This is part 2 in a series describing how to create your own website – see Gite websites for others.

Getting everything set up ready

OK you’ve spent your hard-earned money and got a decent website name – or perhaps you already had one. You’ve also got your hosting sorted out,  so now you’re all gung-ho to get a website up and running. Good. Let’s get the tools in place.

FTP

Before we start we need to look at something callled FTP (file transfer protocol). This is how you are going to get files from your computer onto the internet – FTP is used to transfer files between your own PC and your website.

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A lot of you will have heard of the recent scandal in Spain where someone had advertised villas for holiday rental which didn’t really exist. They took the bookings on the non-existent properties then disappeared with the money.

This makes everyone nervous – people booking vacation rentals, for obvious reasons, but also owners because if the public become nervous about booking with private owners then the number of bookings they receive could be at risk.

It’s important not to over-exaggerate the problem, since it represents only a tiny minority of villas, but it is a good idea to be extra vigilant before handing across hundreds or thousands of pounds to a stranger. It’s hard to be 100% sure in any online transaction – but there are some things you can do to gain some extra comfort. Here are some suggestions:

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I’ve avoided talking about the Tour de France this week, because I know that 99% of readers will go off and have a nice cup of tea instead, but today there is an experiment in the competition that is interesting even if you couldn’t care less about the race itself, so I’m going to tell you about it anyway…

The cyclists in the race all use earphones to keep in contact with their support cars. They say it is so they are warned of impending danger, while everyone really knows it is so that their team captains can give them clues about tactics. For example if a break-away group is five minutes ahead and there is only 25 kilometres left to go, it’s time to speed up a bit…but if you don’t know how far ahead they are, you don’t know what to do.

(It’s actually quite complicated because of the way the race uses aggregate times – so a rider likes to know if someone five minutes ahead of him today is going to overtake him in the overall positions etc. – i.e. do they care if they catch up or not.)

Is this use of radios cheating? Life saving? Life threatening? Completely uninteresting? Everyone has a different opinion. Whatever the risks and benefits, today’s stage of the race is the first in more than a decade in which headphones have been banned.

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This is part 1 in a series describing how to create your own website – see Gite websites for others.

I’m often asked if I can make websites for people, but unfortunately I never have the time, so I thought instead I would explain how to create your own gite website (or any other website). I won’t bother to explain your need for a business website, that’s probably self-evident nowadays.

There are plenty of people who will happily deprive you of your hard earned cash to produce a website for you. The main things that put people off from making their own websites are (1) cost and (2) technical challenges. Well, you can do it yourself, often just as well as the professionals, and you’ll hardly need to get your wallet out. And you’ll get more satisfaction and more control.

This is the first of a series of entries, one to be released each week for the next few weeks, that has a very clear goal – to enable anyone to make their own website, at minimal cost. Although the example I will use is a gite / holiday rental website the exact same principles apply to any business, so whatever your need for a website you will hopefully find it useful.

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Having recently visited the Gorges de l’Ardeche, I was interested to see them featured on the news. Lots of people canoe along the river through the gorges, but it seems it is also possible to be accompanied by someone who will show you traditional ways of hauling fish from the river, so that you can have the freshest lunch possible.

I think you must have to set off very early – the river they showed in the film had two lone canoeists setting off on a peaceful adventure, while the same river when I saw it had hundreds of day-trippers canoeing along noisily.

I guess the possibilities for throwing nets across the river to catch fish are reduced in the afternoon, when you are more likely to catch a couple of small children than a trout.

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Some of you will remember that in 2003 France had a major ‘canicule’ (heatwave) that lasted for several weeks – and that an estimated 15,000 people, mostly elderly, died as a result. Following that heatwave, France implemented measures to prevent the same thing happening again.

This week has been very hot in the south of France, often over 35 degrees, and the ‘anti-canicule’ measures have leapt into life.

If you are elderly it seems your name is now on a register of vulnerable people, which means that every 30 minutes, day and night, a kindly neighbour comes knocking on your door forcing you to drink five litres of water and to take a cold shower.

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The Tour de France starts next week, and has the potential to be the most interesting Tour for years. It is the only sporting event I have any interest in so bear with me…

The course has been well planned, especially the idea of fighting out the last but one day on Mont Ventoux, to keep us all engrossed to the end. The route studiously manages to avoid most of north and west France, preferring to venture into Monaco, Spain and Andorra, for reasons that aren’t completely clear.

Perhaps the organisers like to tie in the Tour dates with their annual summer holidays.

Alberto Contador and Carlos Sastre, winners from the last two years, will both be there – as of course will be Lance Armstrong, making a much publicised (and much debated) return from retirement. All should add to the excitement.

But wait, is that a storm cloud ahead?

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I’m without a bike this morning – it seems I have been overdoing it and have stretched the chain! Result is I can’t go out for a ride, which always puts me in a bad humour for the day. Not that I’m any good you understand, I can’t imagine how I stretched a chain, but I do like to stretch my legs, and I can’t abide walking or jogging

I did look pretty impressive cycling home yesterday though – even if I do say so myself. There was a howling gale helping me along and I was doing about 40kmh without too much effort, despite the absence of most of my gears.

