Another Week, Another Website….

Well, another week has passed and, with it, a new website has arrived.

This one is a listings website for houses for sale in Brittany.

Although a simple site – I’m especially proud of the rotating fading slideshows – they were a lot of work to get right – no simple wordpress plugin for me; I insist on doing things the hard way!

In a way, this new site is a trial for a national property sales website covering the whole of France.

It is, of course, totally free to advertise your property on A House for Sale in Brittany.

For more details, please tale a look at www.aHouseForSaleinBrittany.com

All the best

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Another Week, Another Website!

Well, another week has passed and I’m happy to be able to realise a long term project by launching….www.FrenchMarketDays.com

I hope that www.FrenchMarketDays.com becomes a resource that people can use whether they live here, or are just visiting for their holiday.

The aim is to accurately describe All the Markets in France.

We’re a way off that but, with 6,800 markets already researched and in the database… we’re off to a good start!

Please feel free to visit www.FrenchMarketDays.com and pass on any feedback that you feel is merited.

All the best

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BretonDiary	MushroomDiary	A Taste of Garlic	kmeckstein.com	The Friday Blog	Roadside Tales
Web Design for Gites	French Public Holidays	French Saint’s Days	Brittany Websites	KeithEckstein.com	Market Days in Brittany
Books about France	Find a Gite!	Prestige French Lettings	Best French Holiday!	Pet Friendly Gites!	Best Gites in Brittany
Images of Brittany	Internet Acceleration	FavIcons4Free

Another Week, another website….

Another week, another website (or four!)

Even with the distractions of not having a reliable internet connection (or perhaps as a result?) I’m moving four new websites online.

Please feel free to take a look at them and perhaps tell any of your friends who may have holiday (or long term) accommodation to let.

The services offered in all four sites are totally free!

Find a Gite Find a Gite – The best place to find the best Gites in France! www.FindaGite.com	Pet Friendly Gites Because our special friends need their holidays too! www.PetFriendlyGites.com
Best French Holiday For holiday accommodation in Hotels, B&Bs, Campsites and more! www.BestFrenchHoliday.com	Prestige French Lettings For quality medium and long term lettings throughout France! www.PrestigeFrenchLettings.com

All the best

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The Links Sites

Well, all the bugs are gone and everything seems to work!

After what seems an eternity (but is really only a couple of months), all the Links sites are ready to use.

You can see all the Links sites at the bottom of this post.

The feedback we’ve had so far from the users of Brittany-Links.com has been 100% positive (apart from the negative feedback, that is, and we’ve shot those people anyway!)

So, please feel free to visit your local Links site and register your business for free or advertise your sales in our classified ads section.

If you think of anything I should add (or change), please let me know. I’ve run out of bullets and, to be honest, I’m a lousy shot, so you’re probably quite safe!

All the best

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Aquitaine-Links	Brittany-Links	Burgundy-Links	French-Links	Languedoc-Links
Limousin-Links	Loire-Links	MidiPyrenees-Links	Normandy-Links	Paris-Links
Poitou-Charentes-Links	Provence-Links	Rhone-Alpes-Links

The Friday Blog

A couple of weeks ago I  launched a new blog.

I didn’t make a big fuss about it at the time as it’s very much a geeky blog and aimed at  people who are spotty, wear glasses and allow themselves to be seen in public wearing a three week old, dirty Rammstein tee-shirt!

The sort of people who don’t wash their hair for weeks on end, in other words!

Read more about… The Friday Blog

Books about France

www.BooksAboutFrance.com

Another week, another website.

This is one of my own.

I’ve long thought that there was a need for something in between the online bookshops that you can find on some of the expat sites and the vast, immense vastness of Amazon.

A site that was backed by all the power and range of Amazon but, one that was easier to use.

And better suited to its targeted readership…

An online bookselling site that was specific to people living in France or, those thinking of doing so.

A site where the visitors could contribute to the conversations; either via the commenting system or on the forum.

A site where the visitors could participate in the reviews and be rewarded , as a result.

The site is called  www.BooksAboutFrance.com

Please feel free to pay it a visit and let me know if you feel it needs any radical surgery.

Before moving to France (and before my my move to London), I spent six years working in the book trade for Britain’s largest book wholesaler.

Based upon my experiences there, I am hoping to engage the publishers of relevant books to ensure that new titles are sent to France so that “guest reviewers” get a chance to provide pre-publication reviews  for Books About France (and get a free copy of the book for their troubles!)

Perhaps there might be some competitions sponsored by those publishers?

There will also be the opportunity for people with blogs about Life in France to sponsor their favourite book about Life in France; all they need do is write a few words (10 – 20) about that book and I’ll put them on the relevant page of the site with a link to, and mini review of, their blog.

All I ask in return is for a sidebar link back to Books About France.

I’m also hoping to interview writers although I am aware that I may have to be a little bit more polite that I have been in the past (I’m thinking of those interviews on A Taste of Garlic, here.)

I’m in the process of adding another couple of thousand titles to the site; this does take time so, whilst everyone is enjoying the sunny weather, think of me hard at work, slaving away over a hot keyboard!

