14 Feb 2009, 3:30 pm
The poll is for people seriously planning on coming to this meet. 
Five people voted for a meet in central Southern France in the "where to go " poll, and so we're going for it. 
Anyone else who wants to come along is very welcome too. 
The french go on holiday in "shifts", the first in July, the second in August. 
The trains, hotels and public places are choked with tourists from the first day of July. There is also the heat. So we have decided to aim for late May/June in order to avoid this.
The towns mentioned in the poll were Arles, Avignon, Nimes, and Montelimar. Arles and Avignon are probably the most interesting and beautiful of the four, but they are also the most expensive.
Ex. Arles:
Youth Hostel ( in the old town ) 15€ in dormitory
Camping ( nice site, and walkable to town centre ) 17€ the pitch plus something for extra person
Premiere Classe chain hotel 44€/night single/twin/double ( so could share and split cost )
Etap chain hotel 42/43€ single/night 47/48€ double/night ( so could share and split cost )
Hotel Constantine 49€ double ( don't know how many are twin-beds so could share )
Whereas Montelimar has:
Hotel Pierre 29€ - 42€ room/night
Auberge la Pignata from 35€ room/night
I will carry on looking for other options, but those are the cheapest that I have found so far for Arles and Montelimar. I haven't looked at Nimes for the moment.
Nimes and Avignon have airports and TGV connections. Arles and Montelimar have stations with reasonably frequent and regular trains but no TGV or airport. Nimes is the furthest south, and has the least interesting landscape. Arles has the best location. Arles, Avignon and Nimes all have lots of things to see and do, whereas Montelimar is rather a "backwater" in that sense, though the town centre is old and very charming.
There is also the option of taking rooms in a small hotel/B&B in a village a bus-ride away from one of them.
What do we want? How much are people prepared to pay for their rooms? Who is prepared to share a room to split costs? Who would prefer late May? Early June? Late June? Doesn't mind?
I would prefer Montelimar because it is only a 40 minute bus-ride away from where I live, but I also think that Arles is lovely. I could manage a three-night-weekend stay anytime in May or June, ( the french papa looking after my son ). I am happy to go to any of the four towns, or a village in the region, if this meet comes off. I would be prepared to share a room ifabsolutely necessary, to cut costs. I would rather not pay more than 35€ a night.
What about everybody else?
.
Last edited by ouinon on 14 Feb 2009, 6:04 pm, edited 2 times in total.
14 Feb 2009, 4:26 pm
14 Feb 2009, 5:18 pm
14 Feb 2009, 5:25 pm
I may be French, but I don't live there! Sorry. 
14 Feb 2009, 5:54 pm
First, a huge thanks for all this inside info, Ouinon. It's so useful to have someone who knows something about the place. In my reckless imagination, I always assume things will just be OK, which is relying on luck and doesn't often work out!
Anyone else who wants to come along is very welcome too. I didn't vote for S. France, so there's 5 others out there. While delighted by the company of all those interested, I especially hope Greentea can make it as it was her idea that kicked the whole thing off.
Any time then is fine for me. I'm assuming it'll be centred around a long weekend or is that wrong?
Ex. Arles:
Youth Hostel ( in the old town ) 15€ in dormitory
Camping ( nice site, and walkable to town centre ) 17€ the pitch plus something for extra person
Premiere Classe chain hotel 44€/night single/twin/double ( so could share and split cost )
Etap chain hotel 42/43€ single/night 47/48€ double/night ( so could share and split cost )
Hotel Constantine 49€ double ( don't know how many are twin-beds so could share )
Whereas Montelimar has:
Hotel Pierre 29€ - 42€ room/night
Auberge la Pignata from 35€ room/night
Nimes and Avignon have airports and TGV connections. Arles and Montelimar have stations with reasonably frequent and regular trains but no TGV or airport. Nimes is the furthest south, and has the least interesting landscape. Arles has the best location. Arles, Avignon and Nimes all have lots of things to see and do, whereas Montelimar is rather a "backwater" in that sense, though the town centre is old and very charming.
