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News Letter
Some important information about the Chateau and
Normandy Experience in 2007
We hope you have all had a wonderful and well deserved half term break and are re-invigorated for the push through to Christmas! Here is a short newsletter regarding changes at the Chateau de la Baudonniere and in the offices of Castaway Travel here in Brighton
New member of the UK Team at Castaway Travel
We are delighted to announce the arrival of Carole Green as a member of the team here in Brighton – Carole started working for us at the start of this academic year and brings a wealth of experience gained in other areas of schools and student travel and is a very approachable member of staff!
Carole will be working 5 days a week (her family having all grown up!) and therefore you may wish to add her email address to your lists
carole@the-chateau.com
The office is therefore now staffed over 5 days and we hope that you will find this useful in getting hold of a UK team member whenever you need someone.
Changes in staffing at the Chateau
As some of you may know, Steve Goodwin has embarked upon a trip around the world, and whilst we are sorry to see him go, we are also delighted to welcome back Darren Benson as his replacement! Darren will be re-joining the Chateau team as Joint Centre Manager from January 2007, and will be working closely with Bene and all of the other familiar faces out in France. As some of you are aware, Darren was a key member of the Chateau management team from 1998 to 2003 before he moved to Sweden with Lotta. They are now back, with their young baby, and have resettled in France. It will be great to have him work with us again.
Normandy Experience
Some schools may be aware that we have recently launched a new product called Normandy Experience. This new type of tour will be similar to what is offered at the Chateau, but groups will stay at other accommodation, and there will be an emphasis on excursions with some day time activities delivered at the Chateau. We hope that you will welcome this new direction – please feel free to ask us any questions you may have and we will be delighted to answer them.
Brittany Ferries
As you are probably aware, Brittany Ferries have a monopoly on the Western Channel ‘long sea’ routes. The escalating costs of transportation to France are making a big impact on the pricing structure for the Chateau trips – we are currently booking all ferries for 2007 and want to make you aware at this earliest stage that we have taken the following steps to ensure costs are kept to a minimum
a) outbound ferries : where possible, we are booking clients on ferries which depart the UK ports in the early afternoon (15:15pm or 15:45pm) for an evening arrival at the chateau where you will receive a buffet froid and/or choc chaud and cake
b) inbound ferries will leave France, for the most part, at 09:00am placing schools back at Portsmouth 13:45
We are aware that sometimes schools request differing timings, and of course, we will try to accommodate all possible requests. However, at certain times of year, it may not be possible to make changes to ferry times based on a preference without levying a surcharge on the individual school to absorb increased costs where these arise.
If, when you receive your ferry times, you would like us to explore other options, please contact us and we will review every case and avoid passing extra costs on to you whenever it is possible. However, please be aware that alternative sailing times can increase prices by over £830 PER SCHOOL travelling by coach in some cases, and we are not in a position to absorb these extra fees in 2007.
Website
We continually update our website and are committed to doing so on a regular basis – perhaps, if you have a chance, take a look and see if there is anything useful that we have added, and of course, to make suggestions about things we may include in the future.
Name the Puppies
Our farm now includes 2 new puppies who will no doubt become a very popular feature of the chateau – we have a competition on-line to name them – it would be lovely if your students (or yourselves!) would like to help us !! Additionally, our new baby Llama is still nameless having been born back in the early autumn – suggestions greatly appreciated !
Please visit www.the-chateau.com to enter
Other planned developments at the Chateau
Over the course of the winter we will be working on a range of projects at the Chateau, as well as continuing our annual round of maintenance and repairs
Scheduled projects include:
a) a new log cabin indoor space (6 metres x 12 metres) which will house our fencing session (leaving the mezzaine a more peaceful teacher area) as well as becoming another useful indoor space for completing workbooks, doing French lessons and wet weather evening entertainment sessions
(b) Petite Maison en suite bathrooms - in May of this year we enhanced one of the 4 first floor bedrooms with an ensuite bathroom. Our winter plans include doing the same to the other 3 rooms in this area.
(c) Menuiserie bathrooms are getting a bit old and tired so we are re-doing these and improving them at the same time to have 2 showers and a separate toilet.
If you have any feedback for us about this newsletter, or anything else for that matter, please do let us know! Please can you split the emails in to the following types because, as you know, Vicki and Carole deal with the transport and pre-trip payments, and the Chateau Team deal with all aspects of the trip once you arrive…
a) If it is related to your actual stay at the chateau or in France (rooming, programming) please email bene@the-chateau.com, phone 00 33 233 604 695, or fax 00 33 233 605 023
b) if the email is related to the transportation or payment side of things (deposits, group size, ferries, coaches, excursions) please email Vicki or Carole in the Brighton Castaway office via vicki@the-chateau.com or carole@the-chateau.com phone 01273 202 999, or fax 01273 560 491
c) if you have any feedback about the newsletter in general, please email nick@the-chateau.com
Yours, with very best wishes for a lovely autumn and we look forward to welcoming you back at the chateau soon.
Château de la Baudonniere and Castaway Travel
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