Provence Blog by ProvenceBeyond

Trout Fishing Season Starts Today

The 2008 trout fishing season in France starts today, 8 March, and continues until Sunday, 21 September. You can read more about fishing in France in Beyond's Sports section.

The annual trout fishing license this year costs 61 euros for adult males. To encourage younger people to take up trout fishing, the license fee was lowered last year to 16 euros for under-18s. This year an effort is being made to draw in the female of our species: women will pay only 30 euros for the annual fishing license.

Tour de France 2007 Route

We've added out Tour de France 2007 page, listing the stages and the mountain sections for the whole route.

Petanque in the Bouches-du-Rhone

•By Philippe Boets (Eyragues, near Avignon, Cavaillon, St Remy-de-Provence)

"For the past 5 years I have been organizing "apéro-boules" evenings
for American tourists in & around St Rémy-de-Provence.
A bit of history, anecdotes and rules, followed by an informal tournament.
It's been a blast. Folks who hardly knew each other at 6 PM are high-fiving
at 6:15 and bantering at 6:30. I've also met thousands of charming and
interesting folks from all 50 states and beyond.
During May/June and Sep/Oct I am at a different hotel almost every
night.

I am looking for other petanque aficionados in Provence who speak English fluently.
No need to be a champion. A social, jovial attitude is of course a must.

How could I find them ?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can give.

Philippe Boets (in Eyragues, BdR)
Tél: 06 80 20 49 12 - email: PetanqueAmerica@Gmail.com
www.petanqueamericaopen.blogspot.com/

Tour de France 2006 Route

The route for the 2006 Tour de France was announced today. We have the 2006 Tour de France route plan and the schedule on Beyond's Sports Section. It may take us a few more days to create the route map.

Paris-Nice Cycling Race

Here's the route for the next week, in case you would like to go out and watch it go by. We put in more details for the "Beyond" part, in Provence and the Côte d'Azur, and we have a special affinity with the village of Menetou-Sur-Nahon.
Sun 6 Mar: Issy-les-Moulineaux [map]
Mon 7 Mar: Etampes - Chabris [map]
    via: Saclas, Lamotte-Beuvron, Selles-Saint-Denis, Saint-Julien-Sur-Cher, Chabris, Menetou-Sur-Nahon, Varennes-Sur-Fouzon, Chabris
Tue 8 Mar: La Châtre - Thiers [map, NW] [map, SE]
    via: Boussac, Evaux-Les-Bains, Chambonchard, La Crouzille, Chaptuzat, Thuret, Dorat
Wed 9 Mar: Thiers - Le Chambron-sur-Lignon [map] [map]
    via: Neronde, Olliergues, Ambert, Dore-L'eglise, Yssingeaux, Tence
Thur 10 Mar: Le Chambron-sur-Lignon - Montelimar
    via: Saint-Agreve, Grozon, Soyons, Crest, Charols, Aleyrac
Fri 11 Mar: Rognes - Toulon [map ] [map ]
    via: Rognes, Puyricard, Venelles, Meyragues, Peyrolles-en-Provence, Jouques, Rians, Esparron, Saint-Martin-de-Pallieres, Varages, Brue-Auriac, Font Taillade, Seillons-Source-D'argens (near), Saint-Maximin-La-Sainte-Baume, Mazaugues, La Roquebrussanne, Meounes-Les-Montrieux, Signes, Le Beausset (near), Sainte-Anne-d'Evenos (Evenos), Le Broussan (Evenos) , Toulon
Sat 12 Mar: La Crau - Cannes [map ] [map ]
    via: Pierrefeu du Var, Collobrieres, Capelude, La Garde-Freinet, Vidauban, Taradeau, Draguignan, Figanieres, Callas, Rav, Bargemon, Seillans, Tourrettes, Fayence, Montauroux, Saint-Cassien-des-Bois, Tanneron, Pegomas, La Roquette-sur-Siagne, Cannes
Sun 13 Mar: Nice - Nice [map ]
    via: Saint-Andre-de-la-Roche, Tourrette-Levens, Levens, Duranus, Saint-Jean-La-Rivière (Utelle), Le Suquet (Utelle), Lantosque (near), Luceram, L'Escarene, Drap, La Trinite, La Turbie, Le Col (Eze), Eze, Villefranche-Sur-Mer, Nice, Villefranche-Sur-Mer, Col D'eze, Eze, Villefranche-Sur-Mer, l'Escarenne, Col de Nice

Lance in Tour de France 05

Lance Armstrong announced a few days ago he will be riding in the Tour de France 2005, 2-24 July. Before then, he'll be in other cycling races in France: 6-13 March Paris-Nice; 26-27 March Criterium International; 10 April Paris–Roubaix; 5-12 June Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. At the end of the season Lance will be riding in the 9 Oct Paris–Tours race.
- Maps: Roubaix, Tours.

We have Tour de France 2005 route mapped out for France, with click-to-zoom for detailed maps showing the route in different parts of France.