There is also the option of taking rooms in a small hotel/B&B in a village a bus-ride away
from one of them.
What do we want? How much are people prepared to pay for their rooms? Who is prepared to share a room to split costs? Who would prefer late May? Early June? Late June? Doesn't mind? While I do like camping, I'd rather not for this. I'd prefer a room to myself. It is important that nobody else ever sees what is beneath my human mask when I remove it at night. Again, any of those towns are fine for me. Obviously the cheaper the better. But for 3 or 4 nights - which I'm assuming is OK - those prices would be fine. At a cheaper rate, I'd probably just book an extra night!
The small hotel a bus ride away sounds good too. Sometimes the best places are just a little off the beaten track. Even if it is a very quiet village, we're only talking of a few days, so it's not like we'll have long enough to get bored of the place. Speaking for myself, and maybe some others can relate, I really don't need and positively avoid the "full on - in yer face - 24 hour party - so noisy your brain is shaking" type places!
That would be brilliant for me as prices seem to be around 200GBP from heathrow.
14 Feb 2009, 6:23 pm
I wish I had more, and better! On that note though I had a look at Avignon again, with June in mind, ( rather than July, for the Festival ), and, as marco67 said in the "where to go" thread, it is slightly but significantly cheaper than Arles, so although I personally prefer Arles I can see Avignon being the best choice for convenience, ( TGV and airport ), and price. And nobody can say it's ugly!
So I will concentrate on hunting out some good accommodation deals there. Arles has defeated me for the moment.
Yes, I've been wondering what happened to her. I hope she can make it too.
I think that would be best. And people who want to stay longer or come earlier can do so. I could be there/wherever from Friday late afternoon/evening until early Monday afternoon.
What do we want? How much are people prepared to pay for their rooms? Who is prepared to share a room to split costs? Who would prefer late May? Early June? Late June? Doesn't mind? I would prefer a room to myself aswell, but I was beginning to get seriously worried by the prices in Arles and thought I might have to share. However Avignon looks somewhat more reasonable.I have been concentrating on the towns till now but will look out for interesting ... I've just remembered one, ... villlages, which might be cheaper ...
.
Last edited by ouinon on 14 Feb 2009, 6:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
14 Feb 2009, 6:27 pm
Me too, ( gluten-free, and currently avoiding starches/polysaccharides aswell ! ), and french breakfast tends to be based around bread. Though some/increasingly many hotels offer boiled eggs, ham, cheese, a range of fresh and stewed fruit, yoghurt, and cornflakes too.
Brilliant. I'm looking forward to meeting you.
.
14 Feb 2009, 6:51 pm
Latest info;
Lotusblossom is apparently waiting for another AS organisation she belongs to to decide which weekend in June they will have their annual meet-up, ( which she would like to go to too ), so either we wait until they have chosen one, and pick another, or we go for the end of May so as to be sure not to clash, ( or split numbers, though I doubt there would be much overlap ).
What does everybody else think?
A long weekend at the end of May?
Last edited by ouinon on 15 Feb 2009, 2:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
14 Feb 2009, 7:07 pm
15 Feb 2009, 3:22 am
15 Feb 2009, 5:34 am
I just found out, because it was in our local paper, ( the "Dauphiné" ), that the numbers-genius aspie, Daniel Tammet, ( who wrote "Born on a Blue Day" ), lives in Avignon, has been there for a short while.
Perhaps we could ask him if he would like to join us during the meet up? Wouldn't that be amazing! 
Last edited by ouinon on 15 Feb 2009, 7:43 am, edited 3 times in total.
15 Feb 2009, 6:03 am
15 Feb 2009, 7:30 am
What do people think; should we try inviting Daniel Tammet to meet us sometime during the WP -weekend, ( Friday 29 May - Monday 1 June ? ), if we decide on Avignon?
