsite. For extra information please visit www.camping-kids.com.

The free 460-page Vacansoleil 2010 brochure can be ordered at www.vacansoleil.co.uk.

Popularity: 57% [?]

Rediscover the magic of France by immersing yourself in the colours, the culture and the party atmosphere – The France Show is UK’s largest celebration of all that makes France such a special place.

The 2010 show will take place from 8th to 10th January at London Earls Court 2 and promises to be another great day out!

P&O Ferries will be at stand L45, where they will be offering some amazing deals on all our routes and a great range of prizes, exclusively for visitors to the France Show. Top prizes include a 7-night holiday for a family of five at a Eurocamp or Keycamp holiday park, a 10 day mobile home holiday in Camping La Plage, courtesy of Venue Holidays for 2 adults and 4 children, and three prizes of gift voucher worth up to £100 to spend on board with P&O Ferries (offer excludes alcohol).

Register for your free ticket here, but don’t delay this offer is only available until 1st December.

Popularity: 13% [?]

A family ski holiday can be expensive when you are feeding a family out on the mountain at lunch time and in the evening but chalet holidays with Ski Magic make the whole family ski holiday a much more affordable experience; food and wine are included in the price.

Based in Courchevel and La Tania in the Three Valleys in France, which is reputedly the World’s largest and best ski area, Ski Magic are currently offering some fantastic value for money deals including free child places. On selected weeks they are also offering free ski hire for children under 10 years and free childcare for non skiing children and infants in the Magic Snowflake club run by their own team of qualified, yet fun loving nannies who organize a weekly programme of indoor and out door play including piste picnics, sledging, face painting, baking and model making.

Ski Magic’s chalets, are situated on or very close to the piste, village and lifts making most of them true ski in and ski out chalets. Cuisine in the chalet includes a substantial cooked breakfast to start the day, afternoon tea with fresh baguettes and preserves and a delicious home baked cake followed by a superb 3 or 4 course evening meal with carefully chosen appellation controlled wine. Packed lunches are available, if required.

Ski Magic is an established family run company and provides affordable family skiing holidays in one of the Worlds biggest and best ski areas.

More information on their website -  www.skimagic.co.uk.

For a personalised quotation email: sales@skimagic.co.uk or telephone: 0151 6772317

Popularity: 10% [?]

Going abroad is when many people take the opportunity to try new gourmet food – sampling a gorgeous new drop of red or a new type of cured ham, so it’s no wonder if you haven’t taken a trip this year you may be feeling like you are missing out on the experience.

Whether you stayed at home or travelled to Europe and have the post holiday blues, worry not as some of the very best quality produce is available in the UK and readily at your fingertips.

In this video, wine expert Joe Wadsack gives you tips on making the most out of Port (and not just for Christmas), the wines of the Burgundy region in France and the Douro Valley in Portugal. He’ll also give advice to ensure you’re trying true top-quality European foods that have the PDO official stamp. Watch Joe’s video to find out how to have your own “Pinot Noir Epiphany” and the best way to serve and eat hors d’oeuvres like Parma ham and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

For more information visit: discovertheorigin.co.uk

Popularity: 18% [?]

November sees the launch of our fabulous Gastro Academy for 2010 – the only residential holiday cookery school of its kind and calibre in South West France.

The French House Party is a listed Top Retreat in the National Geographic book, The 100 Best Worldwide Vacations to Enrich Your Life and we now have an enormous, brand-new kitchen, designed specifically for group cookery classes. We’re thrilled to welcome award-winning French chefs, Franck Putelat, Robert Abraham and Jean-Marc Boyer onto our team.

When not leading our hands-on classes, our chefs run their own renowned gourmet restaurants in Carcassonne and nearby towns.

Outside France, they may not be household names, but they have a celebrity status with French people television appearances, countless newspaper articles, Michelin stars and top-class recommendations in the most influential restaurant guides mean that they and their signature dishes are synonymous with cooking innovation and flair.

