The least expensive photovoltaic energy of the world, to the point of being competitive with the other technologies of electric power production (nuclear power, gas, wind turbines, etc.), has just been invented in Vendee, by the company of installation of photovoltaic panels Oseris, the Osesol subsidiary of which worked in partnership with the Catholic Institute of the Arts and crafts ( ICAM) of Nantes.

Most people, in France but also in Europe, prefer spending their winter holidays in the mountains, to practice winter sports. The seaside, on the other hand, is the favorite destination of more than 80 % of the vacationers in the summer.  Nevertheless, there are quite a lot of reasons forgoing on vacation at the seaside even in the winter. Here are about ten:

What would be the consequences of returning to the French Franc,  for gites, bed and breackfast, hotels, restaurants, and tourism in Vendee?

There are still exotic destinations with a luxuriant vegetation, white beaches and transparent sea. But there are troubles and inconveniences, which can make holidays in Europe, in comparison, definitely more pleasant. Here’s a list issued according to my personal opinion:

1) The alabaster spotless sand, the crystal transparent sea which we see on photos are often a mirage. Oftentimes, photos were taken a few years ago, when exotic mass tourism was at the beginning

2) It’s either we are going to struggle for room on a crowded beach, or else, if we are alone, or almost, in a virgin natural landscape, the risk of making bad meetings, as in Somalia or in Yemen, looms.

3) You have to travel by plane. With most of the airlines at the edge of the bankruptcy, thinking of the savings which could be achieved by neglecting safety gives me the shivers. You can search on Google one of the numerous articles on the painful working conditions of civil pilots in the USA.

4) The plane is by far the least ecological means of transportation, consuming approximately 10 times more oil per traveler than a car.

5) With the recent decline of the euro by more than 10 % versus the dollar, everything is going to be more expensive, from plane tickets, to accommodations, food, etc., because prices of exotic tourism are tied to the dollar.

6) If we hope to discover a new culture, tasting an exotic lifestyle, getting to know different people, we shall often be disappointed. In fact, we sometimes have the impression of being locked in a golden cage, where everything is adapted to the style of western life. Almost impossible to escape our tabloids with the inevitable last news, soo hot …

7) If we just became used to the local currency and we begin to grasp what is expensive and what is cheap, it means that it’s time to go home.

8 ) Any small accident requiring medical care or a stay at the hospital can cost us a fortune, while in Europe we are taken care of, thanks to the conventions between the European public health systems or insurances.

9) In Europe, on the other hand, if you travel just 50 miles, you can switch landscapes, culture, art, gastronomy. The whole is not far from home, and there are no commissions to be paid for the purchase of currencies, if your country belongs to the Euro. 

 The Mia Electric consortium (see our previous article about Mia Electric), which accounts 260 employees, is owned mainly by the German company Con-Energy and at the level of 30 % by the region Poitou-Charente. The formula which sees a region participating in the capital of a car manufacturer has already showed its prowess with Volkswagen, the capital of which belongs for approximately 30 % to the German Land of Saxonie.

Mia in figures: 110 km an hour as maximal speed, autonomy from 90 to 150 km between rechrges following the models, a consumption of 10 kW for 100 km, thus an euro of electricity, for a 15 000-euro price, subsidies deducted. Besides, three or four comfortable places for a length which exceeds that of the Smart for some centimeters (2,87m). Here are the good news which our small toy of the swamp from Poitou shells us:

  - 60 cars have just been delivered to the municipalities of La Rochelle and Nice, which are going to offer them for rental: an ideal shop window and an effective advertising at a lower cost. 

- The car is present in the Frankfurt auto show at  the beginning of September 2011

- Mia Electric is going to increase the paceof its production by the end of the year to reach 1.000 vehicles a month.

The progress of the company was fast. In July, 2010, there were 35 employees. On one year later, they are 260, and they should be 300 in December.

Before the end of the year, a new prototype with hydrogen fuel cells and unlimited autonomy will be presented.

Certainly, the competition of the big manufacturers is fierce. Nevertheless, exception made for Renault and its controlled Nissan, and Mitsubishi, nobody seems to bet in a convincing way on the electric motor car, at least in the short term. General Motors, having seen that its Chevrolet Volt aroused a lot of interest, had the brilliant idea of limiting it sproduction to 10 000 cars a year. The result:  the dealers, seen the craze of customers, were able to increase its price by 50 %, and tens of thousand customers were lost.

