NewsletterAugust 2007

Tour de France

This photo was taken during the Tour de France’s visit to La Roche sur Foron. The tour came through on July 14th. Riders pedaled furiously but here are more photos.
What I discovered about the Tour de France is that the real show is not so much the riders but the publicity caravan that precedes them. My son and I spent about an hour before the riders arrived trying to get any freebee we could. The publicity caravan according to the Tour de France web site is a 12 mile long procession of about 200 brightly decorated vehicles. I can attest to the brightly decorated part!
Most vehicles were throwing goodies to the crowd. We were able to get a few - mostly hats, nothing really worth much but fun to try and get. A person commented that one foldable Frisbee like object, only value was, to advertise a product.
The Tour de France caravan dates back to the great depression and the need for race organizers to raise money. At the time the event had a national team formula and the caravan was a good means to finance this.

New Web Site

I’ve created another airport web site, this time for the Limoges Airport. This is an “unofficial guide” to inform the prospective traveler. Limoges airport is served by ‘no frills’ airlines: Ryan Air and Flybe.
After I visited the Limoges Airport I was also able to visit Oradour-sur-Glane. Oradour-sur-Glane was destroyed by a Waffen-SS company on June 11th 1944 and 642 villagers were killed. The village was left as a memorial and looks much as it did just after that fateful day in 1944. If you are ever in the area the village is worth a visit. I wrote something about Oradour-sur-Glane here.

On-Line Forum

A few months ago I redesigned the forum I have on Americans in France and moved it to my personal web site - www.jeffsteiner.com/forum/. The forum now has much more functionality and is divided into sections for a better user experience.

Manifone Telephony

I’ve recently discovered a way to make international phone calls on my cell phone for .03 euros per minute. The company is called Manifone and offers a number of calling plans that can save you money. I gave the Mani Minutes plan a try. What Mani Minutes lets me do is call a local number in France and then redirects to any number I want. As long as I stay within my cell phone’s monthly calling plan .03 euros per minute is what I pay. Manifone has a number of other plans, including one that lets you have a local phone number in 10 countries (soon to be 30) that is redirected to your home number. Meaning you could have a local number in the US that could be redirected to France.
For more information see the Manifone web site. It costs nothing to create an account and you will even start out with .60 euro of credits. That’s 20 minutes of calling time!