I found his blog, at:
http://www.optimnem.co.uk/blog/index.php
And Wikipedia about him is at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Tammet
It's really odd to think that some of us inadvertently picked a place to go where someone famous on the spectrum lives. I remember that there was a thread, on the "Autism Representation in the Media" forum, about him, with quotes from an article in which he talks about the AS brain being good at making creative connections between apparently disparate things. I loved that.
15 Feb 2009, 9:29 am
In the light of Daniel Tammet's inspiring presence in Avignon I have been looking for hotels there.
There are a number of chain hotels, ( basic but clean and no nasty surprises ) most of them situated in Le Pontet, which is a small village and commercial zone/shopping centre just outside Avignon, with very frequent buses, ( about 20 minutes journey from the shopping-centre/hotels end of Le Pontet ), into the town, but also one near the ( non-TGV )station, close to the old city walls.
Etap Hotel:
Le Pontet : 40€/room/night
On the edge of the old town and near the non-TGV station , but on a main road : 44€/room/night
Premiere Classe:
Le Pontet : 39€
Avignon Sud : 38€
Hotels B&B chain:
Le Pontet : 37€/39€
All of these are en-suite rooms.
There are also rooms with bathrooms/toilets in the corridor, ( non-en-suite ) at:
Hotel Monclar, near the station/old city walls:
Three rooms at 30€-35€
Four rooms at 45€
A few others, nicer ones with balconies and showers at 55€-70€
And it has two small apartments, ( with bathroom and kitchenette ), each with a double-bed in the bedroom and a fold out double-bed in living room, for 90€, if two people using it.
And finally there is a Formule 1 chain hotel, ( basic but clean ) near the TGV station, ( not quite so far out and with buses too ), for 34€/room/night, but the rooms are not en-suite.
So what do people think? I think Le Pontet would be ok, ( it might be useful to have big shops close by etc ), or the Formule 1, simply because it would be close to TGV station aswell as cheap. But if everybody else would prefer something in town, and/or ensuite, I'd be ok with one of the others.
And should we post a friendly comment on Daniel Tammet's blog, ( in answer to his post about this year's french publication of his last book, " Embracing the Wide Blue Sky" ? ), asking him if he would like to meet us when we are there? 
.
Last edited by ouinon on 15 Feb 2009, 12:01 pm, edited 5 times in total.
15 Feb 2009, 10:14 am
So far ManErg, Morgana, Lotusblossom, ( probably ), and me, have declared ourselves on for this, but at least 2 more people have voted in the poll. Who are you?
Anyone else on WP who fancies the idea of a WP-holiday in central Southern France would be very welcome.
Please post/poll if you are interested. I could already pre-reserve some rooms at a hotel if I knew how many were probably going. Two advantages of a chain hotel are greater availability of rooms, and more flexibility about booking/cancelling etc.
.
15 Feb 2009, 10:58 am
PS. The "Etap Hotel" and "B&B Hotel" chains are usually slightly better quality/comfort than Premiere Classe hotels, whose bathrooms are rather rudimentary.
The advantage of the town Etap Hotel is that we wouldn't have to rely on buses to get back in the evening. Shall I pre-reserve 10 rooms there anyway, as we can always cancel them at any moment up to three days before, ( I think; ... will check). The downside would be the main road outside. I don't know how much noise that would mean.
The non-chain hotel in town is the cheapest I could find, and looks very pretty, but is pretty basic, ( almost no en-suites ), but I don't know it and can't vouch for its cleanliness, whereas chain hotels are in my experience ok.
This is the non-chain "Hotel Monclar" website: http://www.hotel-monclar.com/
But as I said availability and flexibility may be more of an issue than with the chain hotels.
Feedback, please!
NB. Lots of info on the other hotels in/close to Avignon on previous page if you missed it, at:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp2050010.html#2050010
.
Last edited by ouinon on 15 Feb 2009, 11:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
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