Posts Tagged ‘alarm bells’

The Cevennes railway lies in south-central France, linking Nimes to Clermont Ferrand along a section of the Paris to Marseille line called the “line of 100 tunnels.” Make that 106 tunnels, numerous bridges and galleries, and some of ‘railwaydom’s’ highest and most spectacular viaducts. Veritable works of industrial art, they form just part of the enormous historical investment expended on opening up Languedoc to Paris in the 1870s. It took some six or seven thousand men six years of their lives to build a railroad that would confound most civil engineers today were its creation to be mooted afresh.

The immense technological feat, weighing in at a staggering 520 million francs, puts the enormity of the challenge, and its realization, into its true historical context. It is a national treasure and, like most of the world’s heritage, it takes brinkmanship to shake people into action and foreigners to educate national leaders as to just how important the preservation of such gems is to future generations. Perhaps the answer lies in the line’s adoption as a World Heritage Site?

Nevertheless, one would have thought that the magnitude of the human costs resulting from the line’s closure would have been enough to set the alarm bells ringing. Not so, or at least not the right bells.

Lozere is France’s most thinly-populated department with only 15 people per square kilometre. Add to that the fact that is has the highest average altitude of any department and the word ‘remote’ trips quite easily off the tongue. This then is the mountain region traversed by the Cevenol. On the upside, Lozere boasts the lowest unemployment level in France, of between five and six percent. However, there’s no ‘Silicon Plateau’ to thank for this, just straightforward massive rural de-population.

Those that have remained are engaged in either agriculture (itself at an all-time low) or tourism, and there lies the rub: at the very moment when green tourism is hailed as the future hope for those remaining in the countryside, short-term economic rationality wields the axe to the only real and sustainable means by which today’s eco-friendly travellers can access the region. And it is not without some irony, that France has just witnessed rail freight volumes exceeding those carried by lorry for the first time since the hey-day of rail transport.

The estimated cost required for the line’s repair and maintenance is estimated at fifty million Euros (approx. 68 million USD). In contrast to the billions that are being spent on keeping profligate car firms alive, it’s cheap and money well spent. Yet the last thing the Cevenol needs is state interference in the form of the omnipresent tourist boards launching some horrendous value-added (sic) exercise that would only serve to squeeze the real life and nature out of the ‘product,’ replacing it with a fabricated ‘plan touristique’ lacking authenticity. The French state doesn’t ‘do tourism’ very well, and any move towards trinket shops in railway stations and the further sanitization of hiking trails will simply kill the 19th Century goose that laid the golden Cevenol egg.

Those that are familiar with the case of The Regordane Way, a medieval trail that is a hiking history book, will know what I am saying: the State decided what should be preserved in its name and the resulting concoction is a dog’s dinner with which very few outside the local ‘postes de tourismes’ are happy. In the end, and as is the case with the preservation of the medieval Regordane, the best way to conserve our heritage is to give it our patronage, not patronize it.

So of what relevance is hiking to the continuance of The Cevenol? Well, it won’t be its saviour, but it can play an important role in the economic diversity of the region and the improved viability of the railroad. The land traversed by the Cevennes Railway is truly spectacular hiking country and the Cevenol provides excellent access to its fruits. The natural fault-line running down the eastern flank of the Cevennes is home to both The Cevenol and The Regordane; whilst the railroad provides an entre to those wishing to trek part or all of the Robert Louis Stevenson trail – not to mention some great circular hiking options that are spread out along its course and known only to the local cognoscenti.

If you enjoy the simple pleasures of train travel for its own sake, and are not in too much of a hurry to arrive, then The Cevenol is an experience you need to place on your wish-list. Hikers of the world will unite in rating the beauty of the Languedoc trails that lie either side of the rails as being some of the best in France, whilst those who are smitten by both means of conveyance will have the time of their lives. But please don’t defer your decision making for too long, for you risk missing out on what could become one of France’s mythical journeys of yesteryear. The local population rose up and held demonstrations late last year in the face of what seemed to be the imminent closure of the line. They won a reprieve, but for how long is anyone’s guess.

Author: Scott N. Anderson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera Information

There are many so called French property consultants based in the UK who are more than happy to help you achieve your dream of property ownership in France, however many of them are also very happy to lighten your wallet along the way.

French property sales to the British is now seriously big business and as with all industries that see a substantial growth in a short period of time, more players are tempted in to that market place to try get a slice of the action.

Unfortunately for the opportunist player, getting established in France as an estate agent (Agent Immobilier) is a long and complicated process, as the industry is heavily regulated. Not just anyone is allowed to rent a shop, stick pictures of houses in the window and call themselves an estate agent. So for these players it is much easier to be based in the UK, away from the beady eyes of the French tax, social security and regulatory authorities and try and make it work for them that way.

After four years of substantial growth in the French property market we now see many British based businesses in the market place. Some claim to be French estate agents (Illegal unless they are a French business registered at the Prefecture as an immobilier); some want to charge you a huge consultancy fee (Not illegal, unless they ask for it after the seven days cooling off period has finished), and some even charge you to show you properties which is completely illegal in France but all the these players have one thing in common – they have some or all of their business based in the UK. And why is this? Because if they were based in France they would more than likely be closed down.

So what can you, the French property hunter do to protect yourself from a lot of sharp practises within the industry?

The following occurrences should set off alarm bells:-

Being asked to pay to register to receive property details

Being asked to pay to view properties

Being asked to pay any money to anyone before the 7 day cooling off period has finished

Being asked to meet an agent anywhere other than their office, e.g. in a car park

Being asked to pay a second fee on top of the normal French estate agency fee for services that a registered agent or Notaire would provide you as part of their normal service

In short the only real way to protect yourself is to deal directly with a French registered Immobilier and best of all one who is a member of one of the two main trade bodies in France for estate agents, either FNAIM or SNPI. Only by dealing with a local registered immobilier are guaranteed to get a professional service for a fair fee.

Author: Mark Russell
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera News