Quality Villas Blog

I am pleased to write that latest reports from France indicate the majority of the country has now thawed…and the bitterly cold spell, as seen across most of Europe in the last fortnight, is now safely behind us. Of particular concern were messages received from our avid blog writer in the South West of France (our area manager, Gill), who wrote to say:

“My village is perched on the top of three hills which has meant I have been locked in (if only it had been a pub!) for a week now with hardly any traffic able to get in or out.  Going for a stroll was impossible as gritting lorries do not exist here and the idea of my neighbours is to ignore it and it will eventually go away.  Well, it hasn’t gone away and I am still stuck indoors with freezing temperatures and the only sign of a thaw is in another 5 days!  Can I last this long without going out!  Fortunately I have enough food (and wine) to last me until then and I suppose there is one silver lining here is that I cannot go out and indulge in my favourite pastime of retail therapy; just think of the money I am saving!”

To keep her warm, we have of course been sending Gill plenty to do (despite the freeze, broadband kept going), which includes helping write up some of the exciting new villas in Marrakech we have recently taken on. The only consolation is that those glowing images of blue skies and gorgeous swimming pools, perhaps with a heartening hot, mint tea if the first elements weren’t enough, would have warmed Gills cockles through the cold!

To hear more about our villas in Morocco or to reserve from our French, Italian or ski selections, please do call on 0044 (0)1442 870055 or email info@qualityvillas.com. Corinne and Hannah in our villa reservations team are ready to assist you!

The photographs incidentally are from Alex (our man in St Tropez) and are of Lac Leman in Geneva, thankfully a long way from the scorching summer we are expecting in France!

It seems the sort of snowy conditions that usually grind the UK to a halt each year seem to have affected our friends in the south of France. Area manager Muriel (Cote d’Azur) managed to get a message to us today which sounded rather like an ‘SOS’ to say she has lost internet access and has no telephone (and she doesn’t want to go and make any snowmen to pass the time). Whilst from (usually balmy) St Tropez, Alex has been busy with his camera, but not shooting villas this time, instead getting some rather nice shots of the snow. Enjoy!

P.s. apparently in summer it gets a little warmer, so those gorgeous villas with pools still stand as something we can offer!

This latest post is a blatant bit of marketing, so I apologise in advance! However Quality Villas are one of the few companies operating in the villa rental industry who take the time to protect the money of clients who rent properties through us.

Usually a conversation (even less so a blog post) that begins by talking about financial failure insurance can stop before it even started! Anyway if you are still following this, bear with me…

Each rental made with Quality Villas effectively benfits from this insurance, so that if the company itself was to go ‘bust’, your money isn’t lost, nor is your holiday. Its worth keeping this in mind: villas aren’t cheap to rent and could you afford to pay again if your money was lost?  Our financial bonding insurance is with ABTOT (more details on the ‘about us’ page of this site).

In addition, Quality Villas is now in its 26th year of business, has a bricks and mortar office (why not drop in?) and staff who have been personally to the villas we feature. Call us and speak to a real French person (or Italian!) and start your holiday…

Our area manager in the South West, Gill, has been in rather a difficult way of late (a broken ankle mentioned before within this blog). However, having time to reflect whilst balanced on crutches and trying not to cause any ripples on her favourite tipple, Gill has kindly made some culinary suggestions of late. Our favourite recipe is as below, from Gills Master Class cooking school. If any one should try it, please do let us know…or if you have any recipe suggestions of your own…

“In the run up to Christmas I saw many television programmes featuring some famous chefs, each with their own way of cooking delicious recipes.  My two favourite chefs that I love watching are Raymond Blanc and Michel Roux.  Just to hear them pronounce the name of a dish is a delight, let alone their culinary masterpieces.

If there is something clear in the world, it is the gastronomy language that is definitely French!! Its kitchen is the national pride of the French people and the fame of the French is good eating and drinking.  All around France are famous dishes from Piperade in the Basque region to Bouillabaiise, Salade Niçoise and the perennial favourite Moules Frites in the south of France.

In the region where I live it is largely agricultural with produce that is locally grown and plentiful.  Duck is the mainstay of this region served either as breast with a rich sauce or confit.  Other delights are sanglier (wild boar), geese, game, Landes chickens and foie gras.

There are numerous dishes that abound the menus but in the winter on a cold and chilly day what better that to have a bowl of steaming Cassoulet, crusty French bread all washed down by a hearty bottle of red wine.  Cassoulet originates from Castelnaudary which is east of Toulouse in the Languedoc region.  It is easy to prepare and my well proven recipe is below:-

Recipe for Cassoulet

3 tablespoons olive oil
Use 1lb of meat sausages, duck breast or duck leg confit,

1/2 lb dried cannellini beans
2-4 cups chicken stock
2 small onions
2 medium courgettes

6 mushrooms,
3 small carrots

2 stalks celery

3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 large can of whole tomatoes
2 bay leaves
handful of fresh thyme sprigs
1 sprig fresh rosemary
salt and pepper

*All vegetables to be diced small

On the hob heat oil to medium and add meat, cook until well browned on all sides. Add beans and enough stock to cover. Cover with a lid and bring to a light simmer. Cook for 60 minutes.

Heat a large skillet to and add oil, all chopped vegetables and a pinch of salt. Sweat for 5 minutes then add herbs and tomatoes as well as some pepper. Bring to a simmer and add to the beans. Continue cooking beans and meat until beans are tender. Remove bay leaves and any herb stalks. Remove meat to a cutting board. Trim off any bones, chop into pieces and add back to stew. Taste and correct for seasoning.

Coming in to work this morning there was a distinct lack of traffic, meaning one thing… most people are still on holiday! I am trying not to feel too envious, but I am not alone at least…the QV offices are fully manned today with not a glazed eye in sight (although everyone claims to have over indulged lately!)

Before I start on the turkey sandwiches, just to advise you we will be open as usual between Christmas and New Year. If you would like to discuss your villa requirements, one of our team will be pleased to assist you.

Finally, of course, to all : a happy 2012 from Quality Villas!

I can imagine after a few centimetres of snow fell in the past 24 hours that various tabloid newspapers can  now unleash with a frenzy the headlines of ‘travel chaos’, ‘UK snow panic’ and so on, that would have been building up recently. It happens every year of course and I recall the first doom-monger articles about an upcoming artic freeze back in September this year…which faded away as we had a particularly warm autumn. Presumably now a few papers can be sold as the white stuff lands (let us ignore the fact it has melted straight away for a moment). I hope of course I won’t be eating my words in due course…!

Anyway, the dedicated Quality Villas team all made it in today and are hard at it (with a warm coffee in hand of course).

Also we have been busily adding a few new villas, the website growing by the day with some hand picked gems from recent overseas visits making their debuts.

Here is this weeks pick:

Amalfi coast :

http://www.qualityvillas.com/amalfi-coast-campania/amalfi/villa-odissea

South West France and 2 minutes from a bakery…!

http://www.qualityvillas.com/south-west-france/frayssinet-le-gelat/villa-de-la-theze
Umbria…with a private restaurant!

http://www.qualityvillas.com/umbria/san-venanzo/villa-favorita
We hope you like the latest offerings, however if you don’t see your ideal property immediately, please do call us. Over a dozen visits were made in 2011 by our UK staff visiting villas overseas, so we are ready to talk in great detail…!

Tel 0044 (0) 1442 870055

Last week marked the overseas AGM here at Quality Villas HQ…

Our overseas darlings all made their way to these offices for meetings to digest the previous season and also to prepare for the next season. One of the highlights in a strange few days was a talk by Argent Health and Safety who gave a refresher course on this most important aspect. Also analysed were all the issues of the year. A fair amount of coffee was drunk and the AGM ended on Friday night at a local eatery who presumably are now restocking their cellars after a fair attempt to empty them was made.

As always, grateful thanks to our overseas boys and girls for coming over to see us. These days are critical to ensure we are all rowing in the same direction through the year and give chance for face to face meetings, when somehow email, Twitter, phone calls or anything else just doesn’t compare.

The photo shown above is pretty much my recollection of the evening. The kindly hostess at the Kings Arms kept refilling my wine glass and after a while, I started to lose count of how often she was passing by to repeat the act. In any event, it was a most pleasant evening…and good practise for Christmas and a few more parties!

