Jazz à Juan - Juan Les Pins jazz festival 2015

The Riviera Times has reported that  "One of Europe’s oldest and most stylish jazz festival will once again return to Antibes and Juan les Pins in 2015. Four of jazz’s stars have been announced for the event with organisers promising many more surprise additions before the festival begins on 10th July.
One of the main acts for this year will be the American jazz pianist Tigran Hamasayan.

The artist is known throughout the world as someone who mixes different influences to create his music. His Armenian roots play an important role however he also fuses elements of traditional Asian music during performances. Also performing is the New-York based Israeli jazz musician Avishai Cohen. Cohen continuously searches for ways to bend the boundaries between the different genres of jazz and was the long-time protégé of Chick Corea
.
One of the true veterans of the Jazz a Juan festival is Marcus Miller who returns year after year to delight the audiences. In 2009, Miller performed with Staley Clarke and Victor Wooten and returned the following year to play with the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra. All in all, Miller has been providing exciting, musical surprises since his debut at the festival in 1996.
 
Carlos Santana is another famous name who will be performing at the 55th anniversary of the Jazz à Juan festival. The Mexican and American musician has been exciting fans for decades and will be playing some of his classic music as well as some new sounds for the event in July.
The festival will begin on 10th July and continue until 19th."

Source: Dominic Thurlow-Wood at The Riviera Times go to site Here

Find out more about the festival over the years at the Cote d'Azur Rental website

Guide dog day in Biot south of France

The Riviera Radio news up date reported earlier that - The guide dog school in Biot is holding its yearly Open Day next Sunday, the 28th of September between 1 and 6pm.  You can see guide dogs working and appreciate first hand an obstacle course blindfolded led by a guide dog.

There’ll be music and entertainment, a tombola and homemade cakes for sale in favour of the guide dog association.

You can find the association at 649 Chemin de Plan in Biot and can get more information at the website www.emcga.fr

Mairéad Information Services based on the Cote d'Azur With over 30 years experience helping people with their holiday and residential needs;

Translations

 Admin
 Concierge and Taxi services
 Supplying tradesmen
 Importing Vehicles
 House Removals etc

If you need assistance in any domaine, Mairéad is the person to contact on (0033) 625297220 or email annedallow@rocketmail.com Find out more about Biot Here


Meanwhile a little further away, just south of Grasse  

 

Sunny Bank still has spaces left at its information events in October on the new residential apartments for seniors.  To find out more go to the website www.sunny-bank.org

Receiving British TV outside the UK

For many years holiday home owners and "ex-Pats" have been able to watch their favourite BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5 programmes from the comfort of their armchairs hundreds of miles from Britain via satellite. Then the signals became weaker as newer satellites were put into orbit and the "footprint" became narrower. Reception in countries like Italy, Portugal and Spain went completely, although this was not affecting reception on SKY TV.

In February this year the signal to France was changed, which means that viewers in the south of the country have had to buy even larger dishes.

Understandably the argument as far as the BBC is concerned is that the British public funds the BBC via the licence fee and that service is for those living in the UK.  The BBC does earn good money from selling its products to other broadcasters and so will ITV, Channel and Channel 5. The BBC is now having to fund the BBC World Service Radio and cut backs have had to be made and the BBC of course require more income.

The licence fee cannot be increased without agreement with the British Government and there must be thousands of people who live in Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus and the Scandinavian countries who would watch British TV if the could. If you want to watch SKY TV (other than SKY News) you have to pay a monthly subscription.

Surely a solution to this would be that BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5 and the Irish Networks RTE, TG4, TV3 etc are broadcast from their own satellite or even one of the newer ones with a very wide footprint but with an encrypted signal. This would mean no one outside the UK and Ireland (apart from an area very close to the coast) without having to pay a subscription of say £25 per month.  The TV companies would have much needed additional income and no one could then claim that these "ex-pat" viewers were getting something for nothing.

Clearer large footprint transmissions would mean that the receiving dishes would not have to be nearly two metres wide as in the right hand photo, but nearer the size of a dish in Britain and Ireland like the one on the left hand side. Installation costs would be a lot more reasonable and viewing cards registered and sent to the viewer's address wherever that might be.

Commercial TV companies like ITV of course could say their advertisers are not benefiting from advertising a bedding sale in England, however many advertisers are selling products that are sold all over mainland Europe. ITV of course would have additional income from it's share of monthly viewing card subscription. 