Lovers of food, wine and travel now have a unique opportunity to cook in France, learning from master-chefs who will guide them through practical creativity in the kitchen. Using fresh and seasonal ingredients, they will demonstrate and teach the cookery techniques for mastering classic French cuisine with an added contemporary twist of adventure.

There are three course options:

* Cuisine in Brief (3-day weekend themed courses from £495 pp)
* Gourmet Explorer (6 days, from £1200 pp)
* Cook au Vin – a unique holiday in which guests spend 3 cooking days with our chef, plus 3 days study with a Master of Wine at our partner wine school to achieve a WSET qualification in wine knowledge (from £1400 pp.)

We will be holding a Preview weekend *for our cookery courses in France, from 6-8 November 2009 in Carcassonne. If you are interested in coming along to this or to one of our other Gastro Academy courses next year, we would be delighted to extend an invitation to one of your journalists.

If you want to learn more, visit us at the BBC Good Food Show from 13-15 November at London Olympia (Stand E41) or from 25-29 November at Birmingham NEC (Stand J76).

Alternatively telephone Moira Martingale on +44 1299 896819 or email on enquiries@frenchhouseparty.co.uk.
Website: www.frenchhouseparty.co.uk

Popularity: unranked [?]

Most serious skiers agree that for great skiing holidays the French Alps are still the tops for a variety of reasons. Almost without exception the French Alps have really good snow conditions from the beginning of the ski holiday season in late December to the time of the spring snows in April or May. The French ski holiday resorts, although largely purpose built, have fantastic facilities all of which are geared up for the skier. The lift system in resorts such as La Plagne and the Trois Vallees are quick and efficient, just what you want on your ski holiday, no wasting time in queues when you should be sliding down the slopes!

If you are looking for a ski holiday at Val Thorens in the Trois Vallees, talk to your ski specialist about St Martin de Bellville where you will find some great chalet ski holiday deals. Similarly if you have always taken a ski holiday in Meribel, a gondola now connects from the resort of Brides-les-Bain and some great ski holiday deals are available.

Chalet holidays are tailor made for all group sizes, from a couple to a number of like minded people. The food is amongst the best to be found on a ski holiday; often this is prepared by cookery school graduates many to cordon bleu standard and these meals would compare favourably with that served up in a top French hotel just down the road, but at a fraction of the cost. Normally wine of your choice is served at the table and this usually seems to come from a bottomless carafe! French chalets have a wide choice of breakfast from cooked to “continental” and afternoon tea, usually a sumptuous cake, is waiting for you when you get back from the ski slopes.

All round France is still a great place to choose for your ski holiday and if you take the advice of your holiday specialist, fantastic offers are better than ever this year. By using the facilities of your ski holiday specialist you can usually find just what you are looking for to make your holiday perfect.

Popularity: 2% [?]

While everyone knows that Paris is lovely in springtime, the truth is that Paris is lovely all the year long. While spring is pleasant due to the smaller crowds, blooming flowers, and temperate weather, so is autumn. The hottest months, July and August, are the least comfortable; winters are mostly chilly, but Paris is relatively dry and rarely sees snow. May receives the least rainfall.

Throughout the rest of France, climate and temperatures vary by region and altitude. In Lyon, for example, with an elevation of 200 metres, average July temperatures are 21 degrees. Bordeaux, at an elevation of 47 metres, averages 19 degrees in July. The coastal areas are the most moderate, due to the sea breezes. The rainiest area is in Brittany, which receives a lot of rain from October to December.

In the south, along the Mediterranean coast and encompassing the cities of Nice, Marseille, and Cannes, rain falls more in the spring and autumn than it does in the rest of the year. In the summer, it is generally hot and dry. Strong winds, each with their own characteristics, are particular to many areas. In Provence, the strong winds are known as Le Mistral, which blow in from the north and bring with them dry and often clear weather. The wind can be felt throughout the Rhone Valley and along the Cote d’Azur; it also affects parts of Italy. Other strong winds in the area include the Sirocco, which is a violent wind that comes from the Sahara and brings dusty, dry weather with it.