Regular poster to the Quality Villas blog Gill, from the South West of France, who also looks after our Morocco programme had a little accident the other day. We all wish her a speedy recovery (apparently she was racing down the stairs to start her mornings work and missed her footing) and now has one leg in plaster. I recall it wasn’t so long ago when the same person was driving down a quiet country road in France and a deer jumped in front of her car. Cue ‘venison on tarmac’, which was swiftly removed to a freezer somewhere by some friendly gendarmes. The latest picture then is homage to Gills feats, we only hope things improve now!

From the safety of her wheelchair, Gill has penned the latest journal, with a wistful view on Morocco:

Christmas in the Sun

“No, not the song sung by Rolf Harris and Status Quo but having Christmas and New Year in the sun!  Whilst the run up to Christmas is jolly, festive and fills us with good cheer there is the down side of snow, endless shopping and the worst of all going to the relatives for Christmas.

At the moment I have my leg in plaster and the thought of how I am going to get round the shops to see what goodies there are and to experience the atmosphere of the run up to Christmas seems far away.  Internet shopping does not have the same enjoyment as browsing around so I am feeling pretty miserable that my retail therapy is curtailed somewhat.

My thoughts are now wandering to having Christmas in the sun and what better place to go but Marrakech where tinsel can be swapped for my swimsuit and roast turkey will be replaced with a spicy tajine.  The streets of Marrakech are decorated with orange trees which are traditional at Christmas and whilst this is a Muslim country you can have your own style of Christmas in one of our luxury villas in Marrakech.  They are all superbly furnished with comfort in mind, massive swimming pools and full time staff to give you the most relaxing Christmas ever.”

Federica relaxes in Salo, Lake Garda.

As I write, our lovely Federica is currently viewing our villas in Lakes Como and Garda.
This marks the latest trip (and not the last) for 2011 by staff from Quality Villas seeing our properties first hand. So far there has been trips to Archachon, Dordogne, the south west, Languedoc, Amalfi coast, St Tropez, Cote d’Azur, Morocco, Tuscany, Loire and in a week or so, Provence. I think there may even have been more visits but I think the above covers most of them!

Seeing the houses first hand is something we still do as part of our way of life here…knowing the product we market, the regions, everything really. A lot of companies claim to know their villas, but we wonder if they visit them personally. If they don’t, we can recommend they do, its actually quite fun!

If you would like to speak about our villas in the Italian Lakes, please do call or visit us online www.qualityvillasitaly.co.uk

Morocco Trip Special: the online diary from Gill, area manager for Morocco, whilst on her recent trip visiting villas! The ‘Road to Morocco’ and some rather special tajine…

Years ago my Mum and I used to watch all the old movies together and some of the best we used to watch for the Road films with Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour.  They made seven of these films and one of them was called Road to Morocco.  Whilst I am no Dorothy Lamour, I have hit the road to Morocco many times (eight to be exact) and just last week I was on the road again, this time on the Road to Marrakech.

I was visiting some new villas and catching up with some of our current Marrakech villas.  Apart from mystical charm of Morocco it’s fair to say how welcoming and friendly the Moroccan people are.  They adore children and are incredibly hospitable.  There has always been a warm welcome to me wherever I have visited; it is such a friendly place.

This visit was really interesting and one guardian of a new villa had arranged an early lunch for me before I flew back home to France.  This was no ordinary tajine but cooked in true Moroccan style.  I was invited to eat a la Moroccan which meant each person eating shared the same tajine of delicious juices mopped up with Moroccan flat bread.  It was the best tajine I had ever tasted and as Brahim & Adil (his son) said to me, you have to experience proper Moroccan tajine, not the tourist type which usually has too many vegetables in it.

I met many new people including Mohammed (pictured above) who is the Concierge of one of villas called Dar Attout.  He runs the household like clockwork and is not only the Concierge but driver and waiter – a man of many uses!  Dar Attout is a stunning villa that oozes comfort, whether from the sitting room, Moroccan salon or the lovely bedrooms.  This villa is situated in a fertile area with a backdrop of the Atlas Mountains and stunning views across the Ourika Valley.  To me I was in paradise.

Finally, I met two couples who had never been to Marrakech before and they all thought it was an amazing country, so friendly, so affordable and a just 3 hours from UK and sunshine!  While I was there it was 82°F and sunny – perfect.

www.qualityvillasmorocco.co.uk or call on 0044 (0) 1442 870055.