If these networks have got together enabling fewer people in mainland Europe to view British TV, they could easily get together to enable more people to view and be paid for the service. 

Why stop there increased paying viewers could also be national residents of a given country. Spanish, French or Italians who want to improve their language skills and enjoying watching soaps like  EastEnders, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks  or Fair City, with subtitles in English available.          

If anyone is interested in raising this idea with the appropriate broadcasting authorities or suggesting other forums to place this on it would be interesting to hear from you. Contact here If you wish to post this article on a discussion forum please do so.

Preparing for success in holiday rental market

Just been reading an article in the May 14 edition of "Landlord & Buy-to-Let magazine" - Prepare for success in holiday rental market caught my eye.

It says that homeowners in tourist hot spots should be preparing now if they wish to benefit fully from 2014 holiday rental market according to the Overseas Guides Company -

Richard Way who is the editor of the Overseas Guide Company is warning holiday home owners that there are new rules governing holiday lets in some countries now.

Read the information below and then See the jmlvillas.com advice

The article advises some top tips:

1. Register the property as a tourist rental in Spain, Greece and Portugal. The local council requires a licence. If you don't the property owner risks a fine - €3,000 to €30,000 in Spain for example. Apparently depending on the location the owner might also have to present passport details of the paying guests at a local police station. Rather tricky if you have arranged the holiday let on line and you will therefore need a local agent to check renters in and out plus comply with local police registration regulations.

The top tips remind the property owner that you may have to collect a local tourist tax from the renters.  See article at jml Villas.com website regarding  Taxe de séjour       http://www.jmlvillas.com/page/Taxsej

So if you have a holiday rental already that you let out check to see if you should be registering that property.
 
2. Declare your rental income - an area at jml Villas that we have been reminding holiday home owners about for years. However authorities in many countries now look at holiday home websites and agency sites now to see what properties are being let out. The Internet has proved very successful in creating lets for owners, but not all owners declare the income. Years ago when letting out a holiday rental in France, we declared the rental income to the authorities in France, paid tax there, however as the UK has tax treaties with many other countries the information submitted to the French authorities was submitted to the UK tax authorities so only a single payment was made. There are tax treaties with most European countries.

3. Use a managing Agent -   As stated in the last paragraph of "1" above you need a local agent. We have recommended this since 2001 at jml Villas.com . This can be just for handing over keys, arranging repairs, cleaners welcome packs plus, or assisting finding holiday rentals.

4. Manage it yourself - Well that can be done as well, but not so easy if you are at a distance from the property. If you live in Spain and your holiday rental is in Spain local to you or live in  England and the holiday let is not 150 miles away, easy.

5. Presenting the property for letting - on the jml Villas.com site we say     PRESENTATION (for web photos — brochure) Make sure that you submit good clear photos of the property. Sun shining on it, blue skies help. Make it look more inviting. Consider having the dining table set, a bottle of wine on the table as well. Beds should be made up, leave the television on and internal lights as well (particularly lamps on tables and units that can be seen in the picture). Try to avoid having people in the photos. If you need extra ideas, just take a look at some of the property lifestyle magazines available in newsagents in most European countries. We have prepared a guide for owners of longer term letting properties and similar rules will apply for self catering vacation rentals — But they will naturally have to be fully furnished CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS  The article in "Landlord & Buy-to-Let magazine" says very much the same as said above.

6. Offer a welcome pack -  we say that too -"provide a "Welcome Pack" if you want to provide one — bottles of wine for example or more if the visitors are arriving late"

7. Information about what is happening in the area the property is located in -  maps, brochures, restaurant cards and more. You will soon find that your guest will add to the information you provide.

8. Get suitable insurance -  the article says that "your household and contents insurance policy should be to provide adequate cover for holiday rentals, including the necessary third party liability and cover for vacant periods" jml Villas says "  You must make sure that your property is properly covered for holiday lettings.You should advise the insurance company that it is being let for this purpose.In some countries (France for example) the people renting must also take out insurance by law,but you must also be covered. If you are looking for a policy visit our Insurance section "

All in all very useful information, personally I think this article should have been published much earlier in the year by Landlord & Buy-to-Let magazine, but of course they might not have been supplied with it earlier and has been published in other places.