We suspect that, being impossible to produce internal combustion engines at a competitive price, unless investmenting huge money, the six or seven manufacturers of internal combustion engines do not want to lose their situation of oligopoly, thus hampering the development of the electric car.

As for the urgency to avoid an overconsumption of oil, it ’s enough to examine the correlation between fast increases of the oil price and economic crises, since 1973. The recent economic recovery started at the beginning of 2010 with the Brent oil nearing 35 $, to fail after a few months it had been topping 100 $. A coincidence?

In France, new cases of skin cancer are approximately 85,000 a year. The Inca, French national Institute of cancer, and the dermatologists’ labor union note the increasing progress of the number of skin cancers in France. If we consider that the 64 million French have a life expectancy of about 80 years, these same 64 millions develop 85,000 cancers multiplied by 80 years. We obtain the pretty sum of 6 millions and 800,000 French people who developed or will develop a skin cancer during their life.

The French Ministry of Health disadvises suntan or exposure between 11 am and 5 pm, via numerous prevention campaigns. Obviously, since all these cancers cost a fortune to weakened public finances. Nevertheless, people continue to love sepnding their holidays on the beach, where they bake in the sun all day long. Finding a parking place near a beach between 11 am and 5 pm costs long and painful endeavours, or it’s very expensive.

Notwithstanding the fact that exposing oneself entirely to the sun for more than two-three hours a day is harmful to the health of the skin, and even noxious between 11 am and 5 pm, everybody should to take into account that sunbathing accelerates dramatically ageing and the formation of wrinkles.

Personally, even if I like the seaside, I prefer holidays always on the coast, but in the back country. Far from the crowds that roast in the sun, we can discover tourist activities, leisure activities, bike riding, inexpensive gourmet restaurants, culture, art, tradition and theme parks. Which is quite healthy, isn’t it?

Holidays in a gite or a bed and breakfast can be very pleasant, on the condition of knowing well how to take advantage of the place and the accommodation.

For example, from March, 2011, the Melusine Accueil association proposes to the hosts of its gites, bed and breakfast and hotels a pad of special offers to let them discover the incomparable charm of Vendée and the Swamp from Poitou. They could so take advantage of reductions for restaurants, museums, landing stages, bike rentals, purchases of crafts and gourmet country products, and many others. Long drinks and other specialities of Vendée will be offered.

Here are some advices to spend unforgettable holidays in a gite or a bed and breakfast of Vendee or the Swamp from Poitou:

 - Vendee and the Swamp from Poitou are strewed with bucolic villages which represent so many tourist resorts. The variety of the landscapes and the attractions is big, it is necessary to choose places and accommodation which correspond to one’s desires. This site offers a wide choice of gites and guest houses

 - To choose the good accommodation(hosting) is all the easier as the choice is ample and the site of the association illustrates with wealth of photos and descriptions every gite or bed and breakfast

- In fact, to be welcomed to a holiday cottage or bed and breakfast involves a relationship quite personal with his host: by seeing the way he fitted out his facility, it will be easier to choose the one with whom there are more affinities

- It is advisable to respect its host by treating him as we would like to be treated if we were him. I remember, when I spent a weekend in a bed and breakfast in Vendere, that we had to leave early on Saturday morning. We agreed with the couple who managed the bed and breakfast, to have breakfast at 8.00 am. Nevertheless, noticing that our hosts wanted to go out in the previuos night,  I suggested moving the breakfast at 8:30 am. They had to appreciate, because the following morning they  served us a gorgeous breakfast. So delicious that we took a lot of delay to enjoy it conveniently…

 - Also, if we build a good relationship with our host, this last one is going to make everything to return the pleasant stay: for example, he will give us advice and precious tips to discover the region and take advantage of its assets…

Nowadays, when more than half of the grown-up British are overweight or even obese, Vendee, also thanks to the Quality Institute for Food, created by the General Council of Vendée, distinguishes itself as pioneer region for health food.

In fact, our department has unique features which favor the development of healthy and well-balanced eating habits, based on the consumption of organic whole local products, coming from local farms. Not only Vendée is strewed with smal farms and breedings, but every urban area is enclosed in an agricultural context, where it’s easy to purchase fresh and relatively inexpensive products.

That’s why every year the Quality Institute for Food can teach healthy eating habits to 3000 students in Vendee. Philippe Angibaud, one of the tutors, declares: "Through these trainings we  combine health food with effective cooking. For example, evolutionary, low-temperature cooking allows to spare more product. A roast pork loses 12 in 15 % of its weight with classic cooking, only 7 in 8 % with soft cooking. " Without counting the fact, I add, that the low temperature damages much less nutritional values, as vitamins, proteins, minerals.