One curious aspect of travelling around France is that some regions seem to attract hundreds of cyclists, and it only takes the slightest excuse for all the locals don their lycra, whereas in other regions cyclists are practically an endangered species.

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This week Mrs B is away stamping her carbon footprint on the gardens of Normandy so I have the sheer joy of a week at home alone with the girls (aged 15 and 13). The end of the school year is always a busy time, with numerous exhibitions, spectacles and events to, errr, enjoy, and to escort the children to. This year is no different.

The other big thing about the end of the school year is the driving around. I have spent more or less the whole of the last few days ferrying children (our own and other peoples) to and from one event after another. My favourite was picking up daughter 1 in one town at just before 1.00am just to take her to another place equally far from where we live so she could party for a couple more hours.

‘Can we take this form to lycée?’ (50 km round trip); ”Can we pick up ….. on the way?’ (20 km round trip); ‘Can you pick me up from the cinema at midnight?’ (30 km round trip). The list is long, perhaps endless.

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Around our property we have quite a lot of land, including about a hectare of woodland and another hectare of field that we are turning back to woodland – partly for the environment and partly because we like trees. One thing that we also briefly considered was planting a tree for each family that stay in our rental properties, in a small effort to overcome the environmental impact of people getting here.

Mrs B told me that if we planted trees in the summer they would be dead by autumn through lack of water, so my plan to have trees with little labels saying which family they represented got cancelled before it started, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Unfortunately I had to agree that people returning each year to visit their very own row of dead trees might not be very impressed by our efforts.

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It was a fine sunny day last week and I was approaching Saint-Montan, a quaint medieval village, just before lunchtime. I had big plans to explore the little village and then find somewhere for eat. I was in good spirits.

The car park – about the size for 30 cars I suppose – was completely full so I carried on through the village to find somewhere else to park. Nowhere turned up, but after a good few minutes stuck in a traffic jam along with lots of other hopelessly confused tourists I noticed a small road leading off from the blockage and signed as parking.

Off I went, very pleased with myself that I has spotted the sign hidden behind a lorry.

Unfortunately the parking was closed for a petanque contest, and there was no space to turn around, so I enthusiastically carried on along the track I was on. I don’t know if you have ever driven five kilometres on a rutted track on a steep hill side, with no possibility of passing a car coming in the opposite direction, while the dream of a nice lunch fades away, but it doesn’t put you in the best of moods.

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Well, one day left to decide who to vote for in the European elections – and frankly I haven’t the first idea. So if you’re here looking for guidance you’re likely to be disappointed. because that’s what I’m looking for as well.

When I was young and angry I always knew exactly who to vote for. I was a Labour supporter when I was a student, in between attending CND marches and carrying banners stating ‘Don’t vote – it encourages them’.

Then I started earning money, Michael Foot took charge of the Labour party, and I became a staunch Conservative, if never quite a Thatcherite.

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Those of you who need to keep in touch with your office or access your emails while you travel probably keep an eye out for hotels that have wifi (internet) access when you are planning your trip.  Note to hotel owners in France: for me, and many others, this internet access is actually quite important.

I’ve just got back from a few days travelling across the south of France, where three out of four hotels failed to provide the promised internet access, so I thought I’d write a quick guide to what hotels mean when they say they have internet access, since there is often a difference between what they say and what they actually provide

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Brittany travel bulletin!!

Here’s one to watch out for if you are in the Morbihan region of Brittany this summer – the 18th exhibition of ‘Art in the Chapels’. I’m a big fan of these large scale installation art events and might well try and get up there myself in September, weather and time permitting.

In their own words:

“Every summer for the last 18 years, L’art dans les chapelles has invited artists (painters, sculptors and plastic artists) to create a dialog with a patrimony of exceptional richness and diversity – the local chapels of Brittany.

Most of these chapels date back to the 15th and 16th centuries and stretch along the Blavet valley, in the region of Pontivy, in the Morbihan part of Brittany. Each artist temporarily takes possession of a chapel.

In 2008 the English artist and guest of honour David Tremlett created a Wall Drawing for one of the chapels, while for 2009 the guest of honour is the artist Vladimir Skoda.”

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After four days huddled in the dark I have finally emerged from the gloom – only to find it’s pretty gloomy outside as well, so I guess I didn’t miss much. I’ve been working on our company accounts.

Sensible people running a company would keep on-going accounts and records, so that when the accountant calls to say ‘we need your information next week’ they can calmly pull it from a drawer and drop it off at the accountants office the same day.

Unfortunately we are not sensible, or well-organised, and after calmly telling the accountant I’d ‘drop them off in a couple of days’ I thought I’d better make a start. We are 11 months into our companies financial year so it isn’t very practical to put it off much longer.

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