All the best

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Stockport Windows

Another day, another website!

Some friends of the Girlie’s who have stayed in her gite were looking for a website for their Stockport (Greater Manchester) based double glazing business.

So, where else did they come to but… me!

It’s still a bit of a work in progress but the main bulk of the text is there.

If you know of anyone in the Manchester area who might be interested in replacement double glazing, please point them at www.StockportWindows.com – I’m sure that John and Mark (the two brothers who run the business) will be very grateful!

All the best

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French Saints Days

Another day, another website!

In the past a French child would be given the name of the saint on whose day their own birth fell. More recently it has become more common for the saint’s name to be given as a second or middle name.

This means that children often have two special days to celebrate; their own birthday and their “Saint’s Day.” Almost every day in the calendar has a saint’s name assigned to it, some have more than one and January 6 has five.

Thus, the idea for  www.FrenchSaintsDays.com was born.

I was first interested in doing something like this a few years ago;  I noticed that my local boulangerie used to have a blackboard outside, displaying the name of that day’s saint.

Also, at work (at the now famous Helga’s House of Pain, there was also a similar sign near where we picked up our clean overalls.)

As well as creating a new site, I’ve also written a widget for French Saints Days, so that you can display the Saint of the Day (as it were) on your own blog or website.

You can see that widget in action on the sidebar of this blog (just above the Categories listing.)

You can also sign up to receive a daily email telling you which Saint’s day it is.

More details at… www.FrenchSaintsDays.com

Please take a peek at www.FrenchSaintsDays.com – if for no other reason than to see if you’re entitled to another special day to celebrate!

All the best

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Images of Brittany

I decided to launch Images of Brittany when I realised, after looking at the visitor statistics on here, that many people were searching the internet for information on Brittany.

I felt that, as “A picture tells a thousand words…..”, an image based site would be of aid to those people planning to move to Brittany, already living here and looking for places to visit or people just planning to come here for their holidays.

I knew that there was a wealth of images on the internet that were available for re-use, either being in the public domain or released under one of the free use licenses.

It is my hope that more and more people will share their own photographs by releasing them under either one of the appropriate licenses or directly into the Public Domain.

As photographs relevant to living or holidaying in Brittany become available in this fashion, I shall attempt to add them to this site.

Why don’t you take a look at www.ImagesofBrittany.com

All the best

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Market Days in Brittany

Looking through the logfiles on my web server, I realised that lots of people were coming across BretonDiary as a result of searching for the phrase.. “Market Days Brittany”.

Thus, the Girlie and I decided to create a site to specifically detail Market Days in Brittany in more detail.

As well as giving you the details of the Markets Days, we have also created downloadable guides that you can print off and take around with you.

I hope that the new site is of some use to you, whether you live over here or just visit for holidays. I’ve certainly discovered a few markets that I didn’t know about; ones that I want ot visit soon (or as soon as it stops raining – possibly Easter, next year!)

Please take a look at www.MarketDaysinBrittany.com

All the best

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French Public Holidays

The Girlie and I decided to create a site to detail French Public Holidays/Bank Holidays.

We realised that there was a need as many people seemed to be getting confused about the dates and meanings of French national and public holidays.

I suppose that I should be ashamed that in my first year living in France, I went into work twice, not knowing that there would be no work because of a bank holiday.

As well as giving you the dates of the holidays, we have tried to explain the meanings and reasons for some of the Public Holidays in France. You are welcome to download PDF versions of any of these guides to print off for your personal use.

Why not take a look at www.FrenchPublicHolidays.com

All the best

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Speeding up the internet

Over the couple of weeks, I’ve been trying very hard to improve the speed of our internet connections at La Maison des Fleurs. When we lived at Rue St. Nicolas in Josselin (and when I lived at Les Croix), we had 2Mbs internet access.

Now we only have 512Kbs (about a quarter of what we had before.)

Read more about… Speeding up the internet

The adventure begins!

Well, the jobs have started trickling in.

It’s only Wednesday and I’ve already visited 3 clients, travelling as far as Gael on Monday and Cruguel yesterday.

In order to be able to visit clients without having to ask the Girlie to drive me, I am in the process of getting my car (the Green Beastie), back on the road. Two visits to the insurance office and it’s nearly there. Perhaps third time lucky?

Read more about… The adventure begins!

A new job!

Well, it’s finally happened!

I’ve received my final pay packet from Helga’s House of Pain (the local name for the abattoir where I used to work), and am now reliant on my own efforts in order to feed myself and family (and keep me in the manner to which I’ve become accustomed.)

The Siret number (a sort of license to run a business that you need in France) has arrived – the delays were entirely my fault!

I am now on some computer somewhere as 514 452 838 00014.

Everything is ready, all we need now are some customers!

The Girlie is busy researching local businesses that don’t appear to have websites and I am working on setting up our websites.

Of course, as the picture above testifies, I am no stranger to hard work, having been sent down t’pit at an early age!

Read more about… A new job!