The biological food represents henceforth 15 % of the total in the canteens of several schools of Vendee. Maybe the day is close where any hotel in the region (there are even  four star hotels in Vendee)  will propose dietary or organic alternative menus…

On the same site of the General Council of Vendee we can find these seven landmarks for a well-balanced diet, to which I add some instructions for use:

1 / Fruits and vegetables: at least five a day - instructions for use: five peas is too little, five pineapples it is too much!

2 / Dairy Products : Three a day. - instructions for use: three slicesof camembert cheese a day, and obesity is granted!

3 / Starch: At every meal - instructions for use: beware of quantities!

4 / Meat, fish, eggs?: Once or twice a day - instructions for use: regarding meat, we disadvise to exceed twice a week for adults

5 / Fats: to be limited - instructions for use: attention, danger!

6 / Sweetened products: to consume moderately - instructions for use: attention, danger!

7 / Salt: to be limited - instructions for use: considering the excess of salt contained in any canned food and in cheese, we should abstain from salting home made food.

Here we are.  We had to wait 20 years, but finally the wines of Vendee, namely Vix, Pissotte, Mareuil, Brem et Chantonnay have been certified by the French Ministry of agriculture as AOC, which means controlled origin denomination. that is, the quality and features of this wine are now acknowledged and protected. Only widen coming from the five above mentioned counties in Vendee can bear the name "Fiefs Vendéen", feods of Vendee.

In spite of their nearness, it is about wines having rather different features, due to the various nature of the ground of the five cantons of production: calcareous, clayey, rich in schists or still influenced by the sea air at Brem.

The vineyard stemming from medieval fiefs was planted during the IXth century: then, Richelieu has given the  vineyards to the church administration of Luçon. As a sign of gratitude, the wine growers call(appeal) the wine " the Former(Ancient) Fiefs of the Cardinal ", naming which will be changed one Fiefs from Vandee in 1965. 

The commercial success of a wine is also a question of prestige and fame of the region of production. In the USA, during the refusal of France to participate in the aggression of Iraq, the imports of French wines decreased to the advantage of Italian wines, since Italy had participated in the invasion. Later, the wind changed, and in 2010 France became again the first world exporter of wine. 

Vendée being the second department of France for the number of the tourists welcomed every year, there is an important synergy between wine production and tourism. Especially since the English people, the Dutch people, the Belgians and Germans, traditionally fond of French wine, are among the most diligent visitors of gites, hotels and bed and breakfast of Vendee. It is a win-win synergy: the tourists buy some wine and the wine lovers come to buy in the region of production.

An invitation for touristic workers of Vendee to propose to their customers the wine Fiefs Vendéens of Vix or the wine Fiefs Vendéens of Pissotte, two producers who are members of our association Melusine Accueil. 

The Mia electric car produced at Cerizay, thus practically five miles from the border of Vendee, is jumping off the starting blocks at a fast pace. This car is manufactured by a joint venture between the French company Heuliez,  a bus manufacturer, and the German company Conenergy. In fact, not only the city of La Rochelle, but also Nice placed a first order of  a hundred cars each, to propose them in  public rental. Other cities are going to follow. Due to its contained price, about 18 000 Euros without subsidies, and its reduced dimensions, Mia seems to be the favorite choice of several municipal administrations. 

Even if the quantities can hardly exceed 10 000 cars produced in 2011, it is still a very good departure. In fact, the public will have the possibility of discovering the advantages of this electric baby; the price of rent being contained, numerous will be the ones who will rent Mia especially to discover how and electric motor car runs and feels. 

 Everybody should win there:

 - The cities which bought Mia, because an electric engine requires practically no maintenance, what makes it an ideal investment for public rental; 

- Users, because they will discover that the electric car, thanks to  its smooth driving, the obedience of its engine without gear and without clutch, and also its quick acceleration, is more pleasant to drive than what they suspect; 

- The Heuliez-Conenergy consortium, the manufacturer of the Mia, because it’s going to benefit from an excellent advertising. 

Who knows, maybe the owners of 4 star hotels, holiday cottages and guest houses of Vendee could buy some Mia to please their customers, enabling  them to take a walk in the country side ofVendee and the Swamp from Poitou, without  scaring the birds with the noise of a combustion engine …