So at the end of the day if you do have a holiday rental that you want to list and not pay a lot for the listing (£12.50 for a year including UK VAT or € / $ equivallent) with a link to your personal website, then you need to visit jmlVillas Here

22nd May 14 technical problem on jml Villas.com site

We have just received an email from the web company we use saying "Just to let you know there is a BT line fault that has disconnected the internet to our servers, resulting in various web and email services being offline.
The fault occurred around 14:00 today and BT engineers are investigating.
We would hope to have service resumed sometime tomorrow morning" 

Please note this is for jml-insurance.co.uk and jmlvillas.com however  the following jmlvillas sites are working OK, but you cannot advertise or contact owners tonight.

www.euro-rentavilla.com

www.euro-rentals.com

www.cotedazurrental.com

Please note this is for jml-insurance.co.uk however
www.jml-property-insurance.co.uk
www.insurance4carrental.com and   
www.irishpropertyinsurance.com are all functioning as normal although some of the onward links to jml-insurance.co.uk will not be working.

Trust the issue is resolved very quickly. 
 

Canopy Street self catering Cashel CoTipperary Ireland available now

A Two bedroom Apartment in very central location in Cashel town centre  has just been listed on the jmlvillas.com self catering holiday homes website.

It offers two bright spacious double rooms with double beds in each. Larger room has a single bed also suitable for a child. A pull out sofa bed is also available in the lounge providing sleeping for 6 in total. Large bathroom with shower. Kitchen /lounge with open turf fire. Electric heating -meter will be read and charged at end of stay.
It is ideal for a weekend retreat or as a base to visit the regional attractions. It has spacious accommodation for 5/6 in the town centre. Open turf fire, home made soda bread and farm eggs provided daily, if required. The historic town of Cashel is located in the valley of the river Suir, surrounded by lush farmland of the Golden Vale. Home to the finest thorough bred race horses in the world. Super views of the Rock of Cashel a fortified castle which was once the seat of the kings of Munster Excellent Bus transport links to Dublin and Cork cities.

For a weekend retreat enjoy serene river side walks, horse riding on a country estate, great golf, fishing, access to gym and pool, excellent restaurants, visit Brú Ború Theatre which offers a unique evening of quality Irish song, dance, music, with tea and sing song in the kitchen for the night owls. A Central location also to visit many regional attractions such as The Cliffs of Moher, Cahir Castle and Swiss Cottage, Kilkenny City, the V valley, Blarney Castle, Bally cotton costal walks, Lake Muscary and the Glen of Aherlow

For more information visit jmlvillas Here

Dream Ireland Holiday Rentals in Easter

For many years now a large selection of self catering holiday rentals from Dream Ireland have been featured at jmlvillas.com the low cost villa advertising service

The company has been around years now and they cover towns, cities, beach areas and rural areas in Ireland.

Easter might just be a couple of days away, but what about booking a break after the Easter holidays if you are not tied to school time?

If you are visiting Ireland from Britain or mainland Europe you can always bring your car as there are car ferry services from England, France, Scotland and Wales (and if course the Isle of Man). However an alternative is to fly to Ireland particularly if you are only going to stay a few days as taking your own car to Ireland can be rather expensive.

This means Ireland is only a short flight from most European countries and when you arrive, hire a car. Holiday Autos - http://www.holidayautos.co.uk/cgi-bin/liveweb.sh/QSearch.w?ctryref=GBR&lang=EN&aff=xjeffreymilnerltd  and Economy Car Hire http://www.insurance4carrental.com/Economy_Car_hire.htm are two well known brokers to try.

You can then see a lot more of the country during your self catering visit. Don't forget your travel insurance either.

Visit Ireland at jmlvillas.com and find a selection of Dream Ireland Holiday rentals for your holiday today at http://www.jmlvillas.com/country/Ireland 

jmlvillas.com Holiday homes website is off line for a few hours unfortunately

We discovered earlier due to a communications problem with the Domain Registrant that a significant email for verifying the ICANN details was sent to an old email address.

This has meant that the site has been down today and might not be functioning for another 48 hours! So much for modern technology!

We hope normal service that started way back over ten years ago will be restored very quickly and that you will soon be able to advertise and find self catering holiday home accommodation from the "low cost holiday home advertising people"

Fortunately it was all restored within in a couple of hours

http://www.jmlvillas.com