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Follow on Google News | The Languedoc Page Newsletter, December 2008The Languedoc Page has released it's annual review of what was new for Languedoc in 2008.
Wine : The weather in 2008 will result in a lower yield of higher quality grapes available for winemaking this year. EU wine reform aims to grub up around 175,000 vines across the EU zone in order to cut the risk of oversupply. France's national wine body has said that it has received applications to grub up more than 20,000 hectares of vines in the next year. Nearly two thirds of the vine areas put forward are in Languedoc Roussillon. CRAV (Regional Committee for Viticultural Action) has continued to make violent protests against this. An entirely subjective analysis is that there are many more good quality Languedoc wines coming on the market and a much more adventurous marketing approach is being adopted for exports - (www.arrogantfrog.fr) Weather : After another late Spring, the Summer was average for the region. There were a couple of hot spells this year, but it was nowhere near the 2003 “canicule” There has been snow in the Cevennes and Massif Central resulting in occasional closure of the A75 autoroute. The latest traffic news for A75 is here : www.bison-fute.equipement.gouv.fr/ Montpellier road upgrades : There have been various proposals regarding the A9 around Montpellierincluding a northern loop (creating a ring road) and duplicating the current southern route. Various other proposals (including rail & canal improvements ) are being considered as alternatives. In the meantime, improvements to the Northern Castries - A75 route continue. The forecast route map is here : http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/ 2008 : Ouverture annoncée (le 2 décembre) du LIEN entre Assas et Les Matelles 2012 : Début annoncé des travaux entre Saint-Gély- 2015 : Ouverture annoncée du LIEN entre Saint-Gély- 2015 : Ouverture annoncée de la LICOM entre Saint-Georges- Autoroutes : The final links from the A75-A9 near Beziers are still not completed. The Montpellier CCI has published these dates : 2008 (end) Valros to Beziers section opens 2009 (end) Pezenas - Valros section opens Canal : The Canal du Rhône à Sète (which is part of the Canal du Midi Bordeaux to Rhone route) has been carrying much increased freight traffic in recent years. As part of a plan to reduce road freight traffic, there is now a plan to improve the capacity of the canal. Essentially the improvements will allow bigger boats and faster transit time through locks by 2013. Road : More fixed radar traps have been installed in the area during 2008. There is a map here : www.radarsfixes.com . Air transport : The economic situation is hitting airlines hard, and particularly low cost operations. Both Ryanair and Easyjet have adequate funds to continue with the lowest costs with the hope that competitors will not survive. Nevertheless Ryanair has mothballed some aircraft over winter. They have also abandoned less supported routes and destinations. News of summer 2009 timetables continues to be released, and confirmed routes will be updated at www.the-languedoc- News is noted at www.the-languedoc- Ferries : Speedferries went into liquidation in November 2008. Current low cost cross channel favourite seems to be Norfolk Lines Dover-Dunkirk service. Property: 2008 has been a relatively quiet year for property sales in Languedoc. Desirable houses continue to sell. Languedoc prices remain attractive compared with those in Provence and Cote d'Azur. Swimming pools : Five of the six alarms previously approved for private pools had their approval withdrawn. Subsequently 4 of the 5 approved alarms which had their approval withdrawn were approved again. The alarm that was approved, then not approved, and remains not approved is the "Alpool-JB 2005 commercialisé Health cover : The situation now is that new arrivals must take private health cover until they have either been in France for 5 years, or reach retirement age. Full newsletter at http://the-languedoc- The Languedoc Forum : www.the-languedoc- The spammers continue to attempt to register both manually and automatically. About 1 registration in 25 is genuine and accepted. If you have registered and heard nothing from us, please email us directly. Around 6000 topics are being read per day. 1,972,807 topics were read in the 12 months to 31 December 2008. There is a very active free classifieds section. Only a small minority of readers contribute by posting. The Languedoc Page : www.the-languedoc- Google reports over 4000 pages of information including the forum. The exponential growth of traffic to The Languedoc Page has slowed reflecting the current economic situation. For the first time, rolling 12 months unique visitor totals reduced. 335,000 unique visitors viewed around 1,500,000 pages in the 12 months to December 2008. The Languedoc Page remains a community driven website. Contributions from users have greatly enhanced the photo section (now 450+ images), restaurant reviews, and articles (now over 200 articles). Together with the forum, this visitor participation has driven the expansion of The Languedoc Page. The Languedoc Page has been in the top three for the keyword “languedoc” The advertising that was started early 2006 has progressed. The rates are remarkably reasonable given the visitor numbers – small banner ads cost from Euro 1 per 1000 views. More information about advertising and statistics : www.the-languedoc- We hope that you have found The Languedoc Page useful. If you haven’t visited it for a while, it is worth a look to see how it has developed. And I’m still happy to receive article, photo and restaurant review contributions ! Have a great 2009 Peter © The Languedoc Page, January 2009 If you wish to use any of this content, please contact us at contact@the- End
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