Tour de France 2012

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Henrik Blunck

Now is the time to see a lot of beautiful landscapes if you have access to watching the Tour de France cycling event on your TV. This is abolutely a great event for me, as there are times – especially in the beginning and at the end of the race – when they are driving on roads where we have also been on vacation.

I am not all that keen on cycling as a sport. I am more into boxing, tennis and soccer when our national team is playing ball. But nonetheless, the Tour de France is one of the best chances to see some beautiful scenery.

Hope you enjoy this tip, and if you’re going to France this summer on vacation, I would greatly welcome your feedback and comments. If there is anything you need more information about, I would gladly help.

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Start Planning Your Summer Vacation

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Henrik Blunck

It is a good idea to start planning your summer vacation right now. Not only is it good to ensure you have available spots on an airplane, it is also the ideal time to visit leasure parks and other websites to get ealy-booking rebates.

You can easily save 10% (or more) when you book your summer vacation well ahead of many others, but you also avoid the hastle of standing in line when you book in a leisure park such as Parc Asterix in good time.

Furthermore, ensuring your car rental is also in order is another aspect of being on vacation many overlook – and once summer sets in there is a risk larger family cars are not available for your full stay in France, so this is also an area where you need to be in good time.

Don’t worry about airport strikes. They will usually arrive at the end of spring, but usually it’s a one or two day period, and mostly just a question of workers voicing their disagreements with employers. The French government usually takes care of this very quickly, so you can safely go on vacation in France this summer.

So start planning your summer vacation now – it’s going to ensure you have a more fun summer vacation when everything is in order for your stay to this beautiful country.

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Airport Strike

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Henrik Blunck

Recently, there was a strike at the French CDG airport. Workers have a strange tendency to pick exactly the wrong moment to strike, especially given the fact that a country like France is highly dependent upon income from tourists.

We see the same tendency every summer. Just as people are starting to plan their summer vacation there is a strike at the airport.

Funnily, the same isn’t happening for the train services, SNCF, so given the fact that you can bring your car with you when coming from Scandinavia through the Autozug presented by german rail services, there is a certain amount of competition for those who plan their vacations carefully.

It’s all a matter of politics, of course. But I’m quite sure President Sarkozy isn’t exactly thrilled about the situation. Because it’s not just hurting tourism, but also affecting network summits where people start planning to hold their conferences and other meetings elsewhere. You have plenty of options, ranging from beautiful settings in Belgium or the Netherlands – or excellent services in Germany, even supplemented by exquisite service from Lufthansa, an airline service we used a few years ago when we travelled from Billund to Paris.

So it’s a question that needs to be asked: are union workers aware of the destruction they create for a country that NEEDS services to be in order for international companies to choose to hold meetings in France?

Happy New Year everyone. 🙂

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Changes When Selling Your House

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Henrik Blunck

According to a Danish magazine that deals with France it has been announced that taxation will change for those foreigners owning homes or summerhouses in France. Now, the money you earn when you sell the house will be taxated from the year 2012, so this can be very valuable information if you had previously considered selling your home.

Prices have gone up quite a bit, so maybe you will want to keep this house, rent it out while you aren’t using it, and maybe then move TO France once you retire, rather than viewing the house as an investment for your retirement benefits.

At least worth considering since the impact of taxation may be rather big for many people.

Have a nice weekend everyone. 🙂

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French VAT Rates Increasing In 2012

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Henrik Blunck

According to news tonight from TV5 Monde, the French VAT rates will be increased from 5,5 to 7-9% for restaurants and labour such as carpentry etc.

Seeing this from a Danish perspective – where we pay the maximum VAT rate of 25% on ALL goods, this is no problem. But obviously the French people are cautious towards this.

It is a fact that the Greek crisis, with potential dangers of both Spain and Italy also having fundamental economic challenges is worrying to say the very least.

It is challenging for the Eurozone that this crisis has hit so hard, but we need to get an optimistic approach to things to get past this temporary setback…

We need to consider the road ahead, and I’m confident France is well equipped to this minor change. They won’t lose any tourists over this, so it should be a mild setback to pay an average of 100-120€ per person extra to come across this small hurdle.

I will be writing more about this lovely country in the weeks ahead so stay tuned. 🙂

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