Popularity: 6% [?]

If you are flying into France, you might well be arriving at one of Paris’s international airports. If so, you will likely want to begin your visit in Paris first, before heading off to the tourist sites throughout the country. France has much to see and do, with attractions for everyone.

Paris is a great place to start and you will get a sense of the history of France by visiting the important attractions in the city. The Eiffel Tower offers great views, especially in the evening. Notre-Dame and other nearby religious buildings are important tourist stops; be sure to see the gargoyles. The Musee du Louvre is a must-see for the vast amount of well-known masterpieces, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. If you like Impressionist art, you will find a world-renown collection at the Musee d’Orsay.

Paris is a great city for walking, and you will get a good feel of the city, and of France itself, by strolling along the Seine, meandering in the Latin Quarter, and walking up the Champs-Elysees to the Arc De Triomphe.

To visit Versailles, the royal chateau with famed gardens, you will need to leave the city. You can get there easily on the RER Line C, getting off at the Versailles/Rive Gauche station.

After Paris and Versailles, you will find tourist attractions throughout the country. You can head towards Normandy and Rouen; go to Orleans and the Loire Valley, where you can visit the Chateau de Chambord, which is the area’s largest chateau; or go south to Provence and the Riviera, where you can visit Avignon, Cannes, and Nice.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Often when we think of French sports, we think of cheering crowds at a football game. Of course, this makes sense, as football is the most watched sport in France. But we might also envision the French Open, one of the Grand Slam tennis tournaments, played in Paris. Or perhaps we see the cyclists, speeding through the beautiful countryside in the Tour de France. The French sailing team is also world class and take part in major events such as the America’s Cup.

On a local level you will see the men playing petanque in Nice, a game similar to boules or bocce, where the players throw small balls on the playing area attempting to get nearest to the first ball thrown. Of course to some people, French sports might mean Grand Prix racing (which was invented in France in 1946) rugby or even basketball. Sports are an important facet of French society; the modern-day Olympics began in France in 1894.

While football, called ‘Le Foot’ for short, has the most spectators, there are many sports both watched and participated in by the French. Tennis is quite popular, with a large numbers of players. France annually hosts one of the Grand Slam tournaments, the French Open.

The three-week long Tour de France takes place every July with contenders from across the world. The American rider Lance Armstrong brought worldwide attention to the sport with his multiple wins.

The French national Handball team won the 2008 tournament in the Olympic Games; they are currently the World Champions. Handball has a large audience, perhaps due to its world-class status.

Popularity: 2% [?]

While the smaller towns in France, like small towns anywhere, may not be known for their nightlife, the big cities certainly come to life after dark. For the best nightlife, there is nowhere more exciting than Paris. Parisians are known for their very full after-work lifestyle. They meet friends at a cafe, go out for dinner or to a show, then end the night with a quick trip to a bar or dance club.

Sitting outside a café people watching is very popular, as is pub-crawling. Seeing a world-class live theatre show, or going to the cinema or opera, are a small part of the wide range of entertainment awaiting residents and visitors alike. Listings of special events can be found in the weekly ‘Pariscope’. Ticket agencies are located throughout the city, but for tickets to concerts and theatre at a discount, check out the theatres on the day of the performance. Very often, they sell leftover tickets that are greatly discounted. Students with ID can also often get discounted tickets at the theatre box offices.

Paris is not the only French city that has a robust nightlife. Nice, on the Mediterranean coast, offers many jazz clubs, concert halls, dance clubs, and more. The Cabaret du Casino Ruhl offers cabaret shows at the weekend. The casino is open daily. Tickets to local shows and concerts can be purchased at the FNAC on Avenue Jean Medicin.

Nearby Cannes is also home to many concerts, and frequent train services connect the cities. If you are flying into Nice, ask for a listing at one of the information kiosks at the airport. If you are one of the lucky people to be on a Mediterranean cruise that docks nearby, ask on the ship for advice about that evening’s happenings.

Popularity: 5% [?]