with caller Chris Turner
Tuesday 15th- Tuesday 22nd September 2009
This will be our 5th annual folk dance week. It is a holiday week based at Camping les Ripettes which is in Bresse,
in the eastern part of France. Those who join the week mostly bring their own caravan, campervan (or tent!) and holiday on the site.
Others who do not have their own camping equipment can stay either in the mobile home on site or can stay locally
in Chambre d’Hôtes or hotel accommodation. Some chalet accommodation is available 5km away in the municipal campsite in
Pont de Vaux. There is English folk dancing each evening in the local village hall, which will be led by our invited caller
who this year will be CHRIS TURNER. Day times are available for other activities and trips out, with organised options
for you to join in with if you wish, or free for you to do your own thing.
We have revised some aspects of the week for 2009 so that the event continues to be viable even if we have
smaller numbers and so that it continues to be affordable for people to attend.. Firstly we are making this a Tuesday to
Tuesday event so that it only necessarily takes out one weekend for our particularly busy participants. The second is that
our invited caller will lead but will not call for all of the dance evenings. We will invite our participants to take a
more active role and anticipate that those who are willing may do a full half evening of calling. At previous events we
have always had a number of very competent callers present who are well used to calling either for dances or for club nights.
Chris Turner will himself take several evenings or parts of evenings and will be the main co-ordinator of the dance elements.
Chris will also very often play his own music for the dances though will be supplemented by music led by
David Bradley (accordion) and joined by other musicians present for the week whose preference is to play the music rather
than to dance. We may also use CDs for some of the dances.
The activities for the week will be based at “ Camping les Ripettes “. It is a very pretty,
green and spacious 55 pitch rural site, with a large variety of mature trees and is surrounded by fields. It is renowned
for its huge pitches. The area surrounding les Ripettes is fairly flat with quiet country lanes, so it is ideal for cycling
and walking and there are many routes close to the campsite. It is a gentle, farming area, with ancient, Bressan style,
part timbered farmhouses, lots of flowers and with good natured, easy going locals. The area has a real feel of rural France.
Very little English is spoken, but communication is usually possible even for those with no French!
More information about the site can be viewed if you visit the website:
www.camping-les-ripettes.com click to follow link
Les Ripettes is 4km from the small market town of Pont de Vaux with its picturesque marina and boasting the shortest
canal in France by which it connects with the river Sâone. The town has a range of shops, restaurants and petrol station.
A new supermarket (and petrol station) is 2km away, on the road into Pont de Vaux.
Just across the river are the Maconnais hills and vineyards, with wine tasting opportunities at every turn, including in the actual
village of Chardonnay, from where this world famous wine originates. 20Km further south is the riverside town of Macon and just
south of there is the area of Beaujolais, again a very pretty area with rolling hills, vineyards and sleepy, picturesque villages
The actual dancing evenings will be from 7.30 to 10.00 and will be at the local Salle de Fêtes, which is about
2.5 km from the campsite. It really is a superb hall, with lots of space for dancing, good acoustics and ample parking.
On one of the evenings we will be inviting French dancers from our local groups to join our dancing. This is
invariably an evening of tremendous fun and is always greatly enjoyed by all. They really love the English dancing and are
getting to be quite accomplished. They have even now mastered Devil’s Dream. They join in with gusto and without any shyness.
During the daytimes we will be organising various events. In 2008 we started with a simple, safari meal
and initial get together prior to the dancing. This was very well received and proved to be a great success as people were
moved around and started to get to know each other before the dancing actually started, so we intend to continue with this
in 2009. As always we will be having a boules competition, off site visits to French places of interest, plus a meal out
to a local French restaurant (this has proved to be a real hit a previous events!). There will be a modest additional charge
for some of these events but you will be notified of the programme and charges in advance so that you can decide which ones
you wish to join. The safari meal is included for all in the cost of the event.
Camping les Ripettes is 420 miles and approx 7 hrs drive from Calais. It is certainly possible to come here
from the ferry in a day, and many people do, but those who are not pressured for time tend to prefer to stop off en-route,
maybe in the Champagne area. It is easy driving virtually all the way by motorway, and bears no comparison to the busy
stressful driving of UK motorways.
So, we hope we have tempted you sufficiently for you to want to book for our 2009 event.
NB We (Bob and Angela) have recently sold the campsite, but although it will be operated by new owners from June 2009,
the dance week will still be going ahead exactly as planned. It will still be organised and coordinated by ourselves,
Bob and Angela. We will be living close by and we will be fully involved in the whole of the week.
COSTS
50 Euros per person for your participation in the dance week,
Plus Cost of accommodation. For 2 people with caravan and electric staying on the site this works out at €109.20
for the 7 nights. A 2nd week of camping (ie making up to 14 nights in total) is available at no extra charge, you would
just pay for the extra electric @ €3.00 per unit per night. These free nights can be taken from Sunday 13th or can be taken
after the event. Please contact us if you need information about other accommodation options.
click here for the booking form
If you have difficulties opening this attachment, or need more information contact us directly via email or telephone ++33 385 